Five-star prospect Romeo Langford announced on Monday that he’ll play college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers. The 6’5″ shooting guard — ranked the No. 5 overall basketball prospect by ESPN and No. 6 by 247 Sports — chose Indiana over Kansas and Vanderbilt.
Indiana is Langford’s home state (he starred at New Albany High School), so his decision certainly made sense for location alone. He’s also joining an impressive recruiting class put together by Hoosiers head coach Archie Miller that 247 Sports now ranks ninth in the country.
However, Langford’s decision left one Vanderbilt alum very unhappy.
FS1’s Skip Bayless called out Langford on Twitter for choosing Indiana over Vanderbilt, saying that Langford “should’ve signed with the best school in the country.”
Hey, Romeo Langford: I respect & understand your decision to stay in state and play for Indiana. But you should've signed with the best school in the country, Vanderbilt, and joined a recruiting class that could've contended for a national championship.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 30, 2018
“Hey, Romeo Langford: I respect & understand your decision to stay in state and play for Indiana. But you should’ve signed with the best school in the country, Vanderbilt, and joined a recruiting class that could’ve contended for a national championship.”
Always mature of a 66-year-old adult to tell an 18-year-old how they should make the biggest decision of their life. That tweet is what the eyeroll emoji was made for.
The Commodores’ recruiting class is also very good, coming it at No. 12 on 247 Sports’ team rankings. But saying they “could’ve contended for a national championship” is probably a bit much, especially after they just went 12-20 in the 2017-18 college basketball season. And this is of course all putting aside how weird it is to tell a kid where they should go to college (unless you’re one of the people actually recruiting the athlete).
Twitter had a lot to say about the Bayless tweet, and here are some examples:
https://twitter.com/DanWolken/status/991104049318694912
That time @RealSkipBayless chimed in and told a high school student-athlete where to go to college. https://t.co/WEdIGeJlGg
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) May 1, 2018
For the love of God @RealSkipBayless, for once, shut up and let the kid have his moment. Delete this garbage. https://t.co/ze4sh13IWU
— Ryan Phillips (@RumorsandRants) May 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/coachcarp1/status/991127520987627521
https://twitter.com/ChrisDiviero/status/991105609952059394
Don’t tell a kid where he should go to school. He did what was best for him. He’s not doing it for you or anybody else.
— Ty Johnson (@TyJohnson96) May 1, 2018
Stay classy and keep tweeting at high school recruits.
— Doug Heinz (@dougheinz) May 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/CireHook/status/991110373880328192
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.