http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/14696309.htmhttp://www.ksufans.com/forums/index.php?topic=1707.0Beasley thinks twice about sticking with CharlotteAssistant's departure figures in indecisionKEN TYSIAC
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL - When Michael Beasley is at Oak Hill Academy, he sometimes gazes out at the Blue Ridge Mountains and thinks.
A former Charlotte 49ers commitment, he enjoys the serenity of the rural campus far away from his home near Washington. Looking at the mountains in Mouth of Wilson, Va., allows him to clear his head of the bustle of the city and his demanding life.
His mother, Fatima Smith, loves Charlotte so much that Beasley said she is shopping for a home there. But his basketball mentor, Dalonte Hill, has left Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz's staff to assist Bob Huggins at Kansas State.
Though Beasley said Hill's move isn't the reason he rescinded his commitment, he said it was a factor. He said Charlotte remains one of his top choices and said there is an 80 percent chance he will enroll there.
He said he is considering all schools, from Connecticut to William & Mary.
"Charlotte is my top school right now," Beasley said after playing a weekend AAU game in the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions. "I know more about Charlotte than I know about any other school. I'm not going to rush anything."
He has a lot to think about. With Huggins and Hill at Kansas State, there is talk of a dream recruiting class that would include Beasley and Cincinnati-based O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker, all top-10 players in the class of 2007.
Beasley has to consider the advice of Hill and his mother, whom he has honored with a tattoo on his left biceps.
"She doesn't want somebody else to make the decision for me," Beasley said. "She wants me to be smart about that. If I go to a school somebody else wants me to go to, I have to live with that. They don't have to live with it."
Package deal?Beasley might have been the most high-profile commitment in Charlotte's history when he pledged to Lutz at age 15.At 6-foot-10, he is a no-nonsense, left-handed junior forward who can get to the rim and finish in the post. Unlike many high-profile forwards in AAU games, he seldom wastes time dribbling aimlessly on the perimeter or jacking up 3-pointers, though he sometimes disappears in games.
"He is a tremendously talented player who just has to learn to focus on the game and work on being the best he can be," said All-Star Sports recruiting analyst Gibbons.
Some of Beasley's development is owed to Hill, his former AAU coach who has known him since he was 11. Early in his career, Beasley was a terrible free-throw shooter.
He improved after Hill constantly implored him to practice free throws, once sending him to the gym to shoot 1,000 of them.
"We're like brothers," Beasley said. "We've got a bond."
But Beasley said not to assume he is going to Kansas State just because Hill is there. He also downplayed the rumor about him and Mayo and Walker, who were teammates at North College Hill High near Cincinnati as juniors.
Mayo, a 6-4 point guard, is the top-ranked player in the nation, according to scout.com. Walker is the 6-5 forward on the receiving -- and dunking -- end of many of Mayo's passes.
Gibbons said signing those three would be like hitting the triple jackpot at Kansas State. He believes it's just as likely the three would play together at a prep school next season, then go to the NBA after one year.
"It would be great to play with those two guys," Beasley said. "But I'm not saying I'm going to be out at K-State with those two guys. They're probably not going to be there either. So I'm just going to wait it out."
Sensitive and strongBeasley's sensitive side emerges when he talks about his cousin Stevon Crum, who died last May of cancer at age 14.
His toughness shows when he talks about growing up in Landover, Md., and the North Capital area of Washington.
"I never really had a problem with guns or drugs or anything like that," Beasley said. "If you say D.C. is tough, it's only tough if you're not from there."
He has enjoyed getting away to Oak Hill, which traditionally has a loaded team playing one of the best schedules in the nation. Beasley said he is learning to play more of a thinking man's game.
He wants to learn as a defender to anticipate his opponent's next move, the way Michael Jordan did. At the same time, he is thinking about a college decision with complicated subplots.
Maybe if he looks long enough, he will find the answer in the mountains.
"Charlotte is one of my choices," he said. "I'm looking at everybody. I'm opening it up."
Mike Beasley at the foul line in the Oak Hill (Va.) Academy vs. Patterson (NC) School scrimmage on Oct. 12.
The more I read about these kids, the less I want them around. They all sound like a bunch of head case primma donnas to me.
