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Nash plans to audition for Cats

FATHER EXPECTS GOOD IMPRESSION; REDSHIRT SEASON POSSIBLE

By Jerry Tipton

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Typically, the recruiting process begins with the college coach watching the prospect. If sufficiently impressed, the coach offers a scholarship. The player accepts.

Kentucky's recruitment of small forward Tyrone Nash has not followed form. But it should end with the player accepting UK's scholarship offer by the end of the week.

But first, Nash wants Kentucky coaches to watch him play. The prospect's father saw this exercise as a mere formality.

"They're definitely going to like him," Sidney Nash said of the impression he expects his son to make on the UK coaches this week.

The younger Nash plans to play in a camp in New Jersey. The UK coaches will be in the area to watch prospects in the Reebok A-B-C-D Camp in Teaneck, N.J.

"If they still feel the same way about him, he'll sign," Sidney Nash said.

Tyrone Nash is a 6-foot-7 forward who played for Lawrence Woodmere Academy on Long Island. He averaged 17 points and 14 rebounds.

Not happy with his college choices, Nash had signed with a Massachusetts-based prep school, Northfield Mount Hermon.

Then Kentucky belatedly came calling.

Kentucky offered a scholarship on June 23, the player's father said.

"They're only going on what somebody up here said," Sidney Nash said of UK's interest. So the player wants UK to watch him play to make sure the scholarship offer is solid. "He wants no mistakes," the player's father said.

If Nash does sign with Kentucky, he may not play in the 2006-07 season. Wildcats Coach Tubby Smith noted the possibility of a redshirt season, a suggestion the player and his father accepted.

"I think he'd get more from a redshirt season at Kentucky than prep school," Sidney Nash said. Of his son's reaction to the idea of a redshirt season, the elder Nash said, "Once I told him Coach Smith said that was an option, he was fine with that."

UK coaches envisioned Nash as eventually capable of contributing at every position but center, the player's father said.

Last week, Lawrence Woodmere Academy Coach Jeff Weiss said such schools as Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John's, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest offered scholarships this recruiting year.

But until Kentucky entered the picture, the player seemed headed for prep school.

Brick Oettinger, an analyst for the Prep Stars recruiting service, said most evaluators expected Nash to be a prospect next year. "He was a major Big East target for '07," Oettinger said.

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[url=http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/14962554.htm]http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/14962554.htm