A big development from Jonathan Kuminga cutting his list

It’s been a good 24 hours for Kentucky in the recruitment of Jonathan Kuminga

Kuminga was present Tuesday for the Wildcats’ win over No. 1 Michigan State. He did so alongside AAU teammate and UK commit Lance Ware while getting to meet UK great John Wall.

Less than a day later, 2021’s No. 1 overall recruit has cut his list to 10 schools, which includes Kentucky.

Now, you’re probably thinking there can’t be anything significant when a recruit announces a list of 10 schools still in the running, being as how such a list almost always has any school that’s even gotten a hint of buzz in said recruitment.

However, Kuminga’s list has a big development, as it does not include the LSU Tigers.

LSU has been gaining a lot of traction with Kuminga, which included a crystal ball prediction for the Tigers from 247 Sports recruiting expert Andrew Slater (who, by the way, never bought into the Cade Cunningham-UK buzz and always stuck with the Cowboys, despite fellow experts Evan Daniels and Jerry Meyer thinking UK would win out).

So, seeing LSU not make the cut is a big surprise, and it’s obviously great news for Kentucky, who is looking to add one more major piece to its 2020 class, and the belief is Kuminga eventually reclassifies and is on a college campus next fall.

Duke was also viewed as a major player over the summer, but KSR’s Jack Pilgrim recently reported that the Duke hype was overblown, while 247 Sports’ Evan Daniels said Kentucky was ahead of the Blue Devils for Kuminga.

And with Cade Cunningham now off to Oklahoma State, Kuminga has a much better chance at being ‘the’ guy at Kentucky if he were to pick the Wildcats. Had Cunningham been in Lexington with Terrence Clarke and Brandon Boston also on the away, that’s just too many mouths to feed if Kuminga is also there.

I think Kentucky landing Cunningham would have effectively taken them out of the running for Kuminga, so perhaps missing on one elite recruit could help the Wildcats’ chances with another.

Saying all of this, it’s hard to gauge who the favorite for Kuminga is now, if there even is one. Remember, his brother transferred from UNLV to Texas Tech this offseason, so they should be a major player.

I do think it’s safe to say, however, that Kentucky’s chances of landing Kuminga are better now than they were 24 hours ago.