Kansas University basketball recruiting

The Kansas men’s basketball program is facing another big week on the recruiting trail, with one important decision potentially coming by Friday and another weekend visitor on the schedule.

Devon Dotson, a five-star point guard from Charlotte, who appears to be down to Kansas and Maryland, kicked off the week with a Tweet that set the whole thing up.

“Big week ahead,” wrote Dotson, adding an emoji of an hourglass next to the words.

Dotson’s father, Dana Dotson, said early last week that he thought his son’s announcement could come “in a week or so.” Asked this week if the younger Dotson had set a date for the big reveal, Dana Dotson told Matt Scott of 247 Sports site TheShiver.com, “I think he’s close.”

For what it’s worth, 247’s Crystal Ball rankings, which take predictions from recruiting analysts throughout their network, — both national and local guys — have Kansas listed as the heavy favorite to land Dotson. The Jayhawks currently have 76 percent of the picks and Maryland is second at 12 percent.

Landing Dotson, the No. 19-ranked player in the 2018 class according to 247 Sports, would be a big pick up for a Kansas that already has received commitments from two Top 30 big men in David McCormack and Silvio De Sousa.

Beyond the obvious boost of adding an elite lead guard to an already-impressive 2018 class, securing a commitment from Dotson would help the Jayhawks move past the sting of missing out on the key high school point guards they targeted in the 2017 class, with Top 20 prospects Trevon Duval (Duke), Collin Sexton (Alabama) and Trae Young (Oklahoma), among others, all electing to play their college basketball elsewhere.

The Jayhawks survived those misses when junior Devonte’ Graham announced he would return to KU for his senior season, but, with Graham leaving after the upcoming season, and the potential for three other current Kansas guards to go with him, the priority of adding a point guard in the 2018 class is as high as it has been in a number of years.

Decision or no decision, good news or bad, the Kansas coaching staff this weekend will shift its focus to the arrival of 6-foot-5, 180-pound shooting guard Quentin Grimes, who will be in Lawrence for his official visit.

Grimes, the No. 11-ranked player in the 2018 class according to Rivals.com, already has made visits to Texas and Kentucky and plans to wrap up his official visits with a trip to Marquette on Oct. 20.

The KU coaching staff was in The Woodlands, Texas, for an in-home visit with Grimes and his family in early September, and Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi wrote, before Grimes’ visits, that Kansas appeared to be “the leaders headed into visits.”

Grimes is expected to arrive in Lawrence on Friday.

Media Day stars

KU’s Media Day in Lawrence is set for Friday and the Big 12 Conference will host its Media Day in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 24 at Sprint Center.

In short, basketball season has officially arrived.

While Friday’s event at Allen Fieldhouse will feature each member of the current KU roster fielding dozens of questions from the media members, just three will be at Sprint Center with KU coach Bill Self later this month.

Those three will be: seniors Devonte’ Graham and Svi Mykhailiuk and sophomore transfer Malik Newman.

Neither event is open to the public.

Here’s a look at the rest of the scheduled Media Day representatives from each Big 12 school:

Baylor:

Manu Lecomte

Jo Lual-Acuil Jr.

Nuni Omot

Terry Maston

Iowa State:

Donovan Jackson

Nick Weiler-Babb

Solomon Young

Kansas State:

Dean Wade

Barry Brown

Kamau Stokes

Oklahoma:

Kameron McGusty

Rashard Odomes

Trae Young

Oklahoma State:

Jeffrey Carroll

Mitchell Solomon

TCU:

Vladimir Brodziansky

Ahmed Hamdy

Kenrich Williams

Texas:

Mohamed Bamba

Dylan Osetkowski

Andrew Jones

Texas Tech:

Keenan Evans

Justin Gray

Tommy Hamilton IV

Niem Stevenson

West Virginia:

Jevon Carter

Daxter Miles Jr.