Since Kentucky will likely lose the top six players from its national championship team to the NBA this spring, the Wildcats need another No. 1 recruiting class in order to contend for the title again next year. Â As a result, Kentucky fans are willing to do whatever it takes to help — even if it means breaking their wedding vows. Â I’ve heard of offering cars and free trips but your wife? Â Read more after the jump.
Nerlens Noel, the consensus top-rated recruit in the class of 2012, wrote a blog post on ESPN.com on Wednesday updating readers on the status of his recruitment. In addition to revealing that he’d decide next Wednesday among Kentucky, Georgetown and Syracuse, the senior center shared some details from his trip to New Orleans during Final Four week for the All-American Championships.
I literally got stopped hundreds of times and took dozens and dozens of pictures. The fans were showing me so much love out there, and I definitely have to say that most of the fans were from Kentucky.
Now, of course that had a lot to do with the fact that they were playing there, but I’m always just shocked at how dedicated Kentucky fans are. One man asked me if I wanted to take his wife home with me, ha ha. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, “Nah, I’m good,” but that’s just how insane the fans were down there. Great atmosphere.
Even in an era in which fans chant potential recruits’ names during games they attend and tweet or Facebook message them as signing day approaches, the story of a man offering up his wife to a recruit is still a shocker. Noel, after all, is a 17-year-old still months away from graduating from high school.
Hopefully the Kentucky fan who spoke to Noel was just making a bad alcohol-induced joke that the shot-blocking specialist took too literally. Otherwise we may not be far away from having to investigate whether a night with the wife of a booster is an NCAA violation the same way gifts of cash or cars would be.
