College Basketball Recruiting: Julius Randle Trims List to Six

Julius Randle, Rivals' No. 1 high school basketball player in the class of 2013, has trimmed his list to six schools—Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Oklahoma and Texas.

The news came from his high school's Twitter feed:

"

Julius Randle narrows to 6: Kentucky, NC State, Florida, Texas, Kansas, OU.

— PCAAthletics (@PCAAthletics) October 2, 2012"

It was later confirmed by Randle's mother, who told Ben Roberts of the Lexington Herald-Leader of the news via text:

"

Julius Randle's mother, Carolyn Kyles, also just texted me to say Randle has cut the list to six. What a day for UK recruits.

— Ben Roberts (@NextCats) October 2, 2012"

Randle removed two Tobacco Road basketball powerhouses—Duke and North Carolina, two teams that he has spoken very highly of in recent interviews. 

Take, for example, his blog with USA Today. Randle talked about North Carolina in part two of the interview process and Duke in part three, and you'd be hard pressed to find something negative in either of those two articles.

And yet, less than a month later, Randle removed them from his list.

What may be more surprising is that Randle kept North Carolina State, a school that has always played third fiddle to Duke and UNC.

There is a heavy Midwest lean to the rest of Randle's list, with Florida, Kentucky and North Carolina State being the only teams outside of the Big 12 conference. 

Randle has announced he will wait until spring to make his collegiate decision.