Exhibition play may have started and the Jayhawks may be kicking off preparations for their Nov. 11 and Nov. 15 regular season openers against Indiana and Duke (KU coach Bill Self said the team would begin looking at Indiana today) but recruiting, as always, remains a major priority for the Kansas basketball program.
Another key date in the recruiting efforts for the Class of 2017 has emerged, as five-star small forward Troy Brown, of Las Vegas, recently announced that he would reveal his decision on Nov. 7.
That’s Monday. And although many recruiting analysts have said that Brown’s recruitment has been a wide open and slightly mysterious affair, it appears as if Kansas and Oregon have emerged as the two most likely destinations for the 6-foot-6 senior ranked No. 12 in the class by Rivals.com.
Brown made official visits to KU, Oregon, Ohio State, Georgetown and Alabama during the past couple of months and has made a handful of unofficial visits to Lawrence to visit his sister, Jada, who plays for the women’s basketball team. UNLV and Cal also remain in the mix for Brown’s services, according to some reports.
Brown is expected to be one of two Top 12 prospects to make his decision known next week, with five-star, Georgia point guard Collin Sexton planning to reveal his choice on Nov. 10.
Eric Bossi, of Rivals.com, recently reported that credible sources have told him that Sexton may take an official visit to Georgia this weekend. What that means for Sexton’s recruiting remains unclear, as his decision for a couple of weeks has appeared to be down to Alabama and Kansas. There’s speculation that the No. 7 ranked player in the class may be headed to Alabama because of the coincidence of four-star forward John Petty also having Nov. 10 as his decision date. Analysts have pegged Petty to be Alabama-bound for a while but one recruiting analyst recently said that the decision date outlined by Petty came well before Sexton decided to announce on Nov. 10.
Petty also has been linked to Kentucky, which would give Alabama and Oregon (or others) the potential to steal away two highly ranked prospects in the same week from two of the top programs in college basketball and two head coaches, in Bill Self and John Calipari, who have dominated the recruiting game in recent years.
As things stand today, KU has just one commitment in the 2017 class, from 6-foot-5 Dallas combo guard Marcus Garrett, who committed to Kansas back in August.
The Jayhawks continue to be in on some of the elite players in the 2017 class and it looks as if Self and company will know more by the end of next week where they need to focus their efforts heading into the early signing period, which runs Nov. 9-16.
