By JOHN PAVIA
Special to ZAGSBLOG
Five-star shooting guard Antonio Blakeney committed to Louisville on Thursday night as Rick Pitino grabs another high-level guard from the Class of 2015; Reggie Rankin of ESPN had the story first.
Blakeney, a 6-4 guard from Oak Ridge High School (FL) with tremendous scoring ability, joins Donovan Mitchell from the 2015 class in a loaded Cardinals backcourt that is typical of the Louisville teams we’ve seen in recent years under Pitino.
When asked about Blakeney’s commitment to Louisville, Mitchell told SNY.tv, “Best thing that could’ve happened. We are going to do big things at the Ville. I can’t wait to play with him. Me at the 1 and him at the 2, its gonna be incredible.”
Blakeney joins Mitchell, Deng Adel and Raymond Spaulding as Louisville’s Class of 2015 commits so far; Blakeney is rated 13th, Mitchell 30th, Spaulding 38th and Adel 49th in the Rivals Top 150 rankings for the 2015 class. Adel also tweeted his excitement about Blakeney’s commitment shortly after it occurred.
“You’re getting a kid who can play both spots, and he puts the ball in the basket probably better than anybody else in the country,” Oak Ridge coach Alex Jackson told Steve Jones of The Courier-Journal.
As previously noted, Blakeney visited Louisville very recently and mentioned that Pitino was making him a priority by attending many of his games this summer.
Blakeney was also considering Kentucky, Florida State, LSU, Missouri, Southern California, and Oregon.
