Prep guard ‘Cat’ Barber keeps Jayhawks in top 3

Just three schools — Kansas University, Alabama and North Carolina State — remain contenders for prize point guard prospect Anthony “Cat” Barber.

Barber, a 6-foot-2 senior from Hampton (Va.) High, who visited KU two weeks ago, has apparently been dropped as a recruit by Louisville following last weekend’s campus visit. It has been speculated that Louisville has decided to focus on former Tennessee commit Chris Jones, a 5-11 sophomore from Northwest Florida State College.

“I don’t know what happened,” Barber’s AAU coach, Boo Williams, told zagsblog.com of the elimination of Louisville.

Rivals.com reports that KU coach Bill Self traveled to Jones’ hometown of Memphis to meet with Jones’ mother on Tuesday morning.

Jones is slated to visit Louisville this weekend, Florida State the following weekend and KU for Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 12. He’s already visited Baylor and Oklahoma State.

Self was in Barber’s home in Virginia on Tuesday night. Barber, ranked No. 9 nationally, is slated to visit N.C. State this weekend.

Talk has died down a bit of Barber wanting to attend the same school as his Boo Williams AAU teammate, Troy Williams, 6-6 from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va. Troy Williams is reportedly considering Alabama, Ohio State, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and LSU. He has an in-home with Alabama coach Anthony Grant on Friday, Zagsblog.com reports. KU apparently is no longer on his list.

“Right now, it looks like we’ll sign late because we just can’t make enough school visits,” Boo Williams, Troy’s uncle and AAU coach, told Zagsblog. “How the schedule works out, we can’t make (enough) school visits. We’ll probably only make one or two at the most (first semester).”

Gordon update: No. 5-ranked Aaron Gordon, a 6-8 forward from Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, Calif., tells PointGuardU.com that Arizona, Oregon and Washington are his current leaders. He’s to visit KU for Late Night and also is considering Kentucky, Cal and Stanford. His KU in-home visit is slated for Sept. 25.

Embiid’s offers: Unranked Joel Embiid, 7-foot, 220 pounds from Cameroon who now attends The Rock School in Gainesville, Fla., tells the Louisville Courier-Journal he has offers from Louisville, KU, Florida, Marquette, Kansas State, Texas, DePaul, Southern Methodist, George Washington, Vanderbilt and Virginia.

Lee cuts KU: No. 15-ranked Marcus Lee, a 6-9 senior forward from Deer Valley High in Antioch, Calif, has eliminated KU from his list of schools, leftcoastrecruiting.com reports. He has a final three of Cal, Kentucky and Louisville.

Young has KU on final list: No. 8-ranked James Young, a 6-6 senior shooting guard from Rochester (Mich.) High, has a final five of KU, Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan State and Syracuse, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

“The thing that excited us about Arizona and Syracuse is the style of play consistent with the coaches, as well as Kansas. All of those schools have gotten James excited,” said Young’s godfather, Sean Malone. He’d long been considered a heavy Kentucky lean.

Billy’s replacement: ESPN has listed some coaches who might replace Texas Tech’s Billy Gillispie, if he is fired in coming days.

Possible candidates are current Tech assistants Bubba Jennings, Jeremy Cox and Chris Walker, as well as former Tech assistant Chris Beard, head coach at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas. So far there’s been no mention of KU director of basketball operations Doc Sadler, who was an assistant at Texas Tech from 1991 to ’94.