The Great Wall

John Wall, the phenomenon out of Raleigh, North Carolina, has been covering the highlights on ESPN lately. Being from Eastern North Carolina and a big fan of basketball, I had heard of John Wall since he was probably a sophomore in high school. He tore up 1-A high school basketball. People would come from 30 minutes to an hour away just to watch him play basketball. Wall was rated by Scouts.com to be one of the best high school basketball players in the nation for his grade and the best for the point guard position.

When it came to John Wall making his decision on what college he wanted to attend, he waited until practically the last minute. Wall waited until May 19, 2009 to make his decision on attending Kentucky; about a month and half after John Calipari left Memphis to become the head coach of Kentucky. About 15 days after Calipari became the head coach, DeMarcus Cousins committed to attend Kentucky. John Calipari has been known for coaching remarkable basketball players for one year so that they can go on and do well in the NBA. This decision for Cousins to be attending Kentucky then led to John Wall's decision.

I personally think that the NCAA should change their rules on players attending college. They should make it the same as college baseball, either go pro from high school or stay three years. If this were true, then John Wall would have never had to wait so long to make a decision and the same goes for DeMarcus Cousins. John Wall's decision for college was based on which program and coach can give him the best spotlight and opportunities in one year of college basketball. Maybe I'm just a bitter Carolina fan, but this would prevent him from tearing up college hoops for one year and then leave the game. This personally frustrates a fan of college hoops. I love players to stay for a while and I can see them develop. John Wall and all these other players are great basketball players, but they're only in it for the self recognition and money. Hardly little love for the game.