Jennings could be a trendsetter
Posted: Saturday, July 05, 2008 6:31 PM
Filed Under:
New rules, Freshmen, Recruiting
The Brandon Jennings watch continues.
Jennings, the McDonald’s All-American point guard, is still waiting to see if he’ll be ruled eligible for next season after taking his third SAT. Those scores won’t be released until July 11th. And all of those delays just brew even more talk about Jennings possibly playing in Europe next season.
It’s like the Brett Favre un-retirement talk, but for us hoops junkies…
Quick back story on Jennings: He’s a B student at Oak Hill (Va.), but has had to take the SAT three times. The first time the score wasn’t high enough to qualify him academically for Arizona. The second was high enough, but he told ESPN he was red-flagged because of the extreme jump in his scores, thus the third test.
As Jennings waited, the debate began about what was best for him – should he bolt the U.S. to play in Europe? The usual answer was no.
Mike DeCourcy’s Sporting News analysis gives all the pertinent details (it wouldn’t be lucrative or help his draft stock), while Doug Gottlieb spares no feelings as to why he’d be foolish to go (he’s not a European-style point guard, he turns the ball over too much, he’s too short, etc), though both admit it would improve Jennings as a player because it would help him gain experience.
And both say it would hurt his draft stock, without question. (Especially since he wouldn’t benefit from the exposure that comes with playing at Arizona.)
The more interesting thing to me? That he could be a Kevin Garnett, of sorts.
Good piece here from AOL Fanhouse about Jennings serving as a test case for future prospects. Namely, if Jennings goes to Europe, thrives and sees his draft stock soar as a result, future prospects would do the same thing, just like when Garnett’s moderate NBA success as a rookie didn’t close the door for future prep-to-pro players.
If that happens, get ready for two things: More players following Jennings’ lead and ESPN showing more European games in the future.
