Lacy Seems To Be Leaning Towards Gophers

Four-star Milwaukee point guard Johnnie Lacy, who the Gophers officially offered this past week, will be attending the Minnesota basketball camp instead of a similar camp being held at the same time at Marquette, his hometown school.

It has been thought for some time that Marquette was the favorite to land Lacy's services, but after Tom Crean bolted from Marquette to coach Indiana and Buzz Petersen took over, the Golden Eagles' interest in Lacy has reportedly waned. And if that is not the best way to put it, well, Rivals reports that Petersen hasn't really been in contact with Lacy or his coaches.

The Pioneer Press' Marcus Fuller touched on Lacy's recruitment, his decision to attend a U of M camp and the Minnesota offer in a blog post here.

Minnesota is just the second BCS school to offer Lacy (the other obviously being Marquette). Other big names are after the point guard, however, including Purdue and Tennessee. But something, and some have speculated academics, have kept high majors from coming after Lacy en masse.

Lacy is 5'10", 165 pounds and described as a lightning-quick scoring point guard. He's a Rivals 150 player in the class of 2009 and would go along way in Tubby Smith's efforts to shore up the Gophers' point guard situation. The Gophers have also offered Arlington, Tx, point guard Nick Russell, but it seems that almost every high major has offered Russell.

One bit of speculation: Lacy seems to talk very highly of Crean. If Indiana were to make a push for Lacy (and I wonder how Verdell Jones' presence would impact such a decision), I think Crean's relationship might be tough to beat.