The crazy world of basketball recruiting is already in full swing for our 2016 recruiting class. Recently I went on a trip and was without internet for a week and when I returned the twists and turns in recruiting in that short span got me thinking about how crazy basketball recruiting really is. It all starts with last year’s misses in the spring like we all know about and that is already documented. Every year we miss on some of our targets for various common reasons (too big of a stage at UK, wants to stay closer to home, sees a better fit at another program, or wants to be aligned with a certain shoe company or brand).
We started off in great shape for Bridges, Alkins, Simmons, Monk, VJ King, SKJ (once he decommitted from Virginia), and even Thon Maker to an extent, but also Harry Giles pre-Duke national championship run.
Earlier in the year, Coach Cal seemingly told Simmons that he was “his guy” at the point guard position. Coach Cal also seemed to follow and track hard over the summer for Alkins as numerous reports would come out about Coach Cal watching numerous AAU games of his and thus prioritizing him. It has also been well documented that Coach Cal has been following Monk around for two summers now and definitely wants him. Bridges (the guy I most wanted in this class because of his power and athleticism) has been highly considered as “ours” since we extended him an offer. We were a top school on Thon Maker’s list before Arizona State got involved and Harry Giles has always had great things to say about Coach Cal and UK.
Since then, the jury is out on how serious our interest in Alkins really is. We have been slow-playing Simmons who was once considered “our guy” at the point guard spot and mainly because of Fox (who is a better prospect). Harry Giles has been considered a Duke lean for the majority of this year so far. Bridges is now looking like he ends up in East Lansing. We aren’t even recruiting Thon Maker. It was well-documented that Monk is and has been very high on UK but nobody can really get a word out of him or his circle on his recruitment.
We put offers out to guys such as VJ King (U of L), MJ Cage (Oregon), Dennis Smith (NC State), Tyus Battle (Syracuse), Josh Langford (MSU), Jonathan Issac (FSU) and Markelle Fultz (Washington) who all chose to go elsewhere and none or few who seemed to “seriously” consider the highly coveted UK offer.
Currently we have offers out to Jarrett Allen, Udoka Azubuike, and Edrice Adebayo. We do not know where we truly stand with those guys although it most likely is not at the top of their list (although that could change with a miss or two).
We are still trying to make serious in-roads with Wenyen Gabriel, De’Aaron Fox, Marques Bolden, and Harry Giles (to beat Duke out).
All this being said and we have not even recruited potentially the best prospect in the entire class in Josh Jackson.
Obviously this all debunks the myth of UK always getting who they want because even Coach Cal has said he misses numerous times on recruits that he really wants but at the end of the day he wants young men that want to be here. If one thing is for sure it is that we should not be frightened over such turns in all the recent developments. Just think about this, we are slow-playing a five-star recruit who would be “thee” crown jewel of a Tubby or BCG recruiting class. Somehow we always end up in great shape under Coach Cal. Even the NIT team would have been an NCAA Tournament team if Noel doesn’t get hurt.
It’ll be interesting to see if any new names are added to offer list we already have out. My guess would be that we probably won’t know til…A) If we miss on a few prospects in the fall…B) If we get to Christmas time during the season or a couple weeks after that point and Briscoe and/or Ulis (already included Murray and Skal) appear to be NBA prospects for this coming NBA Draft.
We may think about the misses of Tatum, Mudiay, Stanley Johnson, Wiggins, Shabazz, Gary Harris & Payne, Will Barton, X. Henry, as well as the 2015 class but when we are consistently rolling in the number 1 or 2 classes each year we just need to sit back and continue enjoying this great journey that Coach Cal is putting us through. Yes, myself included as sometimes I do get put on edge when there is a sudden turn in the road for a certain prospect or two that I really would like to have at UK. We are spoiled and it all begins with how hard Coach Cal and his staff work to make sure our brand is the absolute best!
Also big thanks to TJ for all the recruiting coverage he provides for us!
We started off in great shape for Bridges, Alkins, Simmons, Monk, VJ King, SKJ (once he decommitted from Virginia), and even Thon Maker to an extent, but also Harry Giles pre-Duke national championship run.
Earlier in the year, Coach Cal seemingly told Simmons that he was “his guy” at the point guard position. Coach Cal also seemed to follow and track hard over the summer for Alkins as numerous reports would come out about Coach Cal watching numerous AAU games of his and thus prioritizing him. It has also been well documented that Coach Cal has been following Monk around for two summers now and definitely wants him. Bridges (the guy I most wanted in this class because of his power and athleticism) has been highly considered as “ours” since we extended him an offer. We were a top school on Thon Maker’s list before Arizona State got involved and Harry Giles has always had great things to say about Coach Cal and UK.
Since then, the jury is out on how serious our interest in Alkins really is. We have been slow-playing Simmons who was once considered “our guy” at the point guard spot and mainly because of Fox (who is a better prospect). Harry Giles has been considered a Duke lean for the majority of this year so far. Bridges is now looking like he ends up in East Lansing. We aren’t even recruiting Thon Maker. It was well-documented that Monk is and has been very high on UK but nobody can really get a word out of him or his circle on his recruitment.
We put offers out to guys such as VJ King (U of L), MJ Cage (Oregon), Dennis Smith (NC State), Tyus Battle (Syracuse), Josh Langford (MSU), Jonathan Issac (FSU) and Markelle Fultz (Washington) who all chose to go elsewhere and none or few who seemed to “seriously” consider the highly coveted UK offer.
Currently we have offers out to Jarrett Allen, Udoka Azubuike, and Edrice Adebayo. We do not know where we truly stand with those guys although it most likely is not at the top of their list (although that could change with a miss or two).
We are still trying to make serious in-roads with Wenyen Gabriel, De’Aaron Fox, Marques Bolden, and Harry Giles (to beat Duke out).
All this being said and we have not even recruited potentially the best prospect in the entire class in Josh Jackson.
Obviously this all debunks the myth of UK always getting who they want because even Coach Cal has said he misses numerous times on recruits that he really wants but at the end of the day he wants young men that want to be here. If one thing is for sure it is that we should not be frightened over such turns in all the recent developments. Just think about this, we are slow-playing a five-star recruit who would be “thee” crown jewel of a Tubby or BCG recruiting class. Somehow we always end up in great shape under Coach Cal. Even the NIT team would have been an NCAA Tournament team if Noel doesn’t get hurt.
It’ll be interesting to see if any new names are added to offer list we already have out. My guess would be that we probably won’t know til…A) If we miss on a few prospects in the fall…B) If we get to Christmas time during the season or a couple weeks after that point and Briscoe and/or Ulis (already included Murray and Skal) appear to be NBA prospects for this coming NBA Draft.
We may think about the misses of Tatum, Mudiay, Stanley Johnson, Wiggins, Shabazz, Gary Harris & Payne, Will Barton, X. Henry, as well as the 2015 class but when we are consistently rolling in the number 1 or 2 classes each year we just need to sit back and continue enjoying this great journey that Coach Cal is putting us through. Yes, myself included as sometimes I do get put on edge when there is a sudden turn in the road for a certain prospect or two that I really would like to have at UK. We are spoiled and it all begins with how hard Coach Cal and his staff work to make sure our brand is the absolute best!
Also big thanks to TJ for all the recruiting coverage he provides for us!
