Marcus Lee talks finalists

Eric Bossi from Rivals.com recently caught up with 2013 target Marcus Lee and here is what he had to say about Kentucky:

Kentucky: “They were pretty late, but when I talked to Coach (John) Calipari, he kept it simple. He didn’t come to me like ‘Yeah, I want you to come in and start and I want you to do this or that.’ He came to me like he wants me to come because he thinks he can help make me better. He told me about coming and being part of a team. He also told me that it’s not for everybody. That kind of got me thinking in an awesomely awkward way because you don’t hear that from many coaches.”

So it looks like even though Calipari was late on getting to Lee, he is still high on UK, of course Calipari sporting a national championship ring wouldn’t help, either.

UK makes cut for 2013 recruit Marcus Lee

Marcus Lee, a 6’9, 200 lb PF from Antioch, California has cut his list to seven. UK has made the cut. His list also includes Duke, Cal, Louisville, Kansas, Indiana, and UCLA. His brother, Brian, recently talked to zagsblog.com and said that no visits are planned as of yet. Lee is the 27th player in the nation according the ESPN.

Here is his highlight video:

Updated ESPN Rankings

Andrew Wiggins sits atop the 2014 Class

Dave Telep and ESPN have updated their rankings for the 2013, 14, and 15 classes. The first five in 2013 look like this:

All five of the these recruits have UK on their short list and could conceivably get 4 or 5 of the top 10 recruits. The other recruit in the top 10 with UK in his name is Aaron Gordon who said UK is in his top three. This is just once again another sign that this class could end up being the best ever.

Other UK recruits:

13. Wayne Selden

17. Kennedy Meeks

23. Xavier Rathan-Mayes

27. Marcus Lee

44. Jordan Mickey

On to the 2014 class, as expected Andrew Wiggins is atop that list, here is ESPN’s top 5 for the class:

UK is also in on everybody on this list, except Okafor. Wiggins is down to Florida State and Kentucky. Tyus Jones a PG has an offer from the cats, while Noah Vonleh and Dakari Johnson are both getting recruited by Calipari and Kentucky. 2014 could even be a better class if Wiggins doesn’t reclassify, than the 2013 class.

Here are rankings of other UK recruits:

6. Emmanuel Mudiay

7. Trey Lyles – recent decommit from Indiana, I would expect UK to be interested

10. Cliff Alexander – UK has offered

15. D’Angelo Russell

16. Jalen Lindsey

17. Jaquan Lyle

19. Chris McCullough

24. Stanley Johnson

30. Keita Bates-Diop

43. Isaiah Whitehead – UK has offered

UK has all the parts in shape for the makings of a big class. They are in on many of the top recruits, but Calipari hasn’t offered yet because he usually wait and pick and choose who he wants to give the offer to because kids are now working to get the offer from UK, and Calipari has the advantage of waiting before pulling the string.

And now on the the ESPN Ranking of the 2015 Class:

Once again a recruit UK is extremely in on is Karl Towns Jr. and he takes the top spot for the 2015 Class. Calipari coached his this summer as Towns played for the Dominican Republic team preparing to qualify for the Olympics, so you would think that UK has the inside track to getting Towns.

Here is the top 5:

Now it is extremely early to be talking about the 2015 class, and UK and Calipari has yet to dive in on this class and no offers have been handed out to any of these players. We will have to wait and see how this class turns out.

But as you can see, UK is involved with the elite of the elite and their will be some great recruits headed to the University of Kentucky here in the next couple of years and I can’t wait to see who they are.

UK Targets added to Big Strick Classic/Elite 24

Mark Aug. 11 down on your calendar because this is going to be a game loaded with recruits in the 2013 and 2014 class. The event is called “The Big Strick Classic” and will played at City College in New York City. Here are the UK targets that are included in this event. From the USA team: Aaron and Andrew Harrison, Andrew Wiggins, Jalen Lindsey, and Kuran Iverson and from the NYC team: Noah Vonleh, Troy Williams, Isaiah Whitehead, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Chris McCollough. The game will be broadcast on SNY.tv.

In the Under Armour Elite 24, the first twelve players were selected to participate in the event and once again plenty of UK flavor. The Harrison twins, Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Kuran Iverson, and Marcus Lee were all selected. The next twelve players are to be selected in August and look for more UK targets to be selected. The game will be played on Venice Beach Courts in Los Angeles on Aug 24-25 and will air live on ESPNU.

Marcus Lee getting UK interest

Marcus Lee is a 6’8, 200 lb PF from California. Lee has seen his stock on the rise and is now #33 player in the 2013 class, according to Rivals.com. John Calipari has taken notice and will now actively pursue Lee’s services, but my guess is that lee is the backup plan if UK misses out on Randle. Lee has about every school in the nation recruiting him, so we will have to wait and see how this pans out. Here is some highlights of Lee.