Kentucky Basketball Recruiting: Wildcats Host Karl Towns & Jordan Mickey

Two high-profile recruits took unofficial visits to Lexington recently. The first is 2015 center Karl Towns, Jr. (St. Joseph / Metuchen, NJ), who arrived in Lexington this past weekend. The second is 2013 forward Jordan Mickey (Grace Prep / Arlington, TX), currently on campus today.

Towns, listed at 6'11", is a load inside. He is one of the most regarded rising sophomores in the country, and ESPN has him ranked first overall in the 2015 class. Towns actually is on campus for business. He is a member of the Dominican Republic National Team, which is training in Lexington in preparation for the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, held in July. If you have forgotten, the DR head coach is none other than John Calipari.

There are a lot of steps between Towns and an Olympic spot. He has to make the team, first of all. Then, the DR team--which features NBA players Al Horford, Francisco Garcia, and Charlie Villanueva--has to finish in the top 3 of the qualifying tournament. Even if either scenario doesn't occur, it's not hard to figure that Kentucky has a huge leg up in the early stages of Towns' recruitment.

Jordan Mickey is a hot prospect in the 2013 class. Regarded as a top 50 prospect prior to AAU play, Mickey has since garnered a lot of buzz and prompted Scout to bump him to 5 star status. Mickey has offers from multiple Big 12 schools but doesn't yet have a Kentucky offer. That may change as his recruitment goes national. Mickey and his father visited Louisville over the past weekend, followed by Kentucky today.

Calipari has shown a vested interest in the state of Texas, already offering five-stars Julius Randle (Prestonwood Christian / Plano, TX), Andrew Harrison (Travis / Fort Bend, TX) and Aaron Harrison (Travis / Fort Bend, TX). Could Mickey be next on the list? The Wildcats are pretty wide open when it comes to their recruitment of combo forwards, with top recruit Jabari Parker and Troy Williams the only two possessing offers. It's also noteworthy that Mickey plays high school ball with 2014 five-star point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, another prospect high on Kentucky.

Speaking of Louisville, the Cardinals got a commitment from 2012 forward Montrezl Harrell. Harrell was briefly on Kentucky's radar after he was released from his Virginia Tech LOI. However, Harrell never received an offer from Kentucky and dropped the Wildcats from his list shortly before picking Louisville.