Well this is depressing

[Westtncat]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/how-duke-reclaimed-its-status-as-the-top-destination-for-elite-recruits-204841742.html

[Joneslab]

Coach K has really been in on these kinds of players for a long time. Decades. He's always recruited at the very top and never has gotten the Calipari treatment in terms of "ruining the game" partly because Coach K doesn't talk openly about the NBA.

But he's always recruited virtually the same guys. Duke rarely ever runs anybody out there who's not a McDonald's All-American.

[GOCAT15]

Duke has some momentum, just like we did with the 2013 and 2014 classes, but Duke came away with a title with their loaded class. The next few years are going to be a battle for Cal because Coach K is looking good with a ton of recruits, but guess what, class rankings don't win championships, we've found that out. Cal just needs to land a few WCS type guys who are a little under the radar along with a few studs and we'll be ok.

Everyone is so high on Duke right now but he has had a lot of good players the last 3-4 years and had a lot of early exits in the tournament, but now that he has one a title with 3 freshman starters, everyone thinks that Duke is not the best place for freshman to go.

We really need a good run this year, and in my dreams we beat Duke in the tournament and shut up all the Coach K lovers.

[Matt Dillon]

The team with the most NBA draft picks doesn't always win the NC (we proved that last season), so I'll just take a wait and see attitude.

[GOCAT15]

In the last 5 years, Kentucky is the only team to win a championship and then have the most draft picks afterwards, and I really consider the last 5 years to be the explosion of the so called one and done era. Yes, I know that there was some before then, but no one can argue that once Cal came to UK, it started the era where it was the forefront of college basketball conversations.

Whats interesting is in 2007 Florida, 2008 Kansas, 2009 North Carolina, all of those teams won the national championship and they all had the most draft picks that season. Although a majority of those picks were juniors and seniors.

[Joneslab]

Word is that Memphis transfer Austin Nichols might be considering Duke.

I hope so because that might help Kentucky with Harry Giles.

[GOCAT15]

Word is that Memphis transfer Austin Nicholas might be considering Duke.

I hope so because that might help Kentucky with Harry Giles.

I like your positive thinking, but I have already given up on Giles to Duke, no matter who else they pick up. I'm pretty sure Giles knows he is going to start and get a lot of minutes no matter how loaded a team is.

[Joneslab]

I like your positive thinking, but I have already given up on Giles to Duke, no matter who else they pick up. I'm pretty sure Giles knows he is going to start and get a lot of minutes no matter how loaded a team is.

IIRC I once heard that North Carolina might be a possibility. Saw a UK fan on another board say months ago (maybe a year ago) that Giles to Kentucky would never, ever happen. He'd been told that by an AAU guy somewhere and he said the guy was rock solid.

From the little I've seen, Giles is the best player in the class. But that's like saying Pearl Jam was the best grunge band--there are so many guys in this class to pick from. I think there might be as many as twenty gamechangers, and that's unheard of.

[Westtncat]

Kentucky is among the schools to reach out to Memphis transfer Austin Nichols, according to John Martin of ESPN Radio in Memphis:

The 6-foot-9, 228-pound power forward, who was granted his unconditional release by the Tigers Tuesday, averaged 13.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game as a junior last season.
Out of Memphis (Tenn.) Briarcrest Christian High School, Nichols was ranked as the No. 22 overall prospect in the 2013 class and a 5-star prospect by the 247Sports Composite and signed with the Tigers over Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Duke and Virginia among others.
According to some, Virginia is considered the team to beat for Nichols.
He will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2015-16 season.

[Joneslab]

Memphis blocked Nichols from considering something like six schools. Virginia was one of those, and now Nichols has lawyered up and his attorney says the case is probably going to court. That would suggest he really wants to go to Virginia.

The way it was handled by both the Nichols family and Memphis is pretty bad. Reminiscent of Bo Ryan's stance of the Uhtoff kid who went to Iowa. But in Memphis's defense, Nichols didn't even meet with Josh Pastner face to face and instead had his dad send an e-mail saying he was leaving. Really poor form.

[JFCats22]

^
Memphis removed all restrictions on him this morning. CBS' Gary Parrish says he will end up at UVA.

[GOCAT15]

It has sure seemed from the get go he wasn't going to go too far from home, at one time Wake Forest was even a favorite. He has said numerous times recently that he is willing to go anywhere, but I will really be surprised if its not Duke.