Henry brothers close to making decision; father says no visit to Kentucky, but later says visit on tap

KU recruit Xavier Henry, right, and brother C.J. take in the Late Night festivities in this 2005 file photo. C.J. was admitted to KU on Tuesday.

C.J. Henry, who hadn’t been heard from publicly the past couple of weeks during the Henry brothers’ recruiting saga, spoke to Kentucky.rivals.com on Monday night.

He had the last word on a day in which there were conflicting reports from his dad, Carl, on whether basketball prospects C.J. and Xavier Henry would be making a trip to Kentucky this week in advance of their choosing either Kansas University, Kentucky or Memphis.

“I don’t think there are any plans to do that,” C.J. Henry said, asked by Kentucky.rivals.com about a possible trip to Lexington. “We might. I don’t know. I guess we need to talk about it.”

Former KU player Carl Henry told both the Journal-World and Kansas.rivals.com in separate interviews Monday morning that his sons told him no trip to Kentucky would be made this week.

Two hours later, Carl told Zagsblog.net that a trip to Kentucky indeed would be on tap.

“They told me they want to get it (recruiting) over with and really don’t need to make a visit to Kentucky,” Carl told the J-W. “They know the styles of play of both coaches and will make a decision without making any more visits. That’s what they told me.”

Later, Carl told Zagsblog that Xavier called, and his youngest son told dad he definitely wanted to visit Kentucky.

On Monday night, C.J. Henry, who was a 6-foot-3, non-scholarship, red-shirt guard this year on Memphis’ basketball team, indicated “nothing has changed. It’s still Memphis, Kentucky, Kansas. All I know is that wherever it is, we just want to play together.”

That may be able to happen only at Memphis.

C.J., unless he wins an appeal, will have to sit out a season if he transfers to either KU or Kentucky. Xavier, a 6-6 guard from Oklahoma City’s Putnam City High School, insists he will only play one year of college basketball prior to entering the NBA Draft.

“Mainly we’re just looking for a place to play basketball and get a good education,” C.J. Henry told Kentucky.rivals.com. “I think we could probably do that at any of these schools.”

C.J. told the Web site it was a five-hour drive from his hometown of Oklahoma City to Lawrence, seven hours to Memphis and 14 hours to Kentucky.

“That won’t be the main factor, though. The main thing is being able to get the job done and get to the next level,” C.J. said, not giving the Web site a date for his decision.