Part of the job description of being a sports columnist is having the ability, and the cajones, to rip a sports figure -- no matter how famous and powerful they are -- when they mess up. Break the law, and Jay Mariotti will be calling for your job. (That is, if he still has one himself.) Make a mistake that costs your team wins, whether you are a coach, a front office member, or a player, and you should expect some relentless mocking at the hands of Gregg Doyel.
One of the things that really gets Doyel fired up is the practice of over signing in college sports. Twice, back in 2005 after USC hired Tim Floyd and just last month when he went after Les Miles, has Doyel spoken out against coaches that over sign recruits.
What do I mean when I say over signing?
What does an uncommitted kid like LeBryan Nash have to do with over signing?(photo credit: Nation of Blue)
In both basketball and football, there are limits on scholarships. The rule for college basketball is that each team is only allowed to give out 13 scholarships. What many coaches do is to promise too many scholarships by signing too many incoming recruits. The assumption is that someone is going to fail to qualify, decide to go pro, or -- whether by choice or by force -- make the decision to head to another school to play basketball.
A perfect example of this is what happened to DJ Newbill at Marquette. Newbill had signed on with the school, but when former top 100 recruit and Wisconsin native Jamil Wilson decided he wanted to finish his collegiate career with Marquette, the Golden Eagles had one too many scholarship players. Newbill was the odd man out.
While we can argue all day about ethics and morals involved with over signing, I think we can all agree that this practice rests smack in the middle of the gray area between acceptable and unacceptable behavior by college coaches that are supposed to be role models for these athletes.
Do I have as big of a problem with it as Doyel does? No.
Do I recognize that it contributes to the image of college coaches as people that care more about winning and their bank account than they do about the young men and women they coach? Absolutely.
The thing to remember here is that this is big time college basketball, and the higher you climb up the athletics chain, the more cutthroat it gets. If you're not good enough, you are going to get cut. And if you are the odd man out when a coach over recruits, than odds are pretty good you aren't good enough to play at that school. I think this summer has made it pretty clear that coaches go well out of their way -- and well beyond the NCAA rule book -- in order to get talent on their roster.
Is it fair? Not really. Does it suck for that kid? Absolutely. I've been there before. It hurts. But I will say this -- if you are good enough to be offered a scholarship to a major conference program, than you are good enough to get a free education at a school that plays in a lesser conference. Take Newbill -- he's currently on scholarship at Southern Miss. Its not the Big East, but he's still playing in a good conference and getting a free education. Things could be worse.
I'm bringing this up because of news that came out of Arizona today.
LeBryan Nash is one of the top ten players in the class of 2011. At 6'7", 230 lb, Nash is arguably the most physically gifted player in the class. He's strong, he's athletic, and he's fearless attacking the rim, which makes him a load to handle inside. But Nash has also developed enough of a perimeter game that most recruiting services consider him a small forward.
That's just a long-winded way of saying that Nash is the kind of player that every coach in the country wants on their roster.
Except, apparently, Arizona.
Sean Miller asked a top ten recruit not to come on an official visit.(photo credit: AZStarNet)
Why?
Because Sean Miller has already promised too many scholarships for the 2011-2012 season -- 11 scholarship players will return while Miller and his staff have already accepted commitments from Josiah Turner, Nick Johnson, and Sidiki Johnson. Keep in mind, the Wildcats only have 12 scholarships to give out as they lost one due to violations from when Lute Olson was the head coach.
Adam Zagoria reported today that Arizona coaches called Nash's AAU coach and asked Nash not to come on his official recruiting visit. What makes this all the more surprising is that Nash was actually interested in the Wildcats. Oklahoma State is his favorite, but Nash told Zagoria that if everything went well with his visit to Arizona, they "might be matched up with Oklahoma State."
Miller deserves some praise here. He declined the official visit from Nash because he has already over signed for the 2011-2012 season. The Wildcats are operating under the assumption that star sophomore Derrick Williams will be turning pro after the season, and its reasonable to expect at least one player to transfer out of the program after the season. Its the right thing to do, especially from a public relations perspective.
That said, most believe that Arizona is not currently in Nash's top three. Its not worth the hurt feelings and the potential for burned bridges by recruiting over players -- players that could be essentially forced out of the program -- for a kid that doesn't appear likely to come and could very well be a one-and-done guy if he does.
Its a smart move by Miller.
I don't know if I would necessarily do the same thing if I was in his shoes.
Miller's already over signed. One player currently on a scholarship at the school is either going to get the hint, or be shown the hint, that he won't be getting playing time at Arizona if he stays. The kids at the end of the bench already know that they could potentially be on the chopping block.
How much more damage would Miller really do by pursuing another top recruit, one that could potentially be the best in the class?
Does the risk of continuing to recruit Nash outweigh the gains of landing Nash?
(For what its worth, Arizona hasn't exactly said they are done recruiting Nash, either. They simply asked him to postpone his visit until the spring semester.)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment