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Tyrese Maxey is the No. 2 combo guard in the 2019 class, and he may be the Kentucky Wildcats’ most important commit of the group.
Maxey will be in Lexington this weekend for an official visit, but Chris Fisher of 247Sports is reporting that he will return to Rupp Arena for Big Blue Madness on October 12th.
His official visit to Kentucky this weekend is primarily to spend time with the staff and get more familiar with the facilities. The return visit in October will have much bigger implications for the program than his tour this weekend.
Top 2019 recruits Vernon Carey and Matthew Hurt will be in attendance at Big Blue Madness, in addition to 2020 targets RJ Hampton (who may reclassify) and Jaemyn Brakefield.
Even better is fellow 2019 commit Dontaie Allen is also coming to Big Blue Madness, so that means Kentucky will have two commitments to help recruit others to join them during one of the biggest recruiting events of the year for Kentucky.
Before the high school all-star games in the spring, this will be Maxey’s and Allen’s best opportunity to talk to a group of top players about why he committed to the Wildcats and what it would be like to play with him.
The recruitments of Carey and Hurt seem to be somewhat up in the air right now, and John Calipari would love to have them both. Maxey is a dynamic player but also a big talker, so his presence at this high priority recruiting even is a huge bonus for Kentucky’s basketball program.
While their commitments may not come until the spring, getting an early edge with these guys to begin their senior seasons would be a great start to the year.
Calipari has been visiting recruits like mad in the last week or so, and I am sure that a conversation at his home visit with Maxey led to this second unofficial visit.
There’s also the RJ Hampton dynamic, as he was planning to stay in the 2020 class, but now, James Wiseman is pushing him to join the 2019 class. The only schools that are a serious threat for both players are Memphis and Kentucky, but right now, the Tigers have the momentum.
That could change in a big way now that Maxey and Allen will be on campus with Hampton. Perhaps they can all coax Wiseman into joining them, but this far, there’s no indication Wiseman will come to Big Blue Madness.