Off season news, are you ever good? According to today's Sun Times heir apparent to the throne of Chester Frazier as defensive standout and passer, Jeff Jordan announced today that he would not be playing for Bruce this winter. Not to transfer to another school for more playing time or a scholarship, because both were basically his for the taking. (Well not the scholarship.) No he is leaving the team to focus more on his academics. Not because he was failing and hadn't qualified for play, but so that he can be the best student he could be while trying to be successful in something other than basketball. I am puzzled, intrigued and fascinated by this, I have to say.

Situations like Jeff's do not come around all that often. Sure lots of children of NBA players get to play in college, lots of them in Division 1. Very rarely though do they come from someone with as much name recognition as Jordan. More than a few people must have wondered why someone who could have gotten a full ride at a mid major would want to be a walk on at Illinois, where, in most years at least playing time would be hard to come by, Equally many I am sure wondered if inviting Jeff to play for the Illini was little more than a publicity stunt by Bruce to distract from problems in his program.  On the one hand though, Jeff proved that he was perhaps better than his walkon status let on, earning a huge amount of time at point guard as a walk-on, and even earning a full athletic scholarship the second half of last year. On the other, maybe it is clearer why Jeff would want to come to a place like Illinois, after all, we do have a fairly impressive Academic resume (#10 public school,according to US news and world report.) And while our admissions boards might be as crooked as George Ryan and Rod Blago combined, most people seem to benefit from their time here in Champaign.

Most people are not in a position like Jeff,  are there really that many students who could afford to turn down a full athletic scholarship, or have the same amount of athletic pressure?  Jeff has enough money to play basketball  at a Division 1 level for fun, and has decided that he wants to make a name for himself in something other than basketball. I respect that, and wish him well. In my book, he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone.

As for what this means for the basketball team, it all but guarentees that a freshman will be starting at guard next year, (with the outside chance of having 2 frosh start, depending on Legion.) Should we start asking ourselves if Bill Cole, with his 3 point range, might make a decent Legion-style guard? More importantly I hope Demetri will have improved his passing and decision making, because with out Jeff there is going to be a definite vacuum for true point guards. No matter what it means for the team, I wish JJ well in his pursuit of a degree, there is more to life than basketball, even if your name is Jordan.