According to multiple reports, Kansas coaches Bill Self and Jerrance Howard spent part of their Valentine’s Day on Wednesday visiting Romeo — Romeo Langford, that is.
Langford, the top remaining uncommitted prospect in the 2018 class, and one of the top targets on Kansas’ wish list for months, is down to KU, Indiana and Vanderbilt and is in the process of making another round of check-ins with all three schools.
A product of New Albany, Indiana, Langford, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound shooting guard and dynamic scorer who is enjoying a monster senior season, has had plenty of opportunities to visit Indiana and continues to be wooed by both the IU basketball program and thousands of people in his home state on an almost-daily basis.
Think of the legend of the Indiana high school basketball player who can do no wrong and is a hero to everyone in the state, in the biggest cities and smallest farms, and that’s pretty much the life Langford leads right now.
But just because the Hoosiers have the home-court advantage does not mean the Jayhawks or Commodores are out of it and that’s why all three schools continue their pursuit of the prized recruit as hard as they ever have.
For Kansas, adding Langford to an already stellar class, which currently ranks No. 3 in the nation according to Rivals.com, would position the 2018 crew to be considered the best in the country and, arguably, the best Self and company have ever hauled in at KU.
With guards Devon Dotson and Quentin Grimes, big men Silvio De Sousa and David McCormack and Kansas City-area wing Ochai Agbaji already on board, adding Langford would put this group over the top, bringing the necessary added scoring and outside shooting that the Jayhawks need in the class.
Langford’s father, Tim, recently spoke about all three of his son’s finalists with Adam Zagoria, of zagsblog.com, and it’s clear that playing alongside Dotson and Grimes would not be a problem for Langford, who knows both players very well.
“We like Coach Self as a coach and we also like the program,” Tim Langford told Zagoria. “We like their staff. He already mentioned that they were going to try to get those two guys (Devon Dotson and Quentin Grimes), they finally got Grimes. He was talking about doing a three-way offense for his guards and having Romeo, Grimes and Dotson take the ball up and down the court, so we don’t see any problem with that.”
Here’s a quick look at Tim Langford’s latest thoughts on Romeo’s other two finalists:
**On Indiana:**
> “Well, first of all he’s homegrown and
> making history by staying at home and
> going to IU. And also we like the
> style of offense that Archie Miller
> has. They brought the one they had
> from Dayton, he brought that to
> Indiana. So we like that, but we still
> want to see a bit more and also get to
> know the coaching staff a little bit
> more, too.”
**Vanderbilt:**
> “Coach (Bryce) Drew, for one, played
> NBA ball for five or six years and his
> style of offense, Romeo can see
> himself fitting in that style of
> offense. But we like that program and
> the coaching staff also.”
According to Zagoria, Langford is expected to visit Vanderbilt this weekend for Vandy’s home game against Florida.
There remains no known timeline for a Romeo Langford decision. It’s possible it could come before the April signing period arrives — perhaps at the McDonald’s All-American Game in late March — or even sometime sooner.
In the meantime, there’s no doubt that Langford and his family will continue to kick the tires on every aspect of each program and that coaches from all three will continue to recruit Langford like he is the player that could put them over the top.
