Deep down, I knew something wasn’t right. I was about to fulfill a lifelong goal, but if I was being honest with myself, I knew I was making a mistake in my college basketball recruiting process.

I had grown up in the gym. Following my older brother to tournament after tournament, attending camps all summer long, playing for school and AAU teams, and idolizing college programs like Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky.

Watching those teams on TV, I found my dream – to play BIG TIME college basketball. I had found personal and team success up until that point in my basketball career, and anything but playing high major basketball, I would be a disappointment to myself, my family, and everyone else that thought I was a good player…at least that’s the way my 17 year old mind processed it.

I wasn’t prepared for the college basketball recruiting process. I didn’t have a list of priorities that I looked for in schools, and I didn’t know how to find the right fit for me.

In my mind, for college basketball recruiting, bigger was better. I couldn’t possibly accept scholarship offers from schools like Davidson, Santa Clara or Northern Arizona. That would be a let down.

So, as I sat there about to sign my letter of intent to Baylor University, I should have been ecstatic to play in the Big XII and be on TV playing against schools like Kansas and Texas, and I was excited, but somewhere inside, something wasn’t right. Baylor had been the only Big XII team to offer me a scholarship and looking back at it now, there was a reason for that, but I was blinded by the bright lights.

Continue reading “FLASHBACK FRIDAY: COLLEGE BASKETBALL RECRUITING – BIGGER VS. BETTER” →