by Paul Jordan
It’s been 48 hours since the mysterious Terrence Jones to John Calipari phone call that was made after Terrence Jones committed to the University of Washington. Almost immediately after the announcement, howls of indignation came from the Big Blue Nation, a decision appeared to be on the verge of being overturned, and just when it appeared that things looked its darkest, a rallying tweet came from Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua that read “RTL….., Til the battle is won ! let’s go BBN” rallied the troops and made them ready to fight another day.
If this all sounds eerily similar, let’s step in the way back machine to November 1999 and the 2000 Presidential election. The state of Florida was called early in the evening for Al Gore and immediately the Republicans howled in indignation and the the threats of recounts started immediately. The vote prediction was overturned in the late hours and Florida was awarded to George Bush. And right when things appeared the darkest for the Democrats, Gore held a very late night press conference to tell his followers to keep on fighting … and the Democrats were charged to continue the fight.
Before we go any further, let me state that I am not trying to incite nerd fights by mentioning politics onto a sports blog. I just feel that the comparisons are on a much lesser scale, pretty interesting.
And like the 2000 election, not everyone is going to be happy with the outcome. Washington fans have already started a massive “Bash Calipari” effort … do keep in mind that Enes Kanter was a former Washington commit as well. And some Kentucky fans are ready to riot over losing both C.J. Leslie and Terrence Jones in a span of 48 hours.
Even the Kentucky bloggers are divided. While I still think that Jones is fair game and still want to see him as a Wildcat, a very good friend of this blog and one of the Kentucky bloggers that I deeply respect, Truzenzuzex of A Sea of Blue feels that enough is enough and that it is time to move on from Jones:
This morning, there are rumors that Jones is wavering on his commitment to Washington due to a late push by Calipari after Jones called Coach Cal to tell him about his decision. I would not read too much into these. My feeling is that Jones wants to play with his high-school buddy Terrence Ross, and wants to stay close to home. Myself, I would like to see him stick to his decision. Jones has not signed an LOI, apparently, but I don’t expect him to. My experience is that your first decision is usually right, and even though I would love to have him, I think he should stick to his guns. I don’t blame Calipari for fighting to the end, but I think now, the day after, enough is enough.
On some level I can agree, but I am starting to think that 48 hours passing and no news is starting to look bleak for Kentucky. As they say, “possession is 9/10ths of the law” and as of now, Washington possesses the word from Jones. And as in the case of that 2000 election, it’s hard to win in the court of public sentiment when one side has been declared the winner … as Washington was with a verbal commitment for 48 hours in their pocket.
Regardless of the outcome, it has been an incredible recruiting season thus far, and how else do you describe an epic success without a trendy video. So here is my version of UK’s recruiting season in thirty five seconds (P.S. I stole this idea from the always great Nation of Blue site)
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