Far be it from me to rain on anyone's parade, but, lest we get lost in the celebration over the addition of former Racine Horlick forward (and now-former Oregon Duck) Jamil Wilson to YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles, lemme make a couple of points:
(1) I know it was a long, long, loooong time ago, but is everyone forgetting what Jamil said about Marquette -- and, to be more specific, Coach Buzz -- in November 2008? In case your selective memory isn't working today:
[Wilson] said he's down to three schools now after doing a little dance with Marquette University that ended last week.
Treutelaar said Marquette informed Wilson on Oct. 28 that they were no longer offering a scholarship. But two weeks later, Wilson said, the school contacted his father - James "Peanut" Wilson, who played on UW-Whitewater's 1984 NCAA Division III championship team - and said their offer was back on the table.
"That didn't make sense. I didn't really like that," Wilson said. "I told my father to tell them I didn't like them playing head games with me, and I told them they were off my list."
Just so I'm clear: we're all OK with this? And, more to the point, how in the hell is Coach Buzz OK with this, especially after what happened with Jeronne Maymon? We were willing to overlook a whole gaggle of red flags in Maymon's situation, and look where we ended up with that.
(2) Coach Buzz announced that, to make room for Wilson, DJ Newbill will not be attending Marquette come fall. The scuttlebutt is that Newbill may not have qualified for the upcoming season, and was the mystery player who Coach Buzz was referring to when he (Coach Buzz) said that one of our 2010 recruits was heading to prep school. If that's the case -- and it bears noting that, at this point, there's no solid evidence that it is the case -- some are apparently OK with the decision to release (read: cut) DJ from his schollie, since he wasn't going to qualify anyway.
But ...
Don't you have to assume that Coach Buzz and Co. knew about this situation when DJ committed? I find it hard to believe that this would've caught anyone unawares, especially with the unrelenting rumors that Newbill might not qualify over the last six months. Like the Mbao situation, the perception -- even if it's not reality -- will be that Marquette committed to the kid until something better (and bigger) came along.
(3) Simply: is Jamil Wilson worth all this fuss? Yes, he was dynamite for Horlick during his prep career, and he was a highly-sought-after player in 2008-'09, ultimately selecting Oregon after receiving interest from Marquette, UW-Madison, Michigan State, and Texas. But, for all that interest, he ended up picking the team that went 8-23 in 2008-'09, and then put up 4.7 points and 3.2 rebounds against woeful Pac-10 competition. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Wilson's ability to play in the paint in the big, bad Big East.
Anyway, that's why I'm concerned. But, as I said with my first comment on the subject: you knew that already.