Gillispie Recruiting Mania

I hate linking to Jerry Tipton articles these days but I'm too lazy to do a google search at the moment.

Apparently, Billy's done it again. He's got another recruit to verbal. It begs me to wonder...what will they think of next?

LHL:

As the propriety of recruiting younger prospects gets debated nationwide, Kentucky has offered a scholarship to another high school freshman.

On Sunday, UK offered a scholarship to Jeremiah Davis III, who is completing his ninth-grade year at Muncie (Ind.) Central High School.

"I was honored," Davis said Monday about the offer. "I don't know if I'm going to take it yet. I'm still a freshman."

Indiana, Ohio State and Tennessee are among the schools that also have expressed a recruiting interest in Davis. None has yet offered a scholarship, the player's father said.

UK Coach Billy Gillispie saw Davis play in the same recent Akron, Ohio, basketball event that led to commitments from eighth-grader Michael Avery and ninth-grader Vinny Zollo. Davis played on the same AAU team, Indiana Elite.

Davis said he was not sure whether or when he might accept the UK scholarship offer. When asked whether college seemed far off into the future, he said, "Pretty far, right. I still have to go through high school first."

But his father, also named Jeremiah, said the offer would be the subject of a serious family discussion.

"When you have something great, you don't want to let it go," the elder Davis said. "He's a freshman. To get something like that from Kentucky, the University of Kentucky, there's not many universities bigger than that, if any."

The player's father described his reaction to the offer as a mix of surprise and feeling flattered by UK's interest.

"Kentucky, you can't get much bigger than that," the elder Davis said. "It can't get much bigger. ... I don't have the words to say how excited (the family is)."

Davis, a 6-foot-3 point guard, averaged about 10 points, four or five assists and three or four rebounds as a freshman last season, said Muncie Central Coach Matt Fine.

"He's strong, athletic (and) very skilled for a player of his age ... ," Fine said. "He's a great kid, too. A top-notch kid from a top-notch family.