Xavier Henry may wind up at Kentucky when all is said and done.
Henry, the 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Putnam City (OK) Putnam High, is having second thoughts about playing for Bill Self at Kansas and still could end up playing with friends for Kentucky coach John Calipari.
“If it wasn’t for his momma saying that ‘I would not go to Kentucky, I would not move down to Kentucky,’ Xavier would have been at Kentucky,’” Carl Henry told the Chris and Cowboy show on 610-AM in Kansas City. “He would have been at Kentucky. So Xavier says, ‘I’m going to go to Kansas.’ Even though that’s what he wanted to do is go to Kentucky, play under Coach Cal. That’s what he wanted to do. I expressed this to (Kansas) coach (Bill) Self. I told him.”
He added: “Kid might have a change of mind,” Carl Henry said. “That’s what I tell coach Self. If he has a change of mind, so what? So be it. He has a change of mind.”
Perhaps fearing the worst, Kansas coaches reached out to Brooklyn Lincoln guard Lance Stephenson within the last week.
But Stephenson has signed a financial aid agreement with Cincinnati of the Big East, a story first reported by SNY.tv on Tuesday.
Ironically, Kansas, which once had its choice of Stephenson or Henry, may now end up with neither.
Xavier Henry initially committed to Memphis to play with his older brother C.J., a walk-on who missed last year with an injury. He signed a Letter of Intent with Memphis and cannot sign a second one.
When Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky, several players followed him there, including former Memphis leans John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins and Memphis commit Darnell Dodson.
During the Jordan Brand Classic in New York in April, Cousins was vocal in trying to get both Henry and Wall to follow him to Kentucky. Wall eventually did.
Henry chose Kansas, where both his parents attended.
Carl told the radio station that Wall and Kentucky commit Daniel Orton continue to get in touch with Xavier about coming to Kentucky.
The father said that Xavier told him “a couple weeks ago” that he was interested in Kentucky and Carl said he called Calipari then
“When my son told me that, I reached out one time,” Carl Henry said. “I called Coach Cal to see if he had a scholarship.”
Henry has not reported to summer school at Kansas, but his father said in a recent newspaper interview that his sons would be on campus in mid-August.
That same article in the Kansas City Star quoted Carl saying Xavier looked into possibly playing in Europe next year, but opted against it.
The article has apparently upset the Henry family and may contribute to them bolting Kansas.
“The guy who wrote that story kind of betrayed my whole family and kind of made us look bad, like my kids are prima donnas, all I do is talk.” he said.
Reports indicated Self and Kansas assistant Danny Manning were headed to Oklahoma Tuesday night to meet with the Henry family.
Carl also said his family had a meeting planned.
“We have a meeting set up tonight where we’re going to set down and talk about this whole deal,” he said.
(Radio quotes from Carl Henry appeared in the AP and Louisville Courier Journal)
I called Xavier going to Ky….and I called Self talking him out of it …..face it … I’m a genius on these matters ….now where are all the idiots who were saying yesterday that Ku didn’t Xavier …that Xavier was too slow …that Ku was better without him …….you guys are hypocrites to the max
I made a prediction of 90/10 …… that prediction yesterday was in the 90 percentile range …then based upon new info ….I changed my prediction to Self talking him out of it 50/50 …which also was correct …..I never said 100% that Xavier was leaving ….so I was right twice ….as usual . Do any of you even have a college degree ? This is simple statistical math and logic.
No your an idiot, oh and very, very wrong. I will take an apology when you are ready. KU fans present ass for pasta to kiss.
Simple statistical math and logic huh? LOL.
couldn’t agree more memtiger87. we could be like usc, but we are not. our athletic department did a great job picking a young energetic head coach who is a disciple from lute olson. sure he may not have coaching experience(head coaching experience is what i mean), but everyone has to learn sometime. look at the job anthony grant did at VCU when he left florida for VCU. not only did they spawn a 1 round talent in Eric Maynor, they upsetted duke, which was a 2 seed at the time. anthony was young and inexperienced as a head coach, but now he has a multi-million dollar deal at alabama thanx to VCU taking a risk on an unproven head coach. same could happen for memphis, especially when we are a better program than VCU and already have the bartons locked up with the potential to add more. pastner will prob snare in the key memphis area recruits as he can do something pasta’s beloved cal could never do: recruit the local talent. he let players like elliot williams(who is now back at memphis thanx to a tragedy, and pastner knows how to recruit local talent) and j.p. prince(who signed with arizona while pastner was there…ironic, then transferred to tennessee and upset number one ranked memphis at home). cal may want a national recruiting base but u have to keep the hometown happy which is what pasnter and other top programs such as Duke, UNC, UCLA, and Pitt are doing. look forward to 2010 and that astronomical recruiting class
coleman wanted to stay at memphis because he believes in integrity, which is a trait he shares with pastner. we don’t need bledsoe now. didn’t want lance that much..brings an investigation with him. and that french guy ur talking about is named Martin Ngalaro. a true memphis fan knows that. and he plays for the french national team. u know the same one that plays in the olympics and FIBA tournaments. Latavious will qualify and be a major presence on the court
resorting to name calling doesn’t improve ur shitty argument pasta. we don’t need another alcoholic coach, i.e. cal. we are happy to have a free spirited and passionate coach who doesn’t need coffee or caffeine shots to hop around the court.
pasnter was smart to let stephenson go elsewhere. his arrival would have only brought more vacated wins. i’ll take timid over reckless and stupid any day of the week. pastner saved us from another ncaa investigation. r.c. johnson did too. seems like our AD is wising up after years of being run over by cal
which he wont u jackass. lance didn’t guarantee us anything besides more heartache. glad we backed off of him. we won’t eek into the top 25. we will start the season from there. it may be step backwards, but u always have to step back to see the big picture. and tht picture for us is continued success. watch out for us leaping over ur infant head soon
couldnt have said it better myself memtiger87. keep up the good work