BleedGopher
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per SI:
Trae Young was used to drawing big crowds at Norman North High School, but on this February day in 2017, the hundreds that had gathered to watch him weren’t there to see him nail insane shots or send impressive passes flying. Instead they watched as he fiddled with a microphone—not yet used to the press-conference-esque setup the high school had staged for its scrawny, 6’2 star’s big announcement—with a gold chain peeking out of his zip-up sweatshirt, ready for the most highly-anticipated announcement of his basketball career to date.
When the moment finally came for Young to announce his college commitment, the room erupted**—loud enough that one Norman North teacher remembers immediately reaching for the remote to dial the volume down on the live stream being broadcast in classrooms, offices and homes alike throughout the city that she, and countless other community members, were using to watch Young unveil his future team. The prized recruit had pulled a red Oklahoma hat from under the table at which he sat, spurning offers from traditional powers Kansas and Kentucky to play college ball in his hometown of Norman.
The city’s own hoops hero—an undersized five-star point guard and top-25 recruit in the class of 2017—was staying to play for his home state Sooners.
It had been done before, with players like Penny Hardaway committing to his hometown Memphis Tigers (then known as Memphis State), where he now coaches, in the early 1990s, but the appeal of staying close to home fell out of favor with the emergence of the one-and-done era. When the league made high schoolers ineligible for the draft in 2006, requiring them to be at least a year removed from graduation before being able to declare, many players were propelled to join the most talented teams and play for the most prestigious programs to maximize exposure and experience in minimal time. In his decision, Young had disregarded what had become the college basketball status quo.
“It was crazy,” Young tells Sports Illustrated. “I knew Norman was my city—I grew up there, I’d lived there since I was five—but that’s when I really knew that it was supposed to be my school too.”
The Oklahoma native isn’t the only blue-chipper who decided to stay close to home. More than a year later, Romeo Langford sat—with his own offer from Kansas, as well as another from North Carolina—on a podium at New Albany High School, less than two hours from Indiana’s Assembly Hall, when he committed to his home state Hoosiers in 2018. Darius Garland, Tennessee’s own Mr. Basketball, said he “loved the thought of staying home and going to Vanderbilt” in front of a packed auditorium at Brentwood Academy the same year. Garland, the No. 14 ranked recruit, per 247Sports, and Langford, No. 7, followed in Young’s footsteps, snubbing the traditional blue blood powerhouse programs (Garland also had offers from Kentucky and UCLA, among others) to play for his local school.
The 2019 class took things to another level. For the first time since Derrick Favors picked Georgia Tech in 2009, the country's top recruit—this time James Wiseman—committed to his hometown school, electing to go less than two miles down the road from his high school in joining Hardaway-led Memphis. Three other top-10 recruits stayed in-state as well: Georgia’s Anthony Edwards (No. 2), Washington's Jaden McDaniels (No. 8) and Arizona’s Nico Mannion (No. 9), with multiple other top-30 prospects also staying local. In the process, their decisions have altered the NCAA landscape, increasing competition and shifting the balance of college basketball power.
https://www.si.com/college-basketba...iting-trae-young-james-wiseman-penny-hardaway
Go Gophers!!
Trae Young was used to drawing big crowds at Norman North High School, but on this February day in 2017, the hundreds that had gathered to watch him weren’t there to see him nail insane shots or send impressive passes flying. Instead they watched as he fiddled with a microphone—not yet used to the press-conference-esque setup the high school had staged for its scrawny, 6’2 star’s big announcement—with a gold chain peeking out of his zip-up sweatshirt, ready for the most highly-anticipated announcement of his basketball career to date.
When the moment finally came for Young to announce his college commitment, the room erupted**—loud enough that one Norman North teacher remembers immediately reaching for the remote to dial the volume down on the live stream being broadcast in classrooms, offices and homes alike throughout the city that she, and countless other community members, were using to watch Young unveil his future team. The prized recruit had pulled a red Oklahoma hat from under the table at which he sat, spurning offers from traditional powers Kansas and Kentucky to play college ball in his hometown of Norman.
The city’s own hoops hero—an undersized five-star point guard and top-25 recruit in the class of 2017—was staying to play for his home state Sooners.
It had been done before, with players like Penny Hardaway committing to his hometown Memphis Tigers (then known as Memphis State), where he now coaches, in the early 1990s, but the appeal of staying close to home fell out of favor with the emergence of the one-and-done era. When the league made high schoolers ineligible for the draft in 2006, requiring them to be at least a year removed from graduation before being able to declare, many players were propelled to join the most talented teams and play for the most prestigious programs to maximize exposure and experience in minimal time. In his decision, Young had disregarded what had become the college basketball status quo.
“It was crazy,” Young tells Sports Illustrated. “I knew Norman was my city—I grew up there, I’d lived there since I was five—but that’s when I really knew that it was supposed to be my school too.”
The Oklahoma native isn’t the only blue-chipper who decided to stay close to home. More than a year later, Romeo Langford sat—with his own offer from Kansas, as well as another from North Carolina—on a podium at New Albany High School, less than two hours from Indiana’s Assembly Hall, when he committed to his home state Hoosiers in 2018. Darius Garland, Tennessee’s own Mr. Basketball, said he “loved the thought of staying home and going to Vanderbilt” in front of a packed auditorium at Brentwood Academy the same year. Garland, the No. 14 ranked recruit, per 247Sports, and Langford, No. 7, followed in Young’s footsteps, snubbing the traditional blue blood powerhouse programs (Garland also had offers from Kentucky and UCLA, among others) to play for his local school.
The 2019 class took things to another level. For the first time since Derrick Favors picked Georgia Tech in 2009, the country's top recruit—this time James Wiseman—committed to his hometown school, electing to go less than two miles down the road from his high school in joining Hardaway-led Memphis. Three other top-10 recruits stayed in-state as well: Georgia’s Anthony Edwards (No. 2), Washington's Jaden McDaniels (No. 8) and Arizona’s Nico Mannion (No. 9), with multiple other top-30 prospects also staying local. In the process, their decisions have altered the NCAA landscape, increasing competition and shifting the balance of college basketball power.
https://www.si.com/college-basketba...iting-trae-young-james-wiseman-penny-hardaway
Go Gophers!!
