Who we are looking at for Kentucky Basketball -- 2009 edition

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 14, 2008 12:27 PM EDT in Basketball

Via Rivals.com, here is a list of all the people Billy Gillispie has offered a basketball scholarship for 2009, and their current status:


Point guard	Notes	Stars	Ht/Wt	Hometown	Schools
John Wall	Super-stud 2009 point guard.		6-4/184	Raleigh, NC	list
Mfon Udofia			6-2/180	Stone Mountain, GA	list
GJ Vilarino	Already committed to UK.		6-0/160	McKinney, TX	Kentucky
A.J. Walton			6-0/175	Little Rock, AR	list

Shooting guard	Notes	Stars	Ht/Wt	Hometown	Schools
Jon Hood	Already committed to UK.		6-6/185	Madisonville, KY	Kentucky
D.J. Richardson	Gone to the Illini.		6-3/170	Peoria, IL	Illinois

Small forward	Notes	Stars	Ht/Wt	Hometown	Schools
Noel Johnson			6-7/180	Fayetteville, GA	list
Shawn Williams	Superb, athletic wing.		6-7/215	Duncanville, TX	list
Marlon Brown	Actually a football recruit, but a good basketball player as well		6-5/205	Memphis, TN	list

Power forward	Notes	Stars	Ht/Wt	Hometown	Schools
Derrick Favors	This guy would be a drop-in replacement for Patterson should Patterson leave early.		6-9/220	Atlanta, GA	list
Kenny Hall	Gone to UT.		6-8/215	Stone Mountain, GA	Tennessee
Colin Borchert			6-8/220	Glendale, AZ	list
Andrew Fitzgerald			6-9/245	Baltimore, MD	list
James Padgett			6-7/210	Brooklyn, NY	list

Center	Notes	Stars	Ht/Wt	Hometown	Schools
Daniel Orton	Kentucky has recently entertained Orton, and Orton liked UK a lot.		6-10/260	Oklahoma City, OK	list
Deshawn Painter	Gone to Florida.		6-9/210	Norfolk, VA	Florida

As you can see, Billy Gillispie has been a very busy fellow. This list is very heavy on size. But surprisngly, the most players on this list from any one state are from the state of Georgia, where Tubby Smith used to do a lot of recruiting. It seems that the Georgia to UK pipeline did not end with when Smith left.

While we do need to add a guard, it looks to me like Gillispie is really concerned about the possibility of Patterson going on to the next level despite comments from his family that Pat will be here for 4 years. It isn't hard to believe that his injury last year and subsequent surgery might modify that thinking.

Still, it is clear that size is a priority for 2009. We already have a bit coming from Matt Pilgrim, but I don't think Pilgrim is the type of power player Gillispie tends to use in his usual 3 out/2 in offensive alignment. We need two big guys on the blocks, and that is clearly a priority looking at current recruiting.

Poll

Who is the most likely 2009 recruit to commit to Kentucky first?

John Wall

106 votes

Daniel Orton

368 votes

Derrick Favors

38 votes

Shawn Williams

36 votes

Other from above list

22 votes

Other not on above list

64 votes

634 votes | Poll has closed

1 recs | Comment 16 comments

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Comments

Georgia To UK Pipeline

http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/playershometown.html#GA Lots of good ones.

by FortyYearCatFan on Jun 14, 2008 12:43 PM EDT 0 recs

Tru puts me to shame ...

... thanks alot friend :)

Great breakdown of Gillispie’s “wants”.

by Ken Howlett on Jun 14, 2008 3:58 PM EDT 0 recs

Oh not really Ken.

You did a great job keeping this blog going while Tru was on the mainland enjoying his backyard , surfing and playing his golf game.

I think it is time he got back to some serious work here :) lol

by kykat51 on Jun 14, 2008 5:02 PM EDT up 0 recs

Careful

Those rivals lists can be wildly inaccurate. Rivals relies on the athletes to tell them who is offering them. The athletes sometimes aren’t 100% honest, and often exaggerate their offer lists. Also, some athletes may not fully understand which “offers” are really offers and which ones wouldn’t be accepted if they tried to commit.

Richard Pittman

by Richard Pittman on Jun 14, 2008 5:01 PM EDT 0 recs

Yeah ...

... but who the heck really knows?

Only the Coach, I suspect.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 14, 2008 5:50 PM EDT up 0 recs

Rivals Want $ From Premium Subscribers

They don’t particularly care about accuracy. They’re after The Buzz not the facts.

by FortyYearCatFan on Jun 14, 2008 6:43 PM EDT 0 recs

That's ...

... not fair.

They endeavor to be accurate, and they do a fair job. Like everyone else, they make mistakes. I’m not a Rivals apologist, but I do subscribe and I think they do a decent job.

I know the editors and authors of The Cats Pause work very hard to get their information correct, and they are the ones who contribute the information for who is being recruited by UK. Nobody is perfect, and even though the parent company is surely after buzz as you suggest, the individual sites are run by UK fans like you and me, who happen to be trying to make a living in sports journalism. They take their job very seriously, and work hard at getting good information. For the most part, they do fine.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 15, 2008 9:47 AM EDT up 0 recs

Going to have to agree with Forty

Rivals, Scout, etc. are money making institutions and don’t have that many scouts in the field. Their rankings are only updated a few times a year and even then by many different people compiling their thoughts into a list.

A recruit’s Interest List is almost never right; whether the info comes from an interview with School A or straight from the recruit himself. Most recruiting experts agree that you shouldn’t put much stock on those lists.

by Clandestine on Jun 15, 2008 12:45 PM EDT up 0 recs

I Believe It Is Fair And Accurate

And I didn’t say TCP, I said Rivals. The Who’s Going Where stuff comes from Rivals.

The recruiting information is compiled by Rivals, not TCP specifically. Rivals seeks $ from Premium subscribers as a business model. They do not worry about having an updated database or the very latest information on every recruit. Nor do others with that business model.

I subscribe to 2 sites that provide better recruiting information so I’m not opposed to the business model (per se). Just that Rivals network is not the best at doing it.

by FortyYearCatFan on Jun 15, 2008 9:56 AM EDT 0 recs

In the first place ...

... Rivals gets the recruiting information both from their scouts and from the local guys like Matt May and Jeff Drummond.

In the second place, Rivals business model is exactly the same as every other recruiting site I know of. Their database is reasonably up to date, although it could be better. You say the two sites you subscribe to have “better information.” I doubt very much if it is better, taken in total, than Rivals.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 15, 2008 10:03 AM EDT up 0 recs

Absolutely

I subscribe to 2 services that provide better recruiting information than Rivals or Scout.

The Rivals recruiting information is compiled on a national basis, not team by team. The TCP writers (for example) are not responsible for the recruiting database.

by FortyYearCatFan on Jun 15, 2008 10:32 AM EDT 0 recs