Busy recruiting weekend headlined by Payne, Harris, Selby, and Irving

It’s been all Tim Tebow and all NFL all the time this weekend, but quietly, it’s been a news worthy weekend in Kentucky basketball recruiting.

First off, big man Adreian Payne made his official visit to UK this weekend, and here’s hoping that something happened and he stayed away from the shellacking at Commonwealth. Even if he did, I can guarantee he gained an understanding of how much it is all about basketball at UK.

You walk around Commonwealth and you see as many pieces of UK basketball apparel as football. Also, I saw a couple UK blue t-shirts that said “Dribble Drive Motion” and something witty. What other fan base on the face of this earth wears stuff with the name of their offensive scheme? That would be like a Ravens fan wearing a hat that said “3-4 Defense” or a Utah Jazz fan wearing a “Pick and Roll” sweatshirt. I love it.

Anyway, Payne is a quiet kid when it comes to the media, so no word on how the visit was has yet emerged.

The other news of the weekend was that two major UK targets have narrowed their lists. Tobias Harris will now select from Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, West Virginia, Syracuse, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech. Also, Josh Selby is down to 6: UK, Kansas, Syracuse, Indiana, Baylor, and Miami.  UConn is notably excluded from both players’ lists and it’s also a bit of surprise that Oregon was cut by Selby.  

Tobias made his official visit to Syracuse this weekend and he had a good time.  At this point, my guess is that it will be either UK, UofL, West Virginia, or Syracuse for Tobias, and hopefully UK will make quite an impression when he visits Big Blue Madness.

It appears that there will be one fewer visitor to Big Blue Madness than previously thought. Kyrie Irving fell in love with Duke on his official visit this weekend, saying “Duke official was great! I enjoyed every single second…everything there fits me and is right for me…you never know what will happen”. That last comment was a little curious and it appears now that he was hinting that a commitment is soon to come. Justin Young of the National Hoops Report is reporting he is hearing that a commitment will come by tomorrow.

Kyrie has seemed like a quality kid throughout his recruitment, and I’m disappointed UK won’t have the chance to wow him. It’s a bit questionable on his part that he could fall in love with Duke, but I wish him the best regardless.

**UPDATE**Evan Daniels of Scout.com reported early this morning that “combo forward” Terrence Jones has cut his list to 7 schools and UK, along with Kansas, Oklahoma, Washington, Arizona, UCLA, and Oregon, has made the cut. Jones is a very logical fit for the Dribble Drive and is one of four main big man targets of UK with Harris, Payne, and CJ Leslie. It may be tough to pluck Jones from the West Coast, but UK is a player here.