The Kansas coaching staff headed to Wichita, KS today to conduct their in-home visit with 2012 PF Perry Ellis (Wichita Heights, video, pics). Kansas coaches Bill Self and Danny Manning were the first of many coaches the Ellis family will welcome into their home over the next week or so. Kansas State, Wichita State and Kentucky will all be making the trip to the Ellis home to conduct their in-home visits with Ellis.
Tonight, however, was all about the Kansas Jayhawks. According to Perry’s mother Fonda Ellis, the visit with the Kansas staff went well.
“It went very well,” said Fonda Ellis about the visit. “They just wanted us to be relaxed and have a good time,” she added.
There isn’t much that Ellis and his family don’t already know about Kansas, but the in-home visit is a chance for coaches to go into a little bit more in detail about the school and the basketball program.
“We knew most of it, but it was great to hear again,” said Ellis. “We watched 2 dvd’s,” she added about the visit.
Now that Ellis has narrowed his list to four schools and has scheduled three of his four in-home visits, Perry and his family are starting to feel relief that his recruitment is winding down.
“This is an exciting time but I am looking forward to this ending soon,”said Perry Ellis.
Ellis is just as accomplished in the classroom as he is on the court, which is something that comes first to both him and his mother. For example, Ellis decided to delay his trip to Los Angeles for the Boost Mobile Elite 24 by one day because he felt that staying in class an extra day was more important. The level of dedication Ellis shows on and off the court is one reason why some of the top coaches in the country would love to have Ellis in their program. Even with all of the extra attention and weight on his shoulders, Ellis knows he has a great support system that he can look to in order to maintain the high standards he has set for himself.
“Not too hard,” said Ellis about maintaining his classroom excellence despite the recruiting distractions. “My mom really deals with most of the media so I can focus in the classroom,” he added.
The Jayhawks have been recruiting Ellis longer than any school he’s considering and that is something that makes the Jayhawks stand out to Ellis and his family.
“Since they have recruited me the longest I probably know them the best,” said Ellis about what makes Kansas stand out to him.
As for when he will officially visit Kansas – that date has yet to be set.
“We discussed it but we haven’t confirmed anything yet,”said Fonda Ellis.
Could Ellis attend the Legends of the Phog game on September 24th?
“They [Kansas] would like us to attend but we haven’t confirmed yet,” said Fonda Ellis.
The college sports world has been consumed with conference realignment chatter over the past few weeks and the Kansas Jayhawks have been in many of those discussions because of the great unknown about the Big 12 or whatever conference the Jayhawks could potentially end up in. Besides being curious about what conference Kansas could belong to in a year or two, Ellis doesn’t seem too concerned about all the conference chatter.
“Well, I am curious about what conference KU will be in 2012-2013, but it isn’t a main concern at this time,” said Ellis about the potential conference realignment.
Kansas State, Wichita State and Kentucky are all up next for Ellis and his family.
