| Roscoe Smith at the Les Schwab Invitational |
Oak Hill forward Roscoe Smith talks recruiting at the Les Schwab Invitational last week in Hillsboro, Ore.
The 6-foot-8 Smith previously said he is considering Duke, Georgetown and UConn but in this interview he mentions seven schools.
“I still have a solid top seven schools. UCLA, UConn, Georgetown, Duke, Florida, Kansas and Texas,” he said. “Right now I’m still waiting.”
SELBY VISITING ARIZONA
Josh Selby will visit Arizona Jan. 9-11 and his mother, Maeshon Witherspoon, told the Arizona Daily Star that Selby has a longstanding relationship with Arizona assistant Book Richardson, a former coach with the New York Gauchos.
“Book and Sean Miller have always had an eye on Josh,” Witherspoon told the Daily Star. “It was always a question of whether we would [look into] Arizona. Josh and coach Book actually sat down and talked. It could be a good fit with Nic Wise leaving.”
Miller recruited Texas A&M guard Naji Hibbert, Selby’s former teammate with DeMatha Catholic and Team Melo, Pascoe reported.
Arizona is also involved with Oak Hill guard Doron Lamb and Detroit guard Ray McCallum.
Selby, who is also considering Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Miami and Indiana, plays for Baltimore (Md.) Lake Clifton. Rivals reported that he will visit Kansas the weekend of Feb. 14; KU plays Iowa State Feb 13.
Rivals also reported that Witherspoon has recently been in touch with UConn head coach Jim Calhoun and that the Huskies could be back in the mix.
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DC / January 5, 2010
Selby visiting U of A sounds like lip service to Book Richardson. Committing there would be literally dying a slow death in the desert, as Arizona fast fades into college BB obscurity.
If I were him, you have the pick of the litter amongst some of the best programs between UCONN, Kansas, Kentucky, and Syracuse. Go there, pay your dues, play on primetime, and have a chance to get a ring. Don’t go to the PAC-10, the and compete against programs on probation and in turmoil.
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bosybillups / January 5, 2010
Lip Service? Nice insult to Selby and his moms. He is too good to pay any lip service to anyone… So please don’t insult him.
And Pac-10 isn’t fading anytime soon. SC is the only program facing probation. By the way, they’re a football school.
Selby would do great in the Pac-10, get all the exposure he needs, lead a team, nice weather, ladies, and an education to boot.
BTW, I believe the Pac-10 has produced the most NBA draft picks since 2005.
Look it up, child.
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AGinNYC / January 5, 2010
Why wouldn’t he want to play in the Pac Ten? That conference has been the top producer of NBA talent forever. I don’t get to watch their teams play all that often but I do know that the style Arizona plays would fit Selby’s game perfectly. Arizona is known as Point guard U for a reason, you know. With the great coaching staff that they’ve put together and the young talent Miller has recruited in the past 8 months, Arizona will be back on top in no time. Why would he want to fade to obscurity at Syracuse? Outside of Storrs, nobody cares about college sports in the Northeast – and Selby’s interest in UConn sounds like lip service. Why would he want to play for dinosaurs like Boeheim or Calhoun? I think it will come down to Arizona and Kansas with UK a distant third.
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DC / January 6, 2010
Not fading anytime soon? Um, dude, if you haven’t noticed already the PAC-10 is a two bid league this year, maximum. That’s more than fading, that’s falling off the map.
No one outside of the West Coast gives a flip about PAC-10 sports. Their games are rarely nationally televised, and when they are the arenas are half empty with nowhere near the energy of arenas in the other BCS conferences.
U of A may have been point guard U under Olson, but now they’re just a rebuilding program with an unproven head coach. and you’re right, Selby and his mom are too smart to make a dumb decision. That’s why he won’t go to U of A.
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Avaricious / January 6, 2010
“Dinosaurs like Boeheim or Calhoun”
They’re Hall of Fame coaches at top programs, not geriatrics waiting to die in a retirement community in sweltering Tuscon.
“Fade to Obscurity at Syracuse”-
You may be a state school graduate, but you do realize that Syracuse is a top ten team that is bringing in one of the best recruiting classes in the country.
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bosybillups / January 6, 2010
Unfortunately, when a league sends the most amount of players to the NBA, there will be a drop off. If you lose 19, NINETEEN, One Nine PLAYERS to the draft, obviously a league, ANY league, will be “down”, only because there are so many great players in a league at a time. The last couple years, the Pac-10 was arguably the best league from top to bottom.
You’re looking at the first half of one season and drawing conclusions. You must be goin to one of ’em hillbillu skools in good ‘ol white boy county, dang.
Maybe you’re just a little scared of few things:
1. Miller is one of the best up and coming young head coaches in the game. A cool dude, not sleazy or all about him. He also has a very well-connected coaching staff, and this
2. The current alumni connection in the NBA (I’ll leave out former players, i.e., Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, etc. the list gets too long).
Jerryd Bayless
Mike Bibby
Chase Budinger
Channing Frye
Gilbert Arenas
Jordan Hill
Andre Iguodala
Richard Jefferson
Damon Stoudamire
Jason Terry
Luke Walton
3. And 25 year consecutive NCAA tourney appearances – ok, we’ll concede this year as a rebuilding period… but wait, even in a period of transition:
4. Look who comes in at NUMBER 6 on the Forbes most profitable basketball programs:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/16/most-valuable-college-basketball-teams-business-sports-final-four_slide_7.html?thisSpeed=undefined
5. And with powerful Alumni ready to donate (besides curent NBA players), such as Angels owner Artie Moreno, and many others…
Don’t count on Arizona fading. In fact, I can definitely see Selby attending.
No need to debate – let’s just watch it unfold.
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davidpk19 / January 6, 2010
Come on with this Kentucky and Kansas. There is nothing going on in those two states for a young kid to do. What are you going to do besides basketball? What do you guys do? I have been to both states and they are boring and cold, full of farmers and hillbillies. It is no surprise that there is a shift of population from your hick states to the west and this shift will continue.
I am sure you fans of these two schools would cheat less and try to play by the rules, if you could but that is not how the game is played by your schools.
Now, Syracuse is a good school. so is UConn, if Calhoun was not getting too old.
But you two states have nothing to offer but “Hurry up and watch the farm” because in this economic conditions, your parents are losing them.
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KKeoughCat / January 6, 2010
Wow nice post^^^
Anyways, anyone who is talking shit like that about Arizona is clearly a biased fan trying to spread bad venom thinking certain people are reading this site and comments.
25 straight years NCAA tourney
Most NBA players including GUARDS
btw, the reason the PAC is weak this year is because we got sucked dry by the NBA. Respect.
Be a real fan and educate yourself. All programs on Selby’s and Lamb’s final lists are Elite.
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Avaricious / January 6, 2010
Your most prominent alumnus (Arenas) is a nightly punchline for Leno.
Good luck resuscitating that moribund program.
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davidpk19 / January 6, 2010
What a bunch of Kansas Hillibillies! Is there anything else going on in Kansas besides your frozen farms? It is beautiful out west, 71 degrees Farenheit and I see a lot of Kansas license plates out here enjoying the sunshine. Only if you losers could afford it, you would be out here too. But hell, stay inside and enjoy watching TV all day.
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jhawk4 / January 6, 2010
davidpk-
you have KU confused with K state my friend, Lawrence is not a farming community at all.
Lawrence and Lexington both are great college towns. neither of them will keep recruits away from their respective schools
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GasCan / January 6, 2010
CLEARLY anyone who DISAGREES with YOU is obviously biased (sarcasms). Your comment CLEARLY shows YOUR bias. On a side note, I apologize to all the non-Arizona fans for my numerous all-capped words. I’ve noticed that “JessieWildcat” and other UA fans do this all the time and I assume that this is the common method of communication for them. Even though I can’t seem to get the randomness and pointlessness of the all-capping down, I hope they can still understand me.
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bosybillups / January 6, 2010
Jessie Wildcat is in no way a representation of Zona nation, lol.
Good stuff, AZ.
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AZhoops / January 6, 2010
“The PAC-10 is falling off the map”….. For all of you big east fans who thing the big east is and always will be the premier conference for college basketball, you’re an idiot. The big east is not the basketball version of the SEC in football. College backetball conference powers is very cyclical. The PAC is down this year due to how young many of the teams are, but you cannot argue against the amount of NBA talent that comes from the PAC.
“No one outside of the West Coast gives a flip about PAC-10 sports.” …. another idiotic comment. Of course you don’t care about teams in the PAC-10, you’re probably a die hard big east fan. Nobody in the west cares about teams in the Big East. The only reason ESPN doesn’t have a contract with the PAC-10 is because games start way too late in the east to get ratings. Yet if you show early games out west (from the Big East or ACC, the people in the west will still watch, which means double ratings).
“U of A may have been point guard U under Olson, but now they’re just a rebuilding program with an unproven head coach.”… he might be unproven, but the fact that Sean Miller and Book Richardson even have Arizona as one of the top teams on these recruits favorites shows that AZ is heading in the right direction. It’s only a matter of time before we start dominating the PAC-10 and bringing AZ back into NC contention.
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JessieWildcat / January 6, 2010
Sorry to join the party so LATE.
(who is boysbillups..who cares…LOL.)
If you have not heard, Arizona has another scholarhips OPEN.
So, the BOOK IT of Josh Selby and Doron Lamb can be ascertained.
Both players can play together just like Mrs. W has suggested before as well as Calvin.
These two top players would be great additions to Point Guard U and Arizona’s run at a national championship.
Yes,Yes,..ARIZONA is Point Guard U.
And with good reasons.
Arizona is a good and clear choice for Josh Selby and Mrs W.
We arel heard of Lawrence and Lexington pushing HARD for Knight.
Both UK and KU are doing another hard push at Knight.
Josh is no ones BACK UP recruiting priority.
And most are saying Knight goes to UK.
Do you really expect Josh S. to be at kentucky? NO WAY.
And ask yourself this…WHY is Kansas having such a horrible 2010 recruitment?
There are reasons for the poor KU 2010 recruitment class….
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RockChalkWoody / January 6, 2010
Poor recruitment? I’ll reserve judgement until spring. Jessie, you might want to look at our roster once & a while and you might understand why Bill Self isn’t just offering anybody a scholarship. When you have 4 star guys like Travis Releford and former JUCO Player of the Year Mario Little red-shirting you know that you’re loaded for next year.
You’re once again talking out of your a$$. You no nothing regarding Arizona being a “clear choice” for Selby.
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Big Ben / January 6, 2010
If Kansas was having a ‘poor’ class it’s probably because they are 11 deep with guys that would start at Arizona or USC.
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AGinNYC / January 7, 2010
In a few short years, your most famous basketball alum was suspended only 15 games for the being part of the biggest brawl in NBA history. He has also been charged with DUI. Your most famous football alum spent time in prison. Pot, Kettle, Black. Dumba$$.
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AGinNYC / January 7, 2010
Just curious… not that it matters, but which state school is it that I may have attended? I can tell you that whichever one it was, it wasn’t Arizona. In fact, the only times I’ve been to the West Coast have been on vacation. The school that I actually attended doesn’t even have a D1 sports program – that’s why I’m able to stay so objective. As it turns out, I am a fan of college sports across the board without any real biases whatsoever. I have been up to the Syracuse area a few times to visit the Finger Lakes and some wineries. I can tell you that Syracuse would be a great place to go to school provided you’re interested in entering the witness protection program. As a college town, it is absolutely nothing in comparison to places like Chapel Hill, Durham, Westwood or even Lawrence.
As far as basketball goes, it makes no difference that Syracuse is a top 10 team THIS year – so are Purdue and West Virginia. As usual, Syracuse has big early wins over cupcakes like Albany, Bob Morris, Maine, Oakland, St Bonaventure, St Francis and a bunch of Ivy Leaguers. They’ll cave in to the pressure when it really matters. As far as player development goes, it doesn’t matter that Syracuse has a highly rated recruiting class because history shows that Syracuse is a place where big time recruits go to fade to obscurity. Look at the past 10 NBA drafts. How many kids in those drafts are from the Pac 10 and ACC? The reality is that those two conferences have been the most consistently strong conferences for the past 20 years. That’s not my opinion, its fact. How many kids in the draft have been from Syracuse? How are they doing? How did studs like John Wallace, Hakim Warrick, Derrick Thomas, Donte Greene and Demetrius Nichols fare in the NBA? Where are such big-time recruits as Gerry McNamara, Billy Edelin, Terrence Roberts, Eric Devendorf, Jason Cipolla, Paul Harris, Dayshawn Wright and James Theus playing these days? In a stronger program with better coaching and better competition, several of those guys would be playing in the NBA. Carmelo Anthony is the only exception but he was ready to play in the NBA out of high school. His on and off the court behavior clearly show the influence that his Hall of Fame coach had on preparing him for life in the NBA.
Comparatively speaking, even the University of Washington has recently placed more relevant players in the league than Syracuse (NBA all-star Brandon Roy, star in the making Spencer Hawes, Nate Robinson, defensive stopper Bobby Jones and Jon Brockman). Even a fairly mediocre program like Oregon has Aaron Brooks, Fred Jones, Luke Jackson, Malik Hairston and Marty Leunen – probably on par with Syracuse. For a program that thinks it has been elite, that’s absolutely embarrassing.
Bottom line – it’s time to shut your pie hole. If you’re going to talk about something you don’t know about, you should at least get your facts straight.
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AGinNYC / January 7, 2010
Funny you should say that. I was born and raised on the East Coast and I can tell you that just about every top Pac 10 basketball game is available to me on Directv. Are you using rabbit ears? I can’t remember ever having to go to a sports bar or online to find any P10 game that I wanted to watch. Fox Sports has every one of them. You can’t say the same about most conferences unless you order the pricey ESPN Game Plan package. I rarely stay up late enough to watch them but that’s my problem – I’m the one who is missing out on the great games going on late at night. I can guarantee you that nobody on the West Coast rushes home from work to watch our games either. By the way, I looked it up and the better teams in the Pac10 almost always sell out their arenas. Teams like USC, ASU and WSU don’t count because they’re mostly irrelevant. A “relevant” school like Syracuse only fills the Carrier Dome to about 60% capacity – that’s a fact. I looked it up.
As far as being a two bid league – so what? That just means that the league is young and lost all of its talent to the NBA. SEC was the same way last year, Big East was the same for most of the last 20 years. I’m always amazed that the Pac10 usually gets at least 50% of its teams into the tournament while the beast known as the Big East has only matched that twice. It’s all about quality, not quantity. Of course a league with 16+ teams is going to get more teams in the tournament than a conference with 10 teams. I love how you suddenly grow a big set of balls to kick a league when it’s down. When the league comes back in a year or two you’ll go back to cowering in the corner.
Selby probably won’t attend UA but not because he shouldn’t. It’s because UA got involved too late in the game. I’d be willing to bet he ends up at KU – another great choice. I can tell you that if there’s any lip service it’s aimed squarely at UConn.
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bosybillups / January 7, 2010
^ That was awesome.
Facts and truth. Respect.
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bosybillups / January 7, 2010
Zags, can you bump this story to the first post? The comments are truth.
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DC / January 7, 2010
AG,
nice post. You present a well-reasoned argument and back it up with facts. But this claim of yours bothered me:
“The school that I actually attended doesn’t even have a D1 sports program – that’s why I’m able to stay so objective.”
to claim that you, by virtue of your schooling, somehow has a monopoly on objectivity on this thread is an insult to everyone else’d intelligence. You’re expressing your opinion, just like everyone else. That does not mean that you’re the second coming of Aristotle.
Like I said, you make a good argument. But get off your high horse of objectivity.
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davidpk19 / January 7, 2010
I refuse to discuss anything with a hillibillie from Kansas. What are you a corn gorwer boy? What do you know about basketball? Oh yeah, like I am going to listen to another long discussion about how the game was created by some Kansas geek with a basket!
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jhawk4 / January 7, 2010
again davidpk- K state is the farming community, not KU. figure it out
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AGinNYC / January 8, 2010
PK:
Really? Spent much time in Kansas? Come on dude…
KU guys:
Don’t you see that he’s just pushing your buttons. Stop responding if you want him to go away.
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AGinNYC / January 8, 2010
DC,
Aristotle, huh? That’s hilarious – you truly have an excellent sense of humor. Since you and I share a love for philophy, let’s discuss this in a manner that we’ll both appreciate. Using Aristotelian logic in the form
of a mathematical proof, your own words above shall prove my point.
Let us start with the following four axioms (which are by definition assumed to be true):
1. Objective (definition from Merriam-Webster): expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations.
2. Fanaticism (as in sports fanatic, definition from Merriam-Webster): exhibiting excessive enthusiasm, unreasoning zeal, or wild and extravagant notions toward a subject.
3. I am not affiliated with any major college basketball program or conference. I am just an ardent fan of the game of basketball. You may choose whether or not to believe this but I know it to be true.
4. You said the following: “You present a well-reasoned argument and back it up with facts.”
Q.E.D.: Because I am not a fan of a particular team or conference and I use facts and reasoning to state my opinion, I am therefore as objective as I could possibly be.
How do you like that? Your words proved my point for me. Of course, nobody is 100% free of bias unless they are completely removed from their surroundings. Indeed, there are programs that I respect more than others. If you’ve read this thread then you have a pretty good idea of which ones they are. What I was trying to say (re: schooling) is that I’m not an alumnus of any particular program or conference. As I’m sure you understand, the vast majority of fans are blinded by their allegiances to their alma mater. That’s absolutely fine – but they can’t claim to be objective by any means. Many of the people I interact with every day make sweeping generalizations about schools and players that they’ve never seen play. This is particularly true on forums and message boards. As a rule, I choose to form my own opinions based solely on what I have experienced. For example, I do not have any opinion on ‘American Idol’ because I’ve never watched it (and never will). I do have a very strong opinion on our country’s leadership at the moment because I stay politically active. Furthermore, I never base my any of my opinions on what the talking heads on television, talk radio or newspapers tell me. Neither should you because it’s mostly inaccurate, extremely biased information (yes, that’s just my own biased opinion).
By the way, since when does ‘objectivity’ have anything at all to do with ‘intelligence’? Adolf Hitler was said to have had an IQ in the 140’s. Was he objective? To some extent I see the two entities as mutually exclusive. Again, I only base my opinions on fact and I know nothing about anyone else on this board. I’m sure you’re all intelligent, educated human beings. Whether you’re objective or not – only you (or your posts) can say.
People have called me an arrogant, condescending jackass numerous times in my life. If so many people believe it, I guess it must be true :). Unfortunately, a leopard cannot change its spots. At least I’m brutally honest and I say what I believe is right. When I’m wrong, I’ll be the first one to admit it. Just remember who started all of this because it wasn’t me. I just jumped in for arguments sake – it’s really amusing to see people get all bent out of shape over something that doesn’t matter the least bit. Ah, how I love to push peoples buttons. It seems that I have way too much free time on my hand. Guys, basketball is JUST A GAME. You know, entertainment. Relax and enjoy…
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AGinNYC / January 8, 2010
“Dinosaurs like Boeheim or Calhoun”
They’re Hall of Fame coaches at top programs, not geriatrics waiting to die in a retirement community in sweltering Tuscon.
—-
I knew there was something I forgot to mention. Boeheim and Calhoun are both pushing 70, thus making them geriatric. They have also both been diagnosed with various forms of cancer and I’m sure they have been putting up a good fight. Boeheim has a very strong family history including several young deaths from multiple different forms of cancer. Calhoun has been diagnosed with no fewer than THREE cancers in the past 5 years: skin, prostate and head/neck. His skin cancer (cSCC) has been treated with external beam radiation several times and dozens of lymph nodes and salivary glands were found to be involved via lymphatic invasion and direct extension. That makes this at least stage III disease (or T4/N1/M0 using the TNM classification). Five year survival is approximately 35%. As far as prostate cancer goes, average survival after diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer is 1-3 years and the disease is considered incurable. While I’m not privy to any inside information such as their PSA or Gleason scores, I would say that they are both waiting to die.
You are correct though – they are not living in a retirement community in sweltering “Tuscon”.
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davidpk19 / January 9, 2010
With all due respects to all the hillibillies from Kansas, we are talking about a hick state, are we not? What is out there in the cold that anyone would want to live there unless they had to? Really!
Please make a sales pitch as to why Kansas is so important to the Union? And at that time, we can hold a discussion whether we should discuss basketball and the university in the same sentence?
Everyone of your alumni who can afford it, is bailing on the state and leaving you hicks to fend for yourselves. Come on, should you really be worried about basketball or should you be working on a plan to bail like the rest of those with any sense of sanity.
I see a lot of Kansas license plates in California, which you seem to want to slam and that is definitely the case of sour grapes.
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davidpk19 / January 9, 2010
AGin NYC;
Why would I want to go back in time by moving or even spending a cent in that God forsaken state? Really? Please tell me.
And yes, I have driven through and it sucked and will not even drive through it again to spend the gas money.
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AGinNYC / January 9, 2010
I’m not telling you to go back and empty your wallet in Kansas. I’ve been there a few times and I have no particular interest in going back either. Of course you’re entitled to your opinion. My opinion is that it wasn’t really the horrible place that you make it out to be. I’m just wondering what you’re basing your opinion on and, more importantly, what does any of this have to do with basketball? Did something happen to you in Kansas that you’d like to discuss with your therapist?
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davidpk19 / January 11, 2010
And I thought that you were my therapist AGinNYC! Go Figure.
Kansas really sucks – the school, the state and that cripple of a Senator who wanted to be President. I mean, come on! Has the state not been enough of liability to the rest of the Union already?
No wonder, they all want to talk basketball. They have nothing else to offer and there is nothing else going on but the frozen tundra. Oh well mighty Kansas fans, tell me how your crooked coach Self is paying his athletes to behave like a bunch of juveniles and take on the football team. Gangsta U is so appropriate.
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