Recruiting

Notebook: Michigan visit possible for four-star guard James Blackmon Jr.

Michigan wants James Blackmon Jr. to visit Ann Arbor and an offer could be waiting for him if he does. Blackmon decommitted from Indiana a week ago and has drawn interest from nearly every school across the country.

Kentucky, Louisville North Carolina State, UCLA, Michigan State, Florida State, Oklahoma State, Memphis, Florida, Connecticut, Purdue, Minnesota, Marquette and Baylor have all extended offers since Blackmon. He is also still considering Indiana. Michigan, Louisville and Baylor are three of the most recent schools to get involved with the top-35 ranked, 6-foot-3 scoring guard from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Kentucky is widely presumed to be a key player for Blackmon, who’s father played for the Wildcats, but Michigan has some prior familiarity. Blackmon has been to Ann Arbor before, he was sitting next to Austin Hatch this March when Indiana played at Michigan. Blackmon was committed to Indiana at the time and the visit was thought to be at least part of the reason for the rift between Tom Crean and Michigan assistant coach Jeff Meyer after the game.

Blackmon averaged 19 points per game on the Nike EYBL circuit while shooting 48% (62-of-128) from three point range through 20 games. He’s also expected to visit Kentucky for Big Blue Madness, he’s also considering a Louisville unofficial visit next week.

Kentucky pushing for Luke Kennard

Luke Kennard recently visited Kentucky and the Wildcats seem to have made a strong move in his recruitment. Kennard’s family has never made it a secret that they are Kentucky fans but Michigan had done as good of a job recruiting Kennard as anyone over the first two years of his high school career. July appears to have changed everything. Kennard recently visited Kentucky again and the reactions from both him and his father have been telling:

“It was really cool getting to sit and talk with coach Cal about my game,” Kennard said. “Cal’s main message to me was just that he wants me in a Kentucky uniform. He told me let’s get it done.”

While Kennard still denies having a favorite at this time, the class of 2015 product said that he likely will make a decision sometime after his junior season of high school basketball.

Asked about the chances that Calipari get his wish to get him in a Wildcats uniform, Kennard responded, “There’s a good possibility.”

There’s more of the same in this Q&A with The Devils Den, the Central Kentucky News and Vaught’s Views. Recruiting against Kentucky is never easy but is even harder when the prospect in question has so many ties to the state. Michigan is still involved and will likely remain involved until the end but the recruitment appears to be trending toward Lexington.

Big visits ahead for Dwayne Bacon

Dwayne Bacon’s list of offers grows by the week but two offers that he doesn’t have yet could still alter his recruitment. Bacon’s current offer list includes Baylor, Clemson, DePaul, Florida State, Georgia, Louisville, LSU, Marquette, Memphis, Miami (FL), Ohio State, Oklahoma State, South Florida, USC, Virginia Tech and Xavier.

Visits – and potentially offers – from Michigan and Kentucky could still be on the way, according to a recent interview with NY2LA Sports.

As crazy as the process has been for Bacon thus far, it could get even more hectic this fall. Both Kentucky and Michigan are highly interested in the junior wing. The Wildcats have made an interesting pitch to Bacon, while the Wolverines are hoping to get the Florida native on campus to offer.

Kentucky: “They like me at point guard. I think I could be a good threat at point guard. They’re coming to see me in September. ”

Michigan: “I can get the offer, but they want me to visit. They’ve been recruiting me since eighth grade.”

Bacon will transfer to IMG Academy this season with prep and AAU teammate Corey Sanders and plans to try to visit Michigan for a football game this fall

Fresh video footage

The Indiana Recruits posted an updated highlight film of Trevon Bluiett this week. Bluiett has Michigan in his top group and is planning an official visit to Michigan this fall for a football weekend.

PrepHoopsTV published footage of class of 2015 Michigan offeree Jalen Brunson:

As well as footage of his teammate, one of the many new combo forward targets on the Michigan radar after this July, Josh Cunningham.

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