A Monumental Day's News and Views

by:Thomas Beisner04/15/10
brandon-knight-kentucky Well, Wednesday was an interesting day, wasn't it?  Most of us spent the morning just kind of going through the motions, waiting for the big news to break and for the KSR server to crash.  When it came time for the news to break, it came heavy and in the most positive form and, surprisingly, the KSR server hung pretty strong on what turned out to be the biggest day of KSR traffic ever.  When the dust settled, we had over 300,000 hits and 175,000 unique visitors.  And, to top it all off, we had over 21,000 people check out the Live Blog for the Knight and Gilchrist signings.  What does that mean?  Well it means that you love Kentucky basketball.  You know you love Kentucky basketball.  And we love you for it.  And it means Matt's giving us raises.  Right?  Hello?  Matt, are you there? Now, onto the news on what was a monumental day....  - Well, in case you you were stuck under a rock or on that weird pedophile island with monitored internet that they talked about on 60 Minutes Sunday, it was quite the day for UK's future on Wednesday as the Cats landed the top players in the classes of 2010 and 2011 in the form of Brandon Knight and Michael Gilchrist.  While neither player shocked the world in joining up with John Calipari for at least one year, the signings again thrust the Cats to the forefront of the college basketball world and gave them, perhaps, the greatest recruiting day ever.  Knight's signature gives them the point guard they desperately needed this year and ensures them that Calipari will have his fourth-straight high-profile freshman guard.  Gilchrist's commitment, meanwhile, gives the Cats their first star wing player under Cal and puts them ahead of the class in the competition for the big names of 2011.  To make things even better for Cats fans, both players are widely regarded as the highly attractive "character" guys, meaning their signings are twice as nice.  As Coach O said on Twitter late Wednesday, "Like cube said 'today was a good day ". - Since recruiting, especially with UK fans, works the opposite of the birds in the bush theory, the obvious question after the big Wednesday news was "Who is next?".  The answer to that question could be coming very soon as this weekend as Josh Selby, Doron Lamb and CJ Leslie have all said they will make their decision after the Jordan Classic, held on the 17th.  Terrence Jones will make his decision on either April 23rd or 3oth.  Calipari has said he expects to sign 5 or 6 players in this class and, with three already in tow, the staff remains optimistic of landing some of the remaining big names.  So, in short, the news is likely going to be good for all of you people wondering who will be next. - One answer to that question down the road might have emerged on Wednesday as five-star 2011 point guard Tony Wroten Jr. said UK is now his favorite, following the signing of his "brother" Michael Gilchrist.  Wroten, a 6'4" point from Seattle, is ranked as the #9 player in the class of 2011 and told High School Hoop that Gilchrist's commitment pushed the Cats to the top of his list.  According to his Twitter account, he thinks UK fans are the funniest and he's trying to get on John Wall's level, even asking him what made him sign with Kentucky.  Twitter infatuation is real infatuation.  We all know that.  With Gilchrist on board, Wroten listing UK as his leader and the Cats very much in the hunt for Marquis Teague and Qunicy Miller (#2 and #3 overall), the class of 2011 could shake out very, very nicely too. - Belive it or not, the Cats got even more good news as UK received Enes Kanter's signed LOI and gave Coach Cal the opportunity to speak about the Turkish big man for the first time.  Cal expressed confidence that Kanter will be eligible to play despite rumored concerns over his eligibility.  Cal noted that Kanter is only 17, which makes him too young to earn a FIBA contract, and that the NCAA Clearinghouse has cleared him academically, which is half the battle.  One thing is clear, though.  We haven't heard the end of this and, as Mike DeCourcy says, this will be a revolutionary case for the NCAA. - In case you were wondering how important basketball is in Kentucky, the state legislature announced Brandon Knight's signing.  No word yet on how this will be used in future campaign smear ads.  - In case you recorded the ESPNU recruiting special and haven't watched yet, don't.  It was as atrocious as you'd expect.  Instead, check out this transcript of Coach Cal's interview with the D-League of the Worldwide Leader.  - Another hot name du jour made some news late Wednseday as Adam Zagoria reported that Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario will visit Florida.  Rosario is a former McDonald's All-American and averaged 17 points per game last year as a sophomore and is believed to also be considering Kansas and USC. - In some lady Wildcat news, former Miss Basketball Rebecca Gray announced her transfer from Matthew Mitchell's program after only one season.  Gray played one year at North Carolina before enrolling at UK and averaged 5 points per game on last year's Elite Eight team.  She will enroll at Union College.  - In non-UK news, Butler star Gordon Hayward entered the NBA Draft, but said he will not hire an agent.  I expect to see a flood of retractions from last week's stories about how Hayward and his boys were true "student-athletes".  - And, since we're already having such a good time, this is just for fun.  And fun it is.   - Finally, let's end this on a high as our buddy Gary Parrish talks about the Brandon Knight signing.  And, if you're reading this Gary, you're still wrong about Jeremy Tyler. That's it for now.  Stay tuned throughout the day as we continue to celebrate all things Kentucky and all things Calipari.  It's not any time to get soft with your fanhood.  Stick around and boast proudly.  Also, we'll have a Live Blog with Evan Daniels of Scout.com tonight at 6 pm, so make sure you don't miss out on that.  See you in a few...

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