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With tuesday marking the beginning of in-home visits for college coaches across America, the coaches of this area's Big 3 (IU, UL, UK) have been quite busy so far this week. Here are a few quick updates:
- Rick Pitino has been on the road all week, one of his first stops being Long Island to visit junior Tobias Harris.
- Billy Gillespie has already been to see 2009 prospects Daniel Orton and GJ Vilarino, and is likely to visit Jon Hood on Friday. Matt Jones speculates that there are 2 or 3 other visits that already have or will be taking place soon.
- Tom Crean pretty much locked up his 2009 class with his fifth commit, Christian Watford, making it official on Tuesday. Crean may try to add one more player to the class, but my guess is he will turn his attention now to the 2010 and '11 classes. We know one player on Crean's radar for the 2010 class, none other than Louisville Jeffersontown High School's Aaaron Cosby. According to Jody Demling, Cosby visited Indiana last week, and he's also visited Miami (OH) and will visit Dayton soon.
If you don't already know about the Courier-Journal's Jody Demling and his recruiting blog, check it out. He always has good info and always is one of the first to break the big story. Today on the blog he mentions Rick Bolus' new Kentucky state rankings, placing Jon Hood at #1 and Louisville Manual's Jacob Jenkins at #2. Above is a video of Hood, below is one of Jenkins, both provided by Demling and the C-J. Enjoy.
After reporting earlier today that Birmingham, AL 4-star forward Christian Watford was visited by IU Coach Tom Crean Monday night, word comes late tonight that Christian has given the Hoosiers a verbal.
Watford is ranked as the #4 SF in the '09 class by ESPN, and is a consensus 4-star talent by Scout and Rivals. He was also being recruited by UK, UofL, Memphis and Alabama. Chalk this one up as "W" for Tom Crean in the newly rejuvenated recruiting border war between Kentucky, Louisville, and Indiana.
Watford becomes the fifth commitment in what is shaping up to be a very solid 2009 class for the Hoosiers. He joins fellow 4-star talents in SG Maurice Creek and SF Derek Elston, as well as 3-star prospects PF Bobby Capobianco and PG Jordan Hulls.
From Northstar Basketball's Alex Schwartz comes bad news for Coach Gillespie's Wildcats and his attempt to lure top '09 prospect John Wall into visiting Lexington for Big Blue Madness.
Schwartz says he spoke with Wall recently, who gave him a list of his final four school choices: Baylor, Memphis, Oregon, and Kansas. He also states that Wall has not scheduled any visits and has no timetable for commitment.
Well folks, we have officially hit the wall as far as relevant news goes for the Bluegrass Hoops Report. The beginning of football season always marks a slow period in the prep basketball-news category. And since I know the lack of posts is just killing all of you loyal BHR readers out there, I decided to venture away from the Kentucky high school basketball stuff and do a little “State of the Program” for the top college programs from the state of Kentucky.
WESTERN KENTUCKY
’07-08 Record: 29-7
Returning Contributors: Sr. PG Orlando Mendez-Valdez, Sr. PF Matt Maresca, Jr. SG A.J. Slaughter, Sr. C Japeth Aguilar, Sr. F Mike Walker, Jr. F Jeremy Evans, So. G/F Steffphon Pettigrew, So. PF D.J. Magley
Newcomers: Fr. SG Jameson Tipping, Fr. PG Robbie Townsend, Jr. SG Anthony Sally, So. SG Sergio Kerusch
Recruiting Class of 2009: No commitments.
State of the program: It’s really hard to say where the Hilltoppers are headed following their Cinderella Sweet-16 run last year. With the departures of superstar Courtney Lee, big shot ESPY Award winner Ty Rogers (photo ^), speedy PG Tyrone Brazleton, and big man Boris Siakam to graduation, not to mention the loss of Coach Darrin Horn to South Carolina, Western obviously has some rebuilding to do. The only real contributors returning from last year’s team are seniors PG Orlando Mendez-Valdez and PF Matt Maresca. All of the Hilltoppers’ newcomers are relative unknowns, and their 2009 class is yet to receive a commitment. I expect a sub-par year by WKU’s standards, but I truly believe that this is a program that can only be down for so long. WKU has had continual success throughout the last century, and I think new coach Ken McDonald can get the ‘Toppers back on top of the Hill that is the Sun Belt Conference sooner rather than later.
First came the news that UK moved the date of Big Blue Madness back to October 10th, apparently to accomodate to 2009 #1 rated prospect John Wall's schedule. Then came the news that 2009 5-star PF Daniel Orton would attend as well.
Now comes word that 2010 4-star prospect Russell Byrd will also be in attendance. Byrd is a 6'7" 190 lb. scoring machine out of Fort Wayne, IN's Blackhawk Christian. He is listed as the #23 SG and #89 prospect overall by Rivals.
The SG position will be a focal point for Billy Gillespie's next two recruiting classes, as UK's starting SG Jodie Meeks enters his junior season in 08-09 without a clear cut back-up behind him. UK has already signed 4-star G/F Jon Hood for 2009, but if they could get Byrd in 2010 the depth chart would hardly skip a beat with the graduation of Meeks.
Indiana University Coach Tom Crean has quite a rebuilding job ahead of him in Bloomington, and he knows it. Crean has raised some eyebrows with some of the commitments he has gained already as well as with some of the big names of the future including IU in the mix.
Last night Coach Crean was expected to visit 2009 Birmingham swingman Christian Watford, rated as #34 overall in his class by rivals. Watford has been IU's primary target as of late, and it seems to be paying off. Watford also lists Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, and Alabama as his favorites.
The Hoosiers were also paid a visit by 2010 big man Alex Gauna over the weekend. Gauna is 6'9", 215 lbs., and rated as the #32 power forward in his class by rivals. He is from Eaton Rapids, Michigan.
