Good luck Mickey Pearson!

[Quality Is Job 1]

3 minutes ago, Old guy said:

I am sorry to see this tweet in the John Harding basketball account. Lots of players think they are hotter than hot, because in their high school careers they indeed are one of the best. The thing they do not realize is that however good you are locally, regionally, or state wise, there are always lots of other players that are better than you are. I felt sorry for Pearson's family illness, but seeing this "now available" post all I can say is: "Mickey go f__k yourself and hope you ride the pine wherever you go." 

Perhaps the John Hardin staffer doesn't really have the pulse of Pearson's reasoning.  This is a rather harsh statement, Old Guy.  Maybe you'd like to soften it a bit?

[SLURadioBoy]

Frank talked about the Pearson situation briefly on his show today. He was told that Pearson notified the staff to tell them he was considering backing out of his commitment. Ford and part of the staff visited him to try to get him to stay. They left thinking he was still a solid commitment, but a few days later he told them he wanted out. Frank didn't give any reasoning on why he wanted out.

[NextYearBill]

15 minutes ago, Old guy said:

I am sorry to see this tweet in the John Harding basketball account. Lots of players think they are hotter than hot, because in their high school careers they indeed are one of the best. The thing they do not realize is that however good you are locally, regionally, or state wise, there are always lots of other players that are better than you are. I felt sorry for Pearson's family illness, but seeing this "now available" post all I can say is: "Mickey go f__k yourself and hope you ride the pine wherever you go." 

dont particularly agree with this.... but LOVE your tenacity 

[billikenfan05]

11 minutes ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

Perhaps the John Hardin staffer doesn't really have the pulse of Pearson's reasoning.  This is a rather harsh statement, Old Guy.  Maybe you'd like to soften it a bit?

Perhaps people don't buy Mickey's excuse of a sick relative....

[TFord and TRavs]

7 minutes ago, SLURadioBoy said:

Frank talked about the Pearson situation briefly on his show today. He was told that Pearson notified the staff to tell them he was considering backing out of his commitment. Ford and part of the staff visited him to try to get him to stay. They left thinking he was still a solid commitment, but a few days later he told them he wanted out. Frank didn't give any reasoning on why he wanted out.

Was this before we got the overcommit of Luc hankton? Or Wiley?

[kshoe]

21 minutes ago, Old guy said:

I am sorry to see this tweet in the John Harding basketball account. Lots of players think they are hotter than hot, because in their high school careers they indeed are one of the best. The thing they do not realize is that however good you are locally, regionally, or state wise, there are always lots of other players that are better than you are. I felt sorry for Pearson's family illness, but seeing this "now available" post all I can say is: "Mickey go f__k yourself and hope you ride the pine wherever you go." 

This is a horrible take.

[NextYearBill]

6 minutes ago, kshoe said:

This is a horrible take.

maybe.... but lets just wait and see 

[ACE]

11 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Perhaps people don't buy Mickey's excuse of a sick relative....

If he commits to a place like Louisville, this would smell of BS. Wouldn't be shocked if this is a case of people getting in his ear telling him that he can do better than SLU. I was looking forward to him suiting up for SLU, but I'm also quite confident that Ford & co. will be just fine without him. Next man up.

[RiseAndGrind]

18 minutes ago, kshoe said:

This is a horrible take.

If he goes to Louisville, it's the perfect take. 

[Old guy]

Deleted

[billikenfan05]

Here's the deal, when we first learned that someone was leaving it was presented that a player asked for his release it was presented that TFord released him because "if you want to keep recruiting the area you give the release" not "it's the right thing to do when a player has extenuating circumstances". That tells me that they either didn't know about this "sick relative" or they were told that he asked for his release for any other reason. I tend to believe the latter.

[Old guy]

You are correct 05, I just got my dander up. Deleted both posts.

[billiken_roy]

if there was a sick relative, would he be posting an open "im available" plea out there?   wouldnt he privately contact the acceptable geographically located institutions?   

[slu72]

I wouldn't exactly call that UL Fan Blog article an enthusiastic plea for Mickey Pearson to please play at UL. My take was this kid's intriguing from a potential standpoint, but he's not UL's typical shiny 4-5 star recruit who's excelled in AAU ball. If Mickey has his sights set on UL and they offer, he better prove he belongs quickly or else he'll be recruited over in their next 3 classes. I wish him well whatever he chooses, but he kind of shafted Ford and staff by waiting until the start of summer classes to de-commit.

[TFord and TRavs]

23 minutes ago, slu72 said:

I wouldn't exactly call that UL Fan Blog article an enthusiastic plea for Mickey Pearson to please play at UL. My take was this kid's intriguing from a potential standpoint, but he's not UL's typical shiny 4-5 star recruit who's excelled in AAU ball. If Mickey has his sights set on UL and they offer, he better prove he belongs quickly or else he'll be recruited over in their next 3 classes. I wish him well whatever he chooses, but he kind of shafted Ford and staff by waiting until the start of summer classes to de-commit.

UL literally needs bodies and it’s hard to recruit there after all the postseason ban 

[Pistol]

1 hour ago, SLURadioBoy said:

Frank talked about the Pearson situation briefly on his show today. He was told that Pearson notified the staff to tell them he was considering backing out of his commitment. Ford and part of the staff visited him to try to get him to stay. They left thinking he was still a solid commitment, but a few days later he told them he wanted out. Frank didn't give any reasoning on why he wanted out.

People seem to have missed this, so I'll bump it for you with a quote box. We still don't have a "why" but this is a pretty disappointing thing to hear about.

I don't begrudge the JHHS basketball Twitter account for trying to resell him. A program's prestige has a lot to do with where its alums go, and not many of these Western Kentucky HS programs have a whole lot of juice. I also don't begrudge any fan bases for speculating when an intriguing recruit comes along. That's just how it goes.

The thing that would bum me out is if someone is in his ear telling him to get out of his LOI, who that person is, and what their interest in this might be. I'm not accusing any program of tampering. However, there are often third parties involved when a recruit suddenly gets this wishy-washy (signed to SLU, wanting out, having the coaches travel to him, making it seem like he's committed again, and then asking out a few days later). I really have no idea what happened or who might be influencing him. It just kinda smells to me.

[AGB91]

Mickey who?

[bauman]

A few thought on this whole MP ordeal:

I don't remember the date when some of the Pearson things happened, but there was a man killed outside of the John Hardin HS on May 28.  Could this have been a factor? 

If there is a personal need for MP to stay nearer to his home, then we need to realize that WKU is only an hour and 20 minutes from Pearson's home and UL is only one hour from Elizabethtown.

What was the sequence of events regarding 1) MP's initial wavering, 2) Ford signing Hankton and 3) Pearson's final de-commitment?

Losing MP w/o knowing that we had Hankton really could have been a blow to the team's future.  Without MP we would have been (and still might be) short on Wing talent next year, with Bess gone and Welmer having been here long enough to have secured a MD degree.  If Wiley is 6'5" as some reports indicate then he might be in a position to relieve Bess this year, but both will be gone next year, leaving only Hankton as a natural Wing. (again I believe EW will likely be gone for the 2019-20 season-either injured or a grad transfer somewhere else or just at the point of moving on into the real world) .  This all also presumes that Thor is a SG not a Wing which we won't know until he takes the floor.

If Pearson truly has a family related issue than I wish him well, BUT if he is just wanting out of his LOI then he is the definition of a  tool.

[majerus mojo]

*reads thread, starts preparing* 

[NH]

Even if there are no personal or family issues going on, Pearson has every right to change his mind and ask for his release. It is a very important choice for him and his family and he should be comfortable knowing he made the right one. He doesn’t owe SLU anything other than being honest and transparent with them, which it sounds like he was. 

[gobillsgo]

These days signing a letter of intent really means nothing. If you want out, you can get out. If the coach doesn’t release you, he’s automatically a d**k. 

[bauman]

31 minutes ago, NH said:

Even if there are no personal or family issues going on, Pearson has every right to change his mind and ask for his release. It is a very important choice for him and his family and he should be comfortable knowing he made the right one. He doesn’t owe SLU anything other than being honest and transparent with them, which it sounds like he was. 

Using this logic, there is no reason to have LOIs.  If players have "every right to change (their) mind and ask for a release",  then when does a HC have a right to believe that his recruiting job is done.  How would you feel if Pearson, GORDON, IG and Thatch all asked for their release last week?  The LOI serves as a commitment from both the student and the school.  How would Pearson feel if last week Coach Ford said he was withdrawing the scholarship?  There is something about honoring your word that should apply to both recruit and school!

[NH]

1 hour ago, bauman said:

Using this logic, there is no reason to have LOIs.  If players have "every right to change (their) mind and ask for a release",  then when does a HC have a right to believe that his recruiting job is done.  How would you feel if Pearson, GORDON, IG and Thatch all asked for their release last week?  The LOI serves as a commitment from both the student and the school.  How would Pearson feel if last week Coach Ford said he was withdrawing the scholarship?  There is something about honoring your word that should apply to both recruit and school!

You got me. I think LOIs are pretty dumb; if I had a son/daughter, I would prefer that they not sign one if possible. They are another way in which the NCAA takes advantage of student-athletes. In the grand scheme of things, the prospective student-athletes are held far more accountable for “honoring your word” than are coaches and institutions. If you had a lawyer look at an LOI, I’m guessing they would tell you it was one of the most one-sided contracts in the labor market. 

Furthermore, schools can absolutely decide (if they want) to not admit a player who has signed an LOI. So while I agree that there should be a two-way Street in terms of trust between recruits and institutions, the LOI is a terribly unfair way in which to do it.

 

 

[ARon]

I hope for the best for Mickey.  No hard feelings.

One way or another the UL and Xavier fan bases seem quite excited.  Not sure why someone would go to UL right now if they ever wanted to see post-season play.

[slufanskip]

5 hours ago, NH said:

Even if there are no personal or family issues going on, Pearson has every right to change his mind and ask for his release. It is a very important choice for him and his family and he should be comfortable knowing he made the right one. He doesn’t owe SLU anything other than being honest and transparent with them, which it sounds like he was. 

Would you feel the same way if SLU dropped him the same day? Sorry Mickey your scholarship is no longer available