DeAndre Ayton says Kentucky Wildcats now recruiting him; Wants to visit

The recruitment of DeAndre Ayton has been a curious case to say the least.

In April, we published a piece about the unique situation that Ayton, a talented seven-footer ranked #1 in his class, was in. At that time, despite his talent and being projected as the #1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Ayton was only being recruited by one major program: The Kansas Jayhawks.

Programs like Kentucky and Duke were not actively pursuing him, according to Ayton. After those well-publicized statements, the direction of Ayton's recruitment has changed. He told Zagsblog that other schools, including Kentucky, had jumped into the mix.

"There have been a lot of schools working hard actually," Ayton told SNY.tv. "I've heard from Kentucky, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA. Kentucky and Kansas, though, I hear from them a lot, Arizona too."

In that same interview, he mentioned that he would like to use one of his official visits to Kentucky. He also plans on visiting Arizona and Kansas as well.

"I'll be taking most of my official visits next year, during my senior year," Ayton said. "I want to take visits to Kansas, Arizona and probably Kentucky. I will have more coming, I just want to feel all of the schools out first."

Ayton said the main factor in his decision will be his relationship with the coaches.

It's well-known that Kentucky will need to bring in a great 2017 class due to the possibility of most of the team leaving following the end of the 2016-2017 season. While there are probably still some concerns with Ayton's recruitment, it seems as if Kentucky is starting to become more involved in trying to convince him to come to Lexington.