In what will undoubtably be one of the most scrutinized decision in prep sports history, 5-star point guard and Arizona signee Brandon Jennings has decided to forgo his college eligibility to turn pro. . .in Europe. While most people have been speculating that the decision is based on his trouble achieving a high enough SAT score–met the requirement on his 2nd try, but the NCAA flagged it for being a suspiciously high increase from his 1st try and he is awaiting the results of his 3rd attempt–his family asserts they have been considering going to Europe for a while because of the NBA rule that American high school players cannot be drafted until 1 year after their high school class has graduated. Lute Olson appears to be less than thrilled with the decision and has stated he will not recruit anybody who would be a one-and-done player.

While Jennings probably isn’t the 1st American-born player to go straight from high school to an overseas professional league, he certainly is the first with legitimate NBA potential. It will be interesting to see how Jennings does as it will give us a better insight into high-level college basketball versus European pro ball.

On Thursday, Jennings signed with Pallacanestro Virtus Roma of the Italian league. The deal was negotiated by Sonny Vaccaro (surprise!) and is described as a “three-year, multimillion-dollar” contract with an option for a buyout if Jennings wishes to enter the NBA Draft. Vaccaro declined to go into detail about the financials, but I’m assuming Vaccaro is shrewd enough to make sure that the buyout isn’t significant enough to affect his client’s draft stock.

I’m not that familiar with European basketball outside of a few of the major powers, which Pallacanestro Virtus Roma definitely is not (last European League title came in 1984). However, it seems like Vaccaro has ensured that Jennings is in a position to succeed by placing him with an English-speaking coach and arranging for many other things including taking care of his family.

In order to study what could become a major turning point in college basketball (players skipping it to go overseas before the NBA), we will try to provide updates and analysis of Jennings and his performance along with an attempt to translate it into how it will affect his draft stock. In the meantime, if any of you are familiar with Italian league basketball share your knowledge with your fellow fans in the comment section.

We wanted to reflect on this before it got too stale.  Wednesday the NABC strongly recommended that the growing practice of college coaches targeting middle-school kids as prospects unconditionally end.  This is in light of the uproar that ensued in May when uber-recruiter Billy Gillispie at Kentucky received a verbal commitment from Michael Avery, a 6’4 eighth-grader from southern California who had not yet even picked a high school, much less a college.

Will This Kid Be Any Good in Four Years?

Gillispie took the brunt of the criticism in the national media, but he wasn’t the first or only coach who was using this questionable (but legal) strategy to ‘lock up’ young players who arguably have no idea what the concept of going to college means yet.  Anong others, Tim Floyd at USC and Bruce Weber (two mentions in one day!!) at Illinois have also made use of this practice.  The NABC, ironically led by Tubby Smith (the former UK coach who withstood increasingly harsh criticism, some legit, some not, based on his recruiting while in Lexington), asked all college coaches to hold off on offering scholarships or accepting commitments from prospects until mid-June after their sophomore year in high school, stating that younger players:

[They] have not yet displayed sufficient academic credentials or, in the vast majority of cases, basketball maturity to accurately project them as admissible students to the institution or impact players on the basketball team. […] The academic and athletic profiles of these younger students are still very much works in progress. Coaches and athletes need to respect the process and allow development to occur in both areas prior to making commitments.

Already Committed to Maryland

While I often agree with and respect the reasoned discourse made by the esteemed Truzenzuzex at A Sea of Blue, the Kentucky blog of record as far as we’re concerned, we never could quite get over the smell test on this one.  Notwithstanding the arguments of caveat emptor and the lack of any enforceability of such early commitments, this whole situation just had a backroom feel of predatory extortion, an awkward taking advantage of kids (and parents) who may not know any better.  We view it as not dissimilar to the equally distasteful Sonny Vaccaro-bred fast-tracking of certain kids to certain schools based on implicit promises and subsequent shoe company representation.

Luckily, this may be a situation where coaches were doing it because they felt they needed to avoid a competitive disadvantage.  Now that the NABC has effectively disavowed this as a strategy (although it is still legal), coaches appear to be supportive of the line-drawing.  Billy Gillispie stated today:

I fully support anything the coaches’ leadership and governing body thinks is best for college basketball and high school-age basketball players.  It’s not like you’re not going to go out and evaluate young players. They’ve just strongly encouraged us not to seek a commitment, offer a scholarship, those kinds of things, which we definitely will adhere to.

What will be an interesting test of a coach shadiness factor (yeah you, Huggins, and you too, Gary) is to see who obliges the NABC with this directive to avoid recruiting the youngsters.  Nevertheless, we think this is ultimately a move in the right direction.

We’re totally a rankings whore, and we love to cut/paste excel charts, so here’s the final list of the 2008 Rivals top 50 Seniors, which came out today.   

By our count, here are the big winners:

• UCLA – 4 players
• Arizona – 3
• Wake Forest – 3
• Alabama – 2
• Florida – 2
• Georgetown – 2
• Kansas – 2
• Kentucky – 2
• Louisville – 2
• Memphis – 2
• UNC – 2
• Ohio St. – 2

In other words, the usual suspects (minus Duke who only had one player, but loses virtually nobody off of this year’s team).

Before getting all giddy and making F4 reservations, keep in mind Bruin, Wildcat and Demon Deacon fans that more than one pundit has declared the Class of 2008 as one of the worst in recent memory.  There are no Greg Odens, Michael Beasleys, Kevin Durants, Derrick Roses or Kevin Loves in this year’s group – you’ll be lucky to get a Kyle Singler or two. 

Update:  we missed this previously, but here’s the Rivals Top 30 classes.

When we first saw the story that Augustus “Gus” Gilchrist was reneging on his LOI (login required) to Virginia Tech because of their shootings last month, stating that he was not “mentally prepared” for dealing with it, our initial reaction was probably like everyone else’s who is unfamiliar with the situation. “Poor kid doesn’t want to deal with the pressure of coming into a tough situation where everyone on campus is mourning.” “I can understand not wanting to feel like some kind of sports savior after what has gone on there.” Etc.

Unfortunately, the empathy with which we felt for Gilchrist, a 6’9 jumping jack out of Clinton, Maryland, who was the MVP of the Capital Classic, quickly gave way to skepticism and then, outright disdain for the kid’s rescission. When Gilchrist committed to the Hokies in November, he was pretty much a nobody on the recruiting lists; but after a strong senior campaign and excellent performances in the all-star games (supposedly playing Patrick Patterson to a standstill at the AAU Nationals), his stock has risen to the point where he is now considered a major sleeper in the class of 2007. We believe there’s more to this story here than meets the eye.

The way we see it, Gilchrist is pulling one of two stunts. Either a) he really is feeling conflicted over attending Virginia Tech after the tragedy there this spring, showing a degree of selfishiness and callousness that surprises even us (what kind of person avoids being part of a healing process?); or b) he is using the events of April 16 as a convenient pretext to get out of his commitment so he can trade up to another school, capitalizing on his “rising star” status. Either way this kid is a complete tool.

Huggins growing horns?

According to Josh Barr’s Washington Post blog, Gilchrist’s personal trainer – the fact that he has a personal trainer making statements for him is a red flag in itself – is saying that he will be attending a prep school next year instead of Virginia Tech. This makes absolutely no sense because Gilchrist is already academically eligible to play D1 next season, and prep schools are solely used for ineligibles. This is undoubtedly a leverage play to try to get Virginia Tech to release him from his LOI, so that he can go elsewhere. And rumors are swirling that the Man in Black, Bob Huggins, is somehow involved in this mess. If so, please remember to tip Lucifer on your way out of the stadium, WVU fans.

Update (June 2008):  Gilchrist is on the move again, this time leaving Maryland before even playing a single game.

In the somehow-this-missed-us category, there were two separate articles over the weekend about an unsigned Class of 2007 prospect who otherwise would be fighting for recognition with all the other mid-major wannabes.  This player is a little different, though, as he just happens to be the eldest son of Basketball Messiah, aka Michael Jordan.  Jeffrey Jordan is a 6’1 guard from Deerfield (IL) Loyola Academy, who if you listen to the experts’ opinions, is the kind of player who takes his Valparaiso scholarship offer and considers himself lucky.   

Nevertheless, it isn’t exactly normal that your dad hosts an annual all-star game at MSG involving the nation’s top prospects – the Jordan Classic – where you are one of the invitees.  Unless your name is Saul Smith we haven’t seen this level of nepotism since Jim Harrick, Jr., was giving exams at Georgia.  Honestly, we wish no ill will on the kid – he’s undoubtedly worked hard for everything he’s got.  And after all, recruiting maestro Bruce Weber clearly sees something in him, offering him “preferred walk-on” status at Illinois next year, whatever that means.

But don’t take our word for it, check out the MJ-esque hops here.   

In one of the its smarter moves in some time, the NCAA reported today that its management council is recommending a ban on text messaging between coaches and recruits.  Although nothing gets us quite as lathered up as the image of middle-aged men playing electronic footsie with teenagers, we feel that this is an overdue necessity for the sake of the kids, who are already bombarded with letters and phone calls from amorous coaches.  Consider the following story about uber-texter Billy Gillispie:

When describing how well Billy Gillispie fits what the University of Kentucky wanted in a basketball coach, athletics director Mitch Barnhart noted his new man has sent an average of 8,000 text messages a month to recruits.”  He’s got the fastest thumbs in America,” Barnhart quipped. 

Assuming a thirty day month and six hours of sleep per night (perhaps a high estimate for the workaholic Gillispie), this means that Gillispie averages FIFTEEN text messages per waking hour, or one every four minutes.  When does the man find time to do other things, like eat, or coach? 

For recruits who do not have unlimited texting capabilities with their cell phone plan, the barrage of text messages can also become expensive.  An Arizona football recruit named Delashaun Dean says that he racked up an $800 bill one month solely based on text messages from coaches.  No matter how you slice it, we can all agree that it’s just plain creepy to have the likes of the Great Pumpkin, er, Phil Fulmer routinely texting kids with “what’s up playmaker?!”  Ick.  Good call NCAA.   

In the category of “nothing surprises us anymore,” because nothing surprises us anymore, news out of LA is that Lil Romeo, aka Romeo Miller, aka Master P’s son, has committed to USC for the Class of 08. He’s a two-star prospect, so we don’t expect that he’ll contribute much immediately, but what the hell kind of three-ring circus is Tim Floyd building over there? We shouldn’t assume that Floyd will be able to contact his new prospect, but it’s safe to say that UCLA was never in the running for the basketball services of Little P, given his father’s recent troubles in Westwood.

The charges against the 38-year-old P (real name Percy Miller), and 30-year-old Vyshonne King Miller — better known by his professional moniker, Silkk the Shocker — stem from their arrests more than a year ago by campus police at the University of California at Los Angeles. The police stopped Master P’s car on January 27, 2005, after noticing the rapper’s vehicle was missing both its license plates. UCLA police say they subsequently spotted a gun peeking out from under the driver’s seat and a subsequent search of the car turned up another gun under the front passenger seat.

The late signing period began Wednesday with little fanfare, as only five of the top 150 players on Rivals were listed as still available. Top names such as Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas are still unsigned, with Florida, Kentucky and others in the mix for their services. It got us at RTC wondering, why are there two signing periods in college basketball? The early signing period in November is typically when most players sign, but there is no analagous “early” period in college football.

College football has only one signing period in early February, scheduled after the prospects’ seasons are finished. “National Signing Day” is the first day college football seniors can sign, and ESPN and the sports world in general makes a fairly large deal out of it. Analysts chatter away for most of that day about which programs got themselves into good shape for the years to come; and who will be the hot players to watch for as freshmen next fall. Colllege basketball seems to be doing itself a bit of disservice, from a public relations and media standpoint, by splitting its recruiting into early/late signing periods. It seems that by having one signing period it puts you in a better position to maximize media attention during the offseason. We’d love to hear reasons that justify the split process from anyone.