It's Noah Blackwell as the subject here. More specifically, his decision to go with Long Beach State over a bevy of other college basketball suitors, a number at a higher level the the Big West Conference 49ers.
He certainly shattered some Fresno hearts as many had pegged him as the next new Bulldog for Coach Rodney Terry. Other Blackwell suitors included power conference members Arizona State, Colorado, Creighton, Maryland and Washington State.
Check out this Blackwell tweet:
I'm Not Gonna Be Who You Want Me To Be
Sounds like someone asserting his independence from any sort of conventional wisdom.
But think about it, comparing Fresno and The Beach.
* Winter tule fog v. sun more often than not
* no NBA-ers thus far in the Terry tenure v. James Ennis on the verge of making it with Miami and Casper Ware hanging tough with the 76ers
* the four Fresno backcourters who will play the most this season will each have one more year v. the starting point/leading scorer is graduating after this season as are five other guards
Blackwell's preference was obviously influenced, to some degree, by the better opportunity to earn minutes as a freshman.
So he didn't win the so-called 'press conference' on the day of his announcement. It received less coverage than if he had selected a more prestigious school as the national recruiting guys certainly would have done a feature if say Maryland had been the one. But that particular 24 hours of time is history and now it's the rest of his basketball life to be lived. Aligning himself with a program where he has better odds of immediate minutes gets him quicker into the conversation of playing professionally.
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