Tay'shawn Trent has decommitted (In-State Wide Receiver)

For the record, and this is not meant as an argument directed at you Quailman (damn fine idea for an avatar and alias btw), I never claimed there was no proof of it.  I said that I had not seen any.  I'll take Qmatic and Seth's update in the post as proof enough.  Still, I stand by my words.  I don't like claims being made about people on the internet without some sort of evidence presented directly following the claim.  I wouldn't want those things being said about me either without evidence to back them up.  It's just a principle I have.

As for these things being said for months on other message boards/recruiting sites, I have no interest in those places.  We've seen many more instances of false rumors spread on those sites than anything resembling journalism.  Also, I don't think it takes much effort to make a claim and follow it up with some evidence directly after it.  Whenever I make a claim, on the internet or in real life, I do my best to follow it up with something concrete as to why I believe it.  We've all been the target of a false claim at some point in our lives and if I can do something to minimize the likelihood of that, I will.

That's very sad to hear and it echoes my wife's experiences very closely. She taught all of last year downstairs at the dining room table and a majority of her day was spent trying to get kids to attend class and actively engage with them. She had 9th graders so it was especially difficult because, as you said, some of them didn't know what expectations were and many fell far behind.

Some of the onus is on the kid (though that can be traced further up the chain - have to have modeled behavior), but it's a failure of parents, administrators, and some teachers especially. A systemic issue.

At a minimum, Trent will get to go to a DI school on full-ride so this hasn't completely derailed his future. Hopefully he understands the expectations now that he was under Oden for a year and sees what he can accomplish when he does more than what he has been shown.

These examples  are the type of people who even if they taste pro experience (and paychecks) now through their money with nothing to turn back upon. 

You can have a good heart without believing that God created everything 

He was wrong for dogging on people's sincerely held beliefs (atheist here) but not the place to preach creationism.

This argument always astonishes me. You say look at creation and say there must be a reason for all this, yet you can accept that the creator just always was.  

I won't rabbit hole on this, but wondering if there is an overall "cosmic plan" and some kind of force, being, energy or whatever that set it all in motion and/or has any interest or influence in how it all evolves and believing in the concept of a god or religion are two entirely different things. 

To me, religion is simply a human construct that only uses the concept that I alluded to above to create the illusion they have answers to the questions it poses, all for the purpose of self-propagation and to more effectively subjugate their believers and to legitimize their claim to being moral/pious and elevated over non-believers.....with the empty promise of a posthumous payoff of eternal happiness in exchange for their allegiance. 

Albert Einstein and Neils Bohr (and various other physicists) have done more to shed light into where we come and what may have been put in place (if not a giant accident) from than any saint, pop, bishop, cult leader.