I never expected come to an epiphany after a high school basketball player’s college declaration/hat ceremony/superbly overhyped event.

Terrence Jones, the No. 13 recruit in Rivals.com’s class of 2010 rankings, sat in his high school gym in Portland, Ore., with the hats of five schools in front of him: Kansas, Washington, Oklahoma, Oregon and Kentucky. The event was broadcast online. Nearly 25,000 people were watching when Jones made his decision on the spot.

He reached with his right hand six inches above the white Kansas hat at his left, made Kansas fans thousands of miles away collectively gasp in excitement, and then juked back right and grabbed the black Washington hat.

In that juke came the recruiting epiphany: following recruiting closely is a worthless activity.

Like anyone else, I am curious who will be playing in the crimson and blue next season, but I vow to never watch another hat ceremony, media timeout announcement or awkward Skype video conference session with Roy Williams — No. 2 recruit Harrison Barnes, that just didn’t work.

If Kansas adds a new recruit, that’s important information. Depending on the player’s caliber, it can add a new level to a team. No. 1 recruit Josh Selby will probably start for Kansas next season, so that addition will cut into the playing time of other returning Kansas guards.

Simply, I want to know what the recruit says at his press conference, but I don’t want to know what he’s thinking beforehand.

There is too much buildup for these high-school athletes. With recruiting services calling prospects seemingly every day and recording any visits from coaches, anyone with an Internet connection has an opinion about where a player is going to go.

These recruiting services make money because people want precisely the information I hope to never read into again. Message boards blow up when a recruit does an interview or makes an official visit. We write about it because people want to read it.

One commenter on JayhawkSlant.com’s message board said he saw Terrence Jones eating with Bill Self and others at Jefferson’s during Jones’ official visit last week. He also noted that Self’s back was turned to the recruit.

People went bonkers. In a matter of six hours, the post had 54 replies. Some tried to infer that Self was in the wrong for not facing Jones directly. Others thought Jones wasn’t having a good time because he wasn’t the center of Self’s attention.

Let’s get real.

These are high school kids who are going to change their minds quite often. We have no way of knowing what goes on behind closed doors, and recruits sure aren’t going to tell anyone if they are getting benefits that potentially violate any rules to enroll somewhere.

All we need to know is who will be on the roster in September and that there weren’t any recruiting violations.

There is one silver lining: recruiting is pretty much over. Now we can finally get away from all the recruit-speak.

Well, until next spring.

— Edited by Jesse Rangel