Gary Parrish

This Brandon Jennings-to-Europe thing is gaining serious momentum.

Not only is it now clear Jennings will explore going to the Euroleague regardless of whether he is cleared academically to play at Arizona -- which was reported Sunday here at CBSSports.com -- it's also obvious, from talking to various sources Monday, that Jennings plans to use a qualifying SAT score as nothing more than leverage in possible negotiations. So the bottom line is that the Arizona signee really wants to be a professional, ASAP, and unless there simply isn't a market for him overseas put me down as someone who believes Jennings is more interested in being a trendsetter than a Wildcat.

"I think the family is going to take a real hard look at the options here," said Jeffrey Valle, a Los Angeles-based attorney who is advising the Jennings family. "He owes it to himself to look at what is potentially available and do what's best and that's not always an easy call."

If Jennings jumps to Europe he'll be the first player to flip the proverbial bird, if you will, to the NCAA and NBA and essentially tell both institutions he's not interested in doing a year in college just because the NBA demands a prospect to be one year removed from high school before entering the draft. Assuming it works this could lead to a slew of Class of 2009 prospects exploring the same route, among them Renardo Sidney and Lance Stephenson. But it remains unclear what kind of money is genuinely available to a prospect like Jennings, and that's the biggest question mark to date.

"You'd think several hundred thousand would be realistic,” Valle said. "And if it becomes a bidding war, who knows?"

Here's Monday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: Why not at least put Davidson in the list of teams to miss the cut? I understand the loss of Jason Richards is going to be tough on the Wildcats, but Stephen Curry is back and he has done nothing but produce. A little respect would have been nice.

-- Matt

You know, I really wish I would've ranked Davidson in the Top 25 (and one).

Honestly, I do.

Granted, the Wildcats did lose two starters and three of their top four scorers to graduation, which makes their omission reasonable. But I doubted Davidson's worth all last season, and because I was proved so wrong on such a grand level it would've been nice -- as you put it, Matt -- for me to give the Wildcats the benefit of the doubt and make them play themselves out of the rankings instead of force them to again play their way in.

In other words, I'm not a hater.

Just a skeptic.

But when it's time to update the rankings before the start of the season I plan to give Davidson a fresh look and the benefit of the doubt, and if I can make sense of it I'll place them in the Top 25 (and one), I promise. In the meantime, does it help that I'll have Stephen Curry as a first team All-American?