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MattKentucky Allegedly Garners ‘Solid-Verbal’ From 2010 Recruit
Posted by Matt on July 1, 2007
Rivals.com is reporting that the University of Kentucky has received a solid verbal from 6’0” PG from DeSoto (TX) God’s Academy, K.C. Ross-Miller. The commitment is said to be on the heels of an unofficial visit to campus this weekend and the decision was reportedly made today (Sunday). Miller is in the 2010 recruiting class and an AAU teammate of uber-recruit Rotnei Clark (4 Star on Rivals.com) who reportedly made an official visit this weekend and is part of the 2008 class. Ross-Miller would join Dakotah Euton in the 2010 class, a class not yet rated and ranked in the Rivals.com database.
At the rate Coach Billy Clyde Gillispie is going there won’t be any good players left for the rest of the nation. More to come as this story develops.
9 Responses to “Kentucky Allegedly Garners ‘Solid-Verbal’ From 2010 Recruit”
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Condo said
2010 huh? that makes the kid a sophomore now? Impressive, at least Billy hasn’t started offering scholarships to the 2011 and 2012 classes like Tim Floyd at USC has.
Matt said
Hahaha, very true. Billy G. actually has not one, but two solid-verbals for the 2010 class.
6 foot, 0 inch PG K.C. Ross-Miller (reportedly one of the Top 5 Players in the nation prior to individual rankings and made an unofficial visit this weekend and called our facilities “a whole notha’ level”).
6 foot, 7 inch PF Dakotah Euton (will supposedly be Top 20 in his class, looked strong in Elite camps this summer)
He also has 3-Star, 6 foot 0 inch PG GJ Vilarino as a solid-verbal for the 2009 class.
The 2008 class already has 6 foot, 5 inch Point-Forward and 5-Star DeAndre Liggins with 5-Star SG Willie Warren and AAU teammate and 4-Star PG/SG Rotnei Clarke in his sights (Clarke is reportedly a dead-on perimeter guy).
Don’t blink, though, admist his 4-Star man Alex Legion and 5-Star man Patrick Patterson (along with 3-Star A.J. Stewart and 2-Star Mike Williams), Billy Clyde is ready to ink a deal for yet another 2007 prospect, 3-Star SF Leonard Washington (was a 5/4-Star but had an injury bug that seemed to drop his status his Senior year but has supposedly fully recovered and made an unofficial visit to campus this past weekend).
Condo said
Sounds like he’s got the team on the fast track to winning SEC Titles again. Give it even more time and I would imagine he will have UK getting #1 seeds in the tournament again and REALLY competing for national titles. The only problem I have… why get guys in a class of 2009 or 2010 when you are not sure what will happen over the next few years? Why not wait til end of someone’s junior year before you REALLY start to get on them? Not to mention if he gets all these verbals now… what if UK ‘overachieves’ in a propsect’s eyes and then you have 5 star prospects from all over wanting to play there yet no schollie’s for them? Unless a kid is a ‘can’t miss prospect’ like LeBron James, Greg Oden, Carmello Anthony, Kevin Durant, what’s the point in going after a kid who is a soon to be sophomore in high school?
Just my opinion
Matt said
Just creating relationships early, I mean a solid-verbal is really non-binding and I will put faith in Billy Gillispie. I mean I don’t advocate revoking offers just because it is a solid-verbal and somebody better comes along but all of those recruits can actually go elsewhere as well, it really just gets the rest of the coaches off of their backs for a while.
Also, it is going to be tough to bring in four 5-Star recruits each year because of playing time issues and what not, but if you can get a few 3-Star and 4-Star guys early that have less of an ego and a better work ethic, they may pan out to be better.
Look how Kentucky’s class of two 5-Star, one 4-Star and one 3-Star (R. Morris, J. Crawford, R. Rondo, R. Bradley) panned out and Tubby Smith signed them at the very last minute. They got lucky with Rondo because Louisville signed Sebastian Telfair really late so Rondo came to Kentucky, he originally wanted to play for Pitino. Morris was waiting around trying to decide on Kentucky, Georgia Tech, and the NBA and signed with Kentucky at the last minute. Save Bradley and the Patrick Sparks tranfser for that class, the big three came after the McDonald’s All-American game because they claim they all agreed then to come to Kentucky together while playing with each other at the All-American game. That was an extremely late class and it has panned out to be rather fruitless.
So early or late, nobody REALLY knows how anything will pan out.
Condo said
Very true, and I don’t necessarily mean waiting THAT late to get recruits, but there’s no need to be offering scholarships to a kid who is only going to be a sophomore in high school right now, or even a junior. All it would seem to me to do in most situations is inflate the kids ego and then you have a kid who thinks he’s better than he really is because he got a scholarship offer from Kentucky before he even started his sophomore or junior year in high school.
You are right though, you never REALLY know how things are going to pan out, it just seems to me it would make more sense to REALLY start going after a kid once he is finishing up his junior year of high school and is going into his senior year. That to me makes the most sense, but everyone has their own opinions and ways of looking at things.
Matt said
Oh I agree with the majority of what you are saying and there is more and more inherent risk with each year younger you go on the recruiting ladder.
My two ways at looking at it when I start to question things are, however:
1) Recruiting is like an investment. Google went public on the stock market at roughly $85 per share, and some people thought that that price was too much even then for an online search engine, and now, roughly two-years later, it is going for $475 (give or take $30) per share now. Buy low, sell high. The younger you get them (the earlier you buy stock), the easier it is to get them ($85 and not $450). Now that being said, just like the stock market, investments don’t always pan out and there are many failed investments, but you simply have to cut your losses and move on. In the stock market, for every winner there is an opposite, but equal, loser. But a journeyman head coach is like a top tier investor (think Jim Cramer) and wins way more than he loses.
2) I trust Billy Gillispie as he is a proven coach and even more so, a proven recruiter and to be paid the big bucks, coaching for the University of Kentucky no less, I will have to assume he gets it right the majority of the time and thats why he is there and I am here.
Condo said
I don’t disagree with you at all. I’m really just playing Devil’s Advocate here now… BUT… with recruiting, if you are a ‘big time’ school, you are should be able to buy no matter what the price of the so called ‘stock’ (recruit) is. Seeing as how UK is considered a ‘Big Time School’ and Billy Gillispie is as you said a proven coach and proven recruiter, shouldn’t he be able to get in on these recruits later on in the process and still land them?
With the resources that UK has and the coach in Billy G, you would think that would be the case.
Again, I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate with that theory as I definitely agree with the buy in early especially if a guy becomes a ‘big time prized recruit’ but just saying is all.
Matt said
Oh no, I totally agree. I mean as stated in my article “Tools Of The Trade” Big time school, big time history, big time facilities, and big time coach, recruiting should be a cake walk.
You have to understand one thing:
Billy G. is a divorcee with no children, he has nothing else to do BUT recruit.