A hot Marquis Teague rumor
Miller | Aug 27, 2009 | Comments 8
As Guy wrote earlier in the week, the first big time three way recruiting battle between Louisville, Kentucky, and Indiana appears to be over Indianapolis Pike high school point guard Marquis Teague. If you haven’t read it, you can right here. If you don’t want to read it, basically Teague is really good and is a top 10 player overall, and arguably the top point guard in the 2011 class.
His recruitment has been very interesting with several twists and turns. Teague’s father, Shawn Teague, played for Rick Pitino at Boston University and speaks very, very highly of the Slickster. After visiting Louisville earlier this year, it appeared Teague was poised to commit to the Cardinals, but backed off doing so because his family wanted him to wait a bit longer. Even without committing to Louisville, many recruiting analysts, including Jody Demling, believed it was only a matter of time before Teague would.
Teague is an elite prospect and will be a big time get wherever he goes
However, once John Calipari was hired at Kentucky, he jumped in the mix for Teague. Prior to Coach Cal being hired, Kentucky had not offered Teague a scholarship, but eventually have. Those efforts culminated in a visit to Lexington this past weekend. By all accounts, the visit went well and Kentucky is now a real player for his services.
Indiana remains a very dangerous in Teague’s recruitment as well. Tom Crean is flat getting it done in recruiting and has made a point to keep the best Indiana players in the state. More than that, Crean is a good coach who is going to win big at Indiana. Couple that with Indiana’s basketball tradition and they are a formidable foe for the Kentucky schools.
Having said all that, here is the new rumor being floated and it appears to be picking up steam. It appears Louisville may be set to hire Indianapolis Pike high school assistant Shabaka Lands for a graduate assistant position on the basketball staff. Lands is reportedly close to the Teague family and him being on Louisville’s staff…well, I doubt I need to explain further. Again, this is still in the rumor stage, but it is one of those rumors no one has been able to shoot down yet. We will continue to monitor that situation closely.
Sorry Shabaka, but this was the best photog I could find
Also, per Jody Demling’s great recruiting blog, it appears Teague will take another visit to Louisville within the next month. I think the upcoming Louisville visit will tell us a lot. Marquis was poised to end his recruitment earlier this summer, then middle of summer, then later this summer, but nothing has happened yet. I think when Teague visits Louisville there’s a better than average chance he commits. However, if he does not, then I think Kentucky and Indiana greatly improve their chances.
Filed Under: Louisville
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Teague has made it clear he’s not going to commit while he’s on a visit. I expect a decision sometime in October though.
True, but two things to that: 1) Samardo Samuels said the same thing two years ago, then he committed while on campus, 2) this will be Teague’s second visit to Louisville, he could definitely commit, but ask them to keep it quiet, that happens frequently, and 3) He’s taken some visits now, whereas when he was in Louisville before I don’t think he had. Regardless, he gets on campus, has something to compare it against, if he likes it, I definitely see him pulling the trigger. But as I said, if he does not, I think Louisville should be worried.
When you say “I,” who is “I” anyway? Nothing in the about section about an “I”.
Zach, not exactly sure what you’re referring to.
[...] Shabaka Lands, an assistant at Indianapolis Pike high school. I wrote last week that there was a lot of chatter about the hiring of Lands, but nothing was official yet. However, Lands is now listed in the UofL [...]
“Tom Crean is flat getting it done in recruiting and has made a point to keep the best Indiana players in the state.”
Hello? Crean is getting his Southside handed to him in the recruiting battle by his superior rival in West Lafayette. You Kool-aid drinkers promoting Crean and IU as relevant are simply trying to revive a dead horse. IU IS and will be a Big Ten cellar dweller for years to come… deal with it.
As far as this hire… shady. Reminds me of when IU hired Eric Gordons AAU coach. Any of you hoosiers remember that? Or, are you engaging your selective memory… haters!
Hmm – what is the rumor that Pike is running the Kentucky offense now?
I predict Lands is hired by Pitino. Teague choses UK, and then Pitino fires Lands.
Just a hunch.
“Crean is flat getting it done in recruiting.” That is funny.