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Every college hoops program in the country would welcome 2013 forward Aaron Gordon with open arms. Gordon is a consensus top-10 recruit for the 2013 class and is regarded as the west coast's best prospect.
Late on Thursday night, the 6'8 forward officially trimmed his list down to three schools: Arizona, Kentucky and Washington. California, Kansas and Oregon were the other programs believed to be pursuing Gordon the hardest, but are reportedly no longer in the running.
It's tough to get a real gage on who leads in Gordon's recruitment.
The Washington Huskies once held an early lead, although the fact that Gordon is yet to commit after all this time could be a telling sign of what's to come. And given that UW is already off to a slow start in 2012, they may not be the No. 1 landing spot for the top prospect. Still, though, recruiting is all about relationships and coach Lorenzo Romar has a strong one with the Gordon family.
Arizona has been involved with the five-star forward for many, many months and has seemingly held strong in his recruitment throughout. Coach Sean Miller has been on fire on the recruiting trail the past few years, and there will be plenty of minutes up for grabs in Tucson next season. Gordon recently said he had more fun on his visit to Arizona than any other school.
And then there are the Kentucky Wildcats. Coach John Calipari seemingly picks and chooses the freshmen he wants on his team each year. With this being said, UK already has four elite players committed for 2013, including two who profile similarly to Gordon. Could there be overcrowding in Lexington? It might just convince Gordon to remain on the west coast.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming months. This much is true: whichever program lands Gordon is getting one heck of a basketball player.