Just two months from Big Blue Madness, the official tipoff to the 2011-12 Kentucky basketball season, UKAthletics.com writers Eric Lindsey and Guy Ramsey will be profiling UK’s five newcomers, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Anthony Davis, Kyle Wiltjer, Marquis Teague and Ryan Harrow  in a CoachCal.com exclusive series. The final feature covers Harrow.

Kentucky basketball pickup legends have become a fixture of summers at the Joe Craft Center.

When news is slow and the unquenchable thirst of rabid UK fans is left dry, people start to talk and rumors begin to pick up steam. Without mentioning names, there have been a handful of players over the years who have been billed as “the next big thing” at Kentucky without ever actually playing a game.

By all accounts and comments, Ryan Harrow seems to fit the definition of one of those guys.

Though few in Lexington have ever actually seen him play, whispers around the UK facility are that Harrow is every bit as good as each of the studs in the 2011 four-man freshman class that easily ranks as the best in the country. Chatter from some of the guys involved in the pickup games indicate that if the season started tomorrow and Harrow was eligible to play, he would make the most immediate impact.

“I think he’ll surprise a lot of people when he can play,” former UK forward Josh Harrellson said recently at the Prasco John Calipari ProCamp held at the Joe Craft Center. “I thought John Wall could jump; just wait until you see this kid. Never seen anything like it.”

Prohibited from playing this season due to NCAA transfer rules, Harrow has rapidly earned a reputation as John Calipari’s next, next great point guard. Should Marquis Teague choose to stay at Kentucky after a year or not, Harrow, once eligible, is expected to fall in line with Calipari’s line of great guards that includes 2010-11 NBA MVP Derrick Rose, 2009-10 NBA Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans, 2010 No. 1 NBA Draft pick John Wall, Final Four-leading guard Brandon Knight and Teague.

“He’s a really crafty player,” Teague said in a recent interview with CoachCal.com. “He plays hard and he’s very, very athletic for his size. He can score the ball at will basically and people will see that when he gets to come out and play next year.”

Here’s the thing about Harrow, though: He’s not just a projected prodigy; he’s experienced legitimate success on the college scene.

Harrow received a taste of collegiate basketball last season as a freshman with N.C. State. Ranked the 19th overall player in the Rivals.com 2010 recruiting class, Harrow was recruited by schools like Clemson, Florida, Texas and even Kentucky.

But Harrow, as a former North Carolina resident, committed to then-head coach Sidney Lowe early in the recruiting process. A man of his word, Harrow stuck to the pledge even when marquee schools started calling.

“N.C. State was the first school that told me I was going to be something and they believed in me,” Harrow said. “I was only like 5 feet tall and they saw me in an open gym and they said, ‘You’re going to be something.’ That stuck in my head. Once I started to become a nationally ranked player, all these schools wanted me, but I felt like I needed to stay dedicated to them since they were the first to believe in me.”

Harrow experienced modest success in his freshman campaign, averaging 9.3 points and 3.3 assists in 29 appearances and 10 starts. He stormed out of the gate with 41 points in his first three games and scored a career-high 20 against USC Upstate in mid-December, but he hit a freshman wall midway through the season and tailed off late.

Most people would have considered Harrow’s first season a success, but for a player who scored at will in high school, it didn’t meet his own expectations. Like most freshmen, he battled inconsistency problems.

“At first it was going really well,” Harrow said. “I was the leading scorer and leading assist man coming off the bench. We were doing pretty well and then things just changed and I kind of hit a block. It felt like I could have done a lot more because I was missing shots that I usually hit. I was missing open 3s and open floaters. Those are really part of my game and I was missing them. It was a confidence thing that I never really got over.”

Harrow attributed part of his struggles to a lack of strength. Although he’s blessed with extraordinary athleticism and some uncanny hops, Harrow was rail thin and got knocked off the ball.

“I feel like the game of basketball is still the same,” Harrow said. “Basketball is basketball. If you can produce you can produce. I felt like nobody was still able to guard me, but I felt like I wasn’t finishing my shot because I was getting knocked around. Guys are bigger and stronger and I need to make that adjustment.”

Harrow said he was somewhere in the range of 140 to 145 pounds when he arrived at N.C. State and he left around 155. He’s now up to 164 pounds in Kentucky’s strength and conditioning program and has goals to be 175 by October and 180 to 185 by the time he’s eligible next year.

What he’s already added has made a noticeable difference in his game.

“The strength definitely helps because I’m stronger and I have more range on my jump shot and I am able to take the contact more and get people off me while they’re pushing me when I’m dribbling,” Harrow said.

But Harrow doesn’t want people to mistake his inconsistencies in Raleigh, N.C., as his reason for leaving the program. When Lowe, who recruited Harrow to N.C. State, was dismissed as head coach, Harrow decided it would be best to go in a different direction as the program rebuilds.

Harrow said it was one of the hardest decisions of his life.

“It was very hard leaving because I loved N.C. State,” Harrow said. “I enjoyed the fans, I enjoyed the school and the people at the school, but I had to make the best decision for me and my family in the long run. At the end of the day, that’s what you have – you have your family and you have to have your best interests at heart.”

Once Harrow opened up his choices, it was like he was an elite high school prospect all over again. An active participant with Twitter, Harrow saw a large spike in Twitter followers from fans of the schools coveting for his commitment.

Schools like Louisville, St. John’s, Texas and Georgia yearned for his services, but Harrow ultimately sided with Kentucky.

“I know that with Coach Calipari, the teams are used to winning,” Calipari said. “That’s what he demands of his team and that’s what I want to be a part of. I want to be a part of a family, I want to be a part of a team that expects nothing else but winning and somewhere I can have fun. I felt like I could get all three of those things at Kentucky.”

For Calipari, a molder of elite point guards, to choose Harrow as his next great point guard meant a lot for a kid with professional aspirations.

“It means a lot that he thinks I am capable of getting to the next level,” Harrow said. “I think that I can learn a lot from him in the offseason to go out there and produce next year. Coach Cal said he’s not promising anything but said as long as I work hard, I will be happy with what comes out of it.”

Watching from the sidelines all season won’t be easy for Harrow, and he understands that. As a transfer, he must sit out the entire 2011-12 season before regaining eligibility as a sophomore.

But Harrow is viewing the year away from games as a blessing in disguise. He’s looking at it as an opportunity to work on aspects of his game, such as becoming a more consistent jump shooter, getting stronger, improving his defense and learning the system well ahead of time.

“When I’m able to play, I’ll be able to start running with it rather than having coach explain stuff to me over and over again,” Harrow said. “I can benefit from it a lot. I just hope to practice hard this year and do everything I can to help the team be better, learn from them, help them learn and show them everything I learned from my previous year.”

Harrow will be permitted to practice with his teammates, affording him the chance make an impact on this year’s team, even if he can’t suit up for games.

Chances are Harrow will have the biggest impression on Teague, who has matched up with him in just about every pick-up game they’ve been involved in this summer. Harrow plans to push Teague and show him the ropes of the college game.

“I just told him to be confident because I think confidence is the key and because he is already good and has the skills to get past people,” Harrow said. “He’s fast and knows what he’s doing. As long as he stays confident and believes in his teammates and believes that Coach has faith in him, the sky is the limit.”

The question for Harrow, though, is what if Teague decides to put the NBA on hold and comes back for his sophomore year? Harrow doesn’t foresee that being a problem, pointing to the relationship and success of Wall and Eric Bledsoe during the 2009-10 season.

“I think we’ll be playing together because he can score and I can score,” Harrow said. “We can both pass well. With us both on the floor at the same time, no one will really be able to guard us. It will be hard to control.”

For a man willing to wait, he’ll take any opportunity to play at Kentucky that he can get.

To read more about Ryan Harrow, including his thoughts on this summer’s pickup games at the Joe Craft Center, his future goals and his love for Twitter, tune in tomorrow for some additional notes.