Florida's Recruiting Class

[NYC Duke Fan]

When Tubby Smith announced he was leaving for Minnesota, the papers were listing possible successors. One name was Billy Donovan, but was dismissed by the writer for among other things he mentioned that Florida had an outstanding recruitingt class coming. Anyone know who has commited to Florida ?

[texasdevil06]

Florida has 2 top-20 players from Lake Howell HS in FL -- 6-5 Nick Calathes (Mickey D) and 6-8 Chandler Parsons.

They've also got 6-8 Alex Tyus out of OH (top 50 type) and another 6-6 kid also from FL whose name escapes me.

The Lake Howell team with Calathes and Parsons played Kyle Singler's South Medford team in a tournament back in January with South Medford coming out on top. Singler was MVP of that tournament.

[CDu]

Along with the recruits you mention, UF is also in the final 3 (probably final 2, with Smith leaving Kentucky) for Patrick Patterson, another top-10 prospect. I don't see Donovan leaving.

Donovan has a great situation at UF. He's been to 2 Final Fours. He has excellent recruiting advantages (trust me: it's not hard to sell a high school kid on UF, even though Gainesville is a bit of a hole). He's built an elite program (UF has probably overtaken UK as the marquee school in the SEC). At this point, UK would be a demotion for Donovan. I'm guessing that UK would love Donovan, but Donovan will just use the speculation to nail down a better deal from UF (who can certainly afford to up his salary). I agree with the idea that Donovan is not really a possibility.

[dcarp23]

Donovan has a great situation at UF. He's been to 2 Final Fours.

Make that three.

[Olympic Fan]

Just to put Florida's current recruiting class into perspective, I just visited RSCI (which averages recruiting rankings) and get the following for Donovan this year:

No. 13 Nick Calathes
No. 31 Alex Tyus
No. 61 Chandler Parsons

He's also a finalist for No. 14 Patrick Patterson.

So far, a good class, but nothing special -- unless he adds Patterson.

That said, I doubt Kentucky is much of an attraction for him. It's not like he's a Kentucky guy -- he played at Providence. He spent three years at KY as an assistant coach, but the guy he worked for -- his mentor Rick Pitino -- is now personna non grata in Lexington.

This isn't Roy Williams, anxious to return to his alma mater and answer the summons of his mentor, Dean Smith. This is more like State thinking they could get Rick Barnes.

[NYC Duke Fan]

My good friend an avid Kentucky fan says that they are very seriously considering the Butler Coach, ( his name escapes me), and the Southern Illinois Coach, ( whose name also escapes me)

[pfrduke]

My good friend an avid Kentucky fan says that they are very seriously considering the Butler Coach, ( his name escapes me), and the Southern Illinois Coach, ( whose name also escapes me)

That would be Todd Lickliter and Chris Lowery, respectively