Holy Santa Claus!!  Blackshear Ends His "Circus" Recruitment With Christmas Day Commitment  

December 25, 2009 

8:30 P.M. CST

Leave it to the Chicago Public League and the Mac Irvin Fire AAU basketball club to pull off a major verbal commitment on Christmas Day. Just when we thought that basketball may be played and talked about 365 days a year in the Chicago Public League, we have now confirmed that it is a 366 day a year operation.

After talking all summer long about how the University of Louisville was the leader for his services, but then back-tracking and providing anyone who would listen an expanded recruiting list and verbage about an alleged "package deal" with 6'7 Mac Irvin Fire teammate Mike Shaw, 6'5 class of 2011 phenom Wayne Blackshear offered Louisville head coach Rick Pitino a verbal commitment on Christmas Day.  Blackshear chose the Cardinals over scholarship offers from Illinois, Texas, Marquette, Kansas, Michigan State, Kentucky, UNLV, and Southern Illinois, as well as serious recruiting interest from Florida and De Paul among others. 

Blackshear has taken off with a great start to his junior season, putting up numerous double-double performances and many 30-point plus efforts, despite often facing double teams.  Every observer of Illinois high school basketball now concurs that Blackshear is a serious challenger to Waukegan's 6'7 Jereme Richmond for Player Of The Year honors in Illinois despite being a junior.

Louisville did a great job recruiting Blackshear, and was one of the first to offer him a scholarship and get him on campus.  After visiting Louisville last spring, Blackshear loved the campus and Louisville coaches so much that he was not bashful about publicly naming the Cardinals as his "leader".  What was even more interesting was Blackshear repeatedly stating that he and Mike Shaw would go as a "package deal", which was backed up many times by Mac Irvin Fire Head Coach Nick Irvin and team spokesperson Michael Irvin.  We have never really bought into the package deal theory, but others have insisted it is a realistic possiblity.

Well, it now looks like the package deal possibility is a slim one.  You can never say never, but looking at Louisville's roster, it is hard to believe that they have room for another wing player to go alongside Blackshear.  However, that did not stop the repeated public posturing of those around Blackshear who often provided recruiting analysts and media members with different recruiting lists for both Blackshear and Shaw on an almost daily basis.  Certain overzealous members of the local Chicago media in particular ran everything that was fed them, and it resulted in a media circus of deception whereby nobody knew exactly what was happening, or when a commitment would occur.

Announcing a major commitment on Christmas day puts the rubber stamp on the "dog and pony" show. which has all too often personified Chicago recruiting.  The fact that a major Chicago media outlet put the story up immediately on Christmas day should confirm that this was planned to keep everyone else out of the loop.  That is just despicable as far as we are concerned.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility to suggest that the only reason why Blackshear did not offer up a commitment to Louisville by the end of the summer or beginning of Fall was because those around him were trying to secure a package deal with Shaw.   Louisville was not sold on this possibility, and perhaps those in the Blackshear camp realized that it may not be meant to be and that it was better for him to offer up a commitment to the Cardinals now rather than pursue other possiblities.  Many secretly suggest that another reason why a commitment did not occur as soon as originally thought was because those handling Blackshear's recruitment were looking to "sweeten the pot" with additional incentives.  Nobody decided to bite on these incentives, and the commitment was finalized, as it was realized that Louisville was the perfect fit and there was no longer any need to delay the process.  

None of the above should obscure the great job that Louisville and particularly Coach Pitino did in recruiting Blackshear.  They convinced him from the outset that he was a perfect fit for their uptempo style and athletic style of defensive pressure, rebounding intensity at both ends, and offensive versatility that has made the Cardinals an elite program and annually one of the most entertaining programs to watch in college basketball.  Louisville immediately made Blackshear a top (if not THE) top recruiting priority for the class of 2011, and they were not to be denied.   

Continue to check in with Illinois Prep Bulls-eye for all of the latest as it pertains to recruiting and high school basketball in Illinois.