Carry on My Wayward Son

In news that is super not shocking to anybody who has been paying attention, the nation's #20 point guard (#90 overall) according to Rivals and Gopher target Naadir Tharpe signed on with the Kansas Jayhawks today.

Tharpe had been a big target of the Gophers, and at one point they were looking like the front runners to land him.  He seemingly had cut his list to Minnesota and Rutgers, or at least those were the only two schools he had made plans to make an official visit to see, but ended up canceling his visit to Rutgers after they signed a different point guard, leaving the Gophers in prime position to secure a commitment.  Despite reporting that he had a great time and really liked Tubby, Tharpe never declared his intention to enroll at the U, and the writing was on the wall.

As more time passed, Tharpe garnered more and more interest with teams like NC State and Oklahoma sniffing around, but then came the big blow:  enter Kansas.  After their higher rated higher profile point guard targets went elsewhere, the Jayhawks went after Tharpe and it didn't take long for them to woo their strumpet.  Josiah Turner (#2 PG) chose Arizona on September 19th, Anthony Wroten (#8) chose Washington on October 13th, and suddenly Bill Self was after Tharpe.  He scheduled a visit to Lawrence for October 22nd, but apparently didn't need it, because after Self called Monday night to extend an offer he didn't even take 48 hours to accept.

So basically the Gophers are the nice, safe, mildy attractive chick while Kansas is the super hot chick with the killer rack who puts out.  I'd like to make some kind of pro-Gopher joke here, but I can't.  Why wouldn't you pick the hot chick with the sweet ass?  The only thing the dumpy girl has to offer is you know she won't upgrade to a better guy in a year.  Which, by the way, is apt because that's kind of what I see happening to Tharpe.

I have a feeling he's a bit of his element here, and KU is just going to upgrade the position in one of their next classes, leaving him on the bench.  They've already offered the #4, #5, #6, and #9 point guards for the class of 2012, so to torture this analogy a bit further, they've basically got four better looking, more successful dudes on speed dial.  If people still used speed dial.

But that, of course, is really neither here nor there, and what we really need to concern ourselves with here is that there is suddenly only one recruit remaining who we really care about who could become a Gopher, Andre Hollins, and it suddenly looks like the point guard cupboard is bare (Hollins is a combo guard).  With Al Nolen graduating after this year, and the only point guards on the roster being a shooting guard, a guy who might not be D-I material, and a football player, I'm beyond nervous.

Fact of the matter is they need to land a point guard, and they need to land a good one.  Going into battle with a bunch of last minute hail mary type signees isn't going to get it done.  This isn't Iowa.