Coach John Calipari is getting ready for the most challenging recruiting pitch in his UK career.
Big Blue Madness is set on Friday and it will be the venue to sway the top recruits to Lexington.
Usually, at this time of the year, Calipari is already celebrating another triumphant recruiting run. However, this year, the highest ranked recruit in UK's way is ESPN no.23 overall Wenyen Gabriel, who is also ranked no.6 among an outstanding crop of power forwards.
That crop of power forwards is led by Harry Giles, ESPN's no.1 ranked recruit and a consensus top three player. The Courier Journal has listed him among the official visitors in Big Blue Madness.
"In official visitors Harry Giles, De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, Kentucky is expected to host the nation's No. 1 power forward, point guard and shooting guard in the Class of 2016, according to Scout.com's rankings," the article stated. "The Cats could also get an unofficial visit from the No. 1 center, Marques Bolden."
Also expected to drop by is no.2 center, Edrice "Bam" Adebayo who may be an insurance option if Bolden doesn't commit. Adebayo, though is heavily recruited by NC State.
UK is admittedly not the frontrunner for Giles and Monk. Predictions have Duke for Giles and Arkansas for Monk, both schools having "homecourt" advantage over the Wildcats.
Still, this is a chance for Calipari to prove naysayers who say that he has "lost his touch" wrong. At the very least, De'Aaron Fox, the top point guard in most scouting lists seems like a lock for Kentucky according to Kentucky Sports.
Fox's 24/7 Sports "crystal ball" predictions placed Kentucky as the 100% favorite to land Fox. Analyst Jerry Meyer also supported the projection.
"On the range of it - pretty confident," Meyer said. "Obviously, there are always surprises and there's no 100 percent certainty. But I would put it in the confident range."
Signing Fox and possibly two other prospects mentioned will propel Kentucky past Duke and Michigan State as the no.1 recruiting class of 2016.