Alternate Title: The Recrap

After one of the biggest recruiting weekends since Miller, Bello, and Behanan, the recruiting picture has become much more solid.

RECENT COMMITS:

Montrezl Harrell (2012)

COMMITS:

Anton Gill

Montrezl Harrell (2012)

The Board

Point Guard

	Kasey Hill (Montverde Academy) Montverde, FL		6-0/160	None	Yes	Committed to Florida
4		Tyler Ennis (St. Benedict Prep) Newark, NJ		6-2/175	Med	Yes	Arizona, Florida, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, Rice, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse, UCLA, Villanova, Virginia, Wake Forest, West Virginia
8		Solomon Poole (Terry Parker HS) Jacksonville, FL		5-11/165	Med	No	Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Tennessee
17		Zach LaVine (Bothell HS) Bothell, WA		6-3/170	Med	Yes	UCLA, Baylor, California, Gonzaga, Louisville, Oregon State, Texas, Washington, Washington State

My Board

Tyler Ennis
Zach LaVine
Solomon Poole
Kasey Hill

The Rundown:

Things have changed at the Point Guard spot, though only slightly. There has been a bit of news though, as Tyler Ennis, the five star point guard from NY, is strongly considering the Cards. Is Syracuse still the favorite to land his services? Absolutely. But make no mistake, Rick Pitino is pushing hard for Ennis. I wouldn't say a commit is a longshot, but at the same time, I wouldn't say that we're the team to beat. But if you put a gun to my head, I'd say we're in second place as of now.

Zach LaVine is a name that you may not have heard about. In all honesty, I didn't know that we were recruiting him at all until a few weeks back. He listed A top 2 of UCLA and Louisville "in that order." His dad is a SoCal guy, so they have connections to that area. But if Terry Rozier doesn't qualify (and attempts to be stupid and go through the clearinghouse) and Syracuse pulls too far ahead for Ennis, expect RP to put the full-court press on for LaVine. Unless he prefers POINT GUARD RUSS.

Shooting Guard

3		Isaac Hamilton (St. John Bosco HS) Bellflower, CA		6-4/175	Med	Yes	Arizona, Baylor, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisville, Oklahoma State, San Diego State, UCLA, USC, Washington
4		Sindarius Thornwell (Lancaster HS) Lancaster, SC		6-4/175	Med	No	Clemson, Florida, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Memphis, Miami (Fl), Missouri, North Carolina State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech
5		Matt Jones (De Soto HS) Desoto, TX		6-4/170	None	Yes	Committed to Duke
7		Anton Gill (Ravenscroft School) Raleigh, NC		6-4/180	Verbal	Yes	Committed to Louisville
NR		Darryl Baker (Jeffersonville HS) Jeffersonville, IN		6-2/170	Med	No	Butler, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan State, Xavier

My Board

Anton Gill
JaJuan Johnson, ****, 35 overall, #8 SG, High Interest
Sindarius Thornwell
Isaac Hamilton
Darryl Baker
Matt Jones

The Rundown

You may remember JaJuan Johnson from reports about the visitors to campus this weekend. He came away thoroughly impressed and appears to be very interested in Louisville. He has since guaranteed that Louisville will be in his top 5. He is the guy to watch here. He's 6'5", with long arms, and can both shoot the ball and take it to the bucket. So, he's a prototypical Pitino player.

I was VERY suprised a few days ago to learn that Sindarius Thornwell was not a major target for the Louisville Cardinals. That was shocking because he's like Johnson and Gill- a tall, long armed shooter that can take it to the bucket. He is a five star player and incredibly talented. Maybe he isn't interested in Louisville, contrary to what was reported in April, but if he is, this is a bad call by Rick. Though I doubt we'd stop pursuing him if he were interested. Hamilton will be staying out west, Darryl Baker is not a Louisville level prospect, and Matt Jones is committed to Duke.

Small Forward

1		Jabari Parker (Simeon Vocational HS) Chicago, IL		6-7/215	Med	Yes	BYU, Connecticut, DePaul, Duke, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, Northwestern, Ohio State, Washington
6		Brannen Greene (Mary Persons HS) Forsyth, GA		6-6/185	None	Yes	Committed to Kansas
21		Greg McClinton (Winston-Salem Prep) Winston-Salem, NC		6-6/165	Med	No	Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami (Fl), Missouri, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Xavier

My Board

Dorian Finney-Smith, *****, 2011 class transfer, must sit out 2012-2013 season, High Interest; Also recruiting- Florida, Texas, Iowa State

Jordan Mickey, *****, SF/PF, High Interest Parker

The Rundown

You all know about DFS. He recently finished up his visit, and the visit was a success. That said, he probably won't commit right away. You know about his versatile skillset, his 6'8" size, and his coachability. The main competition here is Florida and Texas, in that order. As of today, he does not have a visit scheduled to either. If this holds, then Louisville is in absolutely fantastic shape to land him. If not, however, then you may start to get nervous about his recruitment. Florida was the favorite out of the gate, but Louisville has Kevin Keatts and Montrezl Harrell. That could tip the scales, but if he takes a trip down to Gainesville, there is a bad omen for the Cards.

The other big time target here is Jordan Mickey. He is more of an inside player, but wants to play the three. RP is recruiting him as a three, and him and his parents do really like that. He called the visit to Louisville "tough to follow" and we seem to be in good shape here. We'll press for him if we do not get DFS.
The others are insignificant at this point in time.

Power Forward

4		Jermaine Lawrence (Pope John XXIII HS) Sparta, NJ		6-9/205	Med	Yes	Baylor, Cincinnati, Florida, Fordham, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, Rutgers, Saint John's (NY), SMU, Syracuse, UNLV
8		Jarrell Martin (Madison Preparatory Academy) Baton Rouge, LA		6-8/215	Med	No	Alabama, Arizona, Baylor, Georgetown, Louisville, LSU, Marquette, Memphis, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, West Virginia
13		Kuran Iverson (Northwest Catholic HS) West Hartford, CT		6-8/190	Med	No	Arizona, Connecticut, Georgetown, Kentucky, Louisville, Rutgers, Saint John's (NY), Seton Hall, Villanova
14		Kris Jenkins (Gonzaga College HS) Washington, DC		6-5/235	Med	No	Clemson, Georgetown, Louisville, Miami (Fl), Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Seton Hall, South Carolina, Villanova, West Virginia, Xavier
16		Devin Williams (Withrow HS) Cincinnati, OH		6-8/225	Med	No	Cincinnati, Georgetown, Illinois, Louisville, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall, UCLA, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Xavier
18		Malik Price-Martin (Monsignor Pace HS) Miami, FL		6-8/175	Med	No	Louisville, Miami (Fl), Ohio State, South Carolina, Syracuse
20		Jarquez Smith (Jones County HS) Gray, GA		6-9/220	Med	No	Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, South Carolina
22		Derek Willis (Bullitt East HS) Mount Washington, KY		6-9/200	None	Yes	Committed to Kentucky

My Board

Montrezl Harrell (2012, COMMITTED)
Jordan Mickey
Martin Lawrence

First, I would invite you all to laugh for a while about Derek Willis. We actually cared about landing this kid a few months ago, and UK fans brag about him being better than Gill. I guess Cal's master plan to show up Rick blew up in his face after all. Karma.

Anyway, there has been little good news in the last month about Power Forwards, until yesterday. You can probably consider Jordan Mickey both a SF and PF, so I guess that there has been good news. But by the day, we're looking to be in worse and worse shape with Jarrell Martin. We may have impressed him a lot, but Johnny Jones and Anthony Dixon can both recruit. Martin seems to want to stay in the deep south. I believe that he will be a Tiger.

Jermaine Lawrence may very well be the most intriguing player on the board. He jumped from and unranked three star to number 15 in the country, and a five star, after a crazy good spring. Louisville was one of the first teams in on him. So... why is this kid such a longshot. Simple answer: Quincy Miller 2.0. His recruitment is not the type that we excel in. He has lots of handlers who like steer him in a certain direction, and often times, players like him are steered toward Nike or get bad advice, and go to a place like Baylor where they think they'll be a part of an NBA factory. Louisville excels with level headed players and parents who know that RP is the guy who will push you farthest, even if it's not as cushy as one of the NBA factories.

Plus, Harrell will probably scare these guys away from competition anyway.

Center

2		BeeJay Anya (Dematha Catholic HS) Hyattsville, MD		6-8/255	Med	Yes	Florida, Georgetown, Indiana, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Texas, UCLA, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
3		Kennedy Meeks (West Charlotte HS) Charlotte, NC		6-8/255	Med	Yes	Clemson, Florida State, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Maryland, Miami (Fl), North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech
4		Dominic Woodson (Vermont Academy) Saxtons River, VT		6-9/240	Med	No	Baylor, Florida, Louisville, Maryland, Memphis, North Carolina State, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas
7		Moses Kingsley (New Albany/S.Tippah/Union Co.) New Albany, MS		6-9/225	Med	No	Arkansas, Louisville, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State

My Board

Kingsley...

The Rundown

Think back to last month... Good times, right? We were in the mix for Woodson, Meeks, Jimmie Taylor, and Moses Kingsley, the top 8 were strong, everything was good. Back to reality. As far as the C position goes, we are in very, very dire straits. Let's start with Kingsley. He's about the only target left here. Everyone was wrong. We have serious ground to make up on Florida and Arkansas. It's nothing that can't be accomplished, but we don't have much going on here. It'll be a fight to the finish to land him.

Woodson and Meeks... we've backed off of them. I don't think that RP was impressed with watching Meeks play. He still has not lost more weight, and he played poorly during evals. Slashed. Dominic Woodson was dismissed from his prep school. Crossed out. Jimmie Taylor committed to Alabama. Erased. So... I think we'd all better get happy with Zach Price.

One thing to note is that Karviar Shepherd of Texas will be visiting Louisville next month.

Recap

Tyler Ennis is a distinct possibility

JaJuan Johnson and Jordan Mickey appear to have heavy interest in Louisville

Doe-Doe will determine the direction the 2013 class takes

PFs are not available at this time

Center is in very dire straits, lots of ground to make up for Kingsley

Now, the ever-changing predictions...

This one is probably the toughest one to go with so far. Louisville's plans have been drastically altered by Harrell. Plans could change even more if DFS decides to join the Cards.

Tyler Ennis/Zach Lavine

JaJuan Johnson

Dorian Finney-Smith/

Anton Gill

If we strike out on Ennis, LaVine is the probable replacement. Mickey will probably only join the Cards if Doe-Doe becomes a Gator.

So, thanks for reading and on to the poll of the month...

Do you believe that Dorian Finney-Smith is the necessary component to the blockbuster class that Rick needs? Thanks for reading, and Go Cards.