Mr. Patterson is heading to Lexington.
The 6-8 power forward chose the Wildcats over Florida today, stating that playing close to home was the reason for his decision. Duke was also in the running, although several reports earlier today stated that his decision was going to come down to the two SEC schools.
This is a great pull for new 'Cats head coach Billy Gillespie, who went through "Black Monday" just two days ago. On that day Kentucky lost three prized recruits: Jai Lucas to Florida, Beas Hamga to UNLV and Michael Sanchez to the Arkansas Razorbacks.
As I said yesterday, we can't win 'em all...although we've had a nice run of doing just that.
So the book is now closed on the 2007 basketball recruiting campaign; This is how your Florida Gators class looks now that it is all said and done, courtesy of Rivals:
Two five star recruits and three four star recruits make up the five incoming freshman that will be attempting to make an impact with this team next season. This is a top-five class in the country, probably top-five, on top of being the best in the SEC. I'd say that the Florida basketball program remains in fine form, even with the majority of the production from last season's squad gone for good.
Sure, it's disappointing to see a recruit like Patterson slip away. But what do we have to be that upset about? The Gators are still in pretty good shape headed into next season thanks to a great recruiting effort by Coach Donovan and company over the last several months.
Back-to-back champions plus a great outlook on the future with a very good class from top to bottom? I'll take that over placing all of your hopes on getting one certain recruit any day of the week.
Go Gators!