John Calipari set the tone pretty quickly that the point guard position would be a focus of his recruiting strategy at Kentucky. UK fans spent the entire 2008-2009 season pining for A point guard, any point guard, to step into the position and succeed. When the season closed, attention shifted bringing in a newcomer who could fill the position.

John Calipari’s arrival convinced most UK fans that the ‘Cats would land one of the top remaining uncommitted point guards in the 2009 class, so basically John Wall or Eric Bledsoe. Calipari would have none of that. He got both.

The signing of both Wall and Bledsoe proved two things to me about point guard recruiting under Calipari: 1) pretty much any point guard that John Calipari wants to be interested in UK, will be interested in UK and 2) Calipari is probably going to sign a bunch of top players at the position, but it is not going to be without some serious drama to go along with it.

During the months of April and May, how much time did you spend thinking about and seeking out information about Wall and Bledsoe? I couldn’t post two articles here on the Pinkie without mentioning one of their names, because that’s all I was thinking about.

The three week period that culminated in Wall’s commitment was absolutely ridiculous. One day we heard he had softly committed to Miami. The next we heard he was thinking about the NBA. The next we heard that UNC was getting involved.

I’m sorry for bringing up that stressful time, but folks, I have some news for you: that kind of drama is going to be the rule going forward, not the exception. These are the days of later and later decisions and those decisions are only going to be delayed longer due to upcoming rule changes that will force college underclassmen to make earlier decisions about their draft status. With these rules, the spring signing period will end about 2 weeks after the deadline to withdraw from the Draft.

Top 2010 point guards Brandon Knight and Josh Selby are perfect examples. What reason does a potential one and done player like Knight or Selby have to make a decision in November when they can wait until May to see exactly who will be staying in school and who will head for the Draft? Why risk signing with Kentucky in November and getting stuck behind John Wall if something strange happens and he stays another season?

UK is a major player for both Knight and Selby, but don’t fool yourself…their decisions will stretch out into spring. Some feel that UK leads for Knight and/or Selby, but I see no way that we will avoid waiting until March, April, or May for a commitment from either.

There will obviously be a lot of intrigue around the drawn decisions of the two top ranked point guard in the class of 2010, but ironically the decisions of two point guards who intend to make a college decision much, much earlier could be surrounded by even more drama.

Kyrie Irving has been long assumed to be headed for Duke or Indiana. Then, Irving, out of nowhere, dropped IU. This past weekend, Irving had a visit to Duke on which he saw basically everything he wanted to, loving every minute. Word circulated on Sunday afternoon after the visit that a commitment was forthcoming with in the next day.

However, it’s late Wednesday night, and the Dookies are still waiting, but less and less patiently every day. I’m not sure what to make of that, but I do know that Coach K has had some high profile misses on the trail in recent years, many times attributed to a failure to close.

I’m guessing that the patience of Duke fans is frayed even more by this excerpt from an Indianapolis Star recruiting update on Kyrie:

“It’s been rumored for a while Irving’s dad is pushing to get him to Kentucky where Kyrie’s godfather, Rod Strickland, is an assistant.”

Kyrie has been quick to say at every juncture that his decision would not be impacted by his family’s relationship Rod Strickland. However, this would suggest that his family may feel otherwise.

It appears that, at the very least, the relationship with Strickland will cause him to make his official visit to UK for Big Blue Madness as planned, even though he may be a heavy Duke lean. With the craziness that will be Big Blue Madness, anything can happen.

Marquis Teague is a rising junior who has targeted a decision before the beginning of this season all along. UofL has looked to be very strong for Teague all along, particularly with the planned early decision. The common thought has been that the longer he stretches a decision out, the worse it looks for UofL, the perceived favorite.

Today, we learned that the plan to make an early fall decision was out the window for Teague.  Teague wants to be able to see how the teams on his list (UofL, UK, Indiana, Purdue, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, and Ohio State with UNC potentially getting involved) play over the course of the season.

Teague is clearly concerned that he could make a decision he regrets, so he needs to gather more information to make a sound decision. All I know is that, as a UK fan, I really like the idea of having Teague watch UK play with Wall and Bledsoe all season on TV all the time. If things go as planned, it’s hard to imagine any top point guard not being at least intrigued by the possibilities.

Oh, and Marquis Teague will visit UK for Big Blue Madness.