Brandon Jennings was born in Los Angeles and finished his high school career in Mouth of Wilson, Va.He committed to Arizona, one of the country’s most prestigious college basketball programs. And when NBA Commissioner David Stern calls his name at tonight’s 2009 NBA Draft, Stern will say Jennings is from Italy.But the 6-foot-2-inch point guard’s impact could stretch further than just the cities of the team that drafts him and his major stops along the way.Jennings, Scout.com’s No. 1 prospect for the 2008 recruiting class, failed Arizona’s entrance exam and decided to play professionally in Europe until he met the NBA’s draft requirements of being 19 years old and a year removed from high school.And other high school prospects are already starting to follow the trail he blazed across the Atlantic Ocean.”I don’t think it’s good. It’s not for everybody. You can’t get caught up in Brandon Jennings,” said LSU basketball coach Trent Johnson. “At the end of the day, the bottom line for me is always going to be their education. But there are exceptions to the rules. Is Brandon Jennings one? You know, I don’t know.”San Diego High School’s Jeremy Tyler is perhaps an even bigger story — and not just because of his 6-foot-11-inch height.Tyler decided in late April to try his own hand at professional basketball overseas after just his junior season, passing up his senior season at San Diego High and a scholarship offer to Louisville.”He’s already made that decision — him and his family — and that’s exactly what he wants to do at this particular time,” San Diego High basketball coach Kenny Roy told The Daily Reveille. “It’s an uphill battle and one heck of a challenge for him, but Jeremy’s the type of kid that he’ll meet that challenge and go past the expectations of it.”Roy said Tyler has contract offers from teams in several countries, including Italy, Spain, Israel, China and Portugal. He also said that he doesn’t expect anything Jennings or Tyler do or have done to “necessarily cause a trend, but then again, it might.””There’s not many kids on the high school as gifted as [Tyler],” Roy said. “I think it’s a case-by-case scenario with each individual kid and what they want to do. I don’t think a kid’s going to make the decision if they don’t think they’re ready.”Todd Foster coaches three players at Christian Life Academy in Baton Rouge currently rated as some of Louisiana’s top prospects by Scout.com for the 2010 recruiting class.Foster said his biggest concern regarding young basketball players making drastic moves, including going overseas or leaving college early, is that many players may be listening to poor advice.”Money is one of the driving forces behind it, no doubt about it,” Foster said. “But the thing that happens in basketball … is you get influences. Who all those people are, I don’t know.”Foster and Johnson both said expecting every player to do a certain thing, whether going to college or staying in college, might not be fair because of different individual cases.”If you have a kid from an impoverished family, obviously that weighs more on that kid,” Foster said. “I can’t sit here and say I know what that feels like. I can’t sit here and judge a man if I haven’t walked in those shoes. If that kid has to provide for his family, then I can’t fault a kid for doing that.”Foster added that any minimum age requirement the NBA utilizes will always have its positives and negatives.”We live in a society where the money is so big at the professional levels, to me now it’s a treadmill that once you get on, you’re stuck because it’s all about money,” he said. “Even if you say, ‘OK, you’ve got to be in college two years,’ now you might have more kids go to Europe. You can make the rule, but it seems like every time there’s a rule made, there’s a way around that rule.”Johnson said it’s too early to judge the current requirement and that for now he will continue to recruit the best players and try to focus on their education as well as his team’s Academic Progress Rate once they come to LSU.An athletic program’s Academic Progress Rate measures its ability to keep athletes in school and graduate. A low APR can result in penalties against the program, including a loss of future scholarships.”You want to get the best possible players,” Johnson said. “For us, we’re always going to try to recruit the best possible players because you never know who’s a one-and-done. Recruiting puts kids in a situation where they all think they’re one-and-done.”Former Arkansas guard Patrick Beverley has taken his own trip through Europe in hopes of hearing his named called in tonight’s draft.Beverley headed for the Ukraine after being suspended at Arkansas for the 2008-09 season for cheating on a class paper.Arkansas’ Athletic Department said men’s basketball coach John Pelphrey was unavailable for interview for the 10 days leading up to the draft.While the Ukraine might not have been in Beverley’s plans before his suspension, Johnson said convincing players to stay in school can often be a challenge.He added that their continued education will not only benefit them individually, but also the program as a whole.”We can’t afford to take or recruit or sign anybody that isn’t going to be here for two or three years — and if he is for only two or one, he’s got to come back and finish school because the [Academic Progress Rate] is going to affect us,” Johnson said. “It’s going to affect us really bad here in the next couple years in terms of scholarships and in terms of opportunities for the postseason.”Former LSU basketball player Anthony Randolph left the Tigers after his freshman season in 2008-2009 and was drafted by the Golden State Warriors, who some experts are projecting to take Jennings tonight.Johnson said Randolph is back at school this summer taking classes, which could help keep his team’s APR up and avoid penalties.”One of the first things I want to do when I see [former Tiger] Tyrus [Thomas] is nag him about going to school,” Johnson said. “Even the guys who may never need their education in their mind, they have to understand that … them coming back to school could help other guys.”Foster just hopes kids leaving high school or college will seek advice from the correct sources, and he’s still interested to see how far Jennings’ and Tyler’s decisions will reach other young players.”We need more parental involvement, and we need more sound decision making,” Foster said. “The money’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with wanting the money, but you need to really consider who’s giving you this advice. But it’s kind of hard for me to argue with that when you see Brandon Jennings go Thursday night in the top 10.”—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]