The Devil Made Me Do It?
Posted May 15, 2005, 11:27 AM ET

Duke's Shavlik Randolph declared that he was going to enter the upcoming NBA Draft...enter your punchline here.

I'm not kidding.

The 6'-10" big man from Duke wants to see what he's worth in the minds of the NBA talent evaluators. Now keep in mind that Shav is averaging just over 6 points per game in his esteemed Duke career.

After his announcement this past Friday, fans from rival schools were loading up the phone lines on my radio show and with emails with their best Duke joke...even Blue Devil fans were smirking and wondering what the kid was thinking.

Randolph's father, Ken, made it perfectly clear that his son was happy at Duke and this was nothing more than an investigative process to find out what Shav needs to work on to make it to the next level.

Here is your answer...everything.

Shavlik Randolph is the perfect example of what happens to kids when recruiting geek morons want to label the next great player. For instance just take a couple of looks at what some "recruiting geeks" thought of Shav when he was in high school:

College Basketball News: 4th best high school player in the country.
Future Stars: Also ranked 4th best prep player in the USA.
Prep Star: 7th best high schooler in the country.
BlueChipHoops.com: 9th best prep player.
ESPN.com: 30th top high school prospect.

The list goes on and on...The point to this madness is that you never know how good high school players will be until you see them play in college.

The next time you hear Bob Gibbons tell you a kid is going to be the next "_________"...Tell him to shut up and get a life.

Shavlik Randolph seems like a good kid, and hopefully he'll graduate from Duke and get a solid job and be a productive citizen. Unfortunately for Randolph, it probably won't be as a player in the National Basketball Association.

Given the fact that his scoring totals have diminished in each of his three years at Duke...and the fact that his playing time will wither away with the incoming talent at Duke...Shav should enjoy his final year at Duke helping in any way possible to win another ACC title and possibly challenge for a national title, too.

It is a good thing that Shav is majoring in Religion...he'll need it when he's working out for the NBA scouts.