If you’ve been under a rock, then you wouldn’t know that an eighth-grader has committed to play basketball for UK. I know I’m a little late on this news, but I just didn’t know what exactly to think.
I mean, the kid hasn’t even picked a high school yet, but he has the college choice down pat. What exactly do you say about that?
But with ESPN, the New York Times and other national media sources picking up the story, I figured it’s finally time to hammer out some thoughts. I thought I was leaning one way, until I read the comments about the situation over at the NCAA’s official blog, the Double-A Zone.
That blog brought up a good point that verbal commitments don’t stick. Then Billy Gillispie went on ESPN radio, the Scott Van Pelt show namely, and said that he will honor all these commitments (Gillispie also has taken a commit from a high school freshman). So that’s pretty much destroys the possibility that UK will yank the scholarship when the time comes.
What does that leave? Only for the kid to verbal de-commit. And sadly, that isn’t uncommon. Will it happen? We have over four years to find out.
Now I haven’t talked to the kid or his parents (I don’t want anyone calling for my job now, do I?) but I have a hunch that changing his verbal is more likely than more would like to believe.
Let me give you a personal example, I always knew which high school I wanted to attend growing up in Louisville (the eighth-grader, who I’m keeping nameless like the NCAA blog, but everyone knows who it is, has not yet picked a high school).
What I didn’t know was what college I wanted to attend. My family had always been die hard big blue supporters and I have one cousin enrolled at UK before I arrived. Another cousin of my age was also going to attend.
But I had thoughts of leaving the state. I applied to Florida State (have you seen the co-eds down there? Cowgirls…HELLO!) and flirted with the idea of heading to other SEC schools (even dreaded Tennessee, their broadcast journalism program is pretty good…plus they offered me to come to their spring game as a guest my senior year).
I also had scholarship offers to play football at other small Kentucky colleges. In the end, I went with Kentucky because I liked it the most when it came down to it. But my decision wasn’t even set by December of my senior year in high school, much less eighth-grade.
So this commitment sounds great now and the kid may turn out to be a superstar and one heck of a steal, but I’m be cautious before I get too excited. The mainstream media is going to have a field day when it’s all said and done. Maybe this will work out and if it does, I see a major recruiting trend. If it doesn’t, well at least it gave us something to talk about for a few weeks during slow season.
I just wouldn’t put a lot of faith and anticipation into this verbal. There’s no promise this kid develops or even makes it to campus. Let’s just pray this doesn’t turn into a nasty trend. Recruiting is vicious enough for seniors, but on 13 and 14 year olds, it could be dangerous.
