Joe Jackson cuts list to 3, UK excluded

It looks like UK is now in contention for only the top 3 point guards in the Class of 2010. The fourth ranked point guard in the nation, Joe Jackson of Memphis, has confirmed to Jerry Meyer of Rivals.com that he will now consider Memphis, Tennessee, and Kansas.

Adam Zagoria reports that Memphis is the leader in the clubhouse.

Joe Jackson had previously said that he planned to visit UK in October for Big Blue Madness, but Zagoria also reports that UK had not yet offered Jackson a scholarship. When you don’t offer a 5 star player and a top 4 player at his position a scholarship just as his senior year is starting, you will likely not be in contention for his services.

All in all, it could be Josh Selby’s decommitment that put Tennessee in his final 3 rather than Kentucky. John Calipari would love to duplicate his 2009 feat and grab 2 top point guards in 2010, but Selby’s reopened recruitment put UK in great position with Brandon Knight and Selby. Kyrie Irving is the other point guard UK is pursuing, but IU and Duke are thought to lead for him. Irving, though, is the only true point guard among the group of 3, so Jackson being out the picture could allow Calipari to sell Irving more effectively on playing with Knight or Selby

In the end, I say UK ends up with either Brandon Knight or Josh Selby, not both and likely not Kyrie Irving.

Another top prospect, top 5 big man in the class of 2011, Rakeem Christmas, narrowed his list yesterday and excluded UK. This one came as a bit more of surprise, because the consensus was that UK was very strong with him and would be in it until the end.

Instead, Christmas will not even consider UK in his final 8 of Georgetown, Villanova, Florida, Texas, Indiana, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Baylor.

Ironically, Christmas, according to Rakeem’s aunt (via the Philly Inquirer), decided to exclude UK for the very same reason why Memphis and now UK have been such popular destinations under John Calipari: style of play.  There was not much elaboration, but I would assume that the big man prefers a style that centers a bit more around big men than the dribble drive.

The good thing about the Calipari era is that UK can miss out on 2 big time targets in one day and still have about 3 dozen others in each class to think about. I think we’ll be fine.