Marquis Teague clears air on how his recruitment was won by Kentucky

We did not have to wait long in the John Calipari era to get our first big head-to-head recruiting battle between Kentucky and Rick Pitino’s Louisville. That arrived in the 2011 recruiting cycle when Cal entered the chat late for five-star point guard Marquis Teague. This recruitment would go down as one of the most anticipated of the Cal ear pre-Twitter.

There was speculation that Teague had privately committed to Louisville and showed up to his announcement in April 2010 in a red shirt. Despite all of that, Teague picked Kentucky and would ultimately win a national championship in 2012 as Calipari’s next one-and-done point guard.

While promoting his “Backcourt Connection” podcast on Kentucky Sports Radio on Thursday with Doron Lamb, Marquis Teague cleared the air with Matt Jones. The Indianapolis (Ind.) Pike product was never silently committed to Louisville and this recruiting was officially over once Cal got Teague on the phone.

“No, that’s not true. They thought I was going to go there because my father played for Rick Pitino,” Teague told KSR when asked if there was a silent commitment. “So they had a good relationship. But as far as committing there, no I never committed.”

Marquis Teague’s father, Shawn, played for Pitino at Boston University and that relationship led to a long recruitment. The Cardinals were always considered a top contender and even the leader at separate points of the recruiting battle but Marquis Teague claims that was not the case.

“I can’t say that because Cal came on to me later but I was kind of more interested in Cincinnati at first,” Teague said when asked if Louisville was the recruiting leader. “Then when Cal called, immediately it was Kentucky.”

In his only season at Kentucky, Marquis Teague averaged 10 points and 4.8 assists in 40 starts during his only collegiate season. However, his recruiting decision impact likely made the biggest splash since it was the first huge win on recruiting trail over Rick Pitino and was the beginning of a run of dominance in the rivalry that UK is still on.