Sorry for the delay on the notes, but as you can tell by the front page, I was busy yesterday. Let's jump right in.
- Edrice Adebayo: Visiting this weekend. I've typed this part several times now and had to delete it several times. Conflicting reports on whether he'll attend the practice, but here's what I do know: his official visit will start on Friday. Source close to Adebayo's recruitment told me they will try to stick around Sunday. Sources close to Kentucky haven't heard that news. So we'll just have to wait and see.
Hopefully for UK it works out because I would imagine that would be a cool experience for Adebayo. Seeing ESPN basically set up a Game Day at a practice on a Sunday night. But it's big UK's getting him on campus for an official visit. I've always said if it's not NC State, it'll be UK. I still think that as of today, but Auburn has made up a lot of ground in his recruitment and we should all keep an eye on Bruce Pearl.
-Speaking of bigs: Spoke with someone close to Kentucky that told me John Calipari is loving his position with the 2016 class. Yes, UK missed on Miles Bridges, but stealing Gabriel from Duke was huge. The Cats will have Charles Matthews and Mychal Mulder at the three next year. Gabriel will also likely play the three. UK could also play three guards again. While it's weird Calipari keeps missing on true threes, that's the position to miss on if you're missing on anything.
Bridges wasn't as big of a need as another big. But what I'm told is UK feels great about landing another big and the prime suspects are Harry Giles, Marques Bolden or Adebayo. Cats also made the cut for Jarrett Allen but haven't heard too much about him lately.
UK could obviously miss out on all three, or four, as I'm not sure Kentucky is the clear leader for any, but Cats are confident they'll land another big.
- Marques Bolden: The reason I haven't been as high on Bolden to UK dates back about a month ago. I couldn't get anyone on the phone to talk about the visit and one source that didn't want to go public told me the visit was "Just OK." Weird. Ask Jason for the typical visit answer, he'll be happy to type it, but it rarely is "Just OK."
That made me think maybe Bolden wasn't as high on Kentucky, and that wasn't a crazy thing to think at the time. Duke seemed to be the leader and Bossi heard Alabama was making a strong push. But Calipari has visited Bolden since and Bolden will visit UK again.
People that cover recruiting for other sites get the sense UK may actually lead for Bolden. I haven't heard that from anyone around Kentucky, or around Bolden (he's quiet as is), but I feel better about UK's chances since the "Just OK" quote I was given.
- Malik Monk: https://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1810704 in this front page story, this quote stood out to me..
"I'm trying to be a point guard so I'm going to have the ball most of the time," Monk said. "You're going to college so you're going to have players around you so it's not really going to effect you unless you've got bad chemistry."
Make of that what you will. He'll be at Big Blue Madness, Calipari feels like he can land both Fox and Monk, but time will tell.
- De'Aaron Fox: Something drastic is going to have to happen for him to not end up at Kentucky. That's all I'll say.
- Kobi Simmons: He's still hanging around waiting for Kentucky. There's still a chance he ends up a Wildcat. He's watching Fox's situation closely, and if Cal feels like he may not be able to land Monk at some point, he'll jump on Simmons if he's still available.
- Edrice Adebayo: Visiting this weekend. I've typed this part several times now and had to delete it several times. Conflicting reports on whether he'll attend the practice, but here's what I do know: his official visit will start on Friday. Source close to Adebayo's recruitment told me they will try to stick around Sunday. Sources close to Kentucky haven't heard that news. So we'll just have to wait and see.
Hopefully for UK it works out because I would imagine that would be a cool experience for Adebayo. Seeing ESPN basically set up a Game Day at a practice on a Sunday night. But it's big UK's getting him on campus for an official visit. I've always said if it's not NC State, it'll be UK. I still think that as of today, but Auburn has made up a lot of ground in his recruitment and we should all keep an eye on Bruce Pearl.
-Speaking of bigs: Spoke with someone close to Kentucky that told me John Calipari is loving his position with the 2016 class. Yes, UK missed on Miles Bridges, but stealing Gabriel from Duke was huge. The Cats will have Charles Matthews and Mychal Mulder at the three next year. Gabriel will also likely play the three. UK could also play three guards again. While it's weird Calipari keeps missing on true threes, that's the position to miss on if you're missing on anything.
Bridges wasn't as big of a need as another big. But what I'm told is UK feels great about landing another big and the prime suspects are Harry Giles, Marques Bolden or Adebayo. Cats also made the cut for Jarrett Allen but haven't heard too much about him lately.
UK could obviously miss out on all three, or four, as I'm not sure Kentucky is the clear leader for any, but Cats are confident they'll land another big.
- Marques Bolden: The reason I haven't been as high on Bolden to UK dates back about a month ago. I couldn't get anyone on the phone to talk about the visit and one source that didn't want to go public told me the visit was "Just OK." Weird. Ask Jason for the typical visit answer, he'll be happy to type it, but it rarely is "Just OK."
That made me think maybe Bolden wasn't as high on Kentucky, and that wasn't a crazy thing to think at the time. Duke seemed to be the leader and Bossi heard Alabama was making a strong push. But Calipari has visited Bolden since and Bolden will visit UK again.
People that cover recruiting for other sites get the sense UK may actually lead for Bolden. I haven't heard that from anyone around Kentucky, or around Bolden (he's quiet as is), but I feel better about UK's chances since the "Just OK" quote I was given.
- Malik Monk: https://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1810704 in this front page story, this quote stood out to me..
"I'm trying to be a point guard so I'm going to have the ball most of the time," Monk said. "You're going to college so you're going to have players around you so it's not really going to effect you unless you've got bad chemistry."
Make of that what you will. He'll be at Big Blue Madness, Calipari feels like he can land both Fox and Monk, but time will tell.
- De'Aaron Fox: Something drastic is going to have to happen for him to not end up at Kentucky. That's all I'll say.
- Kobi Simmons: He's still hanging around waiting for Kentucky. There's still a chance he ends up a Wildcat. He's watching Fox's situation closely, and if Cal feels like he may not be able to land Monk at some point, he'll jump on Simmons if he's still available.
