Weekend visit slate is relatively light
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Newman still No. 1 in expanded 2015 rankings
It's time to take our weekly look at who is headed where. For the most part, it is a relatively slow weekend on the visit front. No.3 Stanley Johnson will take his first visit to Arizona where he'll be joined by No. 4 Cliff Alexander, though, and in College Station, Texas A&M will have a nice group as the Aggies take on Alabama in the weekend's most anticipated football game.
First official lined up for Johnson
The highest ranked player making a visit this weekend is 2014's No. 3 overall player Stanley Johnson. The 6-foot-7 five-star prospect from Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei is headed to Tucson to visit with Sean Miller and the Arizona Wildcats. He won't be alone, though, as the nation's No. 4 player Cliff Alexander will join him.
The visit will be Johnson's first official visit and it comes after the beastly wing hosted Miller and his staff for an in-home visit on Monday night. By all accounts, the Wildcats are very much in the thick of things for Johnson and with each visit they are gaining traction.
Johnson confirmed to Rivals.com earlier in the week that he would not sign early and the only other official visit he has set is to Kentucky. Florida, Kansas, Oregon, USC and UCLA are also involved but as of now the race appears to be the tighest between both Wildcats programs with the Trojans as a dark horse candidate.
An explosive 6-foot-9 power forward out of Chicago (Ill.) Curie, Alexander is a monster in his own right. The five-star has already been to DePaul for an official visit and still has trips to Illinois, Kansas and Memphis lined up. The Wildcats haven't ever been considered a favorite, but Sean Miller is among the top closers in the business and he'll certainly be doing everything in his power to improve his standing with big Cliff.
A&M and Johnny Football pack them in
Easily the most anticipated college football game of the weekend is Texas A&M hosting number one Alabama. College Station is sure to be rocking and Billy Kennedy and the hoops staff have an important hoops weekend ahead of them.
The two official visitors are five-star wing Justise Winslow and four-star point guard Alex Robinson. They are both in-state kids and major targets. Also swinging by (unofficially) is another four-star senior from within the state, big man Elbert Robinson.
Stopping by from the class of 2015 are more in-state studs. Big man Elijah Thomas is a five-star prospect while four-star combo forward D.J. Hogg is a top 50 player. Another 2015 Texas product expected is emerging big man Chris Harris from Houston and the visitor list is rounded out by four-star shooting guard Brandon Sampson from Louisiana.
Big weekend in West Lafayette
Another program hosting a big visit weekend is Purdue. The Boilermakers are hosting Notre Dame for a night game and Matt Painter and his staff have assembled a strong group of visitors.
Purdue has long been considered the favorite for Rivals150 wing Vince Edwards and the Ohio native will be on commitment watch after his weekend. Also set to visit is intriguing three-star forward Ronnie Harrell from Denver (Colo.) East.
On top of those guys, there is a big group of underclassmen expected. Newly minted 2015 five-star big man Tyler Davis will make his way all the way up from Texas. Also on hand will be four-star junior point guards Hyron Edwards and Glynn Watson. Rounding out the visitors list are Devin Cannady (2015), Barret Benson (2016), Skylar Nash (2016), D.J. Wilkins (2017), Justin Roberts (2017) and Kris Wilkes (2017).
Commitment watch
The most obvious person to keep an eye on this weekend is the nation's No. 33 player Tyler Ulis. After taking his final two official visits to Michigan State and Kentucky over the weekend the four-star point guard will announce his decision Friday night. At this point, the odds are heavily in John Calipari's favor. Iowa has worked Ulis the longest and has a great relationship but it would be a surprise to see Ulis pick the Hawkeyes and the Spartans are bringing in Rivals150 point guards Lourawls Nairn and Riley LaChance this weekend.
This time it is for sure, Robert Johnson will have a decision soon. The four-star combo guard from Virginia takes his final official visit this weekend to Florida State. The high scoring guard has already set an announcement date for next Friday where he'll choose from between the Seminoles, Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia.
Earlier this week Duke offered four-star power forward Reid Travis. Given that the power forward from Minneapolis (Minn.) DeLaSalle immediately set an official visit, things appear to be looking very good for the Blue Devils. Previously believed to be leaning in the direction of Stanford, Reid has generated a lot of Duke talk and it wouldn't be a huge surprise if he makes up his mind shortly after his visit to Durham. At a minimum, there seems to be a lot of momentum in the Blue Devils favor.
Finally, it could be jumping the gun a little to put him on commitment watch but we'll be watching Terry Larrier closely over the weekend. The top 50 small forward is visiting VCU and Shaka Smart's Rams have been considered the behind the scenes leader for a while. Smart and his staff have been very good about closing guys while on campus and Larrier would be a monster score. The Rams also host talented three-star power forward Michael Gilmore this weekend.
More weekend visits
Illinois - Michael Finke (2014), Aaron Jordan (2015), Charles Matthews (2015),D.J. Williams (2015), Nojel Eastern (2017)
Kansas State - Nate Mason, Tobi Okefor
Nebraska - Bryant Crawford (2015)
Sacred Heart - Vince Fritz
St. Joseph's - Peyton Allen
Utah State - Ty Charles
VCU - Michael Gilmore, Terry Larrier
Virginia Tech - T.J. Lang
Wichita State - Stephen Hurt, Omar Sherman
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