Harrison twins choose Kentucky

Updated: October 5, 2012, 9:04 AM ET
By Reggie Rankin | ESPN RecruitingNation

The two biggest pieces of basketball recruiting news this year happened at the same time. Twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison of Richmond (Texas) Travis High committed to Kentucky on Thursday.

The Harrisons chose the Wildcats over Maryland and SMU.

All Your Stars are Belong to UK

Maryland had the inside track, a grassroots campaign and the family's respect in the battle to recruit the Harrison twins, but nothing mattered when John Calipari came along. Resistance to Kentucky is futile, writes Eamonn Brennan. Blog

Recent basketball history is full of big-time hoops families, from the Lopez brothers, to the Morris twins, to the Collins siblings. But the Harrison twins are the top-rated twins ever coming out of high school, writes Dave Telep. Blog Insider

Expectations will be extremely high for the Harrison brothers at UK, but Paul Biancardi thinks the duo's size and skill set will ensure they live up to the hype and ultimately land in the NBA draft lottery. Blog Insider

Aaron and Andrew Harrison have all the skills necessary to be one-and-done players. Reggie Rankin breaks down their game with a complete scouting report. Blog Insider

• Class Rankings: UK No. 1 Insider

"We liked coach (John) Calipari's fire to win and we want to win a national championship," Andrew said.

Added Aaron: "Also, Coach Calipari did not guarantee anything and we liked that."

The significance of the commitments centers around the fact that these are the highest-rated basketball twins ever to come out of high school. Andrew is the top point guard and No. 2 overall prospect in the ESPN 100, while Aaron is the No. 4 overall player and top-rated shooting guard in the country.

The pair immediately boosts Kentucky's recruiting class from unranked in the top 25 to No. 1 overall over Florida in ESPN's 2013 class rankings.

"I am very happy that Andrew and Aaron made their own decision," said their father, Aaron Harrison Sr. "They weighed all the facts and made their decision and it never changed."

Throughout the recruiting process, Calipari also was upfront with the twins and their family.

"Coach Calipari told us, 'We want you to come to Kentucky, but it is not going to be easy,' " Aaron Sr. said.

Academics won over the twins' mom.

"I liked the wall with the GPA of the players on it," Marian Harrison said. "The GPA of the players that went to the NBA was great, and they are continuing to work toward getting their degrees."

Calipari made a great impression on the entire family and now is being rewarded with two immediate impact players for 2013.

The twins' announcement comes after a summer of intense recruiting. Each head coach who made the twins' final three was omnipresent during July. Most of the time, the programs would dispatch their entire coaching staffs (three per school) to sit front and center to watch the twins.

Andrew averaged 12 points, six assists and 4.9 rebounds per game for last year's Texas Class 5A runner-up. Aaron averaged 18 points, four rebounds and two assists. Both are capable of big scoring numbers.

Dave Telep contributed to this report.

Reggie Rankin

College Basketball Recruiting
Reggie Rankin has coached in the SEC, Big 12, MAC, and others over 14 seasons. He has been a scout and analyst for RecruitingNation since 2007.

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