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A huge benefit heading into next season is that FSU basketball is up for their once-every-four-years foreign trip. This gives the team extra practice time which 75% of programs are not eligible for, and the staff also gets to tinker with rotations against real competition. Not to mention the bonding which takes place when a bunch of young teammates travel together through a foreign country. The last time the Noles took a foreign tour, they used the momentum to get off to a 13-2 start and ended up having the best defense in the nation.
With five players making the all-important freshman-to-sophomore jump, it seems like the perfect time to be making another trip.
Or is it?
Adam Himmelsbach, a reporter for a Louisville paper, has been talking with Andrew Wiggins' host mother in West Virginia. She was eager to offer information regarding any number of topics, including what he'll be having for dinner after he announces (chicken, peas, potatoes, and brownies), and that he dropped his Tuesday announcement date out of the blue and completely nonchalantly during a barbeque.
She also had this to say:
Just spoke to Andrew Wiggins' host mom Lesley Thomas & she said he doesn't want to attend summer school and that factors into his decision.
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) May 13, 2013
About that trip....
In order for freshman to make the trip they have to be enrolled in summer school (final session begins June 24th). It's completely understandable for Wiggins to want to avoid summer school. He's a kid who should be prepping to be the No. 1 pick in June's draft if it weren't for the collusion between the NBA owners and the player's union. Why would he want to spend his last summer as an amateur sitting through classes he doesn't want to be in, at a school he's only at because he can't make money yet?
Obviously, if he wants to come to Florida State he can enroll whenever he wants. But this kid isn't a prima donna. Would he really want to be the guy to miss all of that practice time with his teammates, to miss the tour where everyone bonds, to be the guy who just shows up in the fall and takes over the team?
Who knows if her statement is true or not - there have been rumors flying for months which proved to be false - BUT, if it is true, it's bad for Florida State. The Noles are the only one of his finalists taking a foreign trip this year.