Josh Selby announces for NBA...

Kansas becomes player for Lacey signature with Selby's departure...

Selby tells Rock Chalk adeau

     This is where Anthony Grant's recruiting top players the University of Alabama becomes really tough. When Josh Selby the frosh guard from Kansas let the world know he had enjoyed his one year at Kansas every eye in the Jayhawk state looked South to Alabama.


    So here is what Grant is facing right now - UConn the national champion, Kentucky, a Final Four team, and Kansas, the team that most think should have won the national title are standing in line for Lacey's signature.  As I wrote in yesterday's post the top two Kentucky guards are set to test the NBA (without an agent) to help John Calipari lure Lacey to the Blue Grass State. UConn is losing the national player of the year who is a guard, and now Selby makes it an unholy trinity for Grant overcome. We better all hope that Lacey likes Grant and Alabama as much as I've been told. 


    Think about this logically - will Lacey say no to perhaps the top three programs in America to come to Alabama? If I was the Lacey family what would I think. Setting aside my feelings for Alabama I could honestly tell my son he's got to give some serious consideration to Kansas and Kentucky. I'll tell him that Calhoun is almost 69 years of age, going on probation and now is being investigated again. I could also say sooner or later Calipari is going to do to Kentucky what he did his last two schools, and that he is looking at the NBA the same way naval enlisted man looks at hookers after a duty posting at sea for six months. 


     But what do I tell him about Kansas? I can't tell him that Bill Self is a crook. I can't tell him that Kansas is Auburn except it's flatter. It is a great program where basketball is treated like the Hope Diamond, and Kansas players are special. You can start that list with Wilt Chamberlain. You can't tell them they can't contend. You can't say one word negative about Kansas except it's hard to get there from here. Or anywhere. 


     Of course, I could tell my son that Anthony Grant is building something special at Alabama and that you will be in the center of it all. You could tell him that his shooting ability will make him a household word in this State now and forever more, world without end, amen. That would be true. You could tell him he might be the greatest player in the history of Alabama basketball, at least potentially, and that wouldn't be a lie. You could tell him to look at Trevor Releford feeding him the ball and think about 20+ points per game, AND the NBA knows that Grant will have you ready. You can honestly tell him all those things and look him directly in the eye. 


     Here's the real problem for Grant. He is not going to badmouth Calipari or Calhoun. It's not his style. He will tell Lacey that Kansas is a great program. He could also tell him that it is in the middle of nowhere and surely you would like for your friends and family want to see you play every home game. That is a dangerous game to play with a kid, and Grant won't do anything that would harm Lacey. The best thing he can tell is Lacey is that the other schools really want him. Alabama needs to play and star immediately. He could tell him he will not be one of the stars of those teams,  he might be the super nova of Alabama basketball. He might say he needs him but he will not tell him he'll be the star. The star of an Anthony Grant team is the team, just as it is with other great coaches who have proceeded him at Alabama. He could also remind the young man that Kansas quit recruiting him when Selby told them he wasn't leaving. That would be truthful. He could tell Lacey that he is not a piece of a puzzle. He is the cornerstone of building. Grant's got some tough things to overcome, the least of which is his admirable character in this instance. 


    Alabama has an awful lot to offer Lacey. So do the other schools. Each has things to offer Lacey that Alabama can't offer him. On the other hand Alabama can offer Lacey a unique chance that the other schools can't do. I hope his mother and father are open minded enough to understand that. I hope they are not just looking at the short route to the league. Lacey can find the short route to the league at Bama just as well, and have so much more.


     What Grant can offer is Grant himself. He doesn't deal in sleaze or corruption. He deals in facts and honesty. I'm not sure that is the going to get you the top recruits in today's world. I'm not saying that Lacey would be subject to easy targeting for sleaze. I'm saying he's a kid. 


     And I don't even won't to talk about what Auburn might do. At least not today.return to tider insider