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Jack now courted aggressively by Kansas and West Virginia

by on Jun. 02, 2010, under Sports
Kadeem Jack, now a Class of 2011 recruit out of South Kent (Conn.) Prep, now has Kansas, West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina challenging Arizona and others for his services after next season (Kadeem Jack photo)

Kadeem Jack, now a Class of 2011 recruit out of South Kent (Conn.) Prep, now has Kansas, West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina challenging Arizona and others for his services after next season (Kadeem Jack photo)

The secret is out and the recruiting aura of Trinidad and Tobago native Kadeem Jack is developing from one top program to another.

The Class of 2011 recruit who graduated and played at Manhattan (N.Y) Rice High School, is now heavily involved with Kansas and West Virginia. Jack, a 6-8, 215-pound forward who will attend South Kent (Conn.) Prep next year, is contemplating a visit to Kansas or West Virginia to take part in their elite camps this month.

“Kansas is definitely one of the schools that I’m interested in,” Jack is quoted as saying by JayhawkSlant.com, a Kansas Rivals.com site. “Kansas is definitely a program I’m going to seriously consider – most definitely. I’ve talked to Coach (Bill) Self … I’ve been able to talk to a couple of members of the coaching staff from Kansas.

“Kansas got involved with my recruitment when they found out I was going to attend South Kent next year. The coaching staff at Kansas is interested in me and I’m interested in Kansas. I like the style of play and I like the coaching staff. Kansas is definitely an option I’m going to consider.”

So in a matter of two to three months since the end of Rice’s season, Jack has gone from being recruited by Arizona, UCLA, UConn, Miami and Arkansas to being courted also by Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas and West Virginia. Nobody ever said recruiting is easy. Arizona not securing Jack when it had the chance is similar to not snatching that last item on a store’s shelf and then seeing others clamor for it.

Jack, who has only played four seasons of organized basketball and has more of a soccer background, visited only Arizona officially during the season. At one point, his mentor Damian Leslie, mentioned that Arizona was Jack’s leader because the budding prospect had no other trips planned.

The story goes that Arizona mailed him a national letter of intent for him to sign during halftime of the Jordan Brand Classic regional all-star game April 17. Jack said he balked at that idea because he wanted to visit other schools before making a decision.

Jack later took trips to Miami and Arkansas before he opted to attend South Kent instead of a Division I institution in 2010-11. He reconsidered that notion when North Carolina and Kentucky started to show interest in early May, but he stuck to his decision to attend South Kent. Lately, Kansas and West Virginia have come calling.

Jack has maintained, however, that Arizona is in the picture.

“Arizona is definitely still in my recruiting process,” Jack communicated to me via text message recently.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 1:40 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Doug

    “Arizona is definitely still in my recruiting process,”

    Isnt this an abbreviated version for….”Just in case everything else falls apart, Arizona is definitely…”

  • Mark Johnson

    Kids want to play for winners. If AZ starts to show a strong turn around this up and coming season, AZ will be back on many short lists of the best players in the US. Chart wins and losses on a grid; get to a 20-22 win season, Sean can start talking about the angle of growth. A second year MoMo is better than a 4 year Wise. If Horne can step up in the off season, AZ will be at 22+ wins.

  • Doug

    Mark: Horne’s senior year will be impacted by the development of Kyryl and Jacobson. If they can provide solid interior defense and rebounding, that will allow DWill to move to the 4….which would “allow” Horne to compete at the 3 with Hill and Parrom. I personally think that Horne has played his entire U of A career out of position. He is not a 4. Not in skill set, not in mind set. He was the best 3 pt shooter on the team, which would be nice to have that from one of the team’s SFs.

  • Carlos J. M.

    Mark and Doug: I think you both are onto something.  Win and they will come.  Win the right way – with students of the game and students in the classroom (remember when?..) – and they will stay as the program continues to reload and build to its former self, at least. 

    Jacobson and Kyryl, with Famous and Vargas saying no, are the pillars of size and strength now and into the next year or more.  Coach Miller of course will take a bonafide C if one happens to come like the Five Freshmen of Influence came last spring and summer, but he’s also ready to see these 2 decent bigs already in the fold develop into something to be tried and true at the 5.  With that, Williams and, perhaps, Perry are at the 4, and Horne, Hill and Parrom go back and forth between the 4 and 3.  Perry, you never know, could find a home at the 3 himself. 

    And once S. Johnson sets foot on campus, look out.  Sidiki could conceivably spell J, K and W, or play in tandem with these guys, if only for a year or so.  That’s if Williams can resist the temptation of that big payday ahead, putting it off for a year, maybe two.  Bottomline: The frontline is and will be solid, and built in the image of Coach Miller, literally.  

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