In about 100 minutes or so, we’ll know where Jalen Brunson, a blue chip point guard prospect out of Stevenson High School, is going to play his college basketball. It’s between Illinois and Villanova. Either way he goes, this will be the only Jalen Brunson story appearing on this website today; or tomorrow.
Because college hoops decisions can be summated in tweets, not feature stories. The Sports Bank’s Twitter feed may have a reaction, but not the site. Because again, WAY TOO MUCH is made of these decision ceremonies already. There is no need to give these “events” any more coverage than they already have.
Oh, and you should follow the advice of the SB Nation Illini blog (The Champaign Room) too:
PSA: If Jalen Brunson does not choose Illinois today, do not tweet hateful things at him. Repeat: DO. NOT. Don’t tweet at him at all.
— The Champaign Room (@Champaign_Room) September 10, 2014
Last thing: I don’t care if Brunson chews on an #illini hat seductively for three minutes before picking Nova. Just get over it and move on.
— The Champaign Room (@Champaign_Room) September 10, 2014
Hopefully, as a society we will one day evolve past holding/covering/having emotion towards these stupid hat/college picking ceremonies. However, today is not that day, so let’s just keep things in perspective. I myself will intentionally be away from my computer when the pick is in, though I will no doubt look at Twitter around the time to get the news.
Like I said, these publicity stunts are overblown enough already. That said, let’s talk actual basketball relating to Jalen Brunson.
When Duke commit Jahlil Okafor received his national player of the year award, the talk at Okafor’s media availability turned to Brunson.
Understandable as Okafor is the premier preps player in both the state and the nation. Jalen Brunson is the next biggest thing in that state of Illinois and Okafor’s AAU teammate with the Mac Irvin Fire.
“He’s like a little brother to me I love him dearly, he played phenomenal against us,” Jahlil said.
Okafor was asked what advice he would give Jalen Brunson.
“Stay humble, you don’t want to do anything that’s too far out of your character because it does make it a lot harder when people are rooting for you to fail. Stay good and stay true to who you are because it then makes it a lot easier when people root for you to succeed,” Okafor said.
His father, Chuck Okafor, is an assistant coach with the Whitney Young Dolphins, where Jahlil played his prep ball and won a state title very recently. Along the way they encountered Jalen Brunson.
“I like J.B. He’s the real deal, he’s going be the next big thing,”said Chuck who played power forward for Westark Community College, West Texas A&M University and Carl Albert State College. And coached with the Fire.
Illini Coach John Groce previously went off the Brunson recruiting trail to land Quentin Snider from Louisville. Well, you know how that ended up on National Signing Day. With Snider pulling an Eric Gordon, Groce and Illini are back in on Jalen Brunson, and the previous mutual disinterest has now been replaced with mutual interest. Illini commit Aaron Jordan cracked the Scout.com Top 100 for the Class of 2015 at #86. Brunson, an Illinois target in the class, checked is #35. What a great complement that would be.
Paul M. Banks owns and manages The Sports Bank.net, in partnership with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)