Of course he can skip college. There's no rule that says he has to play college basketball.

I'm no USC fan, and I know you're joking a little, but painting USC as the wrongdoers in this case is just wrong! I mean, Bush would have done that at any school probably...

Floyd didn't even actively recruit Mayo - Mayo is simply full of himself and wanted the media attention that USC would give him. At some point, players like Mayo/Bush (who aren't exactly in the same class) have to take responsibility for their own actions!

(This coming from the guy that went to the same high school as Kareem/JaRon Rush...)

Floyd was interviewed a couple of weeks ago and when they asked him about Mayo and the other incident Floyd defended the kid saying how the ref flopped. He was pretty adamant in standing up for him. Whether or not the ref flopped or not is immaterial. The fact is the kid walked after and did make contact with the ref on purpose but Floyd was defending him anyway.

I wasn't joking at all.

Did you read that Yahoo series on Bush?

That really suprises me. At ISU we had a forward (the immortal Kenny Pratt) who got in trouble for kicking a police officer. Floyd immediately tossed him from the team only to have the university reinstate him until his trial. Miraculously the trial was moved until after the NCAA touranment and we went to the Sweet 16. I was pretty embarrassed as an ISU fan. That is not what college athletics should be about, but unfortunately it is.

OK, yes he can skip college - but he cannot enter the NBA draft this year. It would be foolish for him to skip a year of playing ball. He could play in Europe for a year if he desires.

Maybe go there and stay there? :D

It surprised me too. It surprised me how adamant he was. He was real big on how "that ref flopped!" But signing day isn't for a few days yet. An Iowa State guy huh? I grew up going to Iowa State games when Hilton coliseum first opened and also got my undergrad degree there. My dad bought season tickets. If I remember right they were $3 a game. And they were on the lower half.

I was there for Floyd's first season through Eustacy's first. I was really impressed with the way both ran the program. I only made it to 2 games this season. My reffing schedule kept me busy and on my off nights I didn't feel like driving (I'm a little less than an hour from Ames).

I'm sure everyone else is fascinated by this conversation but I grew up in Webster City. Where are you?

Larry, actually Bill Walker played varsity as an 8th grader in Kentucky. I watched Walker, Mayo and Ellis win the state championship as sophomores. They repeated the following year without Ellis because he had emotional problems and was kicked off the team. What a shame because he was 6'11" as a sophomore. I was really looking forward to a 3 peat when word got out that Walker was ineligible.

I'll tell you something, I learned a lot watching those "kids" play ball over those two years. Walker and Mayo both have a lot of growing up to do, there is no disputing that and I couldn't stand the way Walker would allow himself to be suckered into confrontations. Too often he appeared to be looking for it. But, conversely, when I say I learned a lot, I saw a lot of "good white Catholic boys" from schools like Summit and Country Day take real cheap shots at these guys. In some instances, Walker could have been seriously hurt the way he was undercut on some of his unbelievable dunks. Whereas initially I tended to only see the strut and immaturity of Walker and Mayo, I also saw these boys getting targeted game after game.

ZZZzzzzz :)
Actually, my wife is from Des Moines and I would have loved to have attended Iowa State for a graduate degree - oh well, life moved in a different direction; about seven years ago I had my kids convinced for a few weeks that we were going to move - the Computer Engineering program there really produces while the program in San Antonio is bogged down in faculty-vs-faculty politics.
...what was this thread about anyway? :D

I think that you need to go somewhere else and take your racial and religious sh!t with you.

We don't need that crap here. We also don't need azzholes like you here either.

Piss off!

No one else will recognize these names, but my grandmother grew up in Lehigh and my wife grew up in Gowrie.

My sons are "good white Catholic boys." You don't get it, do you? Do you even understand the point of the post? Too often inner city kids are characterized as thugs and punks. I have been guilty of this stereotype myself. It was the whole point of the post. Too often kids like Walker and Mayo are mischaracterized.

JR, you are WAY too emotional. And you ref?