College Basketball: Duke, Kentucky Go Head-to-Head for 2 Quality Big Men

The recruiting battle between Duke and Kentucky is heating up for two top basketball recruits in the class of 2012.

The Wildcats have offered Mitch McGary a scholarship, and are recruiting Perry Ellis very hard.

Mitch McGary, a 6'10" power forward out of Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, is ranked in the top five of the 2012 recruiting class by a number of services.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that Kentucky assistant Orlando Antigua has been seen at all of Ellis’s games on the summer recruiting circuit.

Ellis, a 6’8” versatile forward in the mold of Grant Hill, has been the Kansas high school player of the year three years running.

Jeff Capel formed a relationship with Ellis while he was head coach at Oklahoma, and he has continued to recruit Ellis since his return to Duke as an assistant coach.

In his three years at Kentucky, John Calipari has had the number one recruiting class each year, and might he be making a splash with his fourth next year.

Not only is he the best recruiter, Calipari has the most NBA lottery picks of any program in his three years at Kentucky. John Wall (first), DeMarcus Cousins (fifth) and Patrick Patterson (fourteenth) were all taken in the lottery of the 2010 draft. Eric Bledsoe (18th) and Daniel Orton (29th) were also taken in the first round.

This past draft saw Enes Kanter and Brandon Knight drafted in the top ten and senior Josh Harrellson taken in the second round.

UConn, Florida, Indiana, Texas and Villanova, as well as Duke, are in the mix for McGary, but with Calipari’s track record, it is hard to see why any recruit would say no to him, unless their position has already been filled at Kentucky.

Duke is in dire need of productive big men, as Mason Plumlee may turn professional after next season and his older brother Miles will have used up his eligibility.

Kentucky has four five-star recruits coming in for next season, and they are all expected to spend only one year in Lexington. Darius Miller is a senior, and super sophomore Terrence Jones is also expected to declare for the 2012 NBA draft.

This means that Kentucky will have a lot of scholarships to dish out to a very talented recruiting class (2012).

A lot of hearts will be broken, like Washington Huskies fans' were last year when Calipari swiped two quality recruits from under the nose of Lorenzo Romar.

Enes Kanter was ruled ineligible due to previously playing for a professional club abroad, but Terrence Jones was a stud for the Wildcats, although he faded at the end of the season.

If Duke loses McGary that might be okay, but Perry Ellis has "Duke written all over him," to quote a reader.