Monday Recruiting News Seeping from our pores

Lots of news coming from the weekend, and no I dont just mean the loud scream that permeated my apartment complex when the Carolina Panthers screwed up my Sunday parlay by attempting a ludicrous trick play on a punt return....but I digress: (1) So I made my trek to Lexington for the game and had a pre-game meal at BW3's, where I was seated two tables away from visiting recruits, Ramon Harris and Mike Williams, who were lunching with Tubby Smith, Scott Rigot, Reggie Hanson, David Hobbs, Scott Holsopple and others. Oddly no players were there, but this may have been the "coaches only" part of the visit as others saw them with the team the rest of the day and night (by the way, I love our readers, seven of whom sent me emails this weekend with "spottings" of the recruits at various places in town.....keep it up and we can have a "Where's Waldo" section for all future visits.) As for the players themselves, they were quite impressive looking. Mike Williams is HUGE and reminds me of the early viewings of Nazr Mohammad, where his sheer size makes him look much taller than he is. Ramon Harris looks like an athlete and was already talking with random people in the restaurant. You can see that he has personality and seemed to be loving the attention. Coach Smith spent most of the lunch talking to the players and scribbling on sheets of paper.....we just assumed he was drawing up plays and though Kentucky Sports Radio tried, we did not end up kidnapping the papers. (2) Contrary to what Jerry Tipton wrote in the Lexington Herald, Darnell Gant was NOT on campus. Tipton assumed that Mike Williams was Gant and that must have been the source of the mistake. If you ever needed any proof that the internet has now replaced newspapers as "sources" for recruiting news, see this. If you read this blog, you know infinitely more about who is going where and when than those covering recruiting for most of the newspapers (Victoria Sun and Larry Vaught are noteable exceptions). (3) Along those lines, introduce yourself to the young man above, Philadelphia big man Lavoy Allen. Yet ANOTHER power forward Kentucky is pursuing, Allen received an in-home visit last week from Tubby and as of yet, is not thought to have a scholarship offer. We will have more on Allen in the next few days, but he is yet more proof of the extensive length that this staff is going to get multiple power forwards in the next class. (4) The Kentucky Sports Radio crew saw last week's guest Doug Stanhope at Comedy off Broadway this weekend. He killed of course and was excellent throughout the show. He will be in Louisville this coming week, so if you havent seen him you should. We have some pictures which we will put on the site of the crew with Doug and his crazy girlfriend. (5) In home visits scheduled this week for Jai Lucas and AJ Stewart. I think there is an above average chance that Kentucky pushes for Stewart to commit during the in-home (a little birdie told me that) and that UK has their first player by the end of the week. IF that doesnt happen, I fully expect Stewart to commit at Midnight Madness. As for Lucas, he could make his decision at any point, but I think you HAVE to like where UK stands right now. (6) Watch for yet another name to pop up this week at some point. I have been given a name but I can get no verification, so I will hold off. But I am told that you will hear about another 2/3 that Kentucky is seeking in the next couple of weeks. (7) Tyrone Nash has said this weekend that he is still considering UK and may still end up in Lexington. Between me and you, I wish Tyrone well but think this recruitment should wind down. We needed Tyrone this summer....we likely dont next summer. There are better fish in the sea.... Finally, as the number of readers of the blog continues to soar, I wanted to provide a source for all of our shows from this year. Below are the links to all 5 shows of this season, along with what is on each one. I encourage you to catch up if you havent listened. Most of the "news" being reported around the net recently was first said by the players in interviews from the kids themselves on this show. Listen to them on your own and rather than read what others say about the kid, make your own decisions as to the importance of what they say. Episode 1 with Jai Lucas, Gregg Doyel and Louisville preview Episode 2 with AJ Stewart and College football preview Episode 3 with Patrick Patterson, Marshall Moses and Chip Cosby Episode 4 with Chris Barnes, Ryan Lemond, Brian Eldridge and Texas State preview Episode 5 with Doug Stanhope, Gregg Doyel and Ole Miss preview