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Post by Raider Country on Jul 2, 2006 8:40:22 GMT -5
Putting their best foot forwardBY DUSTIN DOW | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER Forget about summer vacation - it doesn't exist for the nation's best high school basketball players, including several from Greater Cincinnati. For them, the next four weeks entail pressure-filled résumé building on the court, not frolicking at Kings Island or in the swimming pool. Though there are five months to go before the start of the prep regular season, the most important games for premier high school players tip off Thursday with the start of the sneaker industry-controlled July college recruiting period. "For any player that wants to get seen by college head coaches," said University of Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin, "July is the time." Three prestigious summer camps will start the frenzy when hosts Nike, Reebok and adidas open gym doors in Indianapolis, New Jersey and Georgia. Basketball futures will be made or lost as coaches flock to watch elite players from all 50 states and beyond. Coaches have 20 days - July 6-15, and July 22-31 - to see and be seen by the next crop of potential NCAA Tournament heroes. "Imagine playing in a gym and all the bleachers are filled with college coaches," said North College Hill guard O.J. Mayo, who is the top-rated high school prospect in the nation according to most analysts. "Coach Ks. Pitinos. Tubby Smiths," Mayo added. "You see all them guys and all their eyes are on you, and you're trying to showcase your ability. It's a whole different level." HOOKING THEM EARLYAll of this unfolds with manipulation from Nike, adidas and Reebok. The Big Three shoe titans have run these camps for more than two decades and still battle to land the best teen-aged players in hope of developing all-important brand loyalty. Getting players into one of these camps is among the first steps in what the shoe companies - and players - hope ends in an endorsement deal. "The thought is that we want to make a Nike impression on the players when they're young," said Uti Middleton, a marketing representative for Nike's summer camps. "Then when they graduate high school, they'll go to a Nike-sponsored college. Then when they go on to the NBA, they'll be loyal to Nike, wear Nikes, sign deals with Nike. Believe me, it works." Middleton cited the Miami Heat's Antoine Walker, who is in adidas' stable of players, as a loyalist Nike was unable to sway. Walker grew up playing for an adidas summer team and signed with the German company as a pro. But with the up-and-coming players, "there's no loyalty anymore," Middleton said. "I'm sure adidas thinks of it as an investment down the road," said Tony Dees, father and summer coach of Yancy Gates, who plays for Hughes Center and the adidas-sponsored Cleveland Basketball Club. "We're glad to have the sponsorship. But we can't promise adidas anything in the future." Nor could LeBron James, who played in adidas throughout his high school career, only to opt for Nike and a $90 million contract when he turned pro in 2003. No other amateur player is coveted to the extent of Mayo, a senior-to-be at North College Hill. Shoe companies and major-college coaches monitor his every move, hoping to gain a sliver of camaraderie with the budding star, with whom a future relationship could bring fortunes. "I'd correlate it directly to a college coach who's out recruiting," said adidas spokesperson Travis Gonzalez. "It's about being seen at players' games and having them at your camps." MAKE-OR-BREAK TIMEMayo's actions tend to cause commotion when they are related to what's on his feet. Just two months ago, the shoe company recruiting circuit was abuzz about how Mayo might bolt from Reebok when he briefly played for a Miami-based Nike team. But shoe deals don't weigh heavily on Mayo's mind just yet. "You know, that stuff doesn't mean anything to me," he said recently after an open gym at Xavier University's Cintas Center. "I mean, look at what I'm wearing right now." A head-to-toe glance revealed shoes, shorts and a tank top made by adidas, a company that has no formal links to Mayo or his summer basketball team, the Reebok-sponsored D1 Greyhounds. Reebok funds the Greyhounds with close to $100,000 annually, which pays for air travel, hotels, uniforms, shoes, entry fees for tournaments and other team expenses. In return, Mayo wears Reebok shoes on the court. Come Tuesday, Mayo is expected to be in Teaneck, N.J,. at Reebok's ABCD camp. That's where 200 or so of the best high school players are featured in matchups designed to identify the best of the best by the end of the week. College coaches may begin showing up Thursday, and they'll see heated competitions in which the winners are elevated to can't-miss-recruit status. James experienced this phenomenon five years ago when his team squared off against that of higher-profile recruit Lenny Cooke. The two players went head to head, with James getting the better of Cooke. After that, James' career took off, culminating in his No. 1 selection in the 2003 NBA draft. Cooke - in an extreme example of the risk of failing at one of these camps - disappeared from the recruiting radar. He managed to get onto low-level professional rosters overseas and domestically for a few years, but the Rockford Lightning of the Continental Basketball Association waived him in February, three months after signing him. "That's why summer basketball is so great," said Reebok ABCD camp director Sonny Vaccaro, who also has worked for Nike and adidas. "High school basketball is just camouflage. The best don't go against each other." FUTURES AT STAKEThe competition among these camps to snag a player like Mayo is fierce - and ongoing. Even in the final days leading to the start of its camp, Nike will hold out hope that Mayo will spurn Reebok and his close association with Vaccaro, who has known Mayo since he was in the eighth grade. "I hope he comes to ABCD," said Vaccaro, who recruited Michael Jordan for Nike in the 1980s. "That's important to me personally. But I don't have a contract with O.J. He's free to do what he wants to do." All three shoe giants have camps and tournaments throughout July after this week's big events. There are 221 NCAA-certified camps and tournaments - many affiliated with shoe companies - in place for coaches to recruit players. For the best of the best, the high school season is incomparable to the drama of summer ball. "During the high school season, one or two of the players on the other teams are good players," said Hughes' Gates, a 6-foot-8 center rated among the top players in the class of 2008. "During July, you see all the good players, as good as you are or better. It plays a big role, because all the college coaches are there watching you. You go out hard to perform, because you don't want to be seen as just an average player." COMPANY CONNECTIONSThe atmosphere certainly is different from that of the average high school basketball game. Teams are stacked with all-star talent but usually play in front of stands scattered with only coaches and parents, even though the public can purchase tickets. There are no cheerleaders or mascots, because that's not the point. "As much as we want to be purists in a sense it's all for the love of the game, the shoe companies have picked up the ball where high school associations drop it," said Dru Joyce, James' former high school and summer basketball coach in Akron. "It's just a reality. The shoe companies fund a lot of teams." But at college commitment time, shoe companies can't control everything. In general, few players are choosing schools based on the logo adorning shoes or uniforms. "If that were the case," said Chris Mack, an assistant at Nike-sponsored Xavier University, "we wouldn't recruit adidas or Reebok kids." And to be sure, coaching staffs travel to camps and tournaments hosted by each of the companies, lest they miss out on a potential star prospect. UC's Cronin said about "80 percent of recruiting is normal," meaning parents and players make decisions without shoe company influence. Occasions do exist, however, when college coaches - who receive lucrative sponsorship contracts from shoe companies - benefit from their relationships with the sneaker businesses. For instance, Kansas State coach Bob Huggins' longtime dealings with Nike paved the way for the Wildcats to snare a pair of South Florida recruits shortly after the former UC coach arrived in Manhattan, Kan. Miami Tropics players Jason Bennett and Louis Colon committed to Kansas State because of Huggins' connection to the Nike-sponsored Tropics' coach, Art Alvarez. "My loyalty is with Nike," Alvarez said, "and I'm going to do whatever I can do to help Nike." E-mail ddow@enquirer.com news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060702/SPT0301/607020367/1062/SPT
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 2, 2006 8:41:34 GMT -5
Camps make players' stock sink or soarBY DUSTIN DOW | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER For the nation's best high school basketball players, July is the most important month for their future. Players' performances during the 20 days of recruiting will determine whether they are Big Ten (major) or Big South (low-major) prospects. "There have been guys that have had one great game in July and it's gotten them a scholarship," University of Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. Cronin said that when he coached Murray State (2003-06), the Racers were recruiting a player named Xavier Hansbro. In one July game, Hansbro made four straight 3-pointers and became the talk of the camp. "These (Southeastern Conference) coaches hadn't seen him as much as we had, but they see a 6-9 guy do that," Cronin said, "(and) he goes from being maybe an Ohio Valley Conference guy to an SEC guy in one game." Hansbro committed to Ole Miss, where he averaged 2.0 points and 1.1 rebounds over 25 games last season as a freshman. Because of situations like that, Cronin said mid-major coaches often secretly root for players they are recruiting to have a performance that's average - or worse - during the summer. "Oh, yessiree," said Miami University coach Charlie Coles. "There aren't any Wally Szczerbiaks slipping through the ranks anymore. You want the players you're recruiting to be good enough to show you that they can play for you. And then you want them to play bad, so no one else notices them." Szczerbiak was the second player in Miami history to surpass 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists in his career. He was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Then there's Churchill Odia, who played terrifically during July 2003 before committing to Xavier despite offers from big-time schools like North Carolina. But Odia transferred from XU in 2005 after one season in which he didn't meet the expectations he'd established two summers before. It can work in reverse, as well. When Cronin was an assistant at Louisville, Taquan Dean committed to the Cardinals thanks to Cronin's efforts before the summer recruiting period. Dean then had sub-par performances in July. "Coach (Rick) Pitino was breathing down my neck all summer about whether this guy was good enough to play for us," Cronin said. Dean went on to set Louisville's 3-point record. "You have to be careful in July not to see a guy one time and make a quick judgment," Cronin said. "The hardest thing is you want to watch all the games going on, but you can't. You have to do true talent evaluations." E-mail ddow@enquirer.com news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060702/SPT01/607020325/1062/SPT
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 2, 2006 8:42:34 GMT -5
July has coaches here, there and everywhereBY DUSTIN DOW | ENQUIRE STAFF WRITER Think July is demanding for players? The month is no vacation for college coaches and assistants, either. For 20 days, they're on the road and adjusting schedules on the fly, depending on which recruit's games they need to watch. Most days last more than 12 hours and are spent traveling from gym to gym, game to game. Meals? They catch them when they can. Exercise? Xavier assistant Chris Mack recalled an occasion last July when he drove 10 hours round-trip in one day to watch a junior-college open-gym session. He stopped at a high school on the return trip to run around the track for a half-hour. "I just had to release pent-up energy from all that driving," Mack said. Mack does most of the strategizing for Xavier's July recruiting. That planning process takes most of June to complete. "I try to be as organized and planned as possible to see all the kids we want to see throughout the month," Mack said. "But things constantly change throughout July and you're driving to some gym to see more of a player that impressed you the day before." One of the necessities? "I've learned," Mack said, "to always rent a car with Hertz NeverLost in it." That's a GPS system Hertz offers to drivers who don't want to fumble with maps in unfamiliar territory. E-mail ddow@enquirer.com news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060702/SPT01/607020324/1062/SPT
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 2, 2006 8:44:31 GMT -5
Some teams have to pay their own wayBY DUSTIN DOW | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER For all the excess afforded teams and players at the top of the summer basketball totem pole, there are still those that have to operate the old-fashioned way: by paying for it themselves. Ozie Davis has led the Queen City Prophets for nine years in Cincinnati, and he continually seeks a major shoe contract to help pay the bills. His summer program has yet to land a deal, despite having dozens of players go on to receive college scholarships - notably C.J. Anderson (Manhattan/Xavier), Brandon Hunter (Ohio) and Robert Hite (University of Miami). "Our true mission is we're trying to get kids into college for free," Davis said of the Prophets program. "It definitely helps if you have a shoe contract to help pay the travel budget. We've never got that big shoe deal. That's what we're trying for now." Across town, the D1 Greyhounds and their renowned roster, which includes top high school players O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker, receive tens of thousands of dollars each year from Reebok. But the Prophets get by on little more than shoes and uniforms - no money - from shoe company And 1. Davis raises funds and uses his own money to come up with the $30,000 it takes to get the program through the travel-intensive month of July. A couple years ago, Davis thought he was close to receiving a deal from adidas. He was pursuing rising Cincinnati star Yancy Gates to play for the Prophets, and adidas was interested in Gates. But Gates ended up playing for the adidas-sponsored Cleveland Basketball Club, and that eliminated the need for the company to sponsor more than one Ohio team. Shoe companies are hesitant to sponsor more than one program per competitive region unless there is compelling reason to do so, such as the presence of a top-rated player such as Gates. "I made that decision," said Gates' father, CBC coach Tony Dees, "and it was based on watching the AAU programs in Cincinnati. I decided not to deal with things here in this city and go elsewhere." Meanwhile, the Prophets continue to pump out college players. Chris Wright, whom Nike has invited to multiple camps, is headed to Dayton in the fall, and Adrion Graves is going to Xavier. Among the team's soon-to-be seniors, Lonnie Hayes could get a late invitation to either the Nike All-American or adidas Superstar camp this week. "Our future is bright," Davis said of the Prophets. "We're in a position where we can continue to fundraise whether we get a deal with adidas or not. Right now, it comes out of our pocket, but we're here to support the kids." E-mail ddow@enquirer.com news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060702/SPT01/607020326/1062/SPT
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 2, 2006 8:45:54 GMT -5
Vaccaro built the empireBut after elevating Nike and adidas, it's new game with Reebok BY DUSTIN DOW | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER The summer basketball system is turning against the man who created it - and he couldn't be happier. Sonny Vaccaro is the pioneer of the shoe company-dominated summer basketball recruiting scene. But recent alterations to the landscape are combating Vaccaro's and the sneaker industry's influence on players' futures almost three decades after Vaccaro began signing college coaches to endorsement contracts while working for Nike. "When I was with Nike, it was all about the shoes and sending players to Nike colleges," Vaccaro said. "Now it's more fun. It's about the camps and tournaments." Vaccaro, 66, will host the ABCD Camp for the 23rd straight year beginning Thursday in Teaneck, N.J. The camp, which attracts the best 200 or so high school players in the country, has been affiliated with Reebok since 2003; before that, it had ties to adidas and Nike, following Vaccaro's career path as a recruiter for those shoe companies. But Reebok has little presence on a college basketball scene dominated by Nike and adidas. And unlike years past, when the premier high school players had the opportunity to enter the NBA draft, stars such as North College Hill's O.J. Mayo now are subject to an NBA age limit that forces them to play in college or somewhere other than the NBA for at least one year. So Vaccaro, the man whose savvy and personality delivered Michael Jordan to Nike for $2.5 million in 1984 and Kobe Bryant to adidas for $10 million in 1996, now has to play within rules that limit his ability to woo Mayo to Reebok in the future. That would seem to be a problem for Vaccaro, who made a career in the shoe business by signing college coaches to deals with either Nike (1978-91) or adidas (1991-2003) and steering players to those schools. "I can't tell these guys to go to Reebok schools now; there are no Reebok schools," Vaccaro said. So now Vaccaro is most focused on building his key events, the ABCD Camp and the Reebok Big Time tournament in Las Vegas, as big as he can, without much regard for where players go to school or which teams they sign deals with in the future. That means getting Mayo, who plays for a Reebok-sponsored summer team, to show up Tuesday at ABCD. Proudly, Vaccaro said: "Kids don't talk about what college they're going to; they talk about whether they're going to the ABCD Camp or Nike camp." Last summer, big-time Nike player Kevin Love spurned the Swoosh in order to play at Reebok's ABCD Camp. Nike had hoped to sway Mayo this year, but he's expected to play at ABCD - delighting Vaccaro, who relishes the competition involved in getting the best teams and players to align with him and Reebok. "It's what I live for," Vaccaro said. "But until they get off that plane ... I don't know for sure." In the 1980s, when he was building Nike's name, Vaccaro's Nike camp was the only option for major players. But he was fired in 1991. "It was time to go," Vaccaro said. "I was becoming Mr. Nike, and I could never have been the public face of Nike." So he moved on to adidas, and the summer scene accelerated with Nike and Vaccaro competing against each other for the best players. Vaccaro set up big contracts with Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. Then came the biggest prize of all: LeBron James. Vaccaro and adidas were by his side from 2001-03, with the company sponsoring James' summer league and high school teams. But Nike won LeBron as a pro, signing him to a $90 million deal. Vaccaro was furious with adidas. "Adidas wouldn't give me the money to sign LeBron," Vaccaro said. "After that, I couldn't look kids in the eye anymore." So Vaccaro bolted for Reebok and signed Mayo's summer team, the D1 Greyhounds, to a deal worth close to $100,000 per year. "Sonny's always there," Mayo said fondly of Vaccaro last year, "in the background." But Mayo hasn't limited himself to Reebok gear, appearing in all three major brands in the past year - an indication that a shoe deal isn't a big concern just yet. "If he signs with Reebok in two years, it might have a little to do with me," Vaccaro said of Mayo, "but it's really because they're going to give him a hell of a lot of money." E-mail ddow@enquirer.com news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060702/SPT01/607020327/1062/SPT
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 2, 2006 8:46:51 GMT -5
Summer hoops by the numbersBY DUSTIN DOW | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER 12: Months each year Nike All-American Camp director Sherman Dillard scours the country looking for the best high school prospects to invite. 200: Summer basketball teams nationwide that receive some form of sponsorship by the three major shoe companies. 221: NCAA-certified summer basketball events set up for college coaches to recruit players. 20: Days in July for coaches to do that recruiting. $500,000: Annual endorsement money Michael Jordan received from Nike when Sonny Vaccaro signed him in 1984. $2.6 billion: Nike sales generated by Jordan until he retired in 1999. $12.8 million: Annual endorsement money Nike pays LeBron James. $16 billion: Money generated annually by the athletic-shoe industry. $3.5 million: Vaccaro's reported annual budget for directing Reebok's grassroots efforts. 48: Years' difference in age between Vaccaro (66) and O.J. Mayo (18), the most sought-after player by shoe company recruiters. E-mail ddow@enquirer.com news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060702/SPT01/607020368/1062/SPT
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 5, 2006 19:08:10 GMT -5
Here are 10 recruiting stories to followBy Andy Katz ESPN.com Archive The madness of another kind begins Thursday. Throughout July, college coaches with their school logos splashed across their chests will be scurrying through airports, cruising highways and checking into chain hotels from coast to coast as they try to catch as much prep talent as possible in person during two separate 10-day evaluation periods. Some coaches love this month. Others hate it because of the exhaustive travel and the countless hours in gyms, some sweatier than others. Try zigzagging through Las Vegas countless times, covering three different sneaker-sponsored tournaments in 100-plus degree "dry" heat, and you'll understand. Nike, Adidas and Reebok dominate the month, with pickup ball much more prevalent than the skill stations run only at more instructional camps. This is a month when everyone wants to be seen -- and the NCAA is fine with that, as long as no one is heard from. Players cannot talk to coaches and vice versa. From a college hoops standpoint, there are numerous subplots that should be intriguing to follow as coaches descend on the camps and tournaments. Here are 10 of the bigger ones to follow: 1. How visible will IU assistants be this month? Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson is banned from recruiting off-campus for a year, but his assistants can roam freely. Ray McCallum and Jeff Meyer aren't national faces, but they'll need to have that Indiana crest in the sight of plenty of players as they draw attention to the school, with Sampson unable to make a cameo. This is a significant recruiting summer for the Hoosiers, with D.J. White likely gone to the NBA after this upcoming season. 2. How ready will White be for competition? As a counselor, White is scheduled to play at the Nike camp. He said he's ready for full action after missing all but five games for the Hoosiers with foot injuries this past season. If he has a good run at Nike, he could help elevate the perception of his game as well as the projections of where the Hoosiers will finish in the Big Ten. 3. How cut is Glen Davis? LSU coach John Brady says Davis is down to 290, shaving some 20-odd pounds from his playing weight of this past season. The rising junior center also is scheduled to play at Nike later this week during the counselor pickup games. NBA scouts usually are courtside, and if Davis is thinner and even more nimble, he could be playing himself into a higher money slot in the 2007 draft and positioning LSU to hang with Florida in the SEC. 4. How strong is Eric Gordon's verbal commitment to Illinois? On the surface, it should be a lock. The guard out of North Central High in Indianapolis verbally committed to the Illini in November. There is an unwritten rule that a verbal commitment shouldn't be touched by any other school, especially a league rival. There are plenty of exceptions, though -- such as point guard Doug Wiggins of East Hartford (Conn.) High School, who backed out of his verbal commitment to St. John's to go to UConn. So no one should be shocked if Indiana makes a play this summer. 5. Where will Kevin Love land? The most talented big man in the class of 2007 -- and rated No. 1 overall by some -- is down to UCLA and North Carolina. Notice there's no mention of Oregon for the prep out of the Beaver State. The Ducks flew south long ago in this recruitment, with Love looking for one of the game's true blue-blooded programs. He could make his announcement in the next week. 6. What kind of buzz will O.J. Mayo create? Forget about his college destination. Mayo should create a scene whenever he plays this summer -- akin to the LeBron buzz the summer prior to his senior season. Everyone will want to see Mayo play. 7. Which headline coach will be the last to leave a gym? Having covered recruiting the past 17 years, I've witnessed many a scene, but few rival seeing coaches like North Carolina's Roy Williams and Arizona's Lute Olson sitting in some high school gym in Vegas past midnight. They are two of the hardest-working recruiters in the land. Since they lead such power programs as North Carolina and Arizona, the assumption is that they don't have to work hard, but Williams and Olson are hands-on the whole month. 8. Will Greg Oden participate at the USA Basketball trials? Not likely, but Oden is expected to watch the trials in Las Vegas at the end of the month. Oden can be on the 2008 Olympic team even if he doesn't play or make the World Championships team this summer. His presence, even if he only watches, should create a story line for training camp. 9. How noticeable will Bobby Cremins (College of Charleston), Bob Huggins (Kansas State) and Sidney Lowe (N.C. State) be on the road? Cremins hasn't done recruiting since 2000, but this should still feel familiar to him. Still, the grind could wear on him as he must make his presence felt on the road. Huggins is iconic and likely will choose his spots wisely. Lowe must get out to familiarize himself with the system, since the current setup wasn't around in the early '80s. 10. Will Jim Larranaga be a familiar face? The George Mason coach was a memorable name in March, but will he resonate in July? Larranaga needs to capitalize on the popularity of his Final Four darlings. The question is whether recruits were paying enough attention in March to be able to pick out his face. Andy Katz is a senior writer for ESPN.com. sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=2509715
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 5, 2006 19:10:17 GMT -5
Sources: O.J. Mayo told USC staff he was committingBy Andy Katz ESPN.com O.J. Mayo, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2007, told the USC coaching staff and players last week that he would commit to the Trojans, multiple sources told ESPN.com. The 6-foot-4 Mayo, as recognizable a high school recruiting name as LeBron James and Greg Oden, made the statement while on his unofficial recruiting visit last week in Los Angeles. He still needs to make that sentiment public, though. He could do so as early as this weekend at the Reebok ABCD Camp on the Fairleigh Dickinson campus in Teaneck, N.J. High school recruits often say one thing to a coaching staff to appease them and then sign somewhere else during the fall and spring signing periods, but multiple sources told ESPN.com that the Trojans are awaiting public word from Mayo. Even after he makes an announcement, though, the Trojans would have to wait until the November signing period before it's truly official. NCAA rules forbid college coaches from commenting publicly on commitments until they receive a signed national letter of intent. That said, if Mayo verbally commits to USC this weekend -- or anytime before the fall -- he would immediately go down as the most significant recruit in USC basketball history. Mayo still could have other alternatives instead of going to college in the fall of 2007. There is a possibility he could go overseas for a year or compete in a barnstorming tour with other high-profile players who are prohibited from entering the NBA draft until they are at least 19 and one year out of high school. Details of possible moves like this are expected to be explored in September. Still, those would be unchartered waters. The more traditional approach for Mayo would be to do what Oden did: go to school for at least one year. Oden chose Ohio State and is projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA draft if he declares. Mayo, who is still scheduled to finish his high school career at North College Hill in Cincinnati, is a potential No. 1 overall pick in 2008 if he were to declare. "[Mayo] could change a program and give it instant credibility," said one source. "He sees the big market and knows that he's not too far away from being marketed. [Going to USC] would only help him and he's confident enough to win a national championship." The assumption for over a year was that Mayo would go to Cincinnati if Bob Huggins were still employed there, or follow him to wherever he landed, which ended up being Kansas State. Multiple sources told ESPN.com, though, that Mayo called USC coach Tim Floyd in November to express his interest in joining the Trojans. Mayo then played in an event in Los Angeles in December, with reports surfacing that he was interested in a West Coast school. The assumption at the time was that it was UCLA, but by December, it had been made clear to USC that it was the Trojans, not the Bruins, who were in the hunt. Multiple sources said that Mayo wanted to be in a major media market and that he told the USC staff he didn't want to be just another name at a school like Duke or North Carolina. He wanted to win big, go to the NBA and already have been marketed in a media center. Sources also said that Mayo was very aware of the attention USC's back-to-back Heisman winners, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, received the past two seasons. "He's a little bit different for a kid his age," a source said. Mayo was in Los Angeles last Wednesday to Friday. He met with the coaching staff, played with USC's returning players on campus and had a conversation with USC athletic director Mike Garrett. Mayo also met with Floyd for the first time. A source said Floyd has only talked to Mayo a handful of times, with Mayo showing more enthusiasm in this partnership than USC. That's what makes this even more of a coup for the Trojans, assuming it becomes official. Even though he coached in the NBA at Chicago and New Orleans, Floyd has only had one highly rated freshman in his college career -- Marcus Fizer, while he was at Iowa State. The timing of a Mayo commitment couldn't come at a better time for the Trojans. USC is still emotionally spent after dealing with the tragic death of freshman point guard Ryan Francis, and also needs to overcome the loss of star shooting guard Gabe Pruitt, who is academically ineligible for the first semester. The Trojans are also opening their new arena, the Galen Center, this fall. A Mayo commitment may lead to another major coup if teammate and close friend Bill Walker, another top-10 player in the class of 2007, were to follow him to USC. The two have said for the past two years that they would play together in college. Andy Katz is a senior writer for ESPN.com. sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2510229
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 8, 2006 9:37:34 GMT -5
Updated: July 7, 2006 Current headlines show depth of college hoops' woesBy Pat Forde ESPN.com INDIANAPOLIS -- For years, American youth basketball has been trying to scrub clean its greasy underbelly. At the game's current purification rate, though, Joakim Noah's ponytail will be gray before basketball has significantly reduced its oiliness. These are your pertinent story lines of the week in the sport, as recruiting season hits high gear here at the Nike All-America Camp and elsewhere: • An NCAA list of high schools and prep schools that are under scrutiny for suspiciously miraculous academic transformations includes some of the biggest names in basketball -- most notably Oak Hill Academy (Va.), Laurinburg (N.C.) Institute, Mt. Zion Academy (N.C.), Notre Dame Prep (Mass.), St. Thomas More Prep (Conn.) and The Patterson School (N.C.). With those schools' NCAA certification status up in the air, a number of high-profile players could be affected. • DeLoss Dodds, who as the Texas athletic director heads one of the pre-eminent athletic empires in the country, declared college basketball "a horrible business" to The Dallas Morning News. • Sonny Vaccaro, the original shoe titan and a self-acknowledged part of what's wrong with the game, is flexing more muscle than ever, now with Reebok. The latest: Players from Vaccaro's Reebok stable could be flocking to Sonny's Los Angeles backyard, apparently for star-making purposes. Class of 2007 star O.J. Mayo, from Cincinnati, reportedly has made a surprising oral commitment to Southern California (an arrangement that, if consummated, won't last longer than the Trojans' final dribble of the 2007-08 season). Class of 2009 star Renardo Sidney -- whose father, a former school security guard, is now a paid Reebok "consultant" -- has moved from Mississippi to L.A., according to several media reports. That should be enough to wilt your pompom right there. A troubled sport isn't getting any healthier at the moment. Problem is, the genie is so far out of the bottle that there's no conceivable means of forcing him back in. The genie has set up shop on campus -- and probably has his own office a few doors down from the head coach. Every solution only creates a new set of unforeseen problems, and every new rule is countered by a new scam. The shoe influence isn't going away. The NBA dollar signs in the kids' eyes aren't going away. The human barnicles who attach themselves to the kids aren't going away. And the lack of interest in (and emphasis on) academics -- in high school or college -- isn't going away. At least the NCAA took a step toward addressing the latest academic scam: bogus prep schools that clean up three years of lousy transcripts with a one-year makeover, allowing players to gain college eligibility. For too many basketball players, high school has become a vagabond process -- bouncing from one school to the next, until finishing at a prep school that magically fixes a player's academic deficiencies. Of course, the very fact the NCAA Clearinghouse was rubber-stamping all manner of garbage diploma mills necessitated the corrective action. Now those who wound up on what everyone at the Nike camp is calling the "banned list" are squawking. Powerhouse programs like Oak Hill and the others listed above have had their 2006 graduates cleared to begin the initial eligibility process, but the NCAA has said the schools' academics are "subject to further review." "Obviously, I was shocked, surprised, to be listed with some of those other schools," Oak Hill coach Steve Smith said. "I was a little disturbed when I saw it. They never visited our school, never called us. Our door's open, baby. Come down and visit, we don't have anything to hide. "We've been there 128 years. I've been there 21 years as head coach. We've never had any problems with the NCAA." Smith said Oak Hill's president called the NCAA Thursday to get an explanation. Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president for membership services, said his institution hardly apologized for Oak Hill's inclusion on its list. "We've laid out to the [Oak Hill] principal the exact reasons they're on the list," Lennon said. "I think there's a little bit of an understanding why we might be concerned." Speaking generally, Lennon said the NCAA identified schools that took in large numbers of transfers and/or fifth-year students, and schools where athletes made major jumps in the number of core courses passed or a big rise in grade-point average. "If you had a 1.0 GPA for three years and failed all your math classes," Lennon said, "we want to know how you then got a 4.0 and three years of math credits in one year." The most publicized prep school on the list is Philadelphia Lutheran Christian -- the kind of school Smith so strenuously objected to being linked with. That storefront school was outed for its sketchy academics by The Washington Post and The New York Times this past winter. Many coaches at Nike wondered how Lutheran Christian avoided being immediately banned by the NCAA. Lennon said that the review process is continuing for that school -- and that its "graduates" have hardly been green-lighted to play in 2006-07. "Some of the students who attended there might get their records reviewed [by the NCAA Clearinghouse]," Lennon said. The NCAA's other hope is that its member schools will stop using the Clearinghouse eligibility standard as their own. In other words, just because the NCAA screwed up in allowing schools like Lutheran Christian to proliferate, it doesn't mean the schools have to look the other way and admit its players. "That should not be a de facto admissions standard," Lennon said. It might be asking too much for athletic programs, though, to suddenly show some restraint when the star power forward shows up with a transcript that looks like a ransom note. It also might be asking too much to believe that college basketball will ever mount a significant and successful reform movement. The genie has grown way too big for his bottle. Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com. sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2512797
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Post by Fastbreak on Jul 11, 2006 19:15:11 GMT -5
Simeon's Rose still could skip college July 11, 2006 BY MICHAEL O'BRIEN Staff Reporter Simeon guard Derrick Rose just might start a revolution. This weekend at ABCD camp in Teaneck, N.J., Reggie Rose, who is running his brother's recruitment, told the New York Times that Derrick may not be heading to college after he graduates. Rose said his brother might sign a shoe contract and work out with a trainer, or possibly play overseas in the year before he becomes eligible for the NBA draft. "Once one or two players nationally go that route, a big chain will follow,'' Rose said. "There is no doubt that Derrick Rose and his entire clan have one thing in mind, and that's getting Derrick a pro contract,'' Roy Schmidt of Illinois Prep Bulls-Eye Report said. "There is no question that from a talent standpoint he is good enough to pull it off. "Maybe it's simply a family thing, a sense of urgency that they need to go whatever route is necessary to give them security as quickly as possible.'' The Rose family, consisting of Derrick, Reggie, their brother Dewayne and their mother Brenda, is a tight-knit group that has recently closed ranks around Derrick. "It's really simple,'' Reggie Rose said. "There's no entourage or anything. It's the boys and our mom.'' There were rumors a month ago that the top five high school players in the country were planning on joining together to sue the NBA over the new rule that restricts the draft to players one year out of high school. While the rumor has faded away, the perception remains that the thought of attending college is viewed as an annoyance by at least three of the top players: Rose, O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker of Cincinnati. ESPN reported that Mayo would commit to USC over the weekend, but that never materialized. Walker was ruled ineligible by the Ohio high school athletic association for this season, so he may head to prep school or try to find a way to enter the draft. This weekend at ABCD camp, Reebok's Sonny Vaccaro was floating around the idea of high school stars acquiring foreign citizenship to try and enter the draft. "All I'm trying to do is show the inequity of foreign kids being allowed to do it, and our kids aren't,'' Vaccaro said. Reggie Rose told the Sun-Times that Derrick's college list would be cut down to seven schools in two weeks, after a large club basketball tournament in Las Vegas. "[Derrick] doesn't worry about recruiting,'' Reggie Rose said. "He trusts us so much and knows we are gonna make the right decision. And we listen when he voices his opinion.'' Rose's list includes dozens of schools. Memphis, Illinois and Virginia are considered the leaders. On another front, Indianapolis North Central guard Eric Gordon, Illinois' top recruit for the Class of 2007, is in the middle of a massive recruiting circus. Numerous reports surfaced over the weekend that Gordon had decommited from Illinois and was seriously considering attending Indiana. Gordon's father, Eric Gordon Sr., responded to the rumors by reaffirming his son's commitment to Illinois, but said that Indiana would love to change his mind. "They're playing the game a little bit,'' Schmidt said. "More than anything else, the whole thing is being driven by shoe company politics. Look no further than the fact that Indiana is an Adidas school and Illinois is a Nike school.'' Gordon plays for the Indiana Elite club team, sponsored by Adidas. "Gordon or his father could stop it right now and yet they don't seem to want to do it,'' Schmidt said. "This may be as ridiculous as anything recruiting-wise I've seen in a long time.'' mobrien@suntimes.com www.musketeermadness.com/chatboard/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=1&TopicID=25400&PagePosition=1
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Post by Fastbreak on Jul 12, 2006 18:34:04 GMT -5
Lawyer: Walker has a caseBY TOM GROESCHEN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER Former North College Hill basketball star Bill Walker should be eligible for the 2007 National Basketball Association draft, a prominent sports law attorney says. Michael McCann, part of the legal team that represented Ohio State football running back Maurice Clarett in his unsuccessful legal challenge of the National Football League’s age restriction two years ago, said he would be happy to help represent Walker in a potential case against the NBA. The NBA says Walker won’t be eligible for its draft until 2008, based on the league’s collective bargaining agreement language. “Bill Walker should be eligible for the 2007 draft, and I think the NBA would be mistaken to contest it,” McCann said Wednesday. “The NBA would open up a can of worms that will be difficult to close.” McCann is a professor at the Mississippi College School of Law (Jackson, Miss.) and a regular contributor to The Sports Law Blog online. “I would certainly like to help Bill Walker, if he approached me,” McCann said. “I would be flattered to be asked.” Walker, rated by Rivals.com as the nation’s No. 2 would-be senior (behind NCH teammate O.J. Mayo), said earlier this week that he will return to NCH as a student and not play basketball during the 2006-07 season. Walker could not be reached for further comment Wednesday. The Ohio High School Athletic Association this week declared Walker ineligible to play basketball in the 2006-07 season, Walker’s would-be senior year. An OHSAA investigation determined Walker has exhaused his eight semesters of eligibility, based on two semsters as a freshman at Rose Hill Christian in Ashland, Ky., in 2002-03, and then six semesters (2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons) at North College Hill. Walker’s basketball options for 2006-07 might include a fifth-year prep school or the NBA’s National Basketball Development League (NBDL), which recently lowered its age mininum to 18. Walker will turn 19 in October. The NBA collective bargaining agreement states that to be eligible to be drafted: The player (A) is or will be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year in which the Draft is held, and (B) with respect to a player who is not an international player, at least one (1) NBA Season has elapsed since the player’s graduation from high school (or, if the player did not graduate from high school, since the graduation of the class with which the player would have graduated had he graduated from high school). Walker’s birthdate is Oct. 9, 1987, according to a biography on the Web site nbadraft.net. McCann believes the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) language leaves a clear case for Walker to enter the draft in 2007, saying that the OHSAA essentially has determined that Walker’s “senior class” would be the 2006 class. “I believe that the NBA would ultimately recognize the expertise of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, and how an error not of (Walker’s) own fault … in miscounting his high school credits, has put him in this situation,” McCann said. If the NBA does not recongize that, McCann said, it may unwittingly invite Walker to challenge the age restriction in court. “The NBA would want to avoid that,” McCann said. NBA spokesman Tim Frank reiterated Wednesday what he has said all week: Walker must wait until 2008 to enter the draft. “He’s scheduled to be a senior in school this year, and it really doesn’t matter on his athletic eligibility,” Frank said. “We feel pretty confident that the rule is clear. We’re pretty confident it will withstand anything.” McCann said that, unlike the Clarett case, Walker’s lawsuit could show “empirical data” that teen-aged players can succeed in the NBA. Before the age/graduation restriction was put in place last year, players who jumped from high school to the NBA included LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. “There is precedent,” McCann said. “There is a track record of high school players going to the the NBA and doing uniquely well, on average.” While Clarett lost his case against the NFL, that does not mean Walker would lose his, McCann said. “That (Clarett case) was the holding of one United States Court of Appeals,” McCann said. “There are 12 other United States Courts of Appeal, and there is a chance it could be interpreted differently somewhere else.” E-mail tgroeschen@enquirer.com news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060712/SPT/307120030/1062
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Post by Fastbreak on Jul 13, 2006 18:43:15 GMT -5
Who's the condiment now? Away from Mayo, Walker's the dish July 13, 2006 By Gary Parrish CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer Bill Walker insists he'll still enroll in college next year despite recent developments that, on the surface, seem to provide a decent case to fight for early entry into the NBA Draft. Taking him at his word, it's reasonable to expect Walker's next move will be to at some point over the next few weeks -- or few months, if he really wants to drag things out -- stare into a slew of television cameras and disclose the university at which he'll be dribbling and dunking come November 2007. It might be Southern California, because of L.A. It might be Kansas State, because of Bob Huggins. It might be Cincinnati, just because. Frankly, it doesn't matter. Any of those choices seem fine so long as young Bill does one very important thing. Separate from O.J. Mayo. Please. "Their friendship will be for life, but I do think they need to breathe," said summer basketball godfather Sonny Vaccaro. "They've been playing together since what, seventh grade? It's been a long time. So I think it may be good for both of them to breathe some." Take that statement, and interpret it in the most literal sense. Vaccaro said Mayo and Walker -- rising seniors at North College Hill High in Cincinnati and teammates with the D-1 Greyhounds on the AAU circuit -- need to "breathe some," which suggests they aren't currently breathing at all. That's called being smothered. And really, it must often feel that way for Walker, whose longtime role as "Mayo's sidekick" carried him to New Jersey last week for the Reebok ABCD Camp. The bright red T-shirts the prospects wore while walking around read simply, "Five Days in July," a slogan representing a period many deem to be most important in the recruiting game. For those five days, Walker was nothing short of amazing, dunking over anybody who dared stand near the rim before later showing a surprisingly accurate pull-up jumper that is the product of lots of early morning workouts. Or early afternoon workouts. Whatever. "I've been getting up about seven in the morning and shooting 500 shots before going home, taking a shower and then starting my day," Walker said. "But that's if I'm really focused. Sometimes I slip up and wake up at like noon. But I still get a workout in." So Walker occasionally sleeps late, which is proof he is a normal teenager. Still, he did not look normal last week. Abnormal, extraordinary, exceptional and explosive is more accurate. The 6-foot-6 wing averaged 12.9 points in seven games –- impressive considering nobody plays more than two quarters per contest -- while shooting 69 percent from the field, and he was named MVP of the ABCD Camp All-Star Game on Sunday for an unprecedented third consecutive year. When the gym emptied, the same people who came only to see Mayo -- an undeniably gifted 6-5 point guard recognized as the top prospect in the Class of 2007 -- left instead mesmerized by Walker, similar to the way moviegoers paid to watch Cinderella Man because of Russell Crowe, yet exited the theater praising Paul Giamatti. Crowe was great, no doubt. But remember, Giamatti got the Oscar nomination. "Ten years?" said one college coach when asked if it was possible Walker could be a better pro than Mayo one decade from now. "He'll be the better pro in three years. Bill Walker is the best player in this class." And yet there's probably not a person in America outside of those who watched the ABCD Camp at Fairleigh Dickinson University who thinks that way. Because for something like five years now it's been all O.J. -- short for Ovinton J'Anthony, by the way -- all the time. Meanwhile, his best friend with the comparatively boring name -- seriously, what's more normal-sounding than "Bill Walker?" -- has been stuck in an overwhelming shadow playing Robin to Mayo's Batman, Pippen to Mayo's Jordan, Garfunkel to Mayo's Simon. The good news? If Walker minds playing second fiddle, he doesn't show it. How's that for refreshing? "That's what's wrong with sports," Walker said, and there are a lot of young hoopers who should read this quote. "People get caught up in the me, me, me. But everything O.J. gets he deserves. He's earned it. His (fame) is not a problem for me at all. In due time, mine will come." In overdue time is more like it. But better late than never, as the saying goes. And if Walker ultimately does choose a college different from Mayo, understand it's nothing personal, just an unfairly overshadowed talent finally deciding to showcase himself on a stage he can call his own. "It wouldn't be me saying that our relationship is bad," Walker said. "It would just be me making a career move." And a wise one, at that www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9552286
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Post by Fastbreak on Jul 14, 2006 18:14:00 GMT -5
George Mason, other mid-majors not as far behind with recruiting July 14, 2006 CBS SportsLine.com wire reports INDIANAPOLIS -- Jim Larranaga still talks about George Mason's incredible Final Four run everywhere he goes -- at fundraisers and camps, around coaches and especially when he's recruiting. If last year's success has done anything, it has given Larranaga more credibility when he walks into a home. Prep players now are more willing to take calls and make unofficial visits, and no longer confuse the northern Virginia school with neighbors such as George Washington and James Madison. To Larranaga, it's a small but necessary step in the endless quest to woo college prospects. "It's nice because they recognize your face a little more, they recognize your name more and George Mason gets some name recognition now," he said after spending a few days at the Adidas camp in Atlanta. Those who criticized conferences such as the Colonial Athletic and the Missouri Valley for getting multiple bids were proven wrong when Bradley and Wichita State reached the round of 16 and George Mason did the unthinkable by going all the way to the Final Four in Indianapolis. The coaches association even cited those conferences' results when arguing for tournament expansion this summer. For mid-major programs, such as George Mason, last year's tournament success has helped in recruiting, though it has not exactly been a boon. While most top recruits still dream of playing for prominent programs, the next wave of recruits does appear more receptive to considering a mid-major. That's progress. "I think the fringe guys used to wait it out a little longer to see if they could get to those (bigger) programs," Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. "Now they're more willing to make a commitment to a mid-major a little quicker." Jacobson and others understand they likely never will be able to compete for players with powerhouses such as Duke, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA. But at last week's Nike All-America Camp, where 120 of the top prospects played, some players acknowledged that last year's tournament successes did get their attention. Keenan Ellis, a 6-foot-10, 187-pound forward from Indiana, played last season at North College Hill in Cincinnati, where he was flanked by two of this year's top recruits -- O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker. He lists his final choices as Indiana, Tennessee and Alabama-Birmingham, where former Hoosiers coach Mike Davis landed. Players say mid-majors do have some attractions: The potential to play early in their career and earn more minutes, and the opportunity to become a national darling, like George Mason, come tournament time. "It makes you look at them differently when you see a school like George Mason going to the Final Four," Ellis said. "With mid-majors a lot of players look at them like, 'If you can't go high Division I, then you go to a mid-major so you can play.'" So far only one prominent player who attended the Nike camp -- Chris Wright of Trotwood, Ohio -- has committed to a smaller school. Wright, a 6-6, 211-pound forward, will attend Dayton in part so his mother can continue coming to games. Wright also said he chose Dayton over Texas, Michigan State, Illinois, Florida and Michigan because he thought the Flyers' style was more conducive to his skills, and because he appreciated coach Brian Gregory's philosophy. "It was hard at first, because I knew people would be saying 'Why go there? Why go there?'" he said. "I just feel that everyone has to start somewhere and that no school that's big-time now was as good in the past as they are now." Illinois coach Bruce Weber said that when he was at Southern Illinois, the staff's goal was to get one player each year from a premier summer basketball camp. That, he believed, could lead to maintaining success, something the Salukis have done despite losing two head coaches -- Weber and Purdue's Matt Painter -- to the Big Ten. Gonzaga has been even more successful. Coach Mark Few acknowledges he's now winning recruiting battles he couldn't even get in on five years ago. What changed? The Zags have become a perennial Top 25 team, appear routinely on national television and have elevated their status from strong mid-major to model program. "It's a heck of a lot harder to stay at that level than when you make that first initial run," Few said. "That was all fun and games. ... There's no question we're doing better now and again it goes more with TV." That's the next challenge for Larranaga and others. Now that the Missouri Valley schools and George Mason have proven they can win in a high-profile, high-pressure environment, more players are willing to give them a chance. The question is whether they can win the big summer battles. "If you're going up against a Big Ten or ACC school, you're still going to play second fiddle," Weber said. "There's no doubt our run at SIU helped and you have a chance to get maybe someone from the next group, but it's tough at that level." www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9554108
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Post by Raider Country on Jul 19, 2006 21:23:13 GMT -5
Kentucky reports MySpace violationPosted: Wednesday July 19, 2006 2:25PM; Updated: Wednesday July 19, 2006 2:25PM LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- Kentucky self-reported a secondary NCAA violation because of postings on a potential recruit's MySpace.com Web site, apparently by fans. The postings on the site of West Virginia high school basketball star Patrick Patterson, who just completed his junior year at Huntington High School, tried to entice him to attend Kentucky, WLEX-TV in Lexington reported. "Fans are not allowed to interact with recruitable student athletes," Kentucky athletics spokesman Scott Stricklin said Wednesday. "We had to report that to the NCAA." Patterson, a 6-foot-8 center, was named the West Virginia Player of the Year this year and led Huntington High to its second straight state title, compiling 23 points, 11 rebounds and 6 blocked shots in the championship game. For the regular season, he averaged 14.5 points, 11 rebounds and 4.4 blocks per game and has had interest from several Division I colleges. Stricklin said when fans contact potential recruits, the school tries to educate them not do to that or it will hurt the school. He said if that takes care of the problem, there would likely be no further action. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/ncaa/07/19/bc.bkc.ukviolations.ap/index.html
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Post by Bomber on Jul 23, 2006 7:21:05 GMT -5
Summer ball rules when recruiting time rolls By ANTHONY WITRADO Posted: July 22, 2006 There are paper signs taped up on all the gym walls that read "No contact with players" and "Coaches only." The bleachers have the same don't-even-think-of-sitting-here feel as the roped-off VIP area at a trendy nightclub. Up to a dozen major college basketball coaches and their top assistants sit there, wearing polo shirts tucked into basketball shorts. A few feet away, teenagers pour sweat onto the hardwood in temperatures that reach well above 100 degrees. They know the coaches are there, but rarely look at them. It is like going to the most important job interview of your life and never speaking to the boss; he only watches you through a two-way mirror. This is Las Vegas in July. Wisconsin in July is much different. The weather is usually better, but the basketball is far from it. There aren't many summer tournaments going on, and the ones that are happening aren't attended by Roy Williams, Tom Crean, Bruce Weber or Mike Krzyzewski. In fact, it would be news if any Division I coach showed up in the area while Adidas, Nike and Reebok held their tournaments in the desert, like they started doing Saturday. Just like it would be news if one of those men showed up at a high school basketball game in the winter. "It's real important because a lot of college coaches get to see a lot of talent in one place," said Troy Cotton Sr., president and director of DTA Wisconsin, a summer traveling program. "It's like a meat market. During the (high school) season they have to go to a particular school to see one particular kid." As summer basketball becomes increasingly more important for high school basketball players in the recruiting process, the cause-and-effect theory shows that the high school season is becoming less important. High school basketball is now study time. Finals are from April to September. "There's nothing like being able to see a lot of players in the short windows that we have," Marquette coach Crean said. "Even though it's spread out in a city like Las Vegas, it's great to see so many players." Crean also said it is important for his staff to see players in different environments, like a high school practice or game. But high school coaches see how the tide has shifted. "Without question summer ball is bigger than high school basketball to most kids," Milwaukee King coach Jim Gosz said. "Once February comes, these kids can't wait to play summer ball." In the fall, Gosz will start his 17th season as King's coach. During that time, he has gone from fielding every call on his players from college coaches and hosting several of them in his gym to being almost completely eliminated from the process. The NCAA allows evaluation periods from July 6-15 and July 22-31, according to the NCAA 2005-'06 bylaws. Those periods are when the major shoe company camps and tournaments take place. A college coach can attend events but is not allowed talk to a player or his parents in person. Phone calls and letters are permitted. There is a dead period from July 16-21, with no contact is allowed. The contact periods, during which a coach can actually talk face-to-face with a player or his parents, run through most of April and again through most of September. Those windows mark the start and end of the summer traveling circuit. Summer coaches do not fall under the NCAA rules. They are not high school coaches, and they are not required to operate under the umbrella of the Amateur Athletic Union, an organization that follows the NCAA rules. The shoe company camps and tournaments are independent, and so are most of the teams. That means summer team coaches and college coaches have free reign to talk. "In the last 12 years, the high school coach has been pretty much removed," Gosz said. "The summer guys are the guys coaches deal with. With the NCAA putting all the evaluation and contact periods in (the summer), the summer coaches are the ones who handle it all." Gosz has rolled with the punches during his career and allows his players to compete on summer teams without objection. He said he is neutral when it comes to his feelings on how things have turned and the growth in influence of sneaker companies on players. Milwaukee Vincent coach Tom Diener believes summer basketball is ruining the high school game. But Diener also said all the summer exposure can be beneficial to under-the-radar players like his nephews, Drake and Travis Diener, were. DTA Wisconsin is the top travel team in the state. It started playing in the Adidas Super 64 Tournament this weekend in Las Vegas, sending eight players from Milwaukee onto the court and under the microscope. Cotton recognizes how big his program is. But he downplays how the importance of the summer has affected high schools, citing schools like King that do not play many non-conference games inside the state. "I think they are both very important," he said. "When you go to a college you have to be a student-athlete, a student first. You learn that during the winter." Still, he knows how crucial it is for his team to create exposure. "Coaches want to know where my players are going to be," Cotton said. "They want schedules, asking what kind of kid they are, asking what are their grades like. "Our phone is ringing every day. We have a household name on the national level." www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=475475
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