Joe Crawford scrambling up the NBA Draft charts.

Pre-draft camp: Day 2 Stock Watch

Joe Crawford: Made things happen with the ball in his hands, scoring 19 points in 26 minutes. He was his team’s most aggressive player and showed nice versatility mixing up his perimeter shooting with his slashing ability.

Crawfords year under Billy Gillispie put him on the NBA radar. Just imagine what four years would have done for him. He might have left early.

I always have to wonder what a real coach could have done with guys like Morriss, Rondo, Bogans and Prince. Imagine a driven coach with the talent of that 2001 Turmoil Team. Pitino would have added a Final Four at least. Tubby let it slip through his fingers through piss poor management.

Smith did a disservice to guys like Prince, Rondo and Bogans. Crawford and Morriss as well. These guys are NBA Talent who under a coach who knows how to develop and showcase talent would have been higher draft picks. Hayes has proven that he should have been a First Rounder. Rondo and Prince should have been lottery pics. Bogans should have had guaranteed money. Bradley could have been a 2nd Rounder. He may still make it. But it won’t be due to Smith. It will be due to his year under Gillispie.

NEW RECRUIT: Hunter McClintock

Is this kid really as good as this video makes him seem or is it just good editing?

I don’t know.

If he is that good and Billy G can get him on campus, the UK PG worries are at an end.

Jon Hood commits to the Big Blue

The 6′6″ 180lb prospect commits to play for Billy Gillispie and the University of Kentucky. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I can’t remember the last time that a Kentucky Kid committed to the Home State University this early.

Yes! It’s a new day. Kentucky is returning to being Kentucky. Instate talent no longer has to ponder whether being yoked by Tubby will hurt their career or NBA potential. I think that Hopson will be the last of the big time Kentucky and Regional talent to snub Kentucky.

Congrats to both Coach Gillispie and Jon Hood on a bright future together.

Scout page

Rivals page

Billy G’s Recruits 2008 to 2012

2008-2009

Kevin Galloway-x G/F 6-7 200 Sacramento, Calif. Sacramento

Darius Miller SG 6-6 215 Maysville Mason County

DeAndre Liggins PG 6-5 190 Chicago Washington

Josh Harrellson-y F 6-9 260 St. Charles, Mo. St. Charles

2009-10

Jon Hood G/F 6-7 185 Madisonville Madisonville

G.J. Vilarino PG 6-0 160 McKinney, Texas McKinney

2010-11

Dakotah Euton F 6-8 215 Ashland Rose Hill Christian

Dominique Ferguson F 6-9 200 Indianapolis Lawrence North

K.C. Ross-Miller PG 6-0 170 Irving, Texas God’s Academy

2011-12

Vinny Zollo F 6-8 215 Greenfield, Ohio McClain

2012-13

Michael Avery G 6-4 175 Lake Sherwood, Calif. TBA

Recruiting and Kentucky Basketball

Personally, I don’t get it. Perhaps there are ulterior motives. Maybe we just have a few self righteous hypocrits who miss inept Tubby recruiting.

Smith couldn’t recruit well enough. Billy Gillispie is recruiting too much, too fast, too soon. Huh!?!

Everyone complained that UK under Smith was not getting the recruits. UK wasn’t on the radar of the Elite Recruits. Smith seemed to wait each year to the end to start his recruiting. Either he cherry picked de-commits from other schools or he was recruiting left overs in the Spring. The guys never seemed to get caught up on recruiting. I don’t know if he even tried.

His best class in his tenure was a group of guys who seemed to choose UK in spite of Smith. Rondo wanted to go to UL but Pitino chose to go after Telfair instead. Morris chose UK because it was easier than Georgia Tech. Crawford chose UK then tried to leave. Ramel Bradley was the third Guard in a class that needed a Forward. That year saw Corey Brewer go to UF because according to Smith “Brewer wasn’t big enough to play in the SEC.”  Chris Lofton chose UT that year because no one in the State of Kentucky believed that Chris could make it at the D1 level. Not the finest moment in talent evaluation for either Smith or Pitino.

Smith and his projects. Smith and his spring recruiting of Tyrone Nash and clones. Smith and his sons.

Kentucky fans complained and complained.

“Spring” forward to the present.

Billy Gillispie has UK in the mouth of top recruits all over the Nation. He’s got talented kids committing .
Patterson committed to Gillispie. Not to Smith. Darius Smith was close to committing to Illinois. Another Kentucky kid going out of State because of the ineptness of Smith and his merry band of incompetents. Gillispie and his merry band of magicians reeled Darius back in and received the commit. Liggins, if he qualifies is a serious talent. He’s brought in two highly regarded JUCOs who I’m betting are going to help in ways that no JUCO ever helped a Smith team.  Smith trolled the JUCO ranks and struck out each time.

I’d love to see Antoine Barbour under a hard working, dedicated coach like Gillispie.

Dominique Ferguson is the #8 overall Prospect from the Class of 2010. K.C. Ross Miller is a Top 25 talent. Euton is a highly regarded talent.

Vinny Zollo and Michael Avery are two talented kids who have committed to the program early. Some say too early.

This is one year of recruiting under Gillispie.

I’m sure the lack of a surprise element each Spring is going to hurt some of the recruiting blogs. So I can see their concern. Slower site. Fewer hits. That’s gonna hurt the bottom line. But I think it will eventually even out. People are going to want to follow these kids. See how their panning out. Follow their development.

Not all early recruits are going to level off talent wise or regress as in the cases of J.P. Blevins and Adam Williams. Both Avery and Zollo are taller and more talented than those two were in their Senior years of High School. I’m thinking that Zollo and Avery both could come in right now and start over either of those guys.

The recruiting landscape is changing. It’s been changing. Williams, K, Self and others have been adapting to this change all along. Smith was behind the power curve. Gillispie is bringing UK back up to speed. He’s making UK a major threat on the recruiting trail once more.

I say it’s about damn time. Before fans of any other programs start throwing stones, you might want to look at the walls of your house. Lots of glass out there.

Personally, I don’t need surprise recruiting sagas from hell…

I don’t care so much about recruiting. As long as Gillispie keeps it legal, I’m for letting him do his job. I’d rather know who is coming. I’d rather coach have the time to develop a plan of action on how to incorporate those players into his system. Recruiting is a tool to get there. It’s a means to an end, not the end itself. That is unless you are a blog or website dedicated to recruiting. Gillispie is recruiting to win Championships. It’s a take no prisoners endeavor.

Winning Championships is what should fuel BG. Bring on Number 8.

Comments, Questions, smart remarks?

Kentucky Recruiting — Coach Gillispie is a machine.

Looks like Coach Gillispie is just about finished with the 2008 Class. If Jasper decides to stay, I don’t think there will be any new additions. Should Jasper decide to transfer, perhaps Bobby Maze becomes a Cat. There is the possibility that Coach G pulls someone out of his hat as well. He’s done that several times this year.

As of now, the Class of 2012 consists of the following Cats:

• Josh Harrellson 6′9″ JUCO PF/Center
• Darius Miller ‘08 SF
• Kevin Galloway ‘08 JUCO 6′6″ SF
• DeAndre Liggins PG/SF ‘08

That’s a damn fine class. Especially considering that he had less than a year to pull it together at UK. Both Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins are Top 50 4 Stars. Galloway and Harrellson are highly regarded JUCOs. It’s a Top 15 Class. Balanced, athletic, skilled and talented.

Like I said, not bad for a hastily recruited class. Imagine Gillispies classes when he’s had the proper time to dedicate to planning and coordination and the full authority of being the established University of Kentucky Coach.

Gillispie has done something that the last coach couldn’t seem to manage. He’s recruited a balanced class without neglecting the future.

That future is stocked with future stars.

The 2009 Class has G.J. Vilarino so far. One guy so far. I’m sure more will be done there.

The real promise is in the 2010 class.

The 2010 Recruits (Class of 2014) looks to be a highly regarded class of recruits. Possibly a number one recruiting class. Gillispie already has three guys who look to be Top 20 ranked recruits. He is on the verge of adding one more Top 10 Candidate and another Top 50 guys from what I’ve read.

The 2010 Recruits are as follows:

Dakotah Euton

K.C. Ross-Miller

Dominuque Ferguson

Others may come. Vinny Zollo and Evan Anderson. Two more highly regarded recruits from the 2010 class. I’ve already posted the Michael Avery commit.

Coach Gillispie is in tireless and perpetual pursuit of excellence. He is a non-stop recruiting monster. He has UK on the tip of the tongue of every recruit out there and he’s got every coach out there looking over their shoulder.

UK will soon be on top again. The journey back to the top of the heap is gonna be incredible. I expect much excitement over the next decade.

Number 8 comes in 2011.

Opinions?

Billy Gillispie gets a commit from Michael Avery of the Class of 2012

The 6′4″ Avery is in the 8th Grade. That fact has caused a mini-uproar from some UK fans. It seems some are offended by this early commit. Some line has been crossed, they say.

I say it’s a sign of things to come. No longer will Duke and UNC, Kansas and UCONN and UCLA be looking in their rear view mirror laughing at a UK coach playing catch up in the annual spring recruiting cherry picking contest. That was the specialty of our former coach. The new guy. He likes to get in early.

If that’s not reason enough to celebrate.

This may be.

It seems that Gillispie wasn’t actively recruiting Michael Avery. Young Michael and his father recruited UK and Coach Gillispie. They sold Gillispie on Michaels skills.

Some are worrying that it’s too early. How do we know that Michael Avery is nothing more than an Adam Willams type? I’d counter with the opposite. How do we know that he’s not an OJ Mayo, Lebron or Kobe Bryant type phenom? This kid is playing on the under 17 teams with kids who are being recruited for the 2009 and 2010 classes. That’s how he was noticed. And yes, UCONN fans, Jim Calhoun has been spotted following his games. As has UCLA, USC, UNC, KU and others. So you may want to step down from that precarious pedestal.

Smith and his inept player evaluation and lazy recruiting are no longer at UK. Get used to getting them early and getting the good ones. Gillispie is now filling up the 2010 class. Euton, Ross-Miller and Ferguson are all committed to the Cats and in the case of Euton and Ross-Miller have been for a while. Gillispie is waiting for no one. He’s running wild on the recruiting scene. He’s a man in motion.

It’s about time we had a coach who could recruit with the likes of Self and Williams, Calhoun and K.

Anyone complaining about this signing is suffering from Smith withdrawal and should turn in their blue, head North and don the gopher maroon.

P.S. to the UCONN fans who linked here. If you don’t believe this. Go to Kentucky Ink. Listen to the podcast of Avery’s father. He states that HE called Gillispie. Not the other way around. Gillispie wouldn’t/couldn’t return his calls because of NCAA recruiting rules. So he missed him several times.

Like I’ve said before. Kevin Garnett, OJ Mayo, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James. All of these guys had college recruiters AND NBA scouts following them in the 8th Grade. I’m not saying that this kid is the next phenom of that level. I’m saying that no precedent has been set by Gillispie. The precedent was set years ago.