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.
