Nikita Koloff's Monday Recruiting Update

by:Matt Jones10/22/06

Well it was a glorious weekend here for the Kentucky Sports Radio crew as we spent Saturday watching the newest version of the UK Wildcats at the Blue-White Game in Memorial Coliseum. IF you havent seen our coverage of the game, just click on Kentucky Sports Radio and scroll down to see the thoughts. From there we moved to another glorious taping of our fine radio show, which should be ready for consumption Monday mid-day. I must say that this may have been the goofiest version of the show yet done as our hosts were a bit giddy from the weekend’s festivities and the show has a slightly off-kilter feel to it that I enjoyed. Our guests were the newest UK commit AJ Stewart, who talked about why he committed to UK and what he thinks about Jai Lucas and Pat Patterson’s chances of becoming a Wildcat, and Mike Decoursey of the Sporting News who ended up being one of the feistiest guests we have ever had. Mike and I got into a CLAH-SIC Duke debate and I think you will want to hear it. Mike turns the volume up and in the process, scares the Turkey Hunter.

One more thing….we love your comments, but if you are going to comment, please put a name in the title, even if its made up. Too much anonymous posting going on. Now, lets get to the news of the day…..

(1) The big news of the weekend was of course the visit of UK premium target Jai Lucas to Oklahoma St. I spoke to Lucas tonight about the visit and his quotes are below. I want to make clear (since I am sure this will lead to numerous Oklahoma St fans coming here and sqwuaking) that these are his quotes, without my opinion. I will give my take on the comments below, but what is here is simply Question and Answer:

Question: You just got back from your Oklahoma State visit, how did it go?

Answer: “Good. I got to see the campus and the school and it was a good time.”

Question: What events did you go to on your visit?

Answer: I went to the football game and they had this Basketball Bash. Those were the big things we went to.

Question: What was the Basketball Bash like? Was it the same or different from your trip to Kentucky?

Answer: “The Bash had a thing for the guys and girls teams and it was good. They had about 9,000 people there and they played basketball for a couple of ten minute halves. It wasnt really like the thing at Kentucky….a lot fewer people and kind of more low key. It was kind of more like a practice.”

Question So overall how would you characterize the visit?

Answer: “It was good. I have been there a few times, but you know I got to see what it would be like to go there.”

Ok, so those are the quotes. Overall, Jai seemed to have a good time in Stillwater. He also told me a couple of important facts. First he WILL be taking his visits to Maryland and Oklahoma. He said that he and his family talked and they thought that he had come this far in the process so he might as well finish it up. He still expects to be a fall commit, and said the only reason he would wait for Spring is if “I want to see how the teams play this season.”

Now these are my own intepretations after the conversation. I have long believed that UK was the leader for Lucas. I do think he likes Oklahoma State and, to a lesser extent, Maryland and Oklahoma. I know there is a lot of talk that Jai has already committed to UK, but I tend to think that is not true. I do however believe that Lucas was literally floored by his time at Kentucky last weekend and his conversation on me the Sunday after that visit suggested a kid who loved the time there. I got the feeling that he enjoyed his time in Stillwater, but he didnt have the same overflowing praise for this one as last weekend. Call that whatever you want, but that is just one man’s opinion. I thought the one potential wrench in Lucas’ likelihood of becoming a Wildcat was his visit to OSU. Having spoken with him after the visit, I would say Kentucky is in the driver’s seat on this one until further notice. Absent a confirmed commitment from Lucas, I am not sure UK could be in much better shape right now for him.

(2) So what about James Anderson? Well he is scheduled to take a visit on November 4th, but that may not be 100% set in stone. Lucas told me that while Anderson was asking him a lot about Kentucky and expressed interest in taking a visit, Anderson told him, “we havent gotten it all worked out just yet.” I was told by two sources this weekend that, for whatever reason, James’ high school coach does NOT want him to visit UK and is trying to get James to go ahead and commit to one particular school now. My take is that Anderson will either commit to a school that is not UK this week OR he will visit UK on November 4th and the Wildcats become a true player in this race.

(3) For the next couple of weeks, I expect the recruiting front to be relatively, although not totally, quiet. At this point UK has not stopped recruiting other targets, but there are four PRIME targets that will get all of the attention. Jai Lucas, Patrick Patterson, Marshall Moses and James Anderson will be feeling the UK love from now until November 4th. UK believes they have a shot at all four guys and are in GREAT position with the first three. Most observers, myself included, believe that Moses will commit to Kentucky on his visit the first weekend in November. Moses STILL has not scheduled any other visits and his desire to go to UK has never dropped. He has had multiple conversations with AJ STewart recently and I expect that they havent just been talking about their spectactular leaping abilities.

We have some other stuff, but I want to wait until the show comes out tomorrow to give some of it. Now if you havent heard yet, there is some big news for us. Beginning on November 1, Kentucky Sports Radio will be coming to 1570 AM, ESPN Radio in Louisville. The show will be able to finally take callers and do a lot of the things that we havent been able to do in the past, due to the fact that, well….we started this ourselves. Now we will be able to be heard live and hopefully very soon, streaming on the internet. We will have more on this in the next few days, but this is a big time for Kentucky Sports RAdio and we are VERY appreciative to all of you who have helped us get here.

Until tomorrow…..

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