I got the impression from reading this blog post by John Clay that Billy Gillispie has bee working hard to convince Scotty Hopson and Bud Mackey to break their respective commitments and come to Kentucky.
For all I know, Clay is right, but quite frankly I'm not sure I buy it. First of all, no matter how highly ranked Hopson is, the truth of the matter is that we just don't really need him. Gillispie knows that, and Hopson knows that.
Now, that surely doesn't mean Gillispie would turn down Hopson if he wanted to change his mind. The recent rumors by various outlets of Hopson's "people" making semi-covert calls on UK's campus supports a rather different take in my opinion -- that of Hopson not really all that happy now when faced with playing for an MSU team that will almost certainly not be competing for the SEC championship, let alone the NCAA title.
Hopson needs to go to MSU. He picked his pony,now let him ride it. If it breaks down, those are the breaks. Maybe he is good enough to will MSU into contention all by himself. If so, great. But one thing for sure -- he won't be playing with the likes of Patrick Patterson, or Joe Crawford, or Alex Legion at MSU, and maybe he is fine with that.
My point is, I believe Hopson was feeling out UK, not the other way around. I think he found that Gillispie was happy for him to come, but was unwilling to make any promises to get that to happen. In other words, he said something like "Scotty, we'll be happy to have you, but I have to be honest -- we are loaded at your position. You're going to have to earn your spot." Do you think Rick Stansbury's conversation was substantially similar? I doubt it.
As to Bud Mackey, I don't believe Gillispie is really after him either. He is another player for which our need is not too great, and I think we have better options either already committed or available.
Darius Miller, on the other hand, is a different story. I think Coach Gillispie absolutely wants him, and that badly. The other two guys, from a state recruiting standpoint, were already committed elsewhere when he came, and no rational person really expects Gillispie to convince them to change their minds. Miller, however, is uncommitted, and Gillispie will take some heat if he goes elsewhere from some UK fans, even though the coach is disadvantaged by his short tenure at UK and others have been on Miller much longer.
Clay also tells us that Florida seems to have dropped off Miller's list, and that is good news for sure. Illinois is turning out to be tough comp, and I believe it will come down to Illinois and Kentucky by the time it is all said and done. I'm not ruling out Traitor Rick and Bruce Pearl for his services, but my intuition tells me they are not going to win in the end.