Tracking Calipari: UK coach visiting several top recruits this week

A busy weekend in Brooklyn has carried over to an even busier week of recruiting trips for UK Coach John Calipari, who will have visited with several five-star prospects from the class of 2017 by the end of the day Wednesday.

After spending the weekend at Nike and Under Armour events, Calipari started the work week in Tampa, Fla., for an in-home visit with highly touted small forward Kevin Knox, who received a scholarship offer from the Wildcats as a result of the trip.

Knox — a 6-foot-8 player who is ranked No. 6 in the class by Scout.com — already had offers from Duke and North Carolina, among others, before Calipari’s visit.

On Tuesday, the UK coach flew to Huntsville, Ala., to see five-star wing John Petty, who was the first player from the class of 2017 to land a scholarship offer from UK. That offer came last spring, and Calipari has been to Alabama to see the 6-6 prospect several times since.

Calipari is expected to head northeast Wednesday for sit-downs with top-10 recruits Mohamed Bamba and Hamidou Diallo, both natives of New York.

Bamba — a 6-11 post prospect playing for Westtown School (Pa.) — drew rave reviews from recruiting analysts for his play on the Nike circuit over the weekend. He was one of the first players in the class to earn a UK scholarship offer.

Diallo — a 6-5 shooting guard at Putnam Science Academy (Conn.) — has played in front of UK’s coaches several times over the past year, including last week at the Nike event. He earned a Duke scholarship offer Tuesday, and it’s widely expected that Calipari will follow suit during his visit Wednesday.

The UK coach will get a short break Thursday — a one-day “quiet” period on the recruiting calendar — before heading back to the gym for the final April evaluation period this weekend. Calipari is likely to spend most of the weekend in Indianapolis, site of the Nike event featuring nearly all of UK’s top recruiting targets for next year.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 9:19 PM with the headline "Tracking Calipari: UK coach visiting several top recruits this week."