LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Unlike the thousands of fans who are hyper-ventilating around-the-clock about which basketball program – Kentucky or Maryland – the Harrison twins will select Thursday, former University of Louisville basketball player Rodney McCray has actually watched Aaron and Andrew play many times.
"You know what a stickler I am for playing the right way," said McCray, who won an NCAA title with U of L in 1980 and an then NBA ring with the Chicago Bulls. "Well, they play the game the right way.
"They don't tell you how good they are. They show you. They can score. They share the ball. They get in the lane. They defend. They're strong. They have a nasty streak. If they're supposed to beat you by 40, they'll beat you by 50.
"They know they're good – and when the game is over, you know it, too. You don't have to ask. They're really, really good."
That's two reallys, Rod?
"No," McCray said. "They're really, really, really, really, really, really good."
McCray lives in the Houston area, home to the Harrisons. He has watched them play in high school and AAU basketball. McCray is friends with one of the twins' AAU coaches.
The next question, obviously, is the one fans everywhere will be asking until Thursday at 5 p.m. (EDT), when the Harrison twins announce their college choice on ESPNU:
Where will they play college ball?
John Calipari, Kentucky (and Nike) or Under Armour, Maryland (and Mark Turgeon)?
"You know I'm Louisville through and through," McCray said. "I'm still upset we didn't beat Kentucky in the Final Four. We could have won that game.
"But how could they not go to Kentucky? How many one-and-dones has Calipari had the last three years? (Eight, including three this season). How could anybody predict Maryland over Kentucky?"
They shouldn't. My unofficial scorecard over the last four seasons is Calipari's recruiting record at Kentucky is 13-4. He whiffed several times last season, most memorably on Shabazz Muhammad (UCLA) and Gary Harris (Michigan State), but his completion percentage is better than Peyton Manning's.
So McCray's question is legitimate: How could the Harrison twins not go to Kentucky?
Here's how: Maryland is Under Armour's signature college sports program. Kevin Plank, the Under Armour CEO, is a Maryland grad. Under Armour concedes nothing to Nike. The company has become a legitimate player in grass-roots basketball, sponsoring AAU teams, like the Houston Defenders, the home team for the twins.
Under Armour lists Tom Brady, Ray Lewis and Cam Newton as its prime pro football endorsers. Michael Phelps (swimming), Bryce Harper (baseball), Lindsey Vonn (skiing) and Hunter Mahan (golf) ranks as UA's signature faces in other sports.
But basketball?
Brandon Jennings. Kemba Walker. Will Barton. Derrick Williams.
Not exactly LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose.
You don't need a Masters' degree in marketing to understand that Under Armour needs to upgrade its basketball profile. Give a marketing guy a pair of talented twins capable of making a monstrous splash in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area during a one-and-done romp through the Atlantic Coast Conference and that marketing department could make those guys the face of a brand.
All theory, of course. But …
Shabazz Muhammad played for an adidas AAU program – and then signed with an adidas college, UCLA.
Considering the Harrison family has roots in the Baltimore area and a relationship with Turgeon, the Maryland coach, that can be traced to his work at Texas A&M, it wouldn't be a Lehigh-beats-Duke moment if the twins picked Maryland over UK.
But that's not what I expect. I expect the decision to be Kentucky. Eric Prisbell of USA Today reported that Turgeon and Maryland assistant Bino Ranson had a "very good" lunch with the twins' father, Aaron Harrison Sr., on Wednesday.
In the coaching grapevine, last-minute visits like that one are viewed as attempts to flip a decision that is going the other way.
"Kentucky or Under Armour?" McCray said. "Got to go with Kentucky."
Me, too.
Copyright 2012 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.
The Harrison twins will choose either Kentucky or Maryland Thursday afternoon in Houston.
