[the following was originally written for Dime Magazine when Nic Wise was just entering high school.]

Texan native Nic Wise was practically born a Longhorn. Not only did he grow up 2 ½ hours from campus, but his mother and brother received degrees from the school, and his sister is currently in her freshmen year and works in the basketball office. If you figured the only thing needed to convince the point-guard of playing for Texas would be a conversation with T.J. Ford, then you figured wrong. After speaking with Ford, Wise chose the Arizona Wildcats. Did I mention he’s only 15?

That’s right. The only other player to commit to a school earlier was Damon Bailey, who decided on Indiana as an 8th grader.

When the 5’9”, 168-pound Wise publicly decided to play for the Wildcats, he not only became Zona’s earliest pledge ever, but the first player in Texas basketball history to commit to a college as a freshman.

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So, true story: This 5-year-old walks into a gym and immediately gravitates to a ball that lies at center-court. He’s about to pick it up when, out of nowhere, this pack of recruiters dog-pile on it, all wanting to be the first to hand the kid the keys. OK, not entirely true, but trust me when I tell you there’s a reason for the term: Recruiting Wars.

With players leaving college earlier and earlier for the Big Show, programs have to be able to reload their rosters in rapid-fire succession – i.e. If a super-stud comes into your program for year one, you know damn well you’d better have someone waiting in the wings for year two.

“It’s very competitive and cutthroat,” Arizona assistant coach Josh Pastner admits.

Pastner is a big reason why Wise will be attending Zona. The two go back to when Wise was in the 4th grade and played on Pastner’s AAU team. The other reason that the program is attractive to the Wise’s is a certain legend named Lute Olsen.

“I don’t think you could find a better person for your son to be around for four years,” Nic’s father, and soon-to-be high school coach, Greg Wise says.

And he’s pretty serious about the four years part, too.

Nic also seems completely down with the decision: “I feel real good about the prospect of going to Arizona, because Arizona is the best fit for me in their style of play, and I really like the freedom they give their guards.”

Of course a lot can happen in the 2 ½ years before Wise can officially sign a letter of intent (in his junior year), but as long as Coach Olsen, now 68, is in place for the 2006-07 season, the Wise’s say it’s a done deal. And, perhaps to drive the point home, Nic is already on the Cats weight training regimen, and the elder Wise even incorporated some of Zona’s sets into his Hightower High School’s offense.

Speaking of O, Nic’s got it going on. A summer ago, Street and Smith’s No. 1-ranked freshmen dropped 40 as his Houston Hoops team beat Memphis in the 14-and-under bracket of the AAU Championship. After Nic scored the final 5 points in double OT, his AAU coach John Lopez said he’d never seen anything like it.

“There are players that are flashy and can make the right pass, and then there are other players who can take the game over. At his age, I’ve never seen a point guard with better maturity on the floor,” Lopez says.

Jimmy Hicks, of the Recruiter’s Cheat Sheet (a scouting service in Houston), concurs: “Nic cannot be rattled. He’s the elite of the elite, as smooth as cognac. I mean, Louis XIV Cognac, that’s how smooth Nic is.”

Asked to draw another comparison, to current college players, Hicks fires off what sounds like the perfect model: “Nic has the level-headedness of Chris Thomas, a splash of Ford’s passing game, the cool-factor of Dwayne Wade, and the jumper of Kirk Heinrich.”

When asked to assess Nic’s future, Lopez says: “I know I sound like I’m gushing, but Nic will win championships.” And he isn’t talking high school or college, he’s talking the Big Show.

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Right now, the big show is in Arizona, where the Wildcats are the hottest team in town.

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