[LeeCoUKFan]

After latest visit , Barker's done "complete 180" on UK

Justin Rowland
Special to CatsIllustrated.com

Drew Barker almost seems surprised himself that he's so interested in Kentucky these days. The long-time UK basketball fan is singing a much different tune than he was months ago.

Cats Illustrated has reported that Kentucky has made up a lot of ground with the four-star Conner signal-caller. South Carolina and Ohio State are schools many believe to be in strong positions with the 6-foot-3, 210-pound quarterback. Now you can consider Kentucky part of that group.

Barker attended Kentucky's junior day over the weekend and spent plenty of time with the coaches even though he had to leave early so he could return home for a basketball game with his high school team. He spent a lot of time with fellow recruits like Derek Kief, Nacarius Fant and Elijah Bell, but for a while he was with the coaches in a more personal setting.

"They took me off on my own for a while," Barker said. "It was me, Coach (Mark) Stoops, Coach (Neal) Brown and my dad. We were in Coach Stoops' office for the majority of the time because I had to cut out of there and they wanted to make sure I got to spend time with coach Stoops.

"Basically he was telling me how big a priority I am and how hard they're going to recruit me. He said how important I am to him and the rest of the staff. They said I'm their number one priority and they're not going to offer any other quarterbacks until I tell them no or give them a reason to. It was definitely encouraging to hear that."

It was Barker's second trip to Kentucky since Stoops assumed control of the program.

"It seems like every time I go down there I keep building a better relationship with them and I get to meet more of the coaches," he said. "This time I got to hang out more with Coach (Tommy) Mainord and Coach (Chad) Scott, the running backs coach. I was just building a relationship with all the coaches. I was hanging out with coach Stoops and coach Brown like always.

"It seems like all the coaches have a connection. Some of them started at Kentucky and some of them have coached at the same school. They all have ties together, which is pretty cool. They're all young and can definitely relate to us younger guys."

During the junior day the coaches split the recruits up into three groups.

The recruits toured the Center for Academic and Tutorial Services and while there Barker had a chance to meet Morgan Newton. Then they boarded the bus and went to check out the locker room and the weight training facilities.

"We just talked about some of the things they're doing and they showed us power points of their new strength and conditioning stuff," he said. "What they're doing is pretty remarkable. Then they had an academic rep talk to us. That was pretty much it besides just hanging out with everybody."

The one lingering question remains: Just how much ground has Kentucky made up?

"I was actually talking about this with Coach Stoops and Coach Brown," he said. "I was telling them how Kentucky has done a complete 180. I went from kind of a, 'I'm never going to go there,' almost the way Jason Hatcher was talking. I saw some of the comments from him like, 'Kentucky will never be good in the SEC.' But when coach Stoops came it was a complete 180. They really started coming at me, saying I was their number one guy and how big of a priority I was to them.

"You want to go where you're wanted. It would definitely be a good fit. I don't really have any leaders or anything yet. I'll probably figure that out in the spring soon after basketball season's over. But they've definitely come a long way and I could definitely see myself there."

At one point during the trip Barker tweeted a question, perhaps intended as a rhetorical: He asked his followers whether they preferred a picture of him wearing a white Kentucky jersey or a picture wearing a black jersey.

So which did he prefer?

"I don't know man," he said with a laugh. "I like their uniforms. They're sweet. I would probably say the black one."

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1470805