Why Aaron Gordon Belongs at Arizona

A few weeks back I took my wife to see a High School basketball game with me.  She is always such a great sport and was willing to come with me to watch a bunch of 16 and 17 year old boys run up and down the court of a tiny gym.  It had none of the excitement or flare that she has grown to love when attending Warriors games at Oracle Arena.  Nevertheless, she sat with me and watched a group of young men shoot air balls, miss lay ups, bank in free throws, and struggle to score 40 points (wow, sounds like we watched a recent Syracuse game together).  But we were at the game for one purpose, to see Aaron Gordon, the #4 ranked High School basketball player in the country.

Gordon is a 6'8" senior from San Jose, CA who is attending Arch Bishop Mitty.  I was excited to get the chance to watch one of the nation's top prep athletes.  But what added to my excitement was that he has selected a group of potential colleges to attend and Arizona, my favorite team, is on that short list.  The negative side to all this is that also on that list is Big Blue Nation, the Kentucky Wildcats.  Lets face it, in today's day and age, High School players want what Kentucky has to offer: a chance at a National Championship before leaving school after one season and becoming a lottery pick in the NBA draft.  Kentucky is known for starting five Freshman each season, sending all of them to the NBA draft and then getting five new ones the next season.  Coach John Calipari is not breaking the NCAA rules by recruiting players with the promise of turning them into NBA players within a season, so I can't blame him for what he does, but in my opinion, he is one of the major flaws with the college game and a big reason the quality of play continues to decline each season.  But this is the world we live in, as Jalen Rose says, we live in a "microwave world."  Young kids want everything right away, instant gratification.  Very few players are willing to be patient and let their game grow and mature before making the leap to the NBA and the big money awaiting them.
I don't think Kentucky is the right place for Aaron Gordon; he belongs at the University of Arizona.  I have decided to put on the hat of a recruiter and tell this young man the top 3 reasons he should become a red and blue Wildcat and not a blue and white Wildcat.

Reason # 3 - Location
Tucson is 820 miles away from San Jose.  Lexington is about 2,500 miles away from San Jose.  Tucson is warm year around and rarely snows.  In the winter during basketball season, Lexington is very cold and will often snow.  The weather in San Jose is much closer to the weather in Tucson than it is in Kentucky.  The culture in San Jose is much closer to the culture in Tucson than it is to the culture in Kentucky.  If you have ever been to the south, although it has great food and great people, it is very different than California.
So why does all of this matter if Gordon is only going to play basketball? I for some odd reason decided to go to a university in Idaho.  I grew up in Tucson and Hawaii.  Both warm climates.  I had never been around the cold before.  Every day I had to walk to class in the freezing cold with ice and snow on the ground I would ask myself, "Why am I here? Why am I not at home where it's warm?"  It also took me a long time to get use to the small town, farming culture of Idaho.  College life can be hard enough, there is no reason to make it any tougher by living far away from home in a new and strange culture.

Reason # 2 - Big man on Campus

Both Arizona and Kentucky have amazing college basketball environments.  In both cities basketball takes a back seat to no other sport.  Both schools have had decent football teams in the past, but neither team compares to the consistent quality of their basketball team.  When a team has been so good for so long, it is inevitable that those teams are going to have amazing fans.  Kentucky has been known for years for having one of the greatest fan bases; a fan base that goes wherever their team goes.  Arizona may not be as well know, but they are equally as amazing as the UK fans.  According to Mark Titus, a writer for Grantland, he says this about Arizona's home crowd, "I've never been to a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, The Pit, or Gallagher-Iba Arena, but I have been to pretty much every other must-see arena in college basketball, and for me the McKale Center atmosphere trails only Indiana's Assembly Hall and Kansas's Allen Fieldhouse. When you factor in that most of the crowd is in the The Price Is Right target demographic, maybe McKale should be no. 1. Anyway, if you haven't already, put the McKale Center on your college basketball bucket list."  I too have been to many games in Tucson and they are special.  Wherever Gordon goes, he will get to play in front of a great crowd and amazing atmosphere.  But if he goes to Kentucky, he will become just another one of their many top recruits to be funneled in and out of the school.  This year alone UK has signed 5 of the top 20 High School players in the country.  Gordon would be number 6 if he chooses to play for Big Blue Nation.  For the fans, he would be just another of the great players.  But if he went to Arizona, he would be "The Guy."  He would be the big man on campus and would be loved by everyone.  And trust me, when Tucson develops a relationship with a player, that relationship never dies.  Fans still feel pride each time they see Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, Mike Bibby, Miles Simon, Jason Gardner, or even Luke Walton home in Tucson.  They love their players and treat them that way forever.  When I was a teenager I was at an Arizona football game and saw a huge crowd of people surrounding someone.  I did not know who it was so I walked over to see.  It was Steve Kerr who had been retired from the NBA for a few years.  He was never a super star in the NBA and would be best described as a role player off the bench.  But in Tucson, he was loved by everyone.  Crowds surrounded him to get the chance to shake his hand and say hello.  If Aaron Gordon comes to Tucson, he will not be just another one of the many recruits, he would be loved by an entire city.

Reason # 1 - The player Aaron Gordon wants to become

A lot of people have compared Aaron Gordon to Blake Griffin.  But when I saw him play, I did not see Blake Griffin.  I saw someone who does not want to be a low post powerhouse. I saw someone who wants to play on the wings, take jump shots, drive to the hoop, and when necessary, get dirty with the big men under the basket.  Like I mentioned above, he is 6'8".  He is tool small to play power forward in the NBA.  He belongs on the wing but does not yet have all the skills that he needs to be a wing player at the highest level.  Lets not forget, LeBron James is also 6'8".  In the 4 seasons that Sean Miller has been the coach at Arizona, he has taken two players who were considered "big men" in High School and has turned them into elite wing players who can shoot from the perimeter and also drive to the basket and finish or distribute.  Both Solomon Hill and Derrick Williams were the same size as Aaron Gordon.  Both of them were not considered good shooters when they came out of high school.  Neither of them was expected to be a perimeter threat.  But in his Sophomore season, Derrick Williams became one of the best players in the country.  He shot over 50% from behind the arc and made some very impressive dunks.  He led Arizona all the way to the Elite 8, knocking off the top seeded Duke Blue Devils along the way.  He was later chosen #2 overall in the NBA draft.  Solomon Hill has not received the same recognition and exposure as Derrick Williams did, but he is nevertheless an incredible wing player and the leader of the Arizona Wildcats.  He can bring the ball up court and create offense for himself or his teammates.  When Arizona needs a big basket, Hill will often take the ball the length of the court and get a dunk or find the open player for 3.
Aaron Gordon has two great examples of players who learned under the tutelage of Sean Miller and became great college players on the wing.  If Gordon wants to become the kind of player that I believe he wants to become, there is no better coach than Sean Miller to help get him there.  And with the departure of Solomon Hill after this season, there will be a much needed vacancy in the lineup with Aaron Gordon's name on it.
Arizona refers to itself as "A Players Program" and that is exactly what it is.  I do not want Aaron Gordon to make the same mistake that his brother Drew made by picking the wrong school and having to transfer later.  I cannot predict the future for Aaron Gordon, but I believe it would shine much brighter in the desert sun than anywhere else.