Terrence Jones to Kentucky! Best class ever?

Oh, my goodness! With only a couple of hours remaining in the spring signing period, Terrence Jones has decommitted from Washington and will be a Kentucky Wildcat next season. If you have followed the recruitment of Jones, then all you can say at this point is, "Wow."

Jones, ranked #13 overall on the 2010 Rivals 150, is a skilled 6'-9" power forward from Portland, Ore. with a game often compared to that of Lamar Odom. Jones will instantly jump into the starting PF spot that I had penciled Eloy Vargas into a couple of days ago, and he is probably good enough that the Wildcats will not experience a drop-off in production from the power forward spot, even with the departure of Patrick Patterson.

In Blue Blindness' opinion, this development makes Kentucky a legitimate Final Four contender for the 2010-2011 season, and it also gives the Wildcats quite possibly (on paper, at least) the best recruiting class of all time. No joke.

Kentucky's recruiting class last year was argued by many experts to be either the best or second-best class ever, with the only competition coming from Michigan's Fab Five. Though this year's class lacks a talent like John Wall or DeMarcus Cousins, Brandon Knight and Enes Kanter are close, and the bottom of this year's class looks to be significantly better than last year's. Let's take a look at the two classes, according to Rivals.com rankings:

Kentucky's 2009 class:

#1: John Wall, PG

#2: DeMarcus Cousins, PF/C

#22: Daniel Orton, PF/C

#23: Eric Bledsoe, PG

#40: Jon Hood, SG/SF

UR: Darnell Dodson, SG/SF (he was unranked because he was a JUCO transfer, but Jerry Meyer had him pegged as being a high four-star prospect and would have been ranked around #40)

Kentucky's 2010 class:

#3: Enes Kanter, PF/C

#6: Brandon Knight, PG

#13: Terrence Jones, PF

#21: Doron Lamb, SG

#33: Stacey Poole, SG/SF

UR: Eloy Vargas, PF (like Dodson, Eloy Vargas is a JUCO transfer from Miami Dade CC; he was ranked #26 in 2008)

We will have to wait and see if any of the 2010 recruits end up becoming big stars like Wall or Cousins, or like Michigan's Chris Webber, Juwon Howard, and Jalen Rose, but I am confident in prognosticating that, top to bottom, the 2010 Kentucky recruiting class is stronger than last year's version. The scary thing is, Kentucky already has verbal commitments from the top two players in 2011, Mike Gilchrist and Marquis Teague. Those two are on the same level as Wall and Cousins from a talent standpoint. It is highly likely that Kentucky will have the top recruiting class in the country for three years in a row, and that each class is better than the last.

While Kentucky fans celebrate tonight, Washington fans are surely in mourning. Jones was slated to team up with Isaiah Thomas, Terrence Ross, and Abdul Gaddy to form quite a foursome for Lorenzo Romar's squad, which is coming off an impressive Sweet Sixteen run in this year's NCAA tournament. The Huskies' loss is the Wildcats' gain, however, and Kentucky certainly has the look, now, of a top five team. There will not be a more talented team in the country from an NBA prospect standpoint, and they should definitely be in the discussion of potential national champions, along with Duke, Michigan State, and Purdue.

For Kentucky fans who follow recruiting, May 19 will go down as the night when the 'Cats went from a top 15 team to a top five team in a matter of seconds. When the destinies of contending teams are placed in the hands of 17-18 year old kids, you're always in for a wild ride!