Kentucky Sports Radio

If you’ve been too busy this weekend to check in on things around the KSR camp, you might not be fully aware of just how school-girlishly giddy Matt Jones is today. Between UK’s epic road win last night, Big Blue Madness on Friday and the Beisnerization of Louisville last night, our boss man is in the rarest of moods.

However, if we were to hold a KSR version of “Best Week Ever,” Jones certainly wouldn’t be a lock to win it all. Kyrie Irving could probably give him a run for his money. Irving left Lexington yesterday afternoon as the first of the Madness visitors to depart (his early departure was based on the fact that he was the first recruit to arrive in Lexington, touching down on Thursday).

I was lucky enough to get to talk to Kyrie during his trip back to New Jersey and am now able to write up a bit about our discussion. But first I want to preface this post by saying that at the time when I was able to get in contact with Kyrie, I was running late to one of my closest friend’s weddings and the tweets I sent out last night about Kyrie were literally done just as the first of the wedding party was walking down the aisle. So from my perspective, this weekend was both a glorious time and complete whirlwind of rushing to and fro, making phone calls during any bit of free time. I was able to go from watching Madness on Friday night to spending the latter part of a wedding reception on Saturday night watching Kentucky get a hard fought road win against Auburn (which, by the way, had about 20-30 UK fans in attendance do C-A-T-S Cats Cats Cats right in the middle of the reception dining room).

What that all boils down to is me asking for your forgiveness when I tell you that I’m able to pass along the crux of my conversation with Kyrie but, because I was recorder-less at the time, I won’t be able to give you guys any direct quotes from young Mr. Irving. That said, here’s the basics of how Kyrie’s trip went:

- Kyrie arrived in Lexington on Thursday and his visit was “hosted” by John Wall. Wall took Kyrie to class with him on Thursday and Irving seemed to get along quite nicely with John.

- Irving said that he was able to get a few good looks at how the team was functioning and practicing together and was impressed by how good they looked.

- Kyrie also got to spend some time with Tobias Harris during the trip and those two got along quite nicely as well. Late on Friday night Kyrie and Tobias both tweeted about hanging out together, cracking jokes and having a great time just hanging out. If Kentucky’s wish list is fulfilled and both Harris and Irving end up in Lexington, those two would probably be very close friends during their time together at Kentucky. They do know each other from both being top prospects from the Northeast and UK being able to have both together during their official visits to Lexington, along with another close friend in Gilchrist, seemed to provide an extra comfort level that Irving, as well as Harris and Gilchrist, probably gained from.

- Irving’s much publicized trip to Duke, which went great from the Blue Devils’ perspective, begged me to ask Kyrie some questions comparing the two. Irving told me that his Kentucky trip was “right up there” with the trip to Durham. He said that both provided a great experience for him and not a lot about the Duke visit seemed to completely overshadow anything about his Kentucky visit. The lone point that did seem to favor Duke was the “homey” or “home-like” feeling that Kyrie felt while he was on Duke’s campus. When I asked Kyrie if he had that same feeling in Lexington, it was the only time that he wasn’t quite as quick to say that Kentucky had matched Duke. In my own opinion, I feel like this point may be the one thing that gives Duke some edge when it comes down to decision time.

- While Duke probably leads in the category of giving Kyrie that “home away from home” feeling, I did get the impression that Kentucky had wowed Kyrie with the sheer amount of excitement and buzz that is surrouding the program at this time. I think that Kyrie saw how Kentucky’s players and coaches were given the rock star treatment on Friday night and the thought of getting the chance to join in on that party is something that aids Kentucky’s chances greatly.

- Also, Calipari’s speech on becoming a “player-first” program probably spoke volumes to a kid like Kyrie. Remember that Kyrie also has the dream of graduating with a degree in Journalism. I’m sure that Kyrie enjoyed hearing Cal speak about his belief in the education of his players and how he would like players that leave early to be given the opportunity to graduate.

- Finally, I asked Kyrie about his last two visits and whether he plans on taking those two or if he had enough information at this point to make a decision. His answer was that he now plans on taking it day to day and hadn’t decided yet on whether he would make any more visits.

So, at this point, I would say that it’s definitely not as easy to give the edge to Duke. They still seem to lead in giving Kyrie the “home-like” atmosphere, but Kentucky also wowed Kyrie on some levels as well. It remains to be seen whether any more schools will get the opportunity that Duke, Kentucky and Texas A&M have received and I’m not confident in saying that he will for sure take all five of his official visits. As he has been saying all summer, Kyrie again confirmed that his Twitter followers will be the first to know when he makes the call, so make sure that you’re following Kyrie over the next few weeks.

*Also make sure that you’re following along with my twitter as well.