University of Texas Photo
There was a time new Kentucky assistant basketball coach Jai Lucas was considered the next great point guard at Kentucky. Then UK coach Tubby Smith was recruiting Lucas and forward Patrick Patterson, both McDonald’s All-Americans, as the centerpiece of what he thought would a future national championship team.
“I had made my mind up,” said Lucas. “I wanted to commit and sign early (in November) but my dad held me off so I could see the team play and how the season panned out.”
That turned out to be wise advice from his father, John, because Smith left after the season to become head coach at Minnesota. Kentucky offered the job to Billy Donovan but eventually hired Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie.
Patterson went ahead and signed with UK and Gillispie. Lucas signed with Florida and Donovan, not UK.
So considering the disaster that Gillispie turned out to be before getting fired after two seasons, what did Lucas know that Patterson didn’t?
“I knew coach Gillipsie. He had recruited me a little big growing up (in Texas) for A&M,” Lucas said. “I just didn’t think I would fit how he played.
“For Patrick, it was still close for him and his family (because he was from Huntington, W.Va.). It made sense for him. It was a bigger risk for me than Patrick.”
Gillipsie did make a home visit with Lucas. What was that like?
“The home visit was good. He talked about how he saw me playing and how he let his team play,” Lucas said. “I did a lot of research on my recruiting. He never liked or played smaller guards. I was smaller and that was a big thing for me not coming to Kentucky.”
Lucas has stayed in contact with Patterson, who just finished his 10th season in the NBA. He used to see him often when Patterson was with the Houston Rockets and had training camp in Austin, Texas, where they would connect.
“We talk through social media every now and then. We were really close during the recruiting process, especially down the stretch. I would say that we probably communicated about it every day, especially down the stretch. But we were really tied together because a lot of schools, two main schools Florida and Kentucky, when they were recruiting us,” Lucas said.
“I think the biggest thing about it was, down the stretch we communicated a lot and when I had decided –- I believe that I decided before him, maybe –- and I think after that I really tried to push him to come with me.”
Once Lucas took the job on John Calipari’s staff he got a message from Patterson telling him he was “finally doing the right things” even if it took him years to do it.
Lucas admits he never forgot what Kentucky basketball is about even if he went to Florida and then transferred to Texas.
“This place has left an impact on me ever since I took a visit and just through the whole recruiting process. If you’re about basketball and everything that comes with it and the whole experience of college basketball, it’s hard to say no to Kentucky,” Lucas said.
Well, maybe it was not that hard with Gillispie as coach but who can blame him for that.
