Now that Terrelle Pryor, who announced yesterday that he will play only football at Ohio State, it's time for Baltimore high school observers to wonder if Dunbar phenom Tavon Austin participated in his last high school basketball game.

Austin, a junior, is a pretty fair basketball player for the Poets, running the point effectively last Friday in Dunbar's loss to Snow Hill in the state semifinals.

On the other hand, Austin is a transcendent football player, having already set the Maryland state record for touchdowns with 92 scores in only three years. He has led the Poets to two state championships and reportedly has standing scholarship offers from Maryland, Boston College, Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia and Wake Forest, among others. It would appear, then, that it would be foolhardy for Austin to risk injury and an opportunity to be a football superstar to dabble in basketball, and college football coaches will likely ask him not to.

And yet, Pryor who, at 6 feet 6, not only became the first player in Pennsylvania high school football history to run and pass for more than 4,000 yards in a career, but scored more than 2,200 points in basketball and led his Jeannette High team to a state title last week, is a terrific example of how a star athlete can balance two high-profile sports. Here's hoping Austin finds a way to do the same.