Morning Coffee Mourns Baseball's Conclusion
by Peter Bean on Jun 2, 2008 12:09 AM CDT
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Rick Barnes signs Alabama guard to '08 class. The Statesman is reporting that 6-2 combo guard Varez Ward (Montgomery, AL) signed with Texas on Sunday, joining J'Covan Brown as the second member of the '08 class. Ward became a big ticket late in the recruiting season after he backed out of his commitment to play for Cincinnati. UT Assistant Coach Rodney Terry helped secure Ward's signing over Kansas State, Marquette, Florida State, and others. Ward is known primarily as an elite defender.
Baseball season ends... Now what? Baseball's season officially ended with Sunday's 7-4 loss to Rice, making it three straight seasons Texas has failed to reach the super regionals. So... now what?
Really, all that's left now is waiting for football. Expect content to start drifting that way, with a 2009 recruiting round up, some depth chart projecting, and the like.
Saban Rule killing Pete Carroll. Interesting article in the LA Times on the new rule prohibiting coach contact with recruits in May and how much it's driving Pete Carroll crazy to stay off the road. If you're unfamiliar with the so-called "Saban Rule," college coaches used to be able to travel to watch high school players during May , so long as they didn't formally contact the player. The new rule disallows coach visits during May, in part because coaches like Carroll and Alabama's Nick Saban were so active during this period when many other coaches preferred not to be out on the road. As the AJC's Tony Barnhart wrote last week, the go-getter coaches hate the new rule.
Early signing period for football? Speaking of recruiting, ESPN.com's Bruce Feldman weighs in on the early signing idea for football ($), concluding he doesn't think it would solve the issues its proponents say it would.
If a big portion of the recruiting process is shifted to the sophomore and junior years of a high school recruit, there is too much of a gray area for many, if not most recruits, not just in terms of the physical evaluation but also from a character and academic perspective.
The other point, and this is one of two big distinctions of why football recruiting and basketball recruiting are so different in regards to early-signing periods, is that most of the coaching turnover in college football happens between the proposed early window and Signing Day.
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High School Recruiting
I may be in the minority here, but I think recruiting practices encroaching earlier and earlier into high school years is not acceptable. This was highlighted for me earlier this year when Texas got some sort of a committment from a Sophmore guard (Basketball) from New Jersay. As a sophmore in high school, I don’t beleive a young man is capable of making decisions that will have such a great impact on his career. This decision is further complicated by the many competing voices that are sure to exist, should recruiting efforts shift to focus on 16 year old men.
The NCAA would do well to remember that many of these recruits are still children, and need to be treated as such.
by pleaseplaykindle on Jun 2, 2008 2:28 AM CDT reply actions 2 recs
Agreed
Recruiting in general is slightly creepy to me. Having grown men salivate over kids in high school is just weird.
And every time this subject is brought up, all I can think of is the Mr Show clip.
Side note: why can’t we embed videos anymore?
I agree also
And it’s even worse in basketball than it is in football. You’ve now got coaches offering scholarships to 8th graders. The NCAA needs to put a stop to all that, or there is going to be an influx of OJ Mayos.
Many 18-year-olds find it difficult to honor a verbal commitment, so I certainly don’t think that a 14-year-old is equipped to make that kind of decision. And I don’t think it’s right to allow them to give their word as many times as they want and and go back on it as many times as they want until they finally sign a LOI at 17 or 18. That doesn’t teach them anything. And to be fair, it’s not always on the kids. I know a football recruit from the Houston area who Kansas is going after pretty hard, but they’re the only BCS school that has really shown him any interest. He’s gotten some offers from some smaller in-state schools, and he hasn’t really decided what he wants to do yet. But Kansas keeps hounding him to make a decision, and he keeps saying “look, I don’t want to commit to you and then change my mind and have to decommit. I want to get this right the first time.” But they won’t leave him alone. So I’m starting to see both sides of it.
In case you were wondering
It really was Russell’s decision to bunt, not the coach’s.
by goingforthecorner on Jun 2, 2008 3:19 AM CDT reply actions
Whatever the overall effect of these recruiting changes
My sense is that they both favor us. Mack doesn’t do a lot of traveling, so rules restricting his competitors from doing so only helps. And as far as early signing, our classes fill up quickly already; we could safely count one year’s kids as “in the books” and move on to the next. Since Mack’s not going anywhere, recruits don’t have to worry about a coaching change.
More on Ward?
Another infernal pay-to-read link! Could someone post the article on Ward?
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
It's a LOOOOONG time ...
‘til August.
Watch out, I bite.
by EddieTheAlbinoSquirrel on Jun 2, 2008 11:09 AM CDT reply actions
2.7 GPA
Lets hope he remains eligible.
by BoddickerIsClutch on Jun 2, 2008 3:53 PM CDT reply actions
Grabbing some air.
Ward said Longhorn guard Justin Mason told him that their games are similar, a comparison made by at least one recruiting analyst.Mason told Ward something else, Ward said: “He said the coaches will let you play, let you do your thing.”
This is sorta like saying the human hand is five times faster than a rattlesnake but not saying the snake gets to go first.
Varez Ward perhaps gets to do his thing but it’s right after Barnes does his.
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