There's a plethora of teams vying for the services of prospect DeAndre Daniels, and rightfully so given his No. 10 overall ranking by Rivals in the recruiting class of 2011. And since every other prospect even remotely close to that list has signed, Daniels especially stands out as a rare commodity for teams with scholarships to burn. Yet of all the teams on Daniels' potential list, the Kansas Jayhawks stand out for being the best playing opportunity for him.
It's the opportunity to impact a high level team that stands out as the primary reason why Daniels should sign with Bill Self's squad. After all, the loss of post players like Marcus Morris and Markieff Morris create a major hole along the baseline. Even with the additions of recruits like Jamari Traylor and the return of Thomas Robinson, there's still plenty of playing time and scoring opportunities down low. For Daniels to score major minutes as a freshman at such a high level program is a unique opportunity that should prove difficult to pass up.
The same can be said for having Danny Manning in house, the KU assistant coach. As one of the best players in Jayhawks history, Manning can certainly speak from experience of being a top player at Kansas. But even more so, it's his years of mentoring recent lottery big men like Darrell Arthur, Julian Wright, Cole Aldrich or even the Morris twins that provide solid evidence that KU has a knack for creating NBA caliber big men.
Perhaps Texas could also make a strong case with the loss of Jordan Hamilton and Tristan Thompson to the draft, yet even Self wins in that match-up given KU's continued dominance in the Big 12 and ability to play deep into the NCAA Tournament. While some programs offer one of the aforementioned opportunities, Kansas sparkles as a dream destination for Daniels -- a player who has waited so long, you'd believe his chances were long gone. Instead, his best option still lies before him.
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