In an incredible and unprecedented move, Brandon Jennings has decided to skip college to go play a year of professional ball overseas in Europe. In case you’re unfamiliar with Jennings, he’s the top rated point guard in the country, and he had committed to Arizona. Unfortunately for Arizona, Jennings recognized that his future is as a basketball player and not a scholar, so won’t be around to help their team. While Arizona certainly didn’t want to lose Jennings, they’re at least lucky to have Chase Buddinger back next year who originally declared for the draft. Still, losing Jennings hurts — remember what Rose did with Memphis? Exactly.
So what kind of flood gates will this open up? I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen now. I bet plenty of other 18-year-old talents would have preferred to play a year of pro ball elsewhere instead of going to college, but I’m guessing most hadn’t even thought of it. I’ll admit the idea never even occurred to me until I first read about it. While I do have to say that I’ll miss not having one of the better American players playing at one of our colleges, I don’t think Jennings is making a bad move. I also have to say that this does help keep integrity in the college game instead of having another jock mock the student-athlete system. I really wonder how many other players in the future will follow Jennings’ lead and whether or not the NBA will try to amend their rule to curb the exodus. Mostly though, I’m just going to miss not seeing that hair for an entire year. Does it get any better than Jennings rocking the Kid hi-top fade? I think not.
