Bryan and Ryan

[SoCal_Pony]

Wow, just got done reading about BHop leaving a year early to turn pro and my first reaction was…LARRY DAVIS…. but I digress.

For personal reasons, I hope BHop stays, however, I would never criticize a person for ‘moving on’ to pursue financial gain; that is admired in our society and to do otherwise is normally viewed as foolish. And don’t kid yourself, even in the college world; I suspect Phil Bennett would drop us like a hot potato if A&M came calling and who could blame him. I wonder what conversations Norm Chow had with Matt Leinhart last month.

But IMO, there is a nuance here. If BHop was following the footsteps of a Chris Bosh, and was a guaranteed lotto pick, heck, even a sure fire 1st round or early 2nd round pick, that would be one thing. But if he is leaving us to pursue a career in Europe or NBADL where he will earn no more than $100k per year, that is quite another thing.

And while I would never fault him for making that calculating decision to leave us for $100k, I don’t believe he or the Hopkins family should fault SMU for making the very same calculating decision with Ryan.

I know this is premature, I don’t know what was agreed to when the Hopkins brothers signed and I do know that I want Bryan to stay.

But if he does leave, if he does wind up making only $100k next year and if nothing was promised to him and his brother 3 years ago….well I don’t exactly know what we owe Ryan.

[SMUguy]

If BHop leaves, which I hope for our sakes and for his that he doesn't, then we still owe Ryan his scholarship. When he was signed, he was promised a scholarship, and there's no reason not to honor it.

[mavsrage311]

whether or not Bryan leaves, Ryan will still keep his scholarship, whether he is on the team or not. I don't see Tubbs yanking his scholarship (first off, I dont know if he can just take it away, second off, would he need to??? He'd be a senior and it's not like we have too many recruits coming in and need the spot). Also, if Tubbs was the screwing over his players type, would he have left a spot on the team for Dement Junior????? If Bryan leaves I will understand it, if he stays I will aplaud it, but leave or stay, he did a great thing by coming to SMU, and getting Ryan a scholarship and an education. A friend of mine told me the other day that Duke wanted to "build around" Bryan. He came to SMU instead. I will support him either way, and would definitely continue to root for him when he is in the pros (and yes I think he'll make it)

[Stampede]

Don't even give it a second thought. Coach Tubbs is much too classy a person to even think about the question.

[ALEX LIFESON]

HEY STAMPEDE, WILL HE STAY...........OR WILL HE GO?

[Waz]

When you look at it, I am not sure that we would'nt do OK going 2 for 1 on scholarships if every one of our ships went to someone of Bhops talent. Depth would be a huge question, but the first 6/7 should be a [deleted].

[SoCal_Pony]

Mavs,

Forgetting for a moment that Mike Dement is a non-scholarship walk-on, using him as an analogy is wrong. His father was fired from his job…big difference.

Now if one of the conditions for hiring father Mike Dement was that SMU had to provide son Michael a scholarship, and then if 3 years later father Mike left SMU for the University of Nevada simply because they paid $100k more per year….now that would be a more honest analogy.

Truthfully at the end of the day, I doubt anyone would seriously consider yanking Ryan’s scholarship. My earlier post was written more out of frustration and the belief that he is simply not NBA material. We shall see. But to coin a phrase from Mr. Sunshine himself, IF he ends up in Europe or NBADL making $100k next year and IF we are stuck with Ryan…well I don’t think that was such a classy move by BHop.