Chwistopha's Monday News and Views (the Jai Lucas edition)

After a great Mother’s Day in the Boro, we head back to the real world…..or at least the real blog world. As the UK world begins the alleged week of decision-making, the television world threw a bombshell tonight. WARNING: If you are havent seen The Sopranos yet this week, skip the next paragraph as a spoiler is coming. In one of the more interesting scenes I have ever seen on television (and on Mother’s Day no less) Tony Soprano whacked Chwistopha in a way that was so well-done and eerie that it left me speechless (something very odd as anyone who knows me can attest). With Chwistopha in the car, telling Tony to let the world roll off his shoulder and enjoy life, the son-like character puts on Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” (a perfect song choice for this scene I might add) and then proceeds to wreck his car. After the violent wreck, rather than call for help, Tony cuts off Chwistopha’s air supply and kills the closest thing he has to a son on the show (no one really counts AJ). If you have been watching the show this season, you knew this was coming….either Chwistopha or Tony was getting the heave-ho from the other…..but David Chase is the man, and I must admit that I didnt see it happening in this manner. A great scene that overshadowed the rest of the brilliant television night (Tony in Vegas and Drama on “Entourage” finally having a hit) and will go down as one of the three or four most iconic moments of the Sopranos series…..and it didnt even involve Billy Clyde….

To the news…

(1) Today is the alleged day of reckoning as Jai Lucas is scheduled to make his decision public has to where he will attend college. Various reports scattered this weekend that Jai might look to wait until Wednesday, but as of late Sunday night, it looks like Monday is still the day. Jai is of course down to UK, Fla and Oklahoma State, and now 1 1/2 years of recruiting finally comes to an end. In an odd way, you have two relative newcomers (Florida and a Billy Clyde-led Kentucky) going up against an OSU program that housed his brother and has been recruiting him for almost four years. Jai has done a very good job of not leaking out his decision at this point and I think he is looking forward to the moment of finally ending the decision process. As to what he will do? Well I have my idea, but I have to say that the last two weeks of this decision process has had many loops and turns that make tomorrow’s decision still up in the air. I believe Lucas has jumped back and forth between schools multiple times in the last three to four weeks, and thus it would not surprise me to see him do it again between this weekend and the press conference. Tomorrow should be wild folks…..and we will have the info for you as soon as it can possibly be given. 2:30 pm is the scheduled time…..get here early and be patient……server issues are likely, but the server is better suited to handle the influx likely to occur at the most unproductive hour of a workday for a long time (at least until Patterson on Wednesday).

(2) Beas Hamga took a visit to UK this weekend and reports are still not in as to what type of time he had on campus. But the visit itself has actually been overshadowed by the Courier Journal article which suggested that UK fans may have hurt the UK recruiting process of Hamga by leaving too many messages for him on his Facebook and MySpace websites. Hamga’s guardian “questioned the motivations” behind some who had posted the messages and implied that it may have clouded Hamga’s mind during the process.

I will devote a longer discussion to this issue at some point in the future, but two points bear mentioning. First, the internet has fundamentally changed the way recruiting works on a lot of different levels. But one is the communication world. In the age of MySpace and Facebook, there is literally a global community of communication that can occur at any point. Attempting to regulate that communication is virtually impossible. In the old days, if you went to school with a kid and wanted him to go to your favorite college, you went up to him and said, “hey, go to State U.” Well now, thanks to MYSpace and Facebook, that happens times a million. I am not sure there is anything the NCAA can really do about it (and after the Brentwood Supreme Court case this summer, they may be banned by the First Amendment from doing anything about it legally) and it is just another legacy of the internet world.

But second, fans should really stop the behavior if at all possible. I know that the vast majority of people are just trying to sell the University and express their fandom. And some kids may even like the attention and the acclaim. But a lot of kids just think it is silly….and worse yet, dorky. When they see a 40 year old man telling them to go to a school….they often laugh. It is just better to cheer for the kids when they come, but leave them alone in the recruiting process. Fans may think they are helping…..but they may (as possibly in Hamga’s case) be hurting.

(3) We now know officially what the Herald Leader did not know this past Friday…..that Michael Sanchez will be visiting UK next weekend or Monday. The Lexington Herald reported on Friday that he would be in town this past weekend….citing no sources and with no quotes…..and of course that ended up being incorrect (and likely web-based). Rather Michael played in a tournament this weekend and is looking to come to Lexington next week…..interestingly enough, AFTER the Patrick Patterson situation is resolves. Marc Maggard did a good interview with Michael, which you can read by scrolling down (along with lots of other AAU interviews from the weekend) and he will be a guest on our show this week.

So this is a big week and it is worthwhile to go over all the events.

Monday: Jai Lucas decides and the Sports Mob is live at Lucky Strike

Wednesday: Patrick Patterson decides and the Sports Mob streams the press conference live online…..via Rob Gidel’s cellphone (showing our low budget roots).

Friday: The Woo graduation party live from Louisville (more on this later)

We also have Romero Osby, Chris Singleton and Michael Sanchez live on our show this week which can be heard by clicking on the 1570 the Zone website from 3-7 each day. It is a huge week around these parts, beginning with a big day today…..stay tuned…..