SPORTS

Live Blog | Signing day recruiting updates

Jonathan Lintner
@JonathanLintner
Perry "P.J." Dozier

Refresh this page (or click here) for updates Wednesday as the NCAA's early signing period for basketball players gets under way.

1:50 p.m. -- News has slowed since the P.J. Dozier decision. Shutting this down now, but continue following our Twitter ticker above for the latest from Courier-Journal writers and national analysts on news from around the country.

1:30 p.m.-- It's a special day for the U of L women's basketball program, and that's all coach Jeff Walz had to tweet this morning to get his name trending locally on Twitter. Who would have ever thought the Cards' women's program would matter so much on signing day?

1:25 p.m. -- Now that P.J. Dozier is out of the picture, U of L has an extra scholarship heading into the spring. We'll find out later if coach Rick Pitino plans to use it.

Losing Dozier to South Carolina won't drop the Cards in recruiting rankings. They're No. 3 by Scout.com.

12:51 p.m. -- The late buzz was warranted. P.J. Dozier will stay home and play for South Carolina.

Curt Wheeler, Dozier's AAU coach, told Scout.com's Evan Daniels the reasoning was "opportunity to stay home and help change the culture of the program like the top football players from South Carolina did."

"Coach (Frank) Martin and the athletic department have a plan in place to help the basketball program move forward. P.J. would be the face of the program. Coach Evans has done a great job recruiting P.J. & building a relationship with him."

12:25 p.m. -- P.J. Dozier's announcement is expected now at 12:45 p.m. from his Spring Valley High School in South Carolina.

No, we don't know which school he'll pick. But you can watch it live below (or by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1B939T4).

If there are quotes to pass on, we will after the announcement.

12:15 p.m. -- One recruiting analyst isn't buying the Skal Labissiere report. The prospect is likely to commit and sign with UK over Memphis, the hometown school. Tweeted Clint Jackson, who covers recruiting for Rivals.com: "Here comes the backlash from Memphis bird dogs on Skal. Kentucky wins this one and the onslaught has already begun."

12:05 p.m. -- CBS Sports' Gary Parrish is reporting, through an AAU coach, that Skal Labissiere's guardian has asked before, "How can I make money off of a basketball player?"

That man, Gerald Hamilton, has worked diligently to find the UK recruit a way to play after he's attended two high schools and played for a trio of summer programs. As Parrish wrote, "The so-called red flags are numerous."

Read the full piece here: http://cbsprt.co/10ZEQqj

11:56 a.m. -- Not long from P.J. Dozier's decision, there's some serious buzz about him staying at home and playing for South Carolina rather than U of L.

"Some intrigue just prior to announcement," tweeted Jerry Meyer of 247sports.com. "Wouldn't be a shocker if USC pulled it off."

But, Meyer pointed out, there was also some of this when Trey Lyles' camp toyed with U of L fans before he pulled a UK hat out last year.

11:34 a.m. -- The U of L women's program is on the brink of signing the nation's No. 1 class and may announce it as final today. Coach Jeff Walz is scheduled to speak at a press conference at noon Thursday, where he'll likely comment on five prospects, including top-rated Atlanta guard Asia Durr.

10:53 a.m. -- If Antonio Blakeney ends up at UK, it won't be during the Early Period. Scout.com reports Blakeney, who visited LSU last weekend and is also considering Missouri, won't sign until the spring. He was committed to U of L temporarily before re-opening his recruitment.

10:32 a.m. -- Good news, UK fans. Scout.com's Evan Daniels, who's based in Kentucky, tweeted that Thursday is "going to be a very BLUE" day with a reminder of the Isiah Briscoe and Skal Labissiere decisions coming at 6 p.m.

10:28 a.m. -- We're banking on a GoGamecocks.com live stream to check on P.J. Dozier's deicision. See it embedded above or, if on a mobile device, follow this link: http://bit.ly/1B939T4

10:19 a.m. -- How big is today for local recruiting? Just four top 100 players are expected to sign this week, and three of them are considering U of L or UK. Again, we'll hear is P.J. Dozier is headed to U of L first, around 12:30 p.m., before UK prospects Skal Labissiere and Isaiah Briscoe announce after 6 p.m. Thursday on ESPNU.

10:03 a.m. -- Assumption High School announced a list of 11 athletes, including basketball player Nora Kiesler (Purdue) and five volleyball players, who will sign to play college sports this week during the fall signing period.

See the full listing here: http://cjky.it/1sClfmg

9:48 a.m. -- Add Scout.com recruiting analyst Brian Snow to the list of those experts picking P.J. Dozier to U of L over South Carolina.

After writing that Dozier's recruitment has been "a bit interesting," Snow added: "I definitely think that Dozier likes the idea of staying close to home and being the face of a program that is trying to get things turned around. Still I tend to think when it comes down to it he will be more inclined to play for the perceived power program and select Rick Pitino and Louisville."

9:30 a.m. -- Isaiah Briscoe, the top-rated point guard considering UK in his college decision Thursday, hinted in his USA Today blog this week why his decision between St. John's and UK isn't that clear heading into the signing period.

"I shut interviews and media down recently because it was getting to be a little too much, and I was getting tired of answering the same questions," Briscoe wrote. "I was getting annoyed with it. I just wanted to relax and focus on these three schools and think about things."

He then evaluated each school he's thinking about, one by one. UK came last, with Briscoe writing, "At Kentucky, it's basically like a machine of producing players that go to the NBA early; who wouldn't want to be a part of that? Then their whole style of play fits my game perfectly and the support from the fans is crazy there."

9:20 a.m. -- How big would P.J. Dozier be for South Carolina? GamecockCentral.com's Chris Clark pointed out that the home-state kid would be the program's top-rated player to sign, if he does choose over U of L, since Rivals.com began rating prospects.

We previously noted Dozier's decision is expected at 12:45. It's now looking like that's coming at 12:30. We'll have live video available in this post.

9:08 a.m. -- UK, with just a commitment so far from four-star guard Charles Matthews, doesn't register on Scout.com's list of Top 25 classes as of Wednesday morning, where U of L is No. 3. But the Cats are a favorite to land Skal Labissiere during the early period and may have a big spring ahead.

Among the 22 uncommitted top 100 prospects, 12 of them -- all rated 66th or better -- have UK under consideration. And many won't decide until the spring. We're talking names such as Ben Simmons, Ivan Raab, Cheick Diallo, Malik Newman and Stephen Zimmerman.

The five-star center Zimmerman, by the way, is using his fifth and final official visit for a trip this weekend to hometown UNLV. His others were to UK Arizona, Kansas and UCLA.

8:58, a.m. -- Recruiting is the darnedest thing. Fredrick Edmond, a quasi-WKU commitment, proved that again Tuesday night. Before the signing period began, Edmond, a sophomore guard at the College of Southern Idaho, tweeted a picture of himseld and later deleted it.

Why? Well, as The Bowling Green Daily News' Zach Greenwell pointed out, nationalletter.com states that "if you sign an NLI outside the appropriate signing period, the NLI shall be considered invalid." So perhaps the Hilltoppers will still hear good -- and valid news -- from Edmond sometime Wednesday.

WKU's listed commitments are from a pair of Tennessee guards, Chris McNeal and Marlon Hunter.

8:45 a.m. -- Following up on 247Sports.com's positive Crystal Ball predictions pointing P.J. Dozier to U of L, Scout.com's Evan Daniels wrote this morning the guard's decision "will be the biggest news of the day" and described his choice between the Cards and South Carolina as "a toss up."

8:39 a.m. -- U of L commitment Donovan Mitchell is expected to sign Saturday, with Trinity High School's Raymond Spalding to send in his letter today. The Shamrocks will recognize all their basketball signees -- Spalding, Christian Thieneman (Marshall), De'Angelo West (Texas State), Daniel Ramser (Bellarmine) and Jay Murhpy (New York University) -- next week.

(College basketball coaches typically don't comment on their recruiting classes until they've received all expected letters during a given signing period. The "Regular Period" starts April 15.)

8:33 a.m. -- So, whatever happened to Antonio Blakeney? Since breaking his commitment to U of L last month, the star guard has opened his doors to Missouri, UK and LSU, the last of which he visited over the weekend with another former U of L commitment. JaQuan Lyle signed with Oregon but was never granted admission. He's now at IMG Academy looking for a new college.

Ben Simmons, the consensus No. 1-rated player in the 2015 recruiting class, is LSU's only committed player. But perhaps he'll sway a pair of former Cardinals pledges into playing for an SEC rival of the Cats. The forward Simmons was also on campus last weekend and, according to Scout.com's Evan Daniels, will sign his binding letter of intent at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

8:24 a.m. -- We're expecting a decision from U of L prospect P.J. Dozier and 12:45 p.m., followed by announcements from UK prospects Isaiah Briscoe and Skal Labissiere on an ESPNU show after 6 p.m. Thursday. Where do experts think each are going? Thanks to 247sports.com's Crystal Ball feature, that's easy enough to find.

Dozier's landing spot has shifted heavily to U of L in recent days after some buzz of him staying home to attend South Carolina. Of recruiting experts to make their prediction, 67 percent see him as a Cardinal, with 20 percent to North Carolina and 13 percent to USC.

UK appears to have the better chance to land Labissiere, with 81 percent of those weighing in on the Crystal Ball pointing him to the Cats. His other top options are hometown Memphis (16 percent) and UNC (3 percent). Briscoe, meanwhile, remains somewhat of a coin toss, though late speculation has him headed to St. John's, with the Red Storm getting 56 percent of his expert vote followed by UK (37 percent), Arizona (5 percent) and Rutgers (2 percent).

Primer:Through Nov. 19, top high school basketball players both committed and previously uncommitted will be signing to colleges and solidifying their destinations. Most of that, though, will happen Wednesday, with a series of ceremonies and signing shows.

Expect to see hats on the table, possibly with a pair of University of Kentucky prospects – five-star center Skal Labissiere and guard Isaiah Briscoe. For the University of Louisville, guard P.J. Dozier would be the final piece of what's perhaps coach Rick Pitino's best Cardinals recruiting class.

Other programs around the state, as well as Indiana, are expecting signees, too. And we'll update this space with the latest buzz on that throughout the day, led by Courier-Journal recruiting reporter Steve Jones' dispatches.

Any questions? Tweet at us -- @SteveJones_CJ, @JonathanLintner or @sports_cj. We'd be happy to answer questions in this space.

As we wait for news to roll in, a quick look back at preview coverage:

• 24th-rated Dozier could make a good U of L recruiting class great (http://cjky.it/1GOFesx).

• UK awaits decisions by recruits Labissiere, Briscoe (http://cjky.it/1wSQccc).

• Bios for U of L commits Deng Adel, Donovan Mitchell and Raymond Spalding (http://cjky.it/1EAZ0FW) as well as UK commit Charles Matthews (http://cjky.it/1sDhWfM).

• Cards women set to sign their best-ever class (http://cjky.it/1xxaqbj).

• IU-bound recruits Juwaun Morgan and Ogugua Anunoby draw praise from experts (http://cjky.it/1xsACTL).

• Full listing of area college basketball commitments, including Western Kentucky and local players headed out of state (http://cjky.it/1umggvq).

• List of area fall signees to all sports, among them lacrosse, swimming/diving, tennis, cross country, softball, volleyball and golf (http://cjky.it/1qDLDwz).