Xavier Henry and UK

The Henrys are having a family meeting tonight. It scares me how many of you know exactly what I’m talking about.

For those of you who don’t, the family of prep basketball star Xavier Henry, a top-10 prospect from Oklahoma City, are having a get-together tonight in Kansas City to talk about his college choice. Henry originally committed to playing for John Calipari at Memphis. Then Calipari left for Kentucky. He backed away from Memphis, then picked Kansas, because, reports said, his mom doesn’t like Kentucky.

Now the word is that his mom doesn’t want to be the deciding factor in all this, so Xavier is thinking he might pick Calipari after all.

Rivals.com also says that Kansas coach Bill Self and assistant Danny Manning are heading to Oklahoma City as fast as possible to attend the Henry familiy meeting. Rivals doesn’t say that Self has broken out into a cold, clammy sweat, but it may be assumed.

The timing is serendipitous for the Wildcats, who just happen to have a scholarship open (and some you big blue fans were hoping they’d ask Kevin Galloway back.)

As it turns out, the whole thing works well for Calipari. He’d have taken major heat if Henry had jumped straight from Memphis to UK. But Memphis to Kansas to UK, well, that’s no problem. It’s one thing to be seen as poaching a recruit from the school you just left. But getting one from Kansas, well, that’s not poaching, that’s a public service.

At any rate, I say this no matter what schools are involved — guys ought to be able to go where they want to, provided that school wants them (and their moms are all right with it). So if Henry’s heart is in the bluegrass, he should come on down.

Now, if only the family would tie their decision to getting slots in racetracks, I suspect that vote could be taken care of in about 15 minutes . . .

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