Andrew Wiggins is the favourite to be picked No. 1 in the 2014 NBA draft (Nam Y. Huh, The Associated Press)

Face it, Kansas needs Andrew Wiggins more than he needs Kansas — and the Toronto Raptors, and the profile of basketball in Canada, needs him even more.

Finding out where Maple Jordan, small forward extraordinaire, will spend his "purgatory year in college" before becoming the likely first overall choice in the 2014 NBA draft was a nice little diversion. Wiggins and his inner circle played it masterfully in a way that was anti-LeBronian ("doing it quietly in front of friends, family and teammates … and a single reporter"). The latter route where The Decision plays out publicly is not altogether bad, but there's still something to be said for letting it remain a personal choice.

This is the biggest I've seen Andrew Wiggins smile in six months. He was ready, he was patient and he did it his way. Kudos to the kid.

— Grant Traylor (@GrantTraylor) May 14, 2013

Bill Self and Kurtis Townsend are a great fit for Wiggins, who can also utilize the weight room to get stronger.

— Grant Traylor (@GrantTraylor) May 14, 2013

College basketball experts who follow the sport year-round can better speak to the impact the 18-year-old Wiggins will have on the Jayhawks as a one-and-done player. North of the border, the burning question should be how far the country's lone NBA franchise, the MLSE-owned Raptors, should go to manoeuvre to get the first Southern Ontario born- and -bred hoops star in the 2014 draft.

[Top prep prospect Andrew Wiggins to attend Kansas]

It shouldn't even be a question of if they should. In terms of (a) relevancy to the casual sports fan and (b) rewarding a loyal fanbase which is almost as steadfast as the supporters of other perennial also-ran Toronto teams, what is MLSE clinging to? Filling a hole in the Raptors' lineup this summer after GM Bryan Colangelo heads out the door won't turn heads. Somehow going from 34 wins to 44 and going down fighting in the first round of the playoffs, Toronto Maple Leafs-style, won't hit that nerve.

The London Knights face Saskatoon in the MasterCard Memorial Cup opener on Friday (OHL Images)

Too soon? Of course it is. The London Knights cannot be blamed, though, for putting together a successful bid for the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup. There is no statute that bars a team from hosting the tournament twice within four three-year cycles.

Judging by the reaction, though, London winning the bid for next season over the Barrie Colts — double whammy — and Windsor Spitfires after the franchise previously hosted in 2005 is not sitting it well. It's not as if anyone expected anything differently. The Knights' confluence of having the 9,000-seat Budweiser Gardens, know-how from their previous turn as host and a returning core of talent from their freshly minted championship team screams surefire winner for the Ontario Hockey League and the CHL.

So London's not the problem. The problem is the growing perception that, at least when it's the OHL's turn to host, the tournament often has the same metamorphosis that has moved the world junior championship beyond midsized Canadian cities. The Colts, whose Barrie Molson Centre seats 4,195, have bid for the tournament five times and come up empty-handed.

London faces Saskatoon in the MasterCard Memorial Cup opener on Friday (OHL Images)

The London Knights will return to the MasterCard Memorial Cup, deal with it.

A bajillion variables that affect the outcome of a best-of-7 championship series. Yet you knew it would end that way for the green-clad Knights and the Barrie Colts, playing the black knight in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, with a dramatic goal that London pulled from parts unknown for a 3-2 Game 7 win. You also knew that Bo Horvat, who outreached Barrie's Jonathan Laser to tap in a skittering puck for the championship-winning goal with fewer than one second to play in Game 7 on Monday, would have something to do with it.

It could have gone either way, but victors rewrite the history. London beating Barrie — just like it might do at the league-office level when the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup host site is announced Tuesday — illustrates how the Knights are well worth the animus fans of about 18 OHL teams have stored up for all things green and gold. Respect and/or revile them. . Highlight the extenuating circumstances that befell Barrie, who made third-period comebacks in each of the final two games with Mark Scheifele injured and Anthony Camara suspended. Don't deny the Dale Hunter-coached Knights made enough plays both big and little to surmount a 3-1 series deficit and retain the J. Ross Robertson Cup.

Horvat receives the playoff MVP award from OHL commissioner David Branch (OHL Images)

Game of inches, indeed. The London Knights are OHL champions by the literal thinnest of margins after Bo Horvat, completing a playoff MVP campaign, scored with one second left in regulation time to give London a 3-2 win over the Barrie Colts on Monday.

London is the champion, but one could pass through many parallel universes without seeing two junior hockey teams lay it on the line the way each team did on Monday. Horvat's goal was initially waved off on the ice and one had to squint to see the white ice between the goal line and the puck before Barrie goalie Mathias Niederberger could swipe it away. It was good — both officially and as the climax to a series that was more dramatic than the pundits expected.

Scheifele had 41 points in 21 playoff games (Terry Wilson, OHL Images)

It's gone from Mark Scheifele scoring four goals in the third period to feeling like a foregone conclusion for the Barrie Colts.

On Saturday in Game 6 of the OHL final, the Colts' complementary scorers authored an all-the-stops rally to force overtime even though Mark Scheifele was ailing after taking a stiff bodycheck from the London Knights' Josh Anderson in the third period. His only shift afterward came in the final 90 seconds, when he was on the ice for Mitchell Theoret's tying goal that presaged Ryan Rupert's overtime winner. Now, in the hours ahead of the decider, Barrie's worst fears have come to pass. Scheifele, who has 14 points in the series, was not even able to make the trip to Budweiser Gardens to be with the team.

Anderson was not penalized on the play, nor was it reviewed by the OHL. Colts left wing Anthony Camara is also suspended for Game 7 after getting a charging major/game misconduct in Game 5 for a check on London's Seth Griffith; the play was over the line although Griffith played the following game.

Scheifele took a hard, awkward check from Josh Anderson in Game 6 and only played a shift or two more while in obvious discomfort.

— Stephen Sweet (@stephen_sweet) May 13, 2013

For those wondering about severity of Scheifele injury, he didn't make the trip to London. That says a lot. #Colts

— Craig Ripley (@Craig_Ripley) May 13, 2013

Ty Rattie finishes his career with a WHL record 50 playoff goals (Don Denton, The Canadian Press)

Where once their situation couldn't be direr, now the Portland Winterhawks could not be much higher. Paced by Ty Rattie scoring a hat trick to in his final Western Hockey League game to set a new league record for career playoff goals, the Winterhawks beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-1 on Sunday to wrap up a six-game Ed Chynoweth Cup victory.

It's a long time coming for the Winterhawks, not solely by virtue of having lost the two prior finals to the Oil Kings (in seven games in 2012) and Kootenay Ice (in five in 2011). Portland is not the most popular team in WHL circles these days, yet no so long ago it was the most pitiable. Less than five years ago, it was at such a low ebb competitively and commercially that it was considered "a rescue operation" which could have ended up being the team that fulfilled the Dub's desire to put a team in Victoria.

Wilson had 17 points in 12 playoff games this spring for Plymouth (Keith Skarocic, The Associated Press)

For a hockey parent, little is so affirming as seeing a son debut in the National Hockey League, especially in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Plymouth Whalers wing Tom Wilson has only seen spot duty in his two games with the Washington Capitals during their first-round series with the New York Rangers.

However, it's a fair bet his father Keven Wilson's memory of the 19-year-old's first game has been enriched by a random act of kindness.

Camara has had game misconducts in 3 of his past 7 games (OHL Images)

As anticipated, the Barrie Colts will have to try to finish off the London Knights without star forward Anthony Camara. Following the Boston Bruins prospect's second charging major/game misconduct of the championship series for a check on London's Seth Griffith, which was also his third ejection in the past two rounds, the Ontario Hockey League suspended Camara for the balance of the championship series after a blindside collision with London's Seth Griffith. This comes with London seemingly have put the pressure back on Barrie after fighting off the first match point with their win Friday, although the Colts won convincingly in both of their home games of the series.

The OHL rationale:

— Unsuspecting player
— Vulnerable opponent
— Blindside hit
— Player not in possession of the puck