If you follow my Twitter, you know that I decided to join Bradley Beal and a host of Chaminade students in the Chaminade College Prep library for his college announcement.  By the time I returned from my backpacking trip on Sunday evening (I heard we played a few basketball games this weekend – how did those turn out, anyway?), it was being reported that Beal was down to three schools: Illinois, Kansas, and Florida.  With a one in three shot at being the only guy in the room to yelp when he said the word “Illinois”, I decided to be there in person.

The nice lady who walked me to the library told me that they had only found out that morning that the news conference was scheduled for 10:00 am.  After we arrived at the library and I took my rightful place behind the real media types, I pondered what that meant.  “If he didn’t tell the school until this weekend, is that good news or bad news for us?  His family reportedly wants him close to home – maybe he figured it out over turkey and let the school know he’s ready to announce over Thanksgiving break.  Good news en route!”

I spent the next seven minutes Tweeting and analyzing the arrangement of the hats on the podium.  When I arrived, it was Illinois, Duke, Mizzou across the front with Kansas, Florida, and Ohio State in back.  I figured this was a bad sign, as kids never reach front right for the hat they want. It’s always one of the hats closest to them.

BUT WAIT. The TV cameras couldn’t see the hats in the back row, so the athletic department dude in charge of the hats moved them all around.  Now it’s Kansas, Illinois, Mizzou in the back row with Ohio State, Duke, and Florida taped to the front.  Illinois hat, front and center!  I double-checked the voice memo feature on my iPhone (never used it), ’cause daddy’s gonna get an exclusive interview after Beal dons the orange and blue.

And then the Florida hat fell.  Least amount of tape – that’s a sign, I thought.  They taped the Ohio State hat and the Duke hat with several pieces of tape, but the Florida hat with only one.  He’s headed to Florida, obviously.

Wait.  The Duke hat fell, too.  Now the Ohio State and Florida hats are re-taped, and the Duke hat is placed in the back.  DEAR GOD DO NOT LET HIM CHOOSE DUKE.

All of this is a blur, mind you, because I was really, really nervous.  I usually am for a big recruiting announcement, hurriedly refreshing my computer screen to find out the news.  But in the library, my heart was pounding.  “What if he picks Illinois? What if I get to be the one to break the news to Illiniland?  What if I ask for an interview and his family grants it?  I’ve never done an interview – WHAT THE HELL WOULD I ASK?”  As I was daydreaming about a scenario where I ask him an awkward question like “Did you watch the Cincy game?  What was with that non-review on the Fayson TD?”, Beal stepped up to the podium and the room grew silent.

False alarm.  It was a photo op.  I was tweeting something about the students behind me talking about how “this is going to be on the internet in 10 minutes” when the athletic director got up to speak.

“Proud day for Chaminade”… “here’s Bradley with his announcement”… “thank my family and coaches for getting me to this point”… “and so I am choosing”…

Florida.

I had already started my tweet with “Here we go. And the pick is…” so I could prove the “10 minutes” guys behind me wrong.  And I’ll be honest – I held my thumb over the “I” for good luck.  But it was not to be. I let out a sigh, typed in the word “Florida”, hit send, and began to plan my exit.

The mob of Chaminade students in the library prevented a quick exit, so I stuck around to listen to some of the interviews and take a few pics.  My take?  He fell in love with Florida the second he stepped foot on campus.  He wanted to commit on his visit (he said as much at the podium), but his parents and coaches encouraged him to take his time/take some visits.  He visited us, and visited Kansas, but never fell out of love with Florida. The end.

I was serious when I tweeted that I was considering swiping the Illinois hat.  When we play Florida in the 2013 Sweet 16, how great would it be to wear the Beal press conference Illini hat for good luck?  I mean, he doesn’t need it any more, right?

But in the end, I made the (wise) decision that stealing from a high school press conference is something only a mouth-breathing Mizzou fan would do. (Which led to a brief thought of stealing the Mizzou hat, screaming “The deity that is Mike Anderson will send you all to burn in his forty minutes of hell”, and running out of the room. But I decided against that, too.)

So we lost a 5-star recruiting battle.  Again.  I know recruiting battles don’t count for much on the scoreboard, and I know that recruiting has been going swimmingly over the past few years, but I still want to win one of these.  Part of me wishes Jereme Richmond had waited for a hat presser, faked like he was going to pick up the Kentucky hat, and then donned the Illini.  I think we deserve that kind of celebration (and resulting message board meltdown).  But today, it was not to be.

At least he didn’t pick Kansas.