Five of the best minutes I’ve seen on TV in a long time happened today on ESPNU just before Julius Randle pulled the trigger for Kentucky.
Colin Cowherd, who claims to follow college basketball recruiting, was interviewing Rhode Island assistant and former Duke star Bobby Hurley.
Cowherd wanted to know who the next LeBron James was and whether he was out there somewhere on the recruiting trail, and could Bobby tell him who it might be.
Hurley cracked an incredulous look and first explained to Cowherd that, being a college assistant, he was not permitted to comment on recruitable student-athletes.
Then Bobby gave Cowherd a clue and told him the next LeBron was from Canada, referring to Andrew Wiggins, the Canadian native playing at Huntington (W.V) Prep who is projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and who was called “a young Kobe” by one NBA scout.
“The world’s best player is in Canada?” an incredulous Cowherd asked Hurley.
“I’m going to watch Canadian game film.”
You have to wonder when Cowherd will make the connection, maybe when Wiggins’ name is called first in 2014 by Adam Silver.
But it was tremendous TV.
It’s been quite a couple of days for Cowherd.
Also on Wednesday he said that “Robinson Cano plays a lot harder in those [WBC] games than he does for the Yankees,” which sparked massive backlash from Michael Kay on ESPN1050 and this story from Andrew Marchand.
A couple of days ago, Cowherd also interviewed embattled UCLA coach Ben Howland and, after telling him that he knows about Shabazz Muhammad because he follows basketball recruiting, failed to ask Howland a single question about his job security or his future.
Mind boggling.
Somebody get him some Andrew Wiggins game film. Stat!
Better yet, Colin, watch this.
**For more stories on Andrew Wiggins, click here.
