With the hiring of John Calipari our scholarship situation gets even tighter. The NCAA allows 13 scholarships a year and right now we have 12 on scholarship. The word is, and has been all year, that Williams will either transfer of walk on. I expect that he will transfer because he was getting some good looks from other division 1 schools. That puts us at 11, enough room for Orton and Hood. That still leaves 1 more commitment that we have to make room for, Vilarino. Reading comments from his father like "We'll see if Coach Cal wants us as much as we want UK" makes me wonder if he will actually end up here, but we'll assume that he comes. I believe Porter will move on. Don't get me wrong, I would like to have him back, but he has a lot going for him outside of basketball. Porter will not fit into Cal's system, most likely he would be a 2 year starter now riding the bench. So we'll say he goes and makes room for Vilarino and the last of the 3 UK recruits.
      Now we can look at Cal's recruits. I believe Henry ends up at KU, so I'll just try and make room for Wall and Cousins. The first name on our roster that sticks out to me is Harrellson's. Yet another player who stands almost no chance in Cal's offense. It would be a bad deal for him to have to make another move, but it may be worth it to actually get to play. So Harrellson leaves and we now have room for the best point guard in the '09 class. Freeing up another spot may be easier than expected as I'm hearing that Pilgrim may not qualify academically. Let's say he does qualify, would he have to sit out another year if Cal asked him to transfer? A question to the more knowledgable around here. Well, that frees up one more spot for Cousins and would complete a fab 5 recruiting class. 
      You could go one step further and figure a way to get Henry in if he decides not to attend KU, but who would it be? Patterson, Meeks, and Miller are untouchable and I think Galloway, Liggins, and even Stewart would fit nicely into Cal's system. That leaves Harris and Stevenson, I doubt they're going anywhere until they graduate. The only way that I see us getting Henry is if one of our current recruits opt out or if Cal went after him before Cousins. Of course, this is nothing more than my opinion of what may shake out over the next few weeks. At one time, there was talk of mass defection for this team. Now, I doubt anyone will want out of Lexington. One thing is for sure, we need atleast one player to leave, not counting Williams, and up to four if we want Cal's recruits.

      And if you want to see Cal's recruits, they'll be in action tonight on ESPN for the McDonald's All-American game.

Tru deleted something last night that I wanted to be seen. He didn't want it to be seen because it was a response to a stupid post about Tubby. I, and many others, are a product of the Pitino era, and most of us are not spoiled brats that some of you around here tend to believe, one notably that is a stat stating freak. I'm so sick and tired of it. All I hear is you don't know what its like, you just think we should win it every year,  you know what, we aren't as stupid as you think. We understand, maybe even better than you, the state of college basketball. How often do you watch ESPN? I know that when I had a rear projection TV that the ESPN ticker was stained on to my screen. ESPN not a credible source you say, fine. I frequent many college basketball sites every day including rivals, scout, yahoo sports, cbs sports, and of course aaron's blog and aseaofblue. I can also say that  I played basketball and have seen it coached, and say that it doesn't mean squat. So many people want to come on here and say that "I coached little league basketball and I know" or "my brother played in such and such league and I know" blah blah blah. I've read the history books, I've seen the banners, and I  know that we're not going to win it every year. I forget off the top of my head, but I believe it was 1978 to 1996. 18 years between championships, wow, why wouldn't I think we should win it every year.

Now that our season is officialy over, I started looking for some information on the NIT. While I was looking at Jody Demling's recruiting blog I found this. It is the bracketology for the NIT. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that they do this as well. This is a projection of what the field would look like if the season ended on the 9th, which happens to be before most of the conference tournaments, so it may change drastically. If you look at this bracket, you'll notice that it will be a tough road to the fizzling four. In our bracket alone they have Vandy, Miami, Providence, and Davidson. Two of which have beaten us this year. Definitely some stiff competition in the NIT this year.

As we’ve stated on Scout.com a handful of times, the 2009 class has a shortage of lead guards.

So if you’re a college coach in need of some options, there truly aren’t many. With that said, there are a handful of guys that are emerging as targets across the country.

Clearly John Wall is the best available point guard, but shortly after him is Illinois native Darius Smith, who is among the hottest names in the country, and Eric Bledsoe, of Birmingham (Ala.) Parker.

Smith, a 6-foot-2, 180-pounder, may not be a true lead man, but he’s certainly capable of spending time on the ball. An athletic and quick guard, Smith has had a terrific senior season for Chicago (Ill.) Marshall.

The schools in the mix for Smith are Arizona, Arizona State, Duke, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Indiana, DePaul, Kentucky, Marquette, Iowa and Memphis.

Although Bledsoe will need to figure out his academic situation, schools are lining up to recruit him. Among the programs involved are Tennessee, Florida, Memphis, Kentucky, UAB, Alabama, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Oregon, South Florida and Duke.

From there the guard situation gets a little dicey. Guys like Vee Sanford, of Lexington (Ky.) Catholic, and Reggie Moore, of Wolfeboro (N.H.) Brewster Academy, are getting strong looks, as are Norcross (Ga.) High product Taariq Muhammad and JUCO guard James Beatty.

Full article on the remaining recruits here. My question to you guys who watch high school ball around Lexington is what kind of player is Sanford? From what I read on scout.com, he is very athletic with a solid jump shot. I'm sure that we'll end up waiting on Smith's decision, but I'd hate to wait him out only to have a hometown boy slip through our fingers. Sanford has interest from UK, Marquette, and Georgetown, but no offers yet. He has offers from schools like Miami(OH) and Nebraska, but as long as he is getting any interest from those three, I can't imagine him committing to anyone. 

The University of Michigan is most famous for its football team, the Wolverines, who play in the packed confines of the Big House, a stadium that holds 106,201 fans. Of course, with the way the Wolverines played this past season (their record was 3-9), it’s surprising that many people flocked to the stadium every Saturday.

Loyalty might explain it, though maybe it’s just fans’ motivation to visit Ann Arbor before and after the football game. Who can blame them? The small city of 114,000 boasts top-flight restaurants and bars, a symphony and ballet, as well as museums and concert halls hosting national-level entertainment.

And what full-time residents also know: Ann Arbor has great public schools, low crime and affordable housing. Not surprisingly, it all adds up to the highest rank on our list of best college towns. It beats out Palo Alto, Calif., home to Stanford, and Madison, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin.

Whether for quality of life, business development or investment, it’s easy to understand the draw of college towns. The cities have a reputation for their wealth of arts and cultural events that spoke out from the university. Even though a college town like State College, Pa., or Charlottesville, Va., may not have the population of New York or Los Angeles, the strength of the university attracts top-flight entertainment options.

This is all from the article, Lexington comes in at #5 which I thought was pretty impressive. Link