From the "Is anyone really surprised by this?" department comes word from California that Mark Avery, the 14-year-old youngster who committed to play college basketball at Kentucky before he had chosen a high school, much less played in a high school game, is getting calls from Lexington.

Well, duh. Who couldn't have seen that coming? Oh, maybe his parents, or Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie? Avery's decision may be the most potentially self-destructive thing he'll do in his life, or so we should hope.

It's nice to see that Jim Haney, the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, says that his organization "needs to take some leadership" on this matter, but it's hard to envision coaches like Gillispie seeing past their own self interest to do what's right.

Nope, it's going to take NCAA legislation to save kids like Mark Avery from themselves and from destroying college basketball.