Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks missed on their first recruit of the day as Trevor Lacey has signed with the Alabama Crimson Tide. Lacey, a 6'4" five star shooting guard will provide a nice boost to an Alabama program that is building into a solid team in the SEC.
For Kansas, Bill Self and the Jayhawks made a late push in the Trevor Lacey recruitment bringing both Lacey and his father to Lawrence over the weekend of May7th. At that time it was believed that Kentucky and Alabama likely led for his services with many on the Kentucky side of things exuding a great deal of confidence due to Brandon Knight's early entry.
Following the visit to Kansas appeared to have convinced both Lacey and his father otherwise. Obviously the return of Terrance Jones to the Wildcats created a bit more competition for minutes in Lexington but the prevailing belief seemed to be that Lacey had become very pro-Kansas since the visit.
At the same time it was always known that home state Alabama had a very strong pull being the home State school and in what seemed like an eleventh hour change, Lacey will stay home. There's certainly something to be said for a player of that caliber resisting the draw of the bigger programs and choosing to help build something at home. Alabama made strides in the SEC a year ago and Lacey certainly helps to continue that progression.
For Bill Self and Kansas the focus shifts to DeAndre Daniels and Jamari Traylor. The Jayhawks will be talented next year either way, but if Kansas misses on all three late targets Bill Self will have to win with a much thinner rotation than he's had the luxury of utilizing in recent year.