re: 2015 PF Elijah Thomas

quote:

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SMU is going to difficult to beat out, but people are kidding themselves if they don't think Emmanuel bailing on SMU for China severely crippled Brown's momentum.

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Not really. Though the school and family will try to tell you otherwise, the reason that kid went overseas is because there was a good chance he would not be cleared by the NCAA to play at SMU, or anywhere else for that matter. It not a knock on SMU or Brown. It's not like he all of a sudden woke up this summer and realized that SMU has virtually zero basketball cache, and then decided to get out while there was still time.

Also, there is a pretty good chance Mudiay would have been a one-and-done. Therefore, Thomas wouldn't have played with him anyway. SMU still has the hometown and coaching prestige edge, but you have to like that LSU is still very much in the mix. The fact that LSU has two Dallas guys on this year's roster doesn't hurt either.