Trey Lyles—the No. 5 player in the class of 2014 according to ESPN—is down to six schools: Duke, Butler, Florida, Kentucky, Louisville and UCLA. The prevailing feeling recently is that Lyles, a versatile and polished 6-foot-10 combo forward, has been a Kentucky lean ever since he decommitted from Indiana last year.
The Blue Devils, however, seem to be gaining momentum in the Lyles sweepstakes. Wildcat head coach John Calipari already has a commitment from Karl Towns in the class of 2014, who is a very similar player to Lyles. Furthermore, Cliff Alexander—a bruising 6-foot-9, 240-pound big man—is also rumored to be favoring Kentucky.
The potential logjam in the post at Kentucky has perhaps helped tip the scales more in Duke's favor as of late, though, there is still a long ways to go in the recruitment. Look for Lyles to try and take visit to Durham in the coming months.
Jabari Parker—the prize of Duke's 2013 recruiting class—finished with 13 points,14 rebounds and two blocks in a 59-49 Simeon win last week.
Dave Telep—ESPN's lead college basketball recruiting analyst—weighed in on Parker's return to prime form in an interview with the Chronicle:
"He basically fell flat on his face against Matt Jones in national television game in December. He was out of shape and not helping his team if you can imagine that. He had about five weeks to get it together because he was playing on ESPN again. This kid literally lost 30 pounds...It was truly spectacular. He didn't only get better, but you could just see Simeon's confidence and continuity grow.""I am just taken back by his feel for the game and his skill. If you go back and look at the tape against Oak Hall at the Hoop Hall, a minute into the contest he throws back a tip dunk that literally four weeks ago was a rebound and a below-the-rim lay in. [Coming back from injury] is a lot harder to do than people realize, and he has done it."
Parker's future teammate, Semi Ojeleye, is on pace to break the all-time Kansas state career scoring record of 2,554 points. The 6-foot-7 wing is just 90 points away from breaking the record. He's averaging a gaudy 41 points per game and nine rebounds.
Here's a recent highlight of Ojeleye showing off his athleticism on an alley-oop.
Telep also discussed Ojeleye:
"The level of competition is what it is: He's in Kansas and its not very good. His numbers and efficiency numbers, however, have been good though. He has shot the ball exceptionally well. I think it's important that he's getting comfortable being the man with the attention being casted on him every night in his home state.""I think the biggest problem that Semi might have is the competition for minutes at Duke. He's going to be facing a competition for available playing time. It's going to be difficult to get playing time on the perimeter [as a freshman]."
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