And Meeks makes it two...
Tubby Smith is fast making Kentucky "point guard U" ... Well, maybe "combo guard U."
At any rate, fresh off landing a committment from rising senior point guard Derrick Jasper of California, Tubby used his trump card (something many recruiting fans wish he'd try more often) and swooped into Norcross, Georgia, to land one of the country's better combo guards in Jodie Meeks.
Meeks, who was narrowing his choices to Bama and Florida, wasn't even on the Cats' recruiting radar for all intents and purposes until recently, when UK decided to pursue. A few weeks -- and a whirlwind official visit -- later, and Meeks was in the fold.
Meeks' verbal brings to three the number of guards in Tubby's 2006 frosh class (Modesto prep Michael Porter being the other). It's fair to say Coach must anticipate the possibility of losing Rajon Rondo to the pros, or is at least getting the stable full of thoroughbreds for when Rondo, Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley are no longer all on campus.
Film clips available of Meeks, while certainly of dubious and Zapruder-like quality, show a player similar in size and strength to former standout Gerald Fitch. Fitch was a diamond in the rough, however, while Meeks is actually ranked top 40 in most recruiting gurus' rankings. He's tall by college standards at 6'4", a serious leaper and has a man's body. While his shot is nowhere near as good, and I'm not comparing him gamewise at all yet, his style reminded me of Duke's Jason Williams, who was always strong to the hole.
All that's left now is for Reggie Hanson and Co. to reel in one of two big fish left on the UK wish list, Tennessee bigs Brandan Wright (consensus #2) and Thaddeus Young (#1 cool name). Disinformation has Young high on Arkansas while Wright is hearing sales pitches from Coach K. Meanwhile, Tubby remains cool and collected as ever.
I really have grown to love Tubby's recruiting style. It's nervewracking to the degree that it's not publicly done (a la Pitino), but he always seems to carry himself (and thus UK) with class, never begging or grovelling, and I think it's paying dividends. I'll be the first (not at all) to say that being an African-American coach in such a high profile job has to be a bonus for some of these kids. Young has said as much in interviews. But more than that, Smith doesn't panic and seems to have finally found his comfort zone between "good character" kids and McDonald's All-Americans.
And that bodes very well for Big Blue Nation.
At any rate, fresh off landing a committment from rising senior point guard Derrick Jasper of California, Tubby used his trump card (something many recruiting fans wish he'd try more often) and swooped into Norcross, Georgia, to land one of the country's better combo guards in Jodie Meeks.
Meeks, who was narrowing his choices to Bama and Florida, wasn't even on the Cats' recruiting radar for all intents and purposes until recently, when UK decided to pursue. A few weeks -- and a whirlwind official visit -- later, and Meeks was in the fold.
Meeks' verbal brings to three the number of guards in Tubby's 2006 frosh class (Modesto prep Michael Porter being the other). It's fair to say Coach must anticipate the possibility of losing Rajon Rondo to the pros, or is at least getting the stable full of thoroughbreds for when Rondo, Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley are no longer all on campus.
Film clips available of Meeks, while certainly of dubious and Zapruder-like quality, show a player similar in size and strength to former standout Gerald Fitch. Fitch was a diamond in the rough, however, while Meeks is actually ranked top 40 in most recruiting gurus' rankings. He's tall by college standards at 6'4", a serious leaper and has a man's body. While his shot is nowhere near as good, and I'm not comparing him gamewise at all yet, his style reminded me of Duke's Jason Williams, who was always strong to the hole.
All that's left now is for Reggie Hanson and Co. to reel in one of two big fish left on the UK wish list, Tennessee bigs Brandan Wright (consensus #2) and Thaddeus Young (#1 cool name). Disinformation has Young high on Arkansas while Wright is hearing sales pitches from Coach K. Meanwhile, Tubby remains cool and collected as ever.
I really have grown to love Tubby's recruiting style. It's nervewracking to the degree that it's not publicly done (a la Pitino), but he always seems to carry himself (and thus UK) with class, never begging or grovelling, and I think it's paying dividends. I'll be the first (not at all) to say that being an African-American coach in such a high profile job has to be a bonus for some of these kids. Young has said as much in interviews. But more than that, Smith doesn't panic and seems to have finally found his comfort zone between "good character" kids and McDonald's All-Americans.
And that bodes very well for Big Blue Nation.
4 Comments:
At 1:19 PM, The Old Doc said…
So if what you are saying comes true, then next year Kentucky starts a line-up of the following: Wright, Bradley, Young, Crawford (if he's not gone - who knows anymore?) and either Thomas or Perry? Alleyne may still be around (being a freakishly tall person may get him picked up sooner), but so far, I just haven't seen "I'm a starter!" written on him. Is there another forward out there we are in on? That said, I can see Thomas or Perry getting 13 ppg., a la Jared Prickett, if Kentucky lands Wright.
I'm not sure about the positions here, so I may be way off, but that looks like a very formidable line-up, and given the stars on the bench, could be a nine- or ten-man rotation. It would make for a very fun season for the Big Blue Nation, at any rate.
At 2:16 PM, Agonica said…
Precisely...lineup would most likely be: C - Alleyne/Thomas/Carter/Woo...PF - Sims/Wright ... SF - Perry/Young/A. Williams ... SG - Crawford/Meeks ...PG - Bradley/Jasper/Porter ... You could do a lot worse.
At 3:24 PM, natarajah said…
Have you seen that Chad Ford has Rondo ranked 3rd for next years draft? Looks as if Tubby sees the writing on the wall
At 3:38 PM, The Old Doc said…
Rondo, Sparks, Morris (who can guess?) probably gone (well, Sparks for sure). PT there. Bradley has another year, and that is great, I think. Crawford too, unless he blows up this next year, but I'm not seeing that yet. I would like to be pleasantly surprised. We saw a few glimpses of what was possible last year with Crawford, but not enough. Any others?
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