WSR Full Court Report

This is a huge story, Canyon. Nice work. The fallout from this could be crazy. As you opined, the fact that Westwind is "recruiting" the Phoenix area schools is utterly ridiculous. Hey, I'm all for giving athletes the opportunity to gain national exposure and attend an excellent institution, but not at the expense of the high schools throughout the Greater Phoenix Area.

Sadly, when I grew up playing basketball in Los Angeles, there was a bona fide rivalry (on and off the court) between the private schools and the city schools. The occasional games between private and city schools were epic. My high school played Artesia with the O'Bannon brothers in a playoff game and they were turning fans away at the door. However, the private schools have won the war and now every stud city high school player is ending up at a private school by their junior or senior season. Everyone knows of Mater Dei and it's ability to recruit nationally (Michael Cage's son will be attending MD this year and Mike Brown the Lakers coach enrolled his son at MD when Brown became head coach for L.A.). The big move last year in Los Angeles was the Hamilton Brothers (Isaac and Daniel) leaving Crenshaw HS (city) for St. John Bosco (private), turning St. John Bosco into an immediate CIF state title candidate this season.

Westwind Prep has an opportunity to officially put the sword in an already mediocre Phoenix HS basketball scene...ouch.

The only positive as it relates to college basketball is schools are getting athletes better acclimated to demanding travel schedules. However, for every gem that "gets it" you get a Josiah Turner type that didn't grow up after a year at Prep School. To be fair to JT, though, he was only at the prep school for about 6 months while someone like Nick Johnson (who carries himself very professionally) was at Findlay Prep, playing for an excellent coach, for multiple seasons.

I run a week long basketball camp and Sean Miller runs a week long camp the same time. Who do you think parents are going to want to send their kids to? Probably the camp they believe will have the best chance of improving their child's skills and chances of achieving future success right? Why would we expect any different of a parent in regards to their school choice?