Through all the NBA Draft hype, I got a message from reader Ransom Marshall who asked me what I thought about IUPUI guard George Hill.

My response was: “I for one like Hill. Is he an NBA prospect? I agree with Ryan [Pravato] and say not this year. I’m not a fan of players from some of the more low-profile schools coming out that early after not really being tested. With another solid year of college under his belt he could be a good role player for an NBA team in 2009-10. I just hope this kid doesn’t end up bouncing around from one D-League team to another next season and we don’t ever hear from him again.”

Marshall responded with: “I think George will be selected in the first round. Call me crazy but also call me if I’m right.”

Shows how much me, Mr. College Basketball Expert with the big time blog knows.

Not only was Hill drafted, but he was the 26th pick by the San Antonio Spurs! None of the other so-called experts had Hill going in the first round or even being drafted at all.

Hill, a 6-2, 181 pound point guard averaged 21.5 points and 6.9 assists a game as a junior was impressive, but was he really impressive enough to go first round?

Apparently Marshall thought so and so did the Spurs. And as the Spurs continue to age, I’m sure they are looking at Hill to be part of the rebuilding and youth movement that will eventually have to take place.

Hill went ahead of another one of my favorites players Mario Chalmers, an all-everything point guard and the hero of the national championship game for Kansas. Chalmers was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves at in the second round at number 34 and was later traded to the Miami Heat.

Now that Marshall has shown us up the least I can do is offer him a free lunch or a cheap dinner. I’m not sure what Ryan has to offer.

Is the University of Arizona the new Yale of the West?

Brandon Jennings sure might believe it.

The young basketball whiz from California, PG Brandon Jennings, might just decide to play overseas if he is found to be ineligible to play at Arizona next season due to insufficient SAT scores.

Brandon Jennings, who signed a letter of intent to play at Arizona, is looking at the unprecedented option of playing overseas next season to get ready for the 2009 NBA draft if he’s not eligible to play for the Wildcats next season.

source

Anyone with a pulse can get into the UofA. Why can’t Jennings? Who would want this moron leading their team?

Brandon might be all that and a bag of chips on the court, but no one would be unjust referring to him as not the sharpest tool in the shed off of it.

Maybe while he’s overseas polishing up his game some he’ll learn another language.

Don’t count on it.

Also don’t count on a high level Euro team, or any other high level foreign team for that matter, setting aside many minutes for a guy who will only stick around for one year. It just won’t happen. He’s kidding himself, those leagues are vastly more competitive and superior to the ones like, for example, the D-League.

If Jennings wants to play in some lower level leagues in Sweden or Poland, sure, he’ll get some good playing time, though the likelihood he’ll considerably improve is small.

Hold it right there.

Much of what is above is the opinion many folks have taken in terms of Jenning’s situation. They suddenly see the headline of this story on ESPN or FoxSports or any news media, read a couple of sentences, and then automatically jump to the conclusion that Jennings is an intellectual lightweight.

Then these people also say he wouldn’t get any interest from good overseas teams.

I’ve seen comments on the web like

“He’s dumb” and “He’s a moron, 3 SAT attempts and he’s still not in” and “What are they teaching at Oak Hill” and even “Will he be illiterate in two languages now?”

And even some bewildering statements about how much talent he actually has.

Many teams would love to sign this kid. An up and coming team looking to make a big push would gladly welcome an uber-athletic point guard to the mix. Even just for one year. He wasn’t named the 08 Player of the Year by numerous sources for nothing.

The guy would simply dominate the D-League. He’d be better off playing in a Euro League somewhere. It would give him a different perspective and hey, he would get paid more than he would in the D-League.

But he might be eligible to play for the Wildcats after all.

Back to the SAT dilemma

If you carefully read the article (and other articles from different sources about this), it specifically mentions Jennings did in fact pass his SAT in his second try, just that the NCAA wanted to make sure the jump from his first score to his second score was valid. So the NCAA basically told him to take the SAT over again and prove it.

Jennings said he will get his standardized test results back next Thursday. This is the third time he has taken a standardized test. Jennings said he was red-flagged for a jump in his score from the first to the second test. He said he didn’t know his scores.

But Jennings is slated to be in Tucson on Monday to start summer school. He has been admitted to the institution. It’s unclear what kind of affect having him on campus would have on Jennings’ decision — assuming he shows up.

source

So there.

A lot of this confusion and ignorance would be avoided if people would just have read the article in its entirety and, instead of expecting the worst, expect the best.

By Thursday we will know if Brandon will be playing in America at UofA, or in some foreign country.

He will be a top 5 pick in next year’s NBA draft either way.