College basketball recruiting notebook. …
It’s starting to look as if Kansas University is the top choice of JaQuan Lyle, a 6-foot-5 senior guard from Huntington (W.Va.) Prep, who recently decommitted from Louisville. Lyle, who is ranked No. 22 nationally by Rivals.com, this week shocked the recruiting world by posting a rendering of himself and buddy/KU target Cliff Alexander on Lyle’s “jmamba5” Instagram account.
In the photo mashup, which is labeled “Dynamic Duo,” the two players are superimposed over an interior shot of Allen Fieldhouse with the Jayhawk logo between them.
No. 4-ranked Alexander, 6-8 from Chicago Curie High, has a list of KU, DePaul, Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis and Michigan State. He will visit KU for the Oct. 4 Late Night in the Phog. Lyle, however, will likely visit on another date, Zagsblog.com reports. Lyle will visit UConn this weekend and Memphis at a yet-to-be-determined date.
KU, which has several guards on its recruiting list, has two scholarships to give (senior Tarik Black and certain one-and-done Andrew Wiggins), with more spots available if anybody else turns pro or leaves the program.
“What y’all think of this? Me & @elceo_spcliff (Alexander’s Instagram name),” Lyle wrote next to the image on Instagram.
“Cliff has been telling me that him and JaQuan Lyle are going to play together,” Alexander’s mother, Latillia, told Zagsblog.com. “That’s the reason JaQuan Lyle decommitted. I’m thinking wherever Cliff goes, JaQuan Lyle is going to go.”
Visiting Blackmon: KU coach Bill Self on Tuesday hustled out of morning Boot Camp in time for an afternoon meeting with James Blackmon Jr., a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Marion (Ind.) High School. JayhawkSlant.com reported that Self offered Blackmon a scholarship. Blackmon, Rivals.com’s No. 23-rated player who recently decommitted from Indiana, met with Kentucky coach John Calipari on Monday. He’s also considering Louisville, Michigan and Michigan State.
Big men like KU: FoxSports.com’s Evan Daniels had an encouraging Twitter post regarding KU recruiting on Tuesday.
“The word behind the scene is Kansas currently leads for the top 3 big men (Okafor, Turner & Alexander) in the 2014 class. Think about that,” Daniels wrote.
Jahlil Okafor, a 6-11 senior from Chicago Whitney Young, who is ranked No. 1 by Rivals.com, has visited Baylor and Kentucky. He will visit Arizona on Oct. 11, KU on Oct. 18 and Duke on Oct. 25. He also has Illinois, Michigan State and Ohio State on his list.
No. 6-rated Myles Turner, 6-11 senior from Trinity High in Euless (Texas), also is considering Duke, Kentucky, Louisville, Arizona, Ohio State, Texas and Oklahoma State. Turner had planned on attending Late Night in the Phog, but recently accepted an invitation to attend the USA Developmental National Team mini-camp on Oct. 4-7. Thus he may have to reschedule the KU visit.
“I can’t wait to get there. It’s their Midnight Madness that night and I’ve heard a lot of great things about the visits there. I know that the atmosphere will be amazing. I’m just looking forward to seeing all that they have to offer. I’m excited,” Turner told USA Today in his Aug. 22 blog.
Top juniors sought by KU: Self last Thursday stopped by Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman High to check in on a pair of top juniors — No. 2-rated Stephen Zimmerman, a 7-foot center. and No. 21 Chase Jeter, a 6-9 forward. Zimmerman is considering KU, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, Michigan, Arizona, UNLV, Baylor, USC and others. Jeter is looking at KU, UCLA, Michigan, Arizona, Vanderbilt, UNLV, Duke, Minnesota, USC, North Carolina and others.
Lack of class by some coaches: No. 58-rated Alex Robinson, a 6-1 senior from Timberview High in Arlington, Texas, has committed to Texas A&M. CBSsports.com’s Gary Parrish writes that some college recruiters used the fact A&M coach Billy Kennedy is battling Parkinson’s disease against him in recruiting.
“They actually did (use Kennedy’s Parkinson’s diagnosis against Texas A&M),” Robinson told Parrish. “But I just kinda brushed it off like, ‘Hey, that’s part of recruiting. (The other coaches are just) trying to get me to their school.'”
Robinson would not name the coaches who used the negative recruiting tactic.