Via Cats' Pause (premium link) and Scout, the UK men's basketball team has received a verbal commitment from Michigan junior power forward Draymond Green, a 6'7"/6'8" bruiser from Saginaw (Mich.) High School.
Interestingly, Green is high school teammates with Josh Southern, who was a heavy UK target earlier on for the 2007 class. He chose Boston College over Kentucky.
Green apparently was "blown away" on an unofficial visit, the Kentucky grudge match with then-No. 1 Florida at Rupp. Green tells TCP he was unsure that "anything could compare" to the atmosphere at Rupp (Something we surely could use more perspective on).
Draymond is a three-star recruit, but has had a great junior season thus far, pitching in about 22 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots per contest. Kentucky won out over a long list of capable hoops schools, including Xavier, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Kansas, Dayton, Clemson, DePaul and Tennessee.
So what does this Class of 2008 big man play like? No clue, haven't seen him. But here are some kind words: "turning into one of the best players in the state", "capable of playing in the post or on the perimeter", "prowess in the classroom", " has begun to emerge as a star."
Sounds great. We'll see how it all turns out. At any rate, welcome aboard, big guy. More as we dig it up.
Lastly, Tubby Smith had this to say at his press conference (via Jeff Drummond, TCP) in advance of the LSU game tomorrow night.
"We are so far ahead of where we were last year it's a joke. We've been close all year. ... It all comes back to discipline. ... because of the way we are losing games...we are right there."
I repeat that I know nothing about basketball the way Smith does, so this statement is telling. In what way probably depends on what one's bringing to the table, as it were.