Family Ties

The Enes Kanter situation in Lexington got me to thinking about the crooked agents and 'advisors' who nearly ruin a kid's life byt dangling those monetary carrots in their faces. What kid could say no? It also harkened memories of home-grown talent and at times side show spectacle OJ Mayo. His handlers cost him alot of credibility. His advisors at some point or another cost Bill Walker a year of High School. His situation brought a small baptist institution almost to a screeching hault. And, his potential value to a program, notorious for being dirty in another athletic venture, caused that coach to make ill-advised dealings with on of these said notorious advisors, and well we see how that has turned out so far. Feds got involved. Not good. All of this was done because somebody wanted Mayo to say how high when they said jump, and wanted to ride his coat-tails to a fortune. I mean really, did anybody buy that line 'To play in the LA media market to get my name out there' when he picked USC out of nowhere? Anybody who could read on a 4th grade level already knew how much his name was already out there, even when he was an 8th grader in Kentucky.

And to beat all, he is no longer with that advisor nor the comany that individual was a represenative of.

And it almost cost Todd Mayo too.

Todd Mayo is his younger brother, who started out playing ball in South Point, Ohio for the Pointers. After recieving alot of hype, half his own doing, the majority his name and bloodlines, he decided to leave the small, middle class foothills of Appalachia and head further south, so he and his mother could live with the big brother who was now a millionaire in Memphis. Leaving behind a verbal commitment,or agreement or head nod, whatever it was to Marshall University and seeing just what he was made of in a bigger hoops market. What he was made of was the same as his brother. He can penitrate and he can score. He's got range. in other words, Todd Mayo is the real deal. Now he could tout offers from the bigger 'hometown' school, WVU, as well as Arkansas, his 'new hometown' Memphis, Baylor, and next door neighbor Southern Miss. The shooting guard in the class of 2010 had became more visable on the national scale, was said to have an NBA type game to him and could reach that level. So what did he do? what school did he select? Well, he elected to take an extra year of schooling before going on to college. Todd Mayo enrolled in Hargrave Millitary Academy, which is known as a prep-school powerhouse and produces many D1 talents who for some reason or another, felt an extra year was necessary. Now, he would join the 2011 recruiting class, standing still at 6'4'' and weighing 210 pounds. His game is still there, and he would undoubtedly benifit from the extra year of maturity when he finally goes off to college. More players need to utilize prep schools, or at the very least JUCO and Community Colleges. Not saying that a lot don't, becuase they do, just that more need to. He has added Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisville, Georgia, and Tennessee to his list of suitors and has offers from WVU, Tennessee, So. Miss and Missouri. Ultimately, I think it is going to come down to Louisville,WVU, and Tennessee....which would cause us to hate him. Tennessee is interesting though, he is very high on the Vols, but there is a level of incertanty there with the possible sanctioning and probation lingering over Bruce Pearl's program. He is high on Memphis as well, but something tells me if he is going to play for the 'home' team, he will pick Huggins and WVU, like his brother should have. That is the one thing that OJ should have done is play for Huggy, be it K-State or at WVU. As Ironic as this is to say, OJ would not have had as much controversy if he would have played for Huggins. that felt weird to say.

So, if Todd Mayo can escape the cell phone bill and plane ticket thing, I think we are going to see a very bright star shining in Morgantown next season...And if he decided on Louisville...well, don't go out to dinner with the coach.

And, just forget you every heard the name Rodney Guilroy.(posing for that magazine photo with him and your brother was probably a bad idea in hindsight.)

Gohere for all the links you could need on the OJ Scandle.