Thursday, April 12, 2012

"I'm taking my talents..."

I will admit, I'm guilty--guilty of this voyeurism we call college hoops recruiting.  And, that voyeurism was on full display last night as top ranked recruits Shabazz Muhammad and Nerlens Noel made public their decisions on where they would "attend school," er, ahem, play ball.

By now anyone who has a hoops pulse knows that Muhammad chose UCLA and Noel chose Kentucky. Muhammad's choice was not a surprise--he'd long been rumored to have UCLA at the top of his list but late runs by Duke and Kentucky had recruitniks thinking that he might end up in Durham, N.C. as the latest in a recent line of Coach K "one and dones."  Noel, on the other hand, was thought to be headed to Georgetown as many recruiting services and the Twitter-world were convinced that he'd be a Hoya by night's end.  Alas, he showed up at his news conference with a "UK" shaved in his noggin and became the latest top flight recruit to "take his talents" to Lexington.

Can we all take a step back and consider what we are all part of?  These are 18-year old kids who are holding press conferences, knocking ball caps off of tables in order to don the school cap of choice, using words they've heard uttered by the biggest hoops emigrant of recent memory (Lebron James), and generally acting like the world should stop to watch their "decision."  High school basketball All Star games take breaks in action so that these kids, on the sideline, can be interviewed and announce "I'm going to ball at (fill in the name of the college hoops factory here.)"

Like I said, I'm guilty--I waited anxiously to see whether Xavier Henry and Josh Selby would, indeed, say "Kansas" or don a KU cap.  I gnashed my teeth when Kaleb Tarczewski shocked us all and said he was headed to Arizona.  And, I muttered to myself when I read, a few weeks ago, that Muhammad had eliminated Kansas from his list.  I mean, wasn't Kansas an Adidas school and didn't 'Bazz publicly state, at one point in his recruitment, that he wanted to go to a school with the three-striped shoes?

It's sad people.  Lent is over but if we had a Lent mulligan I'd swear off college hoops recruiting...at least, until my annual subscription to the Jayhawk Slant is up for renewal.

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