Kentucky Recruiting Watch

The news from St. Louis is that Josh Harrellson has narrowed his choices down to the Kentucky Wildcats and St. Louis Billikens. Harrellson is considering SLU as it's close to home but Kentucky is on the list of visits to make as well.

Among the interested observers at the Riverwar high school all-star game at Chaifetz Arena on Saturday was Josh Harrellson. He’s the 6-9 center/forward from St. Charles who played last season at Southwestern Illinois College and has finally gotten a release from the letter of intent he signed with Western Illinois.

Harrellson’s release isn’t yet official — he expects to get through the NCAA clearinghouse on Monday — but when it is, he said he’s looking at Kentucky, SLU, Missouri, Purdue and Indiana. He was going to make his SLU visit on Saturday, but had to push it back because he hadn’t been cleared yet. So he’ll go to Kentucky next weekend, then SLU the week after that. He said he wasn’t sure if he would make any trips after that.

He said he likes SLU because he wants to play close to home, but likes Kentucky because he thinks he can play at the top level. He likes Rick Majerus and he likes Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie. “I guarantee you it will come down between those two,” he told me. “I’ll make the decision based on what’s best for me.”

He was impressed by Chaifetz Arena and the potential teammates he was watching on the court.

SLU could use Harrellson because with so many freshmen coming in, anyone with any experience will be valuable, and Harrelson - who averaged 15 points and eight rebounds at SWIC – is a good talent to boot. He’ll have three years of eligibility left.