Interesting article on Xavier Henry of Kansas and his family

[Russ Smith]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/1293180.html

Yet, while freshmen Thomas Robinson and Elijah Johnson are already on campus attending classes like most others around the country, the Henrys remain here. Carl says he encouraged Xavier to attend summer school.

“He doesn’t wanna go,” Carl says. “I said, ‘Well, you call Coach Self and tell him you don’t want to come.’ ”

Xavier says it’s nothing personal. He had to get his braces off and recently had root canals done on his front two teeth. Carl says it’s more that Xavier is not interested in attending class.

“If he didn’t have to go to college, he wouldn’t do it,” Carl says.

A month after signing with the Jayhawks, Carl says, the family looked into Xavier playing in Europe for a year.

“You don’t have to take any classes,” Xavier says.



edit


Carl says both of his sons hope to be one-and-done at KU.

“I don’t like stepping on people’s toes,” Carl says, “but I just know what I know. I watch them play, all the Kansas kids. I like all these kids, (Sherron) Collins, (Tyshawn Taylor), they’re good kids, man. But they’re not better than C.J.”

Biased father? Possibly. But Carl Henry is making himself clear: His boys have worked for their opportunity, and they’re going to get it.

“Everybody’s gotta be on board,” Carl says. “The coach has got to be on board.”

More and more, college basketball coaches are jumping on rides like this one. At elite programs such as Kansas, they don’t really have a choice. Neither side is right or wrong. It’s just reality, and it’s not very romantic.

“I would hope they’d want to be here,” Self says. “I’d rather them be here.”

 

[DWKB]

Reality of the times and the byproduct of the NBA rule.


Edit: Also, Carl Henry has a umm... special type of interview strategy.

 

[Russ Smith]

Reality of the times and the byproduct of the NBA rule.


Edit: Also, Carl Henry has a umm... special type of interview strategy.

Yeah Jrue Holiday left a lot of UCLA fans, including me, with a bad taste in our mouths. But he never came off anything like how the Henry bros do in this story. To me if you decide to go to college instead of Europe, you are essentially agreeing to be part of a team, sounds like that point is lost on the Henry family?

And CJ hasn't played a game in 5 years, would think it would do him well to be with the team he's been out of organized ball for awhile now and he was hurt last year so he didn't get much exposure to it at Memphis.

 

[DWKB]

Yeah Jrue Holiday left a lot of UCLA fans, including me, with a bad taste in our mouths. But he never came off anything like how the Henry bros do in this story. To me if you decide to go to college instead of Europe, you are essentially agreeing to be part of a team, sounds like that point is lost on the Henry family?

And CJ hasn't played a game in 5 years, would think it would do him well to be with the team he's been out of organized ball for awhile now and he was hurt last year so he didn't get much exposure to it at Memphis.

I'd actually heard CJ had enrolled, but that might not be true. I know that Carl Henry has been making ridiculous statements since X's recruitment started. He was on local KC radio this morning to "clarify his remarks".

 

[Russ Smith]

Any truth to the rumor on all the scout boards today that both henry brothers are considering reneging on Kansas to go to Kentucky? the claim is that Carl Henry told Kansas that X really wanted to go to Kentucky to play for Calipari but the mom refused to live in kentucky, so he picked Kansas.

After this newspaper story came out, the henry's got a lot of bad press in Kansas and apparently now X wants to go to Kentucky instead and the mom is now willing to go along. UCLA boards have a link to a thread on a Kansas board that says Self is flying to OKC today to talk to the Henry family and see if there's any truth to the rumors.

If this happens you gotta wonder exactly how much does Calipari have to do before the NCAA nails him for tampering with recruits? I guess because he had already signed an LOI with Memphis and was released, he can't sign another LOI so the claim is Kentucky can tamper all they want there's no rule in place against it?

 

[DWKB]

Any truth to the rumor on all the scout boards today that both henry brothers are considering reneging on Kansas to go to Kentucky? the claim is that Carl Henry told Kansas that X really wanted to go to Kentucky to play for Calipari but the mom refused to live in kentucky, so he picked Kansas.

After this newspaper story came out, the henry's got a lot of bad press in Kansas and apparently now X wants to go to Kentucky instead and the mom is now willing to go along. UCLA boards have a link to a thread on a Kansas board that says Self is flying to OKC today to talk to the Henry family and see if there's any truth to the rumors.

If this happens you gotta wonder exactly how much does Calipari have to do before the NCAA nails him for tampering with recruits? I guess because he had already signed an LOI with Memphis and was released, he can't sign another LOI so the claim is Kentucky can tamper all they want there's no rule in place against it?

Well there are enough people making claim that there must be some truth to it. Carl Henry said as much in a radio interview (I think his second after the article came out).

I don't claim to know anything about what is occurring, but something is definitely brewing. Why the Henry's are such a fiasco I don't understand at all.

 

[Russ Smith]

Well there are enough people making claim that there must be some truth to it. Carl Henry said as much in a radio interview (I think his second after the article came out).

I don't claim to know anything about what is occurring, but something is definitely brewing. Why the Henry's are such a fiasco I don't understand at all.

Yep I just read a story where the dad confirmed the whole rumor. he said they're upset with how the article I posted the link to makes the whole family look bad. he says his sons are now reconsidering and might want to go to UK.

Since they're not in summerschool, they haven't signed their scholarship agreement yet(I think CJ will be a walkon) so UK can still recruit Xavier.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Scholarship papers aren't binding so they can technically leave provided that have yet to take a class. What a fiasco. And Calipari might have the best recruiting class in college basketball history.

 

[Russ Smith]

Scholarship papers aren't binding so they can technically leave provided that have yet to take a class. What a fiasco. And Calipari might have the best recruiting class in college basketball history.

Yeah someone on BRO pointed out to me they already signed their scholarship agreements with Kansas in April. But those agreements are one way binding, KU is bound to offer them scholarships(I think only to Xavier I think CJ is a walkon he was at Memphis), but they are not bound to attend Kansas. They can simply change their minds and go to UK with no repercussions until as you said, they start attending class.

If this turns out to be a true rumor, CJ henry would have a whirlwind situation. Signs with Kansas out of highschool but chooses pro baseball. 5 years later comes back, attends Memphis for a year sitting out injured, then leaves for Kansas, and then 3 months later leaves for UK.

 

[DWKB]

If this turns out to be a true rumor, CJ henry would have a whirlwind situation. Signs with Kansas out of highschool but chooses pro baseball. 5 years later comes back, attends Memphis for a year sitting out injured, then leaves for Kansas, and then 3 months later leaves for UK.

This is how screwed up it is: Carl Henry tells us back when X first signed with Memphis that X really wanted to play at KU, but playing with CJ was more important and he really wanted to go to Memphis so X followed. Then Cal left and we're told Barbara said she wouldn't move to Lexington so X and CJ came to KU. Then Barbara changed her mind and told X to go where he wanted so he contemplated UK.

Now we're being told they're blaming KU for an article written in the KC paper based on a Carl Henry interview.

Talk about a circus....

 

[Renz]

So if Xavier leaves, how much does that hurt KU?

 

[DWKB]

So if Xavier leaves, how much does that hurt KU?

We go to being considered a sure fire lock for a National Championship to being a top 5 team?

As of now though, the Henry's are staying I guess.

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2009/jul/01/henrys-stick-ku/

 

[DWKB]

If anyone is interested, Self was on local radio and stated such (summation):

- The whole situation was triggered by a newspaper article that portrayed them in a negative light. Because of the article, there were numerous posts from "supposed" fans that created a stir.

- Carl is an open and honest guy, as everybody knows. He went on sports radio and created a havoc amongst the Kansas faithful.

- Carl (and possibly Barb) requested us (Self, Dooley and Manning) to come visit. They told us they were hurt and felt they were being viewed negatively in Lawrence. The boys were fine and apparently had no idea what was going on. It was not a big deal with the boys, in fact, they had no idea why we were even there. When we got down there, the boys looked at us and went "what are you guys doing here???".

- Never once did the boys say they weren't coming to KU and never led me to believe they wouldn't. Carl said some things that the boys apparently had no idea about.

- I'm the coach and they know that. They're on board with me and that's all that matters. Carl and I have a great relationship. Didn't think Carl's comments were inflammatory at all.

- We haven't done anything differently to the Henrys than any other recruit, ever. We haven't promised them anything. Bottom line is they know they have to come work hard and nothing is guaranteed. They know that and are on board.

- It hasn't been as much drama with me as it has with fans.

- I didn't ask him to, but it's probably wise for Carl to stop talking to media. (LOLOLOL)

- Carl's a lot like me - I know I talk too much, to the media sometimes. I know I've probably said some things that have caused some turmoil. He understands, he gets it.

- Never in this situation have I questioned whether the Henrys word was good. The only thing that frustrated me was things that were told to me privately have become public knowledge.

- Never once did CJ/X question being at KU. Did they have some buyer's remorse and possibly consider Europe? Sure. But nothing serious and they have always been on board with KU.

- Sherron's been there before and it isn't a serious issue of concern. Do I like it? No. But I don't think it's a major negative. After the season ended, we told him to completely shut it down and rest.

- KU fans should talk themselves off the ledge because everything is fine with the Henrys. The only reason they aren't here is because of medical reasons. We are 100% on the same page and everything is over.

- It's frustrating that sometimes recruits will choose schools based on opportunity and not the institution/school. But it comes with the business and everyone deals with it.

- The thing that's great about our school is that once recruits get here, they understand the value of winning.

- I would love for the boys to be up here as soon as possible, especially the second summer term. I would rather the boys be working out with our guys, but it's not a big deal because they are busting their butts in OKC.

 

[Russ Smith]

I gotta say while I get what Self is doing, I don't for a minute buy that the Henry brothers had no idea why Self and manning were there. come on, in this age of the internet and texting you really think it's plausible that sort of story could have gone on without someone notifying the 2 of them?

He may be telling the truth that it's the father, not the sons talking about this stuff but I don't for a minute believe the boys weren't aware of the controversy.

I really don't get kids these days. the claim on UCLA boards is Jrue Holiday was planning on playing 2 years in college, but after howland benched him in the WSU loss and called him out after the game for going under screens, Holiday was unhappy and ultimately decided to leave after one year. My take is if that's true, good riddance, don't let the door hit you in the butt and good luck in Philadelphia where fans boo everyone.

Now we get this deal with the Henry's being unhappy about a newspaper story that essentially just quotes their dad? If anybody should be apologizing here it's their own father, not the paper that ran his quotes. I can't blame Self at all, all these coaches have to deal with this stuff. UCLA lost a kid who would be their starting C this year(Chapman at Texas) because Kevin Love's dad told howland he didn't want UCLA taking another C, and another player from Oregon, even if the kid volunteered to redshirt. Clint chapman may not be nearly as good a player as kevin love but it was ridiculous that Stan Love is so insecure that he forced Ben Howland to drop a player who posed no threat to Kevin's playing time and again would be the starting C at UCLA this year.

I really hope the NBA repeals the stupid age limit rule I'm really getting tired of all these primadonnas.