It’s official. The one-time 2008 recruiting jewel of the Arizona Wildcats, Brandon Jennings, has put his John Hancock on a contract with Vitrus Roma Pallacanestro of the Italian League.

Some are painting Jennings as a trail blazer, a player who found a way to circumvent the already laughable rule that mandates a player spend a year out of high school before being eligible for the NBA Draft. Others paint him as a greedy, “me-first” type of player, that is using his year to line his pockets before basically winning the lottery in the NBA.

I actually agree with the premise of Arizona coach Lute Olson’s statement from last week. Olson said that the University of Arizona is done with players who are only planning to spend one year in Tucson on their way to the glitz and glamour of the NBA. I’d love to see a school be able to do that, and actually recruit players who are interested in being in college, and playing the great sport of college basketball. In a perfect world all kids who enroll in school would stay for four years and graduate, and remain injury free, but the current marriage between the NBA and college hoops is anything but perfect. But, how do you, as a coach say ‘no’ to a talented player who wants to come to your school for a season? We’ve seen the likes of Carmelo Anthony and Greg Oden elevating their respective schools, by their mere presence, to championship levels. And in Anthony’s case, win the whole darn thing.

Jim Boeheim, Anthony’s head coach at Syracuse, when asked last week if he would follow Olson’s example of not recruiting one and done players responded “are you crazy?”

The bigger problem is the rule in place. I, for one, happen to think that the situation was better when high schoolers could jump directly to the NBA. There was no charade attached with being on campus for a year. In most cases, players were there to become better players, and improve their chances of making it to the Association, not killing 365 days before they could be drafted. Yes, there were players who bolted to the pros after one year in college, but it was usually only after they enjoyed a spectacular freshman year.

The rules in place in college basketball are completely bendable. Brandon Jennings shattered them with his one-year Eurotrip. I paint Brandon Jennings in a number of ways. Obviously, he’s an incredibly talented basketball player, who would have made Arizona a much better team in the ‘08-’09 season. I also think he does possess a certain amount of greed as well. If he didn’t, he would have been more intent on passing his SAT to become eligible to play college ball, or even playing a year in the D-League for less money against other hungry NBA prospects. He picked the option that benefits him the most financially, and could stunt his growth the most. I imagine heading to Europe to work just months after completing high school would be daunting for anyone.

Jennings won’t be alone as the only American on his new Italian team. Allan Ray, who played at Villanova and with the Celtics two seasons ago is there, as are former Temple guard David Hawkins, former 2-time Ivy League Player of the year Ibrahim Jaaber out of Pennsylvania.

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