The purpose of playing at Findlay is to accelerate development. In Ashley’s case, I think it was obvious when watching him play that he really excelled when he was facing the elite competition. He had a great tournament in Torrey Pines and was phenomenal in his one-on-one matchup against Grant Jerrett in the state title game. Against lesser teams, he was sometimes hit or miss. At FIndlay, he’ll face those type of players in practice daily and I believe that’ll help him prepare more for college. It’s no knock on O’Dowd, because obviously they can’t go bring in those type of players for him to practice against or draft a schedule against exclusively top-flight teams.

In Artis’ case, it’s a similar deal. For him to be the type of player to play point guard at UCLA, he’ll want to still improve quite a bit. Salesian usually plays a solid nonleague schedule and Bill Mellis runs as good a program as there is in the East Bay. I think Artis would’ve done just fine staying there. But with the competition he’ll have to face at Findlay, he’ll really be challenged to improve more and get himself ready for the competition at UCLA.

I’m not saying I’m all for these moves and I get why people get upset when they hear these kids are transferring. I’d love to be able to watch their senior years just like everyone else. But I can step back and say I see some of the reasons why they choose to make this move. And heck, from a parent’s perspective, if you can save a year of paying tuition (since their tuition at the Henderson School is covered by Mr. Findlay), that’s hard to say no to as well.