Monday, September 8, 2008

Gillespie in on 7-footer?

Here I was thinking that UK was done with recruiting. Now it turns out that they may be trying to bring in Jorge Diaz, a 7-footer who has played for Puerto Rico's junior national team.

Diaz had been committed to play for Nebraska. However, because his first language is Spanish, Nebraska requires that he demonstrate English proficiency to get into college. Meanwhile, Diaz has already been approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Diaz was scheduled to take the exam for English as a second language, known as the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), but a computer glitch at his school meant that he couldn't take the exam when it was scheduled.

Since Nebraska has higher standards than the NCAA Clearinghouse, it is possible that Diaz might not be admitted. The University of Kentucky has said that it is prepared to try to get Diaz into school so that he could play for Billy Gillespie.

Reminds me a lot of the snags that Georgia had with recruits a few years ago. It seems that the former University of Georgia recruit who was later admitted to Memphis, has been playing there, and playing well, for years.

Well, UK doesn't need any extra help in the post, in my opinion, so I hope that either Diaz gets into Nebraska, or that he announces that he would rather play in sunny Georgia, closer to home.

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