This has been around the interwebs a bit this morning, starting iwth John Clay's blog. I wanted to let it percolate a bit throughout the blogosphere before commenting. Here's the money graf from Clay's site:
Keith Easterwood, described as a "noted AAU insider" in Memphis, says Alex Poythress is coming to Kentucky.
As with all things recruiting, I recommend you take a bit of a skeptical view of this claim by Easterwood, although it doesn't make sense to discount it completely. The buzz on Poythress is that his recruitment is proceeding very, very well from a Kentucky point of view, but other than this comment from Easterwood, nowhere have I read or heard it is a "done deal."
With that said, this comment helps buttress what I think I know about this particular player, and it is always encouraging when somebody thinks that a player is a lock for UK. However, we have seen more than once that "locks" sometimes go elsewhere, although I struggle to think of a time when that has happened with Calipari since he's been here. Nevertheless, I urge caution. Poythress is from Clarksville, TN and is also being recruited by Florida, Memphis and Vanderbilt.
For those of you not too familiar with him, Poythress is a combo 3/4 player much like Terrence Jones. He is ranked 19th by Rivals (#8 at his position), #3 at his position by Scout, and 17th overall by ESPN. He doesn't have Jones' handles but can handle it fine for his size, shoots well from the perimeter but prefers a slashing game where he can use his athleticism. He finishes hard at the rim and well through contact. As is typical for players his size in high school, he has very limited use of his left hand. (Note: For comparison, check out Kyle Wiltjer's left handed shot in the earlier post).Some video in case you haven't seen it: