Kansas Still In The Running For Top 2016 Recruit Harry Giles

It’s become the norm for Kansas Jayhawks Head Coach, Bill Self, to land some of the very best talent in the country on a yearly basis. Self reeled in Andrew Wiggins – whom was the No. 1 player in the country, according to ESPN – Joel Embiid and Wayne Selden Jr. in 2013.

Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre became the latest McDonald’s All-Americans to perform in The Phog as freshmen this season, while one of the country’s best power forwards is on his way next season in Carlton Bragg.

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But the revolving door that is college basketball recruiting never slows and in some encouraging news for Self and his ravenous flock of fans, the No. 2 recruit for 2016, Harry Giles, has narrowed his college options down to eight teams and Kansas, as expected, made the cut.

Top 8 Schools No order
Duke
Kentucky
Kansas
Syracuse
UNC
Wake Forest
Ohio St
UNLV
— Harry Giles III (@HGiiizzle) February 10, 2015

The 6’10”, 230-pound Wesleyan Christian Academy product was once considered the best player in the entire country as a freshman before missing his entire sophomore season after suffering an ACL injury.

Now on a campaign to make a legitimate case for the title of being deemed the very best high school player in his class, Giles has returned for his junior season with full health and a vengeance.

247Sports.com provided some insight on the recent successes of this new-era power forward and his winning pedigree is something that will only make Self, along with every other coach seeking his services salivate at the thought of Giles representing their program.

"The Winston-Salem, North Carolina native lead the United States 17-U team to a gold medal in Dubai. The versatile big man revived his CP3 squad to ultimately reach the Peach Jam, despite playing at far less than one hundred percent. This season, facing a very challenging national schedule, Harry Giles has lead his Wesleyan Christian Academy Trojans to a 27-4 record, currently ranked seventeenth by the USA Today."

Giles is a rare blend of size, athleticism, skill and glaring potential that very few 16-year-old kids have, which all contributes to why the North Carolina native is such a coveted prospect.

With his entire senior season at Wesleyan Christian Academy ahead of him before stepping on a college campus as a freshman, which ever of these final eight teams lands him will likely only get a shortened glimpse of how dominant Giles can be if he’s able to remain healthy.

It’s still extremely early in the recruiting process and Giles will have more than a year from this point to decide which program will be fortunate enough to land his services.

As for Kansas’ chances of landed this coveted recruit in Lawrence; the early “Crystal Ball” predictions from 247Sports aren’t in favor of the Jayhawks, with Duke leading the pack with a 46 percent chance to get Giles in their uniform. In-state competition of North Carolina and Wake Forest came as the next likely favorites at 38 percent and 16 percent respectively.

Again, it’s far to early to in Giles recruitment to start assuming the Cameron Crazies will be the ones packing the gym to see him on a nightly basis, and if there’s ever a coach that could make a convincing impact with one of college basketball’s best programs at his fingertips, it’s Self.

With a long history of producing some of college basketball’s best big men, an even longer list of putting these big men into the NBA and a program that’s en route to its 11th straight Big 12 regular season title, there’s plenty of reasons for Giles to keep Kansas on the top of his mind as his recruitment progresses.

Texas and Baylor were also in the running for Giles before his Monday night update.

Next: College Basketball Rankings: Top 25 Teams In America

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