Morning Power Bar: Will Bamba’s Kentucky visit steer him away from Michigan?

January is coming to a close, and next season is a little closer than people think. What makes it interesting this year is that a number of top prospects in the 2017 class are still uncommitted, leaving big name college coaches on their heals.

Then there are younger guys that are moving their recruiting process along faster than their peers.

At any rate, here is the recruiting news that you must be concerned about if you are a Big Ten basketball fan.

-Tyger Campbell considers visit to Sparty.

For those of you that have never heard of Campbell, he is the No. 3 point guard in the class of 2019, and he has Michigan State near the top of his list. (tag article)

He plays alongside Brian Bowen, who has been featured in our Morning Power bar posts a multitude of times including this week.

With Bowen on the team, La Lumiere’s standout point guard doesn’t have to worry much about scoring the rock, and is able to focus on distributing the ball, and finding the open man.

The other factor that comes along with being Bowen’s teammate is that a member of the Michigan State coaching staff is most likely in the gym watching, as Bowen is looking to make a final decision soon.

With Michigan State’s current point guard, Tum Tum Nairin, leaving after the 2018 season, there will be an opening for Campbell to most likely start immediately.

-Bamba takes visit to Kentucky. What does this mean for the Michigan Wolverines?

Kentucky head coach, John Calipari, sure does know how to “wow” his recruits. The number of players that he has sent to the NBA is more than impressive, and oh yeah, and he wins a lot too.

Mohamed Bamba, the No. 5 recruit from the 2017 senior class, was the most recent high profiled name to witness a Wildcat victory in Rupp Arena. Kentucky was able to beat the No. 24 South Carolina Gamecocks, 85-69.

You may ask, what does this mean for Big Ten recruiting? Well, Michigan is still standing strong on Bamba’s final list of schools for his decision, and they have a tough group of opponents with Duke, Kentucky, and Texas being the other three.

The 6-foot-11 center says that he won’t be making a decision until the end of March or April, right before he begins to receive the National Letters of Intent. At the Hoophall Classic last weekend, he mentioned how he wants to make all of his final decision before making his final choice.

Although Michigan may seem like it is on the back end of Bamba’s recruiting, the Wolverines might have a better shot than we think as Kentucky could return more players than normal for next season, and the majority of those guys are post players.

With the stature that Bomba has, he will want to be an immediate starter wherever he decides to go.

-Bowen schedules official visit to Michigan State

Last week we included that Brian Bowen was planning on making his college decision after he went to visit Michigan State for a visit, and now we have an official date, January 29.

This Sunday the No. 3 small forward in the 2017 class will take his official visit to East Lansing in hope of seeing a marquee matchup between the Spartans and their in-state rival, the Michigan Wolverines.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, the McDonalds All-American is original from Michigan and has said that head coach Tom Izzo and his staff has harped on that factor a lot throughout his recruitment, and after playing his high school ball away from home in Indiana Bowen may want to play in front of a home crowd full of family and friends.

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Check back next week for more Big Ten recruiting news.