Jaylen Brown



  • Per ESPN

    Jaylen Brown (No. 4): With so many guys waiting until late in the process to make a decision, we had to include an uncommitted player, and Brown’s recruitment is the most mysterious. No one outside Brown, and perhaps his family, knows where he will end up. Even coaches involved in his recruitment are completely in the dark. Brown has expanded his list rather than trimmed it in recent months and continues to keep people guessing. Kansas, UCLA, Kentucky, California, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Georgia Tech are all still in the mix for Brown, who isn’t giving any hints. Oh, and don’t forget the quotes Brown gave last summer about his ties to adidas. He has essentially shut it down in terms of media access and reportedly will not take any more campus visits or in-home visits. We just have to wait and see for Brown’s decision date – which, of course, is unknown at this point as well.



  • It’s amazing how schools like Duke are never really in a recruiting hole. So Tyus Jones decides late to leave… no problem…

    Five-star PG Derryck Thornton commits to Duke, will reclassify

    I don’t know why we think we can compete with these guys for the cream. We can make the best butter by working the fat out of the milk instead.



  • Here’s one to fuel the Shoe Co. debate (old news but fun)

    Antonio Blakeney (No. 15): It looked like Blakeney had ended his recruitment back in early September, when he announced his commitment to Louisville. Less than two weeks later, Blakeney reopened his recruitment and decommitted from the Cardinals. It wasn’t your usual decommitment either. Stories of shoe company involvement quickly spread. Blakeney played AAU ball for Nike-sponsored Each 1 Teach 1, and Louisville is an adidas program. Louisville coach Rick Pitino even criticized the role of shoe companies in the recruiting process. Blakeney maintained that his decommitment was his choice and had nothing to do with shoes. A few months later, Blakeney ended up committing to LSU over fellow finalists Kentucky and Missouri. All three of those finalists were Nike schools.



  • @dylans

    I really don’t get it why any major D1 school is still with Adidas. Nike not only dominates college basketball, but both sides of the ball around college… AAU and NBA.

    Hard to believe that schools like Kansas can’t get the same incentives from Nike, especially since Nike would like to just knock out all competition in their markets.

    This appears to be one of the last hurdles for Kansas to get over in order to really recruit OADs. Supporters kicked up the bucks for the luxury apartments, now it appears that Self might need to take a hit to convert to Nike.

    No one is buying the story any longer that it just doesn’t matter. It matters!



  • @drgnslayr If we need Nike in order to recruit OAD’s, I hope we stay with Adidas. Or go with Converse. Or Reebok. Or Asics. Or Under-Armour. Or Puma. Or Van’s. Or New Balance. Or K-mart flip-flops…



  • @drgnslayr It’s the money that is hard to walk away from. In addition to paying much more than Nike was willing to Adidas was willing to outfit all sports (non-revenue producing also). Nike would never do such a thing. I also doubt Nike will pony up more cash as they already own the NCAA, NBA, and any shoe sales report. KU can grab Adidas by the short and curlys, but not Nike they don’t need KU.

    That being said I’d really like to see what recruits Bill could pull as a Nike guy. Would he have wasted the last couple of years recruiting? Many of those kids are identified as being posible Adidias kids would they switch to Nike? It doesn’t sound like Brown would.



  • @nuleafjhawk What about PF Fliers? Those were the shoes I always wanted and would have signed with Kentucky if they had promised me a pair!



  • @nuleafjhawk

    I’m okay with us totally staying out of the OAD market. But Self isn’t.

    I’m saying we need to snit or get off the pot! (420?) Seriously… we need to decide what our identity is and then fit that identity. We’ll never be a lasting, consistent OAD school if we stay with Adidas. And that is fine unless we sit on 3 scholarships in June without a big man.