No Tyler, Now What For Louisville?

Former 2010 Louisville basketball super recruit Jeremy Tyler threw Louisville’s 2010 recruiting class into disarray when he announced his intentions to drop out of high school to play professional basketball in Europe. Tyler is a flat out star on the basketball court and is one of those players that could turn any team he plays on into an instant title contender, much less a program like Louisville’s which is a perennial favorite to make a deep run in March. However, Tyler will not be attending Louisville, so the question becomes where does Louisville go from here in their search to replace Tyler in the class of 2010?

Tyler is a beast, but unfortunately won't display his beastliness in the 'Ville

The current hot name is Fabricio de Melo, a 7-0 270 lbs center from Weston, Florida (sorry, I cannot find a picture yet). Known as “Fab Melo”, the native of Brazil has seemingly jumped to the top of Louisville’s wish list when it comes to 2010 big men, but the Cardinals are not alone. Melo’s high school coach, Adam Ross, says the list of coaches to come visit Melo include Jim Boeheim, Billy Donovan, John Calipari, and of course, Rick Pitino. It looks like a tough list to beat, but Louisville is actually in great standing with Melo.

As it turns out, Slick Rick knows a little something about recruiting and how the game is played. In an interview with CardinalSports.com, Coach Ross said, “Louisville has been recruiting Fab the longest of all those schools. They got down here in early fall and they’ve been incredibly diligent in his recruitment. His recruitment did not start when Jeremy Tyler decided not to come to Louisville. I think the plan for them was to have both those kids play side by side.”

When asked about what Fab Melo actually thinks of Louisville, Ross had this to say, “He’s really high on Louisville. Fabricio had a great time when we got to see Louisville play Marquette in Freedom Hall. It’s hard not to like Louisville, it’s an incredible program.”

Slick Rick and Co. have been killing it in recruiting lately so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they land this kid. We’ll provide updates for Fab Melo, as well as any other basketball related news when it breaks.