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Wisconsin decommitment a lesson for message-board miscreants - NCAA Division I Mens Basketball - CBSSports.com News, Fantasy, Video

May 22, 2009
By Gary Parrish
CBSSports.com Senior Writer

Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you.

Unless, of course, you're Vander Blue.

In that case, the words hurt.

And it was only a matter of time before we got here, wasn't it

"These so-called Wisconsin fans, what they had to say on those [message boards], it really made me second-guess: Do people really want me here?" Blue told Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "Because I know if I was a fan and I heard about a recruit [who might be struggling academically], I'd be more like: 'What can we do to help him?' And not, 'Let's make him feel like the worst person in Madison right now.'"

Vander Blue decommitted from Wisconsin earlier this week.

It was not national news.

He is not John Wall.

But what made it a national story -- and perhaps a lesson for the uncivilized world of message boards, if we're lucky -- is that the decommitment was prefaced by a story about the Madison native's alleged academic woes, which led to some Wisconsin fans spending their days publicly bashing the Class of 2010 standout on the Internet. They questioned his attitude, character and intelligence. And guess what? Vander Blue read it and it bothered him.

Continued...