The Times West Virginian

WVU Sports

February 21, 2010

HERTZEL COLUMN: Earlier not always better for recruits

By Bob Hertzel

MORGANTOWN — An article in the Columbus Dispatch this past week made note that West Virginia’s Bob Huggins, who has always been known as an aggressive and resourceful recruiter, had made an offer to a player in that city that has yet to start a game in, as they put it, “his budding high school basketball career.”

The man-child in question is one Jalen Robinson, who at 6-foot, 8-inches in altitude stands head and shoulders above his classmates, even if he lacks something in the area of experience being a sophomore.

Robinson’s reaction to the offer was as you expect, considering the relationship being superstar coach and starry-eyed sophomore.

“When he offered me a scholarship, it took me by surprise,” Robinson said. “My heart started beating fast, and it took me about two seconds to say, ‘I accept.’ It just kind of happened.”

The newspaper noted that a few months earlier Huggins again was in the area, which, of course, is a rich area for a man who coached both at Akron and Cincinnati, and landed yet another recruit for 2012, this one also 6-foot-8 named Elijah Macon, who plays at Marion-Franklin.

His reaction to the early offering from Huggins was quite similar to Robinson’s, telling the Dispatch:

“As soon as Coach Huggins said the word on the second day of summer camp down there, I said yes,” he said. “He didn’t need to twist my arm or anything. It was all on me. I wanted to commit early. West Virginia was always my favorite team, so why not do it and get it over with?”

While it is true that neither commitment is binding on either the player or the coach, that not coming about until signing day during their senior season, the trend that has begun in college sports to present such offers earlier and earlier does seem somewhat questionable, if not troubling.

The absurdity, of course, was taken to the ultimate this year when that irritating cumquat who now coaches football at Southern California, Lane Kiffin, received a verbal commitment from a seventh-grader.

“That’s stupid,” Huggins said when it was brought up to him.

But, then again, as Huggins notes, stupidity and college athletics often go together.

“We don’t have a need for people to do stupid things,” Huggins said. “And it seems the guys that do the stupid things are always the most visible.”

The problem is that the competition is so strong out there in recruiting, the cost of failure so dear, that coaches are beginning to feel they can’t wait to make their offers until the players are in their junior year.

What happens, however, is that you have a 14- or 15-year-old making decisions that could affect the rest of their lives, decisions they are no way ready to make, whether it be committing to coach like Huggins and a program like his or be it with a lower profile coach at a lower program.

“It’s like any other business,” Huggins said of basketball and recruiting. “There are things that if I didn’t do them, schools like Florida or Kentucky will. I’d be putting myself behind the 8-ball.”

So, you go out and scout them young, as young as seventh grade, you try to let them grow but there is definitely an advantage in getting an offer in first, especially when the offer isn’t binding,

But what of the kid? What affect could such a head-turning event as being offered a chance to play basketball at West Virginia while still a sophomore have?

The Dispatch spoke with Macon’s coach at Marion-Franklin, Orlando McCoy, who said:

“I wonder about the psychological effect all of this has on kids,” he said. “When a famous basketball coach offers them a scholarship so young, they’re on a big high and nothing else matters to them. Some kids take that as a sign that they’ve already made it and they start coasting and copping an attitude.”

We have already seen how this works here in West Virginia, where Huggins offered Noah Cottrill a scholarship as a sophomore.

He sent in his letter of intent in November, neither side ever waivering.

“It didn’t seem to hurt Noah,” Huggins said.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

Text Only
WVU Sports
  • Jones nears milestone as Notre Dame visits WVU

    That it is a crucial game in a season that seems to have nothing but, today’s 9 p.m. visit to the Coliseum by a streaking Notre Dame team comes with a historical footnote in the history of West Virginia University basketball.
    Kevin Jones enters the game having scored 20 or more points in nine consecutive games.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.
    A source within the Mountaineer athletic department said on Tuesday that the matter was nearing a conclusion and also told the Times West Virginian that West Virginia would be reinstating a golf team to compete in the Big 12.

    February 8, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU, Irish strikingly similar

    Consider, if you will, that it is Nov. 25 past, that the West Virginia University basketball team is running a routine drill four games into its season, getting ready for the Akron game when Kevin Jones goes down in a heap on the floor, his ACL torn, his season over.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.

    February 7, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN - Truck drives Mountaineers to needed win

    Perhaps it is what has kept him going through a West Virginia basketball career with as many turns as a trip to Pineville down in Wyoming County, but Truck Bryant enjoys being Truck Bryant.

    February 6, 2012

  • WVU finds a way, wins in overtime

    Truck Bryant made the headline plays, including a 3-point shot with 3.3 seconds left to play, as West Virginia saved its season with an 87-84 overtime victory at Providence, but the subheads had to be reserved for Deniz Kilicli and a pair of freshman guards.

    February 6, 2012

  • Mountaineers face critical test today at Providence

    The schedule tells you it’s another game in the marathon run that is the Big East season, a trip to Providence to play a team with only two conference victories, but somehow everyone connected with the West Virginia University program knows today’s noon meeting with the Friars is much more than that.

    February 5, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: Jones on the brink of WVU history

    On the one hand there is yesterday’s Warren Baker, who entered the WVU Athletic Hall of Fame in the latest class for the work he did from 1973 to 1976, and on the other hand there is today’s star Kevin Jones, who has emerged from the shadows of the likes of Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler this year to carve his own niche in Mountaineer basketball history.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU backs out of Florida State game

    West Virginia University has canceled its Sept. 8 football game at Florida State.
    Once again, as they have done with virtually everything since announcing they planned to move from the Big East to the Big 12, they did it behind closed doors, without any announcement or statement.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU women upset Louisville

    It is foolhardy to put it up there with the Baylors and Notre Dames of the women’s world just yet, but really if you look closely and see potential, much of which came out Saturday afternoon when the Mountaineers upset No. 12/14 Louisville, 66-50, you realize that this team is closer to greatness than it is to mediocrity.

    February 5, 2012