It never ends for these guys. Yeah, if you’re a stud high school basketball player, relaxing at home, doing chores at home (kids don’t like it, but it sure helps the parents), hanging out with friends or even family vacations that don't involve basketball is hard to do because of non-stop opportunities.
Is this good? It depends on your perspective. There’s no doubt it helps them as basketball players. It’s among the reasons why so many freshmen are ready for instant college impact. Still, you wonder if it’s all too much.
Not that anybody asked us.
Anyway, IU commits Yogi Ferrell, Ron Patterson, Jeremy Hollowell and Hanner Perea are at the National Basketball Players Association Top 100 Camp at the University of Virginia running this week. So is Gary Harris, the guy everybody wants but nobody can get yet, along with Mitch McGary, another highly sought after guy.
In fact, 95 of the nation’s top 100 ranked players are supposed to be there. The camp is designed to prepare them for college basketball and college life.
Given all the glitches you hear in college athletics these days (can you say Ohio State?) hopefully it includes extra attention to extra benefits such as selling memorabilia for tattoos.
These guys don’t get much of a break. Shortly after their high school seasons ended they began spring travel ball. Then there was the Indiana All-Star stuff. Now there are these camps. July will be busy with more travel ball. There might be some down time in August, but you figure these days they use that time for pickup games, working on individual games and whatever in preparation for next season. It’s a college schedule come early.
Being good carries a price.
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Tom Crean’s non-stop recruiting includes Kentucky standout Ryan Taylor, the former Indianapolis North standout now playing at Louisville’s Western High School. He wants to go to Louisville, he’s committed there, but there are some academic qualification issues.
Taylor is a 6-6 all-state player who averaged 26.1 points and 14.2 rebounds last year. Those are VERY impressive numbers. He’s set to visit Kansas on Thursday. Indiana, West Virginia and Missouri are looking at him.
Taylor is good friends with Remy Abell, the Kentucky All-Star committed to IU.
Will Crean make an offer? Probably not. Taylor might very well be heading to Kansas by the end of the week. But it shows that Crean continues to explore every recruiting option in the quest to restore the Hoosier program.
If you want to be good, you have no choice.
If Taylor can't qualify to get into Louisville, he sure won't be able to get into IU or Kansas.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking along the same lines. Doesn't sound like we have all the facts there.
ReplyDeletehow about Creek, does anyone know how he's doing?
ReplyDelete