Kat and Wiggy
With his decision seemingly coming in the next few days (
see: recent Twitter explosion), the entire college basketball world is abuzz with the last, and best, high school recruit left to make his decision. We've belabored his choices for months, as UNC, Kansas, and Florida State have all been listed next to Kentucky as possible destinations. Of course, Kentucky would be our first choice here at KSR, and probably yours as well if you're reading this.
Hopefully it's Andrew's first choice too, but if not, where would you want to see him land?
At either North Carolina or Kansas, Wiggins would transform an already-Top 25 team into a serious threat to UK at the number one spot. Particularly at UNC, where top-ten talent is already present. Neither team would be likely to overtake Kentucky in the preseason, though. But both schools have championship-caliber coaches who have had plenty of success in the last five or seven years, which is the time period that Wiggins was paying most attention to college basketball.
If Wiggins eschews Kentucky, and instead opts for one of the other two bluebloods, there's a very real possibility that we'll find ourselves having to root against Andrew (from just a competitive standpoint) in the NCAA Tournament. That doesn't sound like much fun, as Andrew seems like a likeable kid with not much to root against.
Meanwhile, Florida State doesn't seem to pose the same quandary to Kentucky fans. If UK, UNC, and Kansas are all elite teams simply maintaining their routine dominance, FSU is looking to start some tradition. Meaning, in large part, they haven't been extremely competitive in the ACC. Of all the tweets I've seen, I think Dan Wolken said it best:
That's a light-hearted way to look at it, but it might be accurate. Roy Williams and Bill Self, you imagine, would know what to do with a talented freshman. Calipari has proved that, if anyone can mold young talent into a competitive team player, it's him. But Hamilton?
That same pedigree isn't there, and Dan rightly points out that it'll be interesting to see how he would handle a player like Wiggins.
Bottom line, there's a lot to look forward to in the early part of this week. And there's no question that there's room for Andrew in the Kentucky lineup.
He'd be an instant fan favorite in Lexington, and would take the already-top ranked team to unbelievable new heights. However, I suppose if he had to pick another school, it's probably best if it's Florida State. We'll see on Tuesday. Maybe. Get the champagne ready regardless; either pop it in celebration, or use the bottle to knock yourself unconscious in sadness.
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