Another day has passed, and Andrew Wiggins still hasn’t announced his college choice. Last night was his prom, and I’m wondering if his date is still waiting for him to decide where they’re going to dinner. Regardless, here are my thoughts as another weekend passes and the entire college landscape is on hold waiting to find out where the best freshman since Oden/Durant will be playing
1. Everybody has sources, and everybody’s sources have Andrew Wiggins going everywhere. Any number of people claim that it’s a done deal to Kentucky, but the owner of Kentucky’s mega-blog Kentucky Sports Radio isn’t one of them. His sources say it’s been a done deal to Kansas. An ESPN writer no one has ever heard of says that Wiggins has been committed to Florida State since his visit in December, but this is the same guy whose sources had Nerlens Noel committing to Georgetown one year ago. And now UNC has this Maryland restaurant owner named Johnny Crab Cakes (seriously) who not only had the inside scoop on what time Wiggins was committing to North Carolina, but the reasons for doing so.
At this point I have about as much faith in anyone’s sources as I had in the Dude infiltrating Jackie Trehorn’s illicit businesses. We’re at the point where Trehorn has stepped out of the room and the Dude is using the pencil-shading technique to find out what Trehorn was just privately writing down on his notepad, only to discover that it was an illustration of a guy with a giant boner.
2. While we all wait, there’s been a ton of discussion about where his AAU coaches are trying to steer him, where Nike is trying to steer him, and I don’t even care what those answers are – all it does is remind me that recruiting, at a certain level, completely sucks, and is more corrupt than North Korean elections.
3. Whoever he picks is going to end up playing someone he didn’t pick. Kentucky plays at North Carolina in December. UNC and Florida State face each other in ACC play. If he ends up at Kansas then somehow they’ll go through all three in the NCAA Tournament. Whenever one school playing another happens, fans from the school he didn’t pick will be shouting awful things at him. Hell, they’ll be doing this all year through social media. Meanwhile, Wiggins will just play basketball and most likely keep his head down. Thanks to the collusion between the NBA owners and the player’s union, Wiggins now has to spend a year in some place he doesn’t want to be, listening to abusive fans yelling things he doesn’t want to hear, while he waits a year to be making money that he should be making now. Meanwhile, whatever school he picks will be making bank off of him having to be there, and the NCAA will be peddling his image faster than the Girl Scouts sell Thin Mints.
4. Has he decided yet?
5. I keep wondering how the fans of each of the four teams will react when Wiggins picks a school other than theirs. Kentucky fans are the easiest. They’ll spend the day mocking Wiggins and talking about all of the things they’re going to do after Kentucky wins their 47th National Title next April, which is exactly what they were talking about a year ago (Robert Morris, anyone?) and exactly what they’ll be talking about a year from now. Kansas fans will spend the day publically stating that they never had a chance, while privately restraining themselves from kicking their dogs because they knew they had him. UNC fans will spend the day showing the world that they’re above it all by heading to their favorite boutique and buying the perfect organic cotton socks to go with their brand new Thomas Dean Merino wool Carolina-blue sweater vest. And 99% of FSU fans will spend the day gravely debating the merits of the football team’s 3rd string DT and his ability to cover the 3-gap, while the other 1% of fans will spend the day getting drunk and wondering why God has cursed them into rooting for a team which never in their lifetime will have a statistical possibility of making a Final Four.
6. How about now? Has he decided?
