What Would You Do? And Don't Lie.

Kentucky basketball is the topic once again for this post. I know. “Who would have guessed?” You. Now, don’t you feel smart? The direction I am steering this semi is toward recruitment or the lack thereof. What I am about to say may dissuade you from your original line of thinking. Maybe it won’t. It will give you an outlet on something I, sort of, figured out on my own in a discussion about this year's team. Hear me out.

If I could only count the number of times I have heard the following statement in the past two weeks: “We coulda had Lofton and Brewer!” This is referring, of course, to Tennessee’s Chris Lofton and Florida’s Corey Brewer. Both claim to have expressed interest in attending the University of Kentucky to play basketball. Both claim the athletic program and, more importantly, Tubby Smith were not interested in their efforts. Lofton also claims to be snubbed by the UofL program and Rick Pitino.

I honestly would say that these statements do contain various amounts of truth and fallacy. I have no doubt that both parties wished to attend UK to play basketball. Chris Lofton having lived in Kentucky for his entire life (assumption), like any other Kentucky boy, dreamed of wearing the Wildcat Blue on the floor at Rupp Arena. Corey, on the other hand, grew up in the Volunteer State. He knew of Kentucky’s hardwood legacy and eventual domination of UT in basketball. He probably thought UK would be an excellent program to fit into—one rich in heritage and consistent in performance.

Corey Brewer was a McDonald's All American. He was on Parade magazines all-American 4th team and an honorable mention from Slam magazine. He was a consensus top 30 in every major resource. Chris Lofton was McDonald's All-American nominee. He was voted as Mr. Kentucky Basketball after his senior year at Mason County. Set various school and state records his junior and senior years.

To say these programs/coaches were not interested cannot be farther from the truth. How could a coach at any level of the game not give some attention to each of these guys? Of course Tubby and Pitino were interested…they just couldn’t figure how each of these players would fit in their system. Tubby already had a boatload of guards. Patrick Sparks, Josh Carrier, Brandon Stockton, and Ravi Moss were already on his bench. He had a solid commitment from Saint Albans, W.Va. junior guard, Adam Williams, son of the legendary coach, Tex Williams (also the coach of a former Florida player, Brett Nelson). Tubby had recruited two guards, who were McDonald's All-Americans, in Rajon Rondo from Oak Hill Academy in Viginia, and Joe Crawford from Renaissance High School in Detroit. There was also the New York City recruit from the IMG Prep Academy in Florida, Ramel Bradley.

Tubby had seen Lofton play for at least three years. But what kind of competition was Lofton playing against? Bishop Brossart? Pendleton County? Bracken County? Rowan County? Lewis County? His size was questionable. His speed on defense was questionable. Lofton was a question all together. Brewer was on the national watch as a tall and lighting-quick guard. Excellent shooter. Nothing questionable to speak of unless…you already had signed three guards and had four waiting in the wings.

Rick Pitino had several guards in his camp as well. Taquan Dean, Ellis Myles, Brandon Jenkins, Larry O’Bannon were established. He had also the recruit committed that everyone wanted in Sebastian Telfair. Of course, we all know now that Telfair skipped out on Rick to go into the NBA draft.

So, does anyone see now, how these guys could have been passed over? I think, no…wait, I hope, Tubby Smith didn’t overlook the talent in either of the two players. Not knowing what you know now, can you honestly say that you possibly would have chosen different? I seriously doubt it. Other than the problem of Tubb not recruiting players from The Commonwealth, I honestly would say I would not. But, Tubby had been burned by Kentucky’s home grown before, i.e. Josh Carrier and Brandon Stockton, both of whom were the previous Mr. Kentucky Basketballs.

It is difficult to think that, yes, these players could have been Kentucky boys. Who knew about Lofton? As for Brewer, there were already two McDonald's All-Americans committed. What do you guys think? While I was watching the Tennessee-Alabama game Wednesday night on Lincoln Financial Sports, I was flipping back and forth to the Houston Rockets-Miami Heat game on ESPN. It made me think about David Kyle and his story about Uncle Dave and the "Lofton-esque" quotes all the time. My advice to DK is to tell his dad:

"Watch Tracy McGrady play for a game. No just a half. That is long enough to figure out...Chris Lofton is 'T-Mac-esque'."

Word-em-up.