Eammon Brennan of ESPN’s college basketball blog looks at how Archie Goodwin has had to defend his choice to commit to Kentucky. Goodwin is a five-star shooting guard from Arkansas, an SEC school that considers itself a UK rival in basketball.
Plus, Arkansas has a new coach in Mike Anderson, who has deep state ties and promises to run the same Nolan Richardson offense ran when leading the Hogs to a national title. So Arkansas fans can’t quite understand why a home-state product would turn that down.
“That’s one thing that is the toughest,” Goodwin told Dave Telep of ESPNU. “Growing up here and with so many expectations to go there, it’s been a lot of pressure. Arkansas is a great school and I love Coach [Mike] Anderson and his staff. I love my state, but it’s a business decision and this is best for my career and my family.”
Writes Brennan:
You can see what Goodwin means; Kentucky coach John Calipari sends a prodigious quantity of players to the NBA seemingly every year. In terms of exposure and national title opportunities, UK was the much safer choice.
That doesn’t mean Arkansas fans are all that pleased with the explanation — and they’ve been informing Goodwin of their displeasure on Twitter. (Ah, Twitter, where you can pester a high school senior for reasons why he didn’t choose to attend your preferred school.
For Arkansas fans, the news of Goodwin pledging his allegiance to Big Blue isn’t helped by the fact that Anderson has yet to reel in a top 150 commit for the Hogs for 2012.
You can follow Goodwin on twitter by clicking here.
Related links:
- Shooting guard Archie Goodwin commits to UK
- Archie Goodwin says he will wait until spring to make decision
- UK target Archie Goodwin shines in Nike Global Challenge
