Anthony Bennett Fights Criticism on Choosing Oregon, UNLV

One of the top national recruits in the nation, Anthony Bennett, has eliminated a few basketball powerhouses off of his final list. Amid much controversy from those teams he dropped, two schools in the west remain.

The 6-foot-7, 242-pound power forward will be picking either the Oregon Ducks or UNLV Rebels as soon as this weekend, according to Bennett’s Twitter account (@ABennett24). A post from yesterday: “I appreciate everyone that’s supportin me through all this but I haven’t made my decision yet, ill pick between UNLV & Oregon on the weeknd.”

This move comes as a surprise to many who are covering the situation. Florida was an earlier expected choice, but Bennett eliminated the Gators on Friday. He then eliminated Kentucky on Sunday, leaving his final list of four to the aforementioned schools.

Being a top 10 prospect by many recruiting sources has made Anthony Bennett’s Twitter account an interesting read. A swarm of both praise and criticism (especially from Kentucky fans) have been thrown his way, with select tweets retweeted from Bennett himself. His response on Twitter: “could careless about the people talking & wishing bad on me, at the end of the day ima do me regardless.”

The power forward from Henderson, Nevada, is handling the pressure well early. In this world of social media, it’s amazing that we can come this close to actually talking with potential recruits. However, fans do need to take a step back and realize that most of these recruits are still kids. Unleashing harsh tweets that they won’t do anything at the next level or telling Bennett that “Amile Jefferson will be better at UK” then he would is just foolish and comes off as extremely defensive. Recruiting services like Scout, Rivals, and 247sports put so much work in researching these athletes to create who they think will be the best at the next level.

In the end, it depends on both the mentality of the person and how they mature when they get there. So far, Bennett shows strong signs in those categories.

Whether or not your favorite schools lands a top recruit, it’s just as much chance as how they will succeed. For both Ducks and Rebels fans, they will eagerly anticipate this weekend to see if they land one of the best recruits for the upcoming season.

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