In a much awaited, much debated, much anticipated move, Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas have finally announced that they have cut their lists down to three schools. Patterson's is Duke, Florida and Kentucky. Lucas' is Kentucky, Florida and Oklahoma State. (Hat Tip -- ASoB commenter boobs for picking out the Patterson part. JL reported on Lucas yesterday.)
So what does this mean? Well, the astute observer will note that there are two schools on both player's list - Florida and Kentucky. But wait -- via Chris Diggs at the Louisville Courier-Journal, recruiting guru Bob Gibbons tells us that:
Frankly, I'd take that with a grain of salt.
Also via Digg's blog, an even more interesting post over at the Huntington Herald-Dispatch blog indicates that the author thinks the delay in Patterson's announcement favors Kentucky. I have to agree, since Duke and Florida have been on his list forever and still have their head coaches in place.
Billy Gillispie was in Huntington, West Virginia last night giving a speech at the Huntington High Athletic banquet. Patterson's mother seemed to like what he had to say, and allegedly, Patrick did also.
And where in the world is Billy Donovan? Well, he and newly-minted Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, plus some college buddies of Donovan are off in Ireland this week enjoying golf and Guinness. I wonder if there will be some second-guessing of this trip down in Gainesville if Patterson and Lucas wind up here? Probably not -- we are talking about the Gators here, and we all know that basketball season becomes a distant memory for them with the first spring football practice.
When will we know something official? We still don't know! Even now, these two guys are playing the press like old pros, telling one reporter one thing and another reporter something else. But the consensus seems to be that it will be sometime next week before the very last second of the deadline. Patterson claims he intends to sign an NLOI, and presumably, so does Lucas.
Finally, I am going to list some articles not referenced above that have news on Patterson/Lucas this morning, so our readers can check them out:
Huntington Herald-Dispatch
The Lexington Herald-Leader
Lexington Chanel 18 Jody Demling
I'll update this list as news items become available.
