Interesting article on recruiting

[kshoe]

from today's Chicago Tribune

The deal-breakers

Some college coaches don't know when to give up even when a recruit commits to another school

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By David Haugh

Tribune staff reporter

July 13, 2006

Eric Gordon Sr. will not name names. But you would recognize them if he did.

In one 24-hour period earlier this week, six big-time college basketball coaches called Gordon to see how firm his son Eric's oral commitment was to Illinois.

Until Gordon tells those coaches to lose his number, they will keep calling.

"I told every one of them what the deal was," the elder Gordon said in a phone interview.

The deal is complicated, at best reflecting the new ambiguities of contemporary college basketball recruiting and, at worst, exposing the underbelly of a profession that can get slimy this busy time of year.

Beyond the possibility of Illini coach Bruce Weber seeing the prize of his 2007 recruiting class lured away and the future of his program altered, the Gordon example reveals how blatantly some coaches ignore oral commitments when made by 17-year-olds feeling more pressure than ever to end the process.

"In my mind, it's one of our problems as coaches--I think it's unethical to keep going after a kid once he has committed," Weber said, speaking generally but not specifically about Gordon because of NCAA rules. "When a kid calls to say he's not going to your place, you might give him one last shot: `Are you sure?' And if they say yes, then it's over."

It might be just beginning again for Gordon.

Weber and his staff scored a coup last November by getting a commitment from the 6-foot-3-inch guard from Indianapolis who is considered one of the top high school players in America. But in the past month, the strength of Gordon's oral commitment to the Illini has been questioned in cyberspace and tested by a late, furious run by new Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson.

In other words the Sampson-Weber battle over Gordon could take the Illinois-Indiana rivalry back to where Lou Henson and Bob Knight elevated it in the 1980s.

Sampson, who replaced Mike Davis at Indiana in March, and his staff have continued recruiting Gordon because they believe they deserve a chance to do what Davis could not, according to Gordon's father.

Sampson can accept phone calls from recruits but he is banned from recruiting off-campus and making calls because of NCAA sanctions from his tenure at Oklahoma. He declined a request to explain his philosophy on recruiting prospects who have committed to other schools.

But it's no secret that failing to recruit elite in-state talent helped lead to Davis' demise, and Sampson is committed to trying to keep Indiana's best players at home--starting with a guy the previous staff let get away.

"Kelvin Sampson has done nothing wrong," Eric Gordon Sr. said. "[The new Hoosiers staff] would love for Eric to see what they're doing differently than Mike Davis and if it would help them get the No. 1 player in the state."

So far the Hoosiers have had a captive audience in the Gordons.

Eric Gordon Jr. has stressed in several newspaper articles and on Internet recruiting sites that he has not "decommitted" to Illinois. But nobody in the family has denied keeping the door to Bloomington slightly ajar, a scary thought in Champaign as Weber begins life without the Dee Brown-James Augustine recruiting class he inherited from Bill Self.

"Eric is curious to see what's going on differently at IU than what was going on before," Gordon's father said.

The elder Gordon, who works in the pharmaceutical industry in Indianapolis, compared his son listening to Indiana's pitch with him fielding unsolicited job overtures from corporate head-hunters.

Eric Gordon Sr. also feels obligated to listen to Indiana because Hoosiers assistant Jeff Meyer coached him at Liberty University. In addition Eric Jr.'s former high school teammate, A.J. Ratliff, will be one of Indiana's leaders next season.

Nothing about a oral commitment, Gordon Sr. said, is official.

"Does a verbal commitment benefit the top 10 ballplayer? No," he said. "A verbal commitment is exactly what it is. That's why it's not in writing until signing day [in early November]."

All over college basketball coaches have discovered how differently prospects and their peers interpret the definition of commitment.

In the Big Ten, Michigan coach Tommy Amaker had three top-20 prospects in the last two years back out of their oral commitments and go elsewhere. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and Minnesota coach Dan Monson, among others, also have been burned.

Izzo called Weber over the 4th of July weekend to empathize after he heard through the coaching grapevine what was happening with Gordon. The problem has ripped apart enough recruiting classes that Weber said the Big Ten coaches discussed possible solutions at their most recent meeting.

Weber acknowledged exceptions exist when a player commits to a coach who subsequently might get fired or leave or if the player initiates contact with another school. But too often he sees other staffs simply being relentless in their pursuit after the fact.

"It can become a disaster," Weber said. "You would hope a friendship with a coach, or being in the same league or a rivalry would be a factor in preventing some people from recruiting kids who have committed. But I guess some people were raised differently."

Jimmy Collins, an ace recruiter for Illinois during Henson's era and now the coach at Illinois-Chicago, took an even stronger stance against coaches who ignore a prospect's oral commitment.

"It's scandalous and unethical, but there's not a lot you can do about it," Collins said. "It happens a lot. The other schools should back off, but it's such a back-stabbing, shark-eating profession that I know they don't."

Collins suggested the NCAA add June to the summer evaluation period as a way for coaches and prospects to develop more trust in one another, which might reduce the number of players backing out of their commitments. In Collins' mind minimizing contact with recruits has maximized distance between them and a coaching staff.

"And if there's not a trust there, it's easier for snakes to crawl back through the door," he said.

On principle DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright said he refuses to slither around a prospect's business once he hears the kid has committed elsewhere. Wainwright's only exception is if the prospect makes a call to him, and in those rare cases, Wainwright said he first calls the coach of the school to whom the player committed.

Wainwright would like to see prospects sign national letters of intent at the time they make a decision. But he would regret "having to legislate integrity."

"I'm old school and if indeed our profession wants credibility, if some other coach gets a commitment from a kid, you give credit to those people and move on because there has to be ethics," he said. "Continuing to recruit a kid is something we never do."

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey blamed part of the problem on what he calls "recruiting fatigue." More and more, the onslaught of recruiting services, Web-site reporters and mainstream media contacting prospects forces them into making decisions quickly just so the phone will stop ringing.

"Kids are pulling the trigger too quickly," Brey said. "I personally think tampering is at a minimum and you see much more knee-jerk reactions because the kids are in the middle of a firestorm. By the time we get to make our phone call, they're worn out from everything else."

That theory makes some sense to Eric Gordon Sr., who acknowledged his son announced Illinois as his choice last fall in part to calm the storm surrounding him. He was receiving about 30 text messages a day and enough electronic mail to fill bushels full of Blackberrys.

"In the short term, it was all cool for him," Gordon said. "But eventually he was stressed out."

Now it is Illinois and Weber doing the worrying, even if Eric Gordon Sr. insisted they have no reason.

"He made his verbal commitment to Illinois and has not said otherwise," Gordon said of his son. "[but] they have a new coaching staff at Indiana, and being a native Hoosier, we're listening to a college coach who is saying I am very interested. We don't have any hidden agendas."

[Taj79]

One item taught very early to me in my career here wsa "get it in writing." Unfortunately, that is what is happening here. You'd like to think you're dealing with folks that all play with the same book but you're fooling yourself if you think that. And there is a statutory limit on when you can get it in writing ... Novmeber, right? I like Wainwright's old school thought, but with the competition to succeed so fierce and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow getting bigger and bigger, I don't find it surprising taht the old school is getting wiped out my the newer school.

Also, you've got to kind of feel, even remotely or slightly, for the kid here. I understand the Home Grown U. desires at places like Indiana, Arizona, Ohio State, North Carolina and so on. I understand the feel for national powers like Duke, Notre Dame, UCLA and Gonzaga. But it seems to me a commitment should be a commitment. Can you say TL and Lon Krueger?

For a kid to commit orally just to shut the folks up is ludicrous, however and not the answer. Like I've said before, I would never want my livelihood riding on the whims of 17- and 18-year-olds. NEVER.

[billiken_roy]

bruce weber says in the quoted article,

""In my mind, it's one of our problems as coaches--I think it's unethical to keep going after a kid once he has committed," Weber said, speaking generally but not specifically about Gordon because of NCAA rules. "When a kid calls to say he's not going to your place, you might give him one last shot: `Are you sure?' And if they say yes, then it's over.""

must be a new concept for bruce. he sure didnt take that approach when kevin lisch committed to saint louis university.

[Box and Won]

And didn't Wainwright swoop in and land a kid who had already committed to Bradley?

[kshoe]

you would comment on that.

The question is, was it more like the "Are you sure?' And if they say yes, then it's over." part or did he actively chase him even after that.

[billiken_roy]

he chased hard after the verbal.

[slu72]

A nasty business indeed...Samson's got sanctions...yet somehow finds a way around them....he may be the slimiest since Q.

[willie]

If Samson is slime[and I think he is} how do you become the president of the national coaches union? Is that an elected position?

[billiken_roy]

willie i was thinking of that when the sampson cheating stuff first broke and it makes you wonder how many more coaches approve/accept cheating and thus see no problem with the likes of sampson.

[The Majority]

I think the majority of college coaches break the rules, nit big ones but watching players or calling players when you are not suppose to.

[p diddy]

I'll back up b. roy's story. UI, particularly jay wright, made repeated calls to KL after he committed to slu.

the unlv thing with TL was worse because TL had signed a binding letter of intent. the star of that show was lew hill, who called RL and TL for unlv. a big no-no.

bad boyz for life