How young is too young???

A close friend of mine e-mailed me an article today regarding College's courting/recruiting kids who haven't even hit High School yet... There are a lot of people who think this is a part of the current issue of decommitments, and that it assists in leading kids to decommit from schools in the future. I'm one of the people who think this whole decommiting issue is not a problem, and let me tell you why...

I'm one of the people who think a college coach should be able to recruit who he wants, when he wants, and where he wants. There are already too many restrictions on college recruiting as it is. Why should anyone even think about making it any harder on the whole situation in general? If a coach, who just so happens to be making around $500K - $3.5Mill annually, wants to recruit a kid and trusts that such kid will improve his skills enough to be ready to produce and impact his program when he enters college, than let him recruit that kid. And if a kid thinks at a certain time that such program is where he wants to be, then let him make that early commitment without any grief.

We shouldn't chastise the kids for making an early commitment, if anything it's the coaches who are in competition with eachother to get on kids earlier and earlier. It's created a culture, where there's now hardly any top notch Seniors who aren't already committed to a schools basketball program, and I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. But I also don't necessarily see it as a good thing. You can basically say I'm on the fence on that issue. There are many good reasons, as well as many bad reasons. And there are also situations as well as past and present stories to back up both.

It's obvious that backing out of commitments is now happening at a high rate, but if you look at the number of changes in the coaching carousel, how can you blame the kids?

Say you're a top 100 player right, and you commit to Big State, but the coach who recruited and built that relationship with you takes a job somewhere else before you step foot on campus. Would you stay knowing that the new coach may not see you in the same light as the old? Would you stay knowing that the new coach may have a different idea of how to use you, if he even wants you at all??? Or what if you commit early to a program, and then you start to realize that the school you've committed to is already recruiting over you and around you at your position???

I apologize for going on that tangent right there, now back to the issue of "How young is too young"...

There are some kids who are talented enough, skilled enough, and obviously have the potential to be top notch players, and it's obvious when they are at a very young age. A few kids from recent classes that I know of who fit that description to a "T" are kids like Jeremy Tyler and DeShaun Thomas of the current Sophomore class, and Renardo Sidney and Lance Stephenson of the current Junior class.

There are also a few kids from the current Freshman Class who have shown to be must get kids...



The pic above is of Tony Wroten, one of the 2 kids from Freshman (2011) class to attend Rbk U this past summer.

Anthony "Tone Tone" Wroten Jr., is a 6'4" Freshman PG from Garfield HS in Seattle, WA. He is long, rangy, athletic, can handle, dish, shoot the rock, and will mess around and Dunk on your entire team when given the opportunity. All this, and he is just entering his FR year in High School. He is the kind of kid, where to me it makes sense if a college coach is already recruiting him, and has even gone as far as to offer him a scholarship.

There are also some situations where college coaches jump the gun on a recruit, and he doesn't develop at the rate they expected. But to me that's a mistake a coach should have to live with. Fortunately for the player, he can either decommit or remain committed.

The link below is to the article I mentioned in the beginning of my blog... With excerpts below as well.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1666283,00.html

* Early recruiting is spreading to other sports. According to Scout.com the number of high school juniors committing early to big-college-football schools is up 430% (61 committed in 2003, 323 this year). Men's ice hockey coaches have recruited ninth-graders, and women's volleyball coaches are scouting younger and younger girls.

* But in no other sport are pubescent scholarship offers more prolific than in basketball. The University of Arizona offered a sharpshooter named Matt Carlino a scholarship when he was in the seventh grade. The high school freshman also has one from Arizona State. He has yet to commit. Dion Waiters, 15, a sophomore from Philadelphia, is attending his third high school, but he knows his first college: he'll suit up for Syracuse University. Scout.com has identified 13 players just starting 10th grade who have already committed. "It's just crazy to offer kids so early," says University of South Carolina coach Dave Odom. "It really is. They don't have time to grow up. They don't. It makes no sense to me." They do have time to back out, though, since their verbal pledges to attend a school are not official until, at the earliest, the fall of senior year, when a recruit signs a "National Letter of Intent" with a college. Both player and coach can break the bond before then--a move known as decommitting.

* But in no other sport are pubescent scholarship offers more prolific than in basketball. The University of Arizona offered a sharpshooter named Matt Carlino a scholarship when he was in the seventh grade. The high school freshman also has one from Arizona State. He has yet to commit. Dion Waiters, 15, a sophomore from Philadelphia, is attending his third high school, but he knows his first college: he'll suit up for Syracuse University. Scout.com has identified 13 players just starting 10th grade who have already committed. "It's just crazy to offer kids so early," says University of South Carolina coach Dave Odom. "It really is. They don't have time to grow up. They don't. It makes no sense to me." They do have time to back out, though, since their verbal pledges to attend a school are not official until, at the earliest, the fall of senior year, when a recruit signs a "National Letter of Intent" with a college. Both player and coach can break the bond before then--a move known as decommitting.


'Zo