Jai Lucas was known as a Texas whisperer when he first got hired at Kentucky. A native of Houston and a recruiting ace for the Longhorns, the 33-year-old has deep roots in the state. He’s also the son of John Lucas II, who played in the NBA for 14 years and was a head coach for three different teams. The basketball connections are everywhere.
His job when he got to Lexington was to use those roots and connections to recruit the best of the best, with Texas being an obvious place to start. He started by signing five-star forward Daimion Collins out of Atlanta, TX, and then followed it up by signing five-star guard Cason Wallace out of Richardson, TX one year later.