UK Basketball Recruiting

UK basketball recruiting has not really picked up like I expected it to under Billy Gillispie. Yes, UK has signed Andre Liggins and Darius Miller, but I expected UK recruiting to be getting a lot more interest from some of the top McDonald's all-Americans by this time.

I noticed UK basketball recruiting has involved a lot of junior college players recently. Nothing against these players, but there is just not enough data to show these recruits pay off very often. I guess beggars can't be choosers sometimes. I have no doubt Billy Gillispie is trying to take UK basketball recruiting to the next level.

Nobody has really mentioned that UK basketball recruiting has been effected by replacing a black head coach with a white head coach. Now, this doesn't cause any concern to me. I know that Tubby Smith was treated like royalty at UK and he got the respect he deserved, but I have to believe there are many African American players that may not like the fact UK chose to hire a white coach after Tubby Smith left. I hope this doesn't effect Kentucky recruiting because it shouldn't.

Coach Smith definitely had an advantage with some recruits at UK because he was African American so we will see if Billy Gillispie and UK basketball recruiting can quickly regain some of the top recruits' attention at UK. I know he has already garnered the attention of a few top profile recruits, but this coaching change and its effect on the Kentucky Wildcats basketball hasn't been fully absorbed yet.

I believe Billy Gillispie will start to lock up all the top in-state talent because he works harder than Pitino as a recruiter and his down-home Texas style will be very appealing to many Kentucky high school players and their families. In addition, after watching the improvement of Crawford and Bradley under Coach Gillispie, players are going to soon discover they can elevate their games tremendously under Coach Gillispie who develops talent as good as any coach in America. This will also boost UK basketball recruiting.

Billy Gillispie could form some truly amazing teams at UK once he gets top talent at the University of Kentucky. This could be the best UK basketball recruiting we've ever seen.

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