Providence should release Joseph Young, they are the ones that look bad

What is it with Big East schools and letters of intent?

First, it was DePaul. The Blue Demons, under head coach Oliver Purnell, initially refused to let Walter Pitchford, Jr., out of the LOI he signed during the Jerry Wainwright era. After Pitchford appealed the NCAA (and lost), Purnell finally relented and released Pitchford. Midway through July. Most kids are already in summer school. Pitchford still doesn't have a school to play for.

Next came Marquette, who signed DJ Newbill to an LOI only to drop him once Jamil Wilson decided he wanted to transfer in. We wrote on all of that two weeks ago.

Now?

Its Providence's turn.

Joseph Young is a highly-regarded two guard recruit out of Houston's Yates high school. He made some headlines when he committed to and signed with Providence and Keno Davis despite the fact that his father is a director of basketball operations for Houston University. But back in June, Young made clear his desire to be released from his LOI, as his aunt in Houston is sick and preparing to get a heart transplant.

When Young made his statement, Davis was unresponsive, saying that he "expects [Young] will honor his commitment. Six weeks later, and nothing has changed. Young, according to his father, will not be enrolling at Providence and is not even thinking about school right now. The Providence coaches, on the other hand, are not budging from their position either. As explained by Kevin McNamara from the Providence Journal:

One school of thought has Young pledging to PC last summer when the Friars were the best offer on the table. At the time, it was clear that then-Houston coach Tom Penders was considering retirement and would not be around for Joseph's college career. Sure enough, Penders did retire after leading the Cougars to an NCAA Tournament berth. He was replaced by James Dickey, who quickly chose to rehire Michael Young as the programs's director of operations and program enhancement.

What Providence believes, essentially, is that Young's mind wasn't changed by an illness to his aunt. He wants to play in the program where his father works.

The point that Providence and Davis are missing is that it shouldn't matter why Young wants out. The only people that truly know why this young man wants out of his LOI is the Young family. Could Joseph really have that close of a relationship with his aunt that he wants to remain near her for school? Of course. Did his father's rehiring at Houston make the local school more attractive? Quite possibly. More than likely, it was a combination of those two, and multiple other, factors that swayed his opinion.

None of that matters, however. Young no longer wants to go to Providence. He wants out of his LOI. Even if Davis and company get Young to spend a year at Providence, how hard is he actually going to play? Regardless of talent, do you really want a kid in your program that isn't going to give his all? Young would likely be on campus for just one season before transferring, so how much would he really care about team success? If he was a cancer in the locker room, would anyone really blame him? No one wants to be forced to do anything, especially when that "anything" is as significant as the college you attend.

More importantly, doesn't Providence look terrible right now? What recruit is going to want to sign with the Friars after seeing this? How easy is negative recruiting going to be for coaches going against Davis for a prospect? "Hey, don't sign with Providence. You could lose a family member, and they won't care." Young could very well be concocting this entire sick aunt story, but the Providence staff are still the ones that will come out of this looking bad.

Remember, this is a high school senior making the most important decision of his young life. I think we can forgive him for having a change of heart given this situation.

Hopefully, Providence will come to their senses and release Young from his LOI. (He's already appealed the school, and will file one with the NCAA if that doesn't work.) That's the only way that this situation comes to a happy ending. I understand Providence's frustration, and if they wanted to give Young a little 'eff you' on his way out the door, so be it.

But Keno, PC, do the right thing, fellas.

Because right now, you are the ones that look bad.

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Walter Pitchford gets his release

Twice in the last month we have discussed the plight of Walter Pitchford, Jr., a 6'10" senior that had signed with DePaul before Oliver Purnell became the head coach.

Well, Pitchford didn't want to play for Purnell and asked for a release from his LOI. He didn't get it. He appealed to the NCAA for a release, but they denied his request as well.

But over the weekend, Pitchford finally got the good news he was waiting for, as Purnell had made the decision to release Pitchford from his LOI. (For those scoring at home, Adam Zagoria had the scoop.) I'm not sure what finally persuaded Purnell and/or the DePaul athletics department to let Pitchford go, but based on a ESPN Chicago report just nine hours earlier, it seems as if Purnell still did not want to let Pitchford go:

"The bottom line of the difference here is Walter Pitchford signed with DePaul, and when I got to DePaul in conversations with he and his dad, he re-committed to DePaul. And then mysteriously, within a couple days of tremendous meetings on campus and within days of schools starting to call us about releases and so on and so forth, among a lot of other concerns that we had during that process, they wanted a release. We had some concerns about that. We simply want that process to play out, so we can have our concerns mediated."
...
"We certainly have no ill feelings toward Walter Pitchford. We don't want to hold him back, but at the same time we got a basketball program to run, and you have to run that with integrity. ... He's got to want to be here. He's got to do certain things to be here like any kid. Those are two absolutes."

So, yeah, Purnell really didn't want to lose this kid, even going as far as to insinuate that Pitchford may have been tampered with. We don't know what happened, but Purnell comes off sounding like sour grapes.

Regardless of what Purnell believes, Pitchford finally did get his release and will be allowed to attend a different school without having to sit out a year and lose a year of eligibility.

According to his father, Pitchford is not yet sure where he is headed, but given the late date -- most hoopsters have already enrolled in summer classes -- we should be finding out pretty soon where Pitchford will be playing next year.
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No more conditions allowed on Letters of Intent

Letters of Intent (LOI's) are a tricky subject in the realm of college athletics. Run by the Collegiate Commissioner's Association out of the NCAA's Indianapolis headquarters, the National Letter of Intent program is a voluntary system that was put in place to, essentially, end a prospect's recruitment.

Its benefits are twofold; not only is a recruit able to end the constant stream of phone calls and letters from college coaches (well, theoretically at least), it allows those same college coaches a degree of certainty of what their incoming class will look like. In other words, if Bill Self has a point guard in the class of '10 sign an LOI, he can stop recruiting point guards.

DeMarcus Cousins made headlines when he refused to sign with UAB.
(photo credit: AL.com)

As Josh Selby proved this summer, a commitment from a recruit is worth nothing more than the hand it was shaken on. Signing an LOI binds the recruit to the school, with eligibility penalties if he/she does not spend a full year at that institution.

But over the last year, a couple high profile recruits have made headlines due to their LOI's.

Back in November, Seth Davis of SI brought to light an issue with UAB's recruitment of DeMarcus Cousins. You see, Cousins had committed to play for the Blazers, but he refused to sign his LOI unless the school included a clause which allowed Cousins to be released if head coach Mike Davis was no longer the coach.

LOI clauses once again came into the national spotlight this spring when Xavier Henry (and subsequently Nolan Dennis) were allowed out of the LOI's they signed with Memphis when John Calipari left town for Kentucky. Henry and Dennis have since enrolled at Kansas and Baylor, respectively.

Deals such as these will no longer be allowed as the National Letter of Intent Policy and Review Committee has sent a memo to member institutions banning the practice. The memo, which was provided to the Sporting News by a DI coach, states that if any school or any of the school's employees "offers additional conditions, the prospective student-athletes NLI is subject to being declared null and void along with possible institutional penalties." If an athlete wants out of their LOI, they will have to submit a request form, which has been the standard procedure.

Violations of this rule could result in expulsion from the NLI program.

There are a lot of positives with this rule. It eliminates some of the preferential treatment that blue chip recruits receive; the only kids that would have had enough pull to land this type of addendum are the best of the best (sometimes that doesn't even matter - Cousins is a consensus top five recruit and he couldn't get one in his LOI to a C-USA school). It will also be beneficial for guys like Josh Pastner, Calipari's replacement at Memphis, who saw one of the best recruiting classes ever vanish before his eyes as most of Coach Cal's recruits backed out once he left.

The problem that arises is that these kids are not choosing the school they want to go to based on, well, the school. Their choice is centered on which coach they want to play for. This goes against the entire concept of a student-athlete because it makes it obscenely obvious the recruit doesn't care about the schooling he receives or classes he can attend.

But consider this - these kids are choosing a school based on where they think they can receive their best basketball education and who they think is the best basketball "professor". Being a professional basketball player is a profession that can make you a lot of money in a short amount of time. If you want to play for a John Calipari or a Roy Williams (or whatever coach you think will give you the best chance of making the NBA or becoming a successful pro overseas) and that coach leaves the school, isn't it fair to allow the kids enroll at a school with a coach they want to play for (as opposed to whoever the institution hires as a replacement)?

Would anyone complain if a top 10 high school student decided he didn't want to go to Yale because the professor he wanted to study under left?

And that doesn't even take into account the fact that most schools have a drop off in performance when they undergo coaching changes. What if that recruit doesn't want to take part in the rebuilding process while that coach builds a program around "his recruits"?

My hope is that this rule was simply implemented so that the NLI regains control over their program; and that if a recruit no longer wants to attend a certain school due to a coaching change, they will grant him/her their release.

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