Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey is back in his home state of Kentucky, checking out one of the top basketball prospects for the 2010 class.

Point guard Elisha Justice, 5-10, 160 pounds, of Shelby County High School attended the Kentucky and Florida elite camps this summer. He also was invited to the Arkansas’ elite camp but already had committed to go to Florida.

“Coach Pelphrey invited me down there, but I had already sent in my information to Florida,” Justice said. “He told me to come back down next summer. He was letting me know he’s going to recruit me and was going to keep up with me. He’s real nice. I like Coach Pelphrey a lot.”

Justice and four other campers surprised people at the Florida camp by defeating the Gators’ starting five by seven points.

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“My team was up first, and we played Jai Lucas and the starting five for four minutes and we ended up beating them, so we got to stay up,” Justice said. “I think they were expecting the college guys to stay up so everyone could play them, but we beat them and played against five other campers.”

Shelby County Coach Jason Booher attended the camp and said while Lucas and his teammates came back and won in a rematch, Justice came away with a lot of confidence.

“I thought Jai Lucas would be quicker than Elisha, but Elisha is as quick as he is,” Booher said. “He held his own with him, and that showed me right there that Elisha can play for anybody. He came away confident and feels like he can play with anybody.”

Other schools showing interest include Colorado, Western Kentucky and Marshall.

Justice said Marshall indicated that a scholarship offer could be coming, but Kentucky is his favorite.

“If they offered, it would be tough [to turn down ],” Justice said. “I’ve always loved Kentucky.”

Justice averaged 14. 1 points, 3. 5 rebounds, 3. 6 assists, 3. 9 steals and had 138 deflections in 29 games last season. He shot 60 percent from the field and 41 percent from beyond the three-point line. Justice set the school record for steals (133 in 33 games ) his freshman year, and he’s on pace to break the state record for career steals.

“He’s the best defender I’ve ever seen on the high school level,” said Booher, who has coached for 13 years.

“I can’t stand watching someone dribbling the ball right in front of my face,” Justice said. “It kills me. You’re either going to go around me or you’re going to get rid of it.”

Booher said being from eastern Kentucky has hampered Justice’s recruiting because he doesn’t get as much publicity. “He hasn’t played on the big AAU circuit,” Booher said. “Next summer he’s going to hit the circuit really big.”

TV NEVER HURTS The SEC and ESPN agreed Monday to a 15-year television deal reportedly worth $ 2. 25 billion. Combine that with a recent 15-year agreement with CBS, and the SEC will have unequaled national exposure for football and men’s and women’s basketball. Both contracts go into effect for the 2009-2010 seasons.

Razorback recruiting coordinator Tim Horton is elated about the agreements.

“Obviously, when your university and conference have the opportunity to be on the national stage every week, either on CBS or ESPN, that is the best exposure possible,” Horton said. “Teams can sell the exposure they will get more than any other conference and perhaps the NFL.”

The announcement drew mixed reviews from two national recruiting analysts, Allen Wallace and Tom Lemming.

Wallace, who has been the publisher of Super Prep recruiting magazine since 1985, doesn’t see the SEC / ESPN partnership as being a plus in recruiting efforts.

“The SEC doesn’t need any assistance in recruiting,” Wallace said. “They’re already recruiting extremely high-caliber athletes. Everybody is on TV all the time now anyway. The coaches may mention it to kids, but they won’t care. Notre Dame use to be able to tell everyone they’re on television all the time and they had their own network, and I don’t think that works for the Irish anymore.” Wallace, who is based in California, said fans in that region believe ESPN is biased toward the SEC. “I kind of assumed this was going on anyway because everybody on the West Coast thinks the SEC is usually favored by ESPN,” he said. “Everybody already believes that, and you’ll see a lot of people complain about it.” Lemming has covered the national recruiting scene for more than 30 years and is presently with CBS College Sports. He said the deal will help the Razorbacks along with schools like Ole Miss, Kentucky and others. “I think it helps Arkansas because schools like Georgia, Florida and Alabama are already on nationally a lot of times,” Lemming said. “You don’t see Arkansas nearly as much as you see those schools.”

E-mail Richard Davenport at: rdavenport@arkansasonline. com