Gordon, Rose, or both?

By Justin Albers
basketballss132002@yahoo.com
INDIANAPOLIS- Derrek Rose and Eric Gordon were both in Bloomington on Saturday for unofficial vistis. Gordon has already committed to Illinois, and Derrek Rose was expected to go to Memphis. My question is, what are the chances that IU gets either or both of those players.
Let's talk about Eric Gordon first. Gordon is a high school student at North Central High School in Indianapolis, so going to Indiana would not be a crazy thing to do. Illinois head coach Bruce Weber told the Gordon family that if he committed there then all kinds of great players would see that and committ as well. After Gordon committed, his dad began to wonder about the promise Weber had made. About a month ago Gordon's dad started to see that the players he had in mind were not going to come to Illinois with the '07 class, and now he wonders how good they will be. Because of this issue, it now seems that Gordon has opened up his options again, andi s now considering recomitting to Indiana.
Derrek Rose is a great player, the #1 ranked point guard in the '07 class. Indiana was not expecting to even have a shot at Rose, but then he came out with his final five and Indiana was right there. Memphis was his #1, and everybody expected him to go there. Derrek Rose has an older brother who acts as his spokesman. Memphis head coach John Calipari said that if Rose committed there then he would get Rose's brother a job as TV coordinator. Everything looked and sounded great until just a week ago. The job that was promised to Rose's brother was filled, and the Rose family became upset. All of a sudden, Memphis was off the top five. Now it is a final four situation for Derrek Rose.
Some of the local radio stations lately have been saying that they think there is a better chance of IU getting both or neither then getting both guys. After talking to an expert, I think there is some truth to that. Gordon and Rose have made it clear that they would like to play together, but they have seen that might not be possible. Rose was not willing to go to Illinois, and Gordon was not willing to go to Memphis. IU might just be that spot in the middle that they can both agree on. Rose has expressed interest in using all 5 of his official visits, so we are just going to have to wait and see. Right now the chances look decent, but that could change for the better or worse in a hurry.