8th grader commits to Kentucky...

[Mark Padgett]

What's next? College coaches visiting maternity wards to see which babies can dunk their pacifiers?

Let's be serious. None of this would be happening if college sports didn't bring in huge amounts of revenue and the coaches weren't paid more than the teachers. If we want all this to go away, as a nation we should stop watching "amateur" sports on television. We created this "monster". It's just going to get more pervasive, not less.

[Coltdoggs]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

Man I would love to have you on the *other* side of the table in any business negotiations.

Dan...Please expand...you obviously have an opinion about my stance on this...bring it forth...

[Dan_ref]

Well Jeff, you are right, it means the signer must attend for 1 full acedemic year. It does not guarantee playing time or a spot on the team. But the signer can not be recruited by other schools who are part of the national letter of intent program.

So per the commitment he's locked in to his first year regardless of what happens unless he decides to go elsewhere and not play. Whether the school he commits to would make him honor that is not clear, given his age, but for certain he has reduced his options.

http://www.national-letter.org/faq/

Interesting discussion anyway, at least more interesting than reading about MTD's awful airborne shooter block/charge interpretaion, isn't it?

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Coltdoggs

Dan...Please expand...you obviously have an opinion about my stance on this...bring it forth...

Very perceptive

This kid's father has jumped at the very first offer put on the table. Almost never the smart thing to do, especially if you're negotiating from a position of strength.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

Well Jeff, you are right, it means the signer must attend for 1 full acedemic year. It does not guarantee playing time or a spot on the team. But the signer can not be recruited by other schools who are part of the national letter of intent program.

So per the commitment he's locked in to his first year regardless of what happens unless he decides to go elsewhere and not play. Whether the school he commits to would make him honor that is not clear, given his age, but for certain he has reduced his options.

http://www.national-letter.org/faq/

Interesting discussion anyway, at least more interesting than reading about MTD's awful airborne shooter block/charge interpretaion, isn't it?

If I am not mistaken, he does not have to play at the school that he signed a Letter of Intent to. He could play a lower level college like a JUCO or D3 for that year if things do not work out. I am sure there are more restrictions, I am just not aware of them right now.

I do agree witih the other thread you are referring to. That is why I have stayed away.

Peace

[Coltdoggs]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

Very perceptive

This kid's father has jumped at the very first offer put on the table. Almost never the smart thing to do, especially if you're negotiating from a position of strength.

True...there is obviously a lot more to this story that we don't know. Maybe (like Damon Bailey from Indiana who was only going one place- IU) this kid's short life dream is to play at UK? He's from SoCal..so maybe it's really UCLA?

IF he is everything he's being touted (which IS how it is today as Rocky argued with me)...then additional offers will plow in....

Again..I'm only trying to say he should use the system because we all know the system will use him...Why in the hell else would he get an offer in the
8th grade. That part IS crazy to me and it is the landscape of basketball these days as well as other sports.

[rockyroad]

This kid hasn't signed anything yet - and can't until his Senior year of High School. He has given and been given a verbal committment - which either side can walk away from (unlike the letter of intent) based on any number of reasons. So if the kid does shred his knee his Junior year, UK can still say "Gosh, you could have been great. Sorry." Or if the USC alumni offer a nicer SUV and free gas for three years, the kid can still say "See ya UK"...it's ridiculous all around. And again, there ain't nothing about this situation that has anything to do with the kid getting an education - which would be helpful just in case he does ever shred his knee.

I'm going back over to the LGP thread...

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

And again, there ain't nothing about this situation that has anything to do with the kid getting an education - which would be helpful just in case he does ever shred his knee.

I'm going back over to the LGP thread...

You really do not know that. I know if I was a certain kind of player in this day and age, I would have decided where I was going long before the Letter of Intent was signed. And my choice would have been supported by my parents because that is a place my parents attended and a couple of my siblings also attended. Unless you really know the kid's family or situation, you have no idea why he picked that school. It is possible that is the same place his parents attended or once lived.

I had a cousin that lived in Texas and went to FSU to play football. It was pretty obvious that he was going to FSU all the way (Texas was not very good either) because he had family that attended FSU and FAMU (in the same town). He was born in Florida and his father had an old class mate that that was an assistant coach on the FSU team at the time. If you did not know anything about the situation, you would wonder why he left Texas where he went to high school to attend a school in Florida. Of course his decision was not as early as 8th grade, but his decision was made with more factors as to just playing football.

Peace

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

You really do not know that. I know if I was a certain kind of player in this day and age, I would have decided where I was going long before the Letter of Intent was signed. And my choice would have been supported by my parents because that is a place my parents attended and a couple of my siblings also attended. Unless you really know the kid's family or situation, you have no idea why he picked that school. It is possible that is the same place his parents attended or once lived.

I had a cousin that lived in Texas and went to FSU to play football. It was pretty obvious that he was going to FSU all the way (Texas was not very good either) because he had family that attended FSU and FAMU (in the same town). He was born in Florida and his father had an old class mate that that was an assistant coach on the FSU team at the time. If you did not know anything about the situation, you would wonder why he left Texas where he went to high school to attend a school in Florida. Of course his decision was not as early as 8th grade, but his decision was made with more factors as to just playing football.

Peace

Uhmmmm, did you read the article? You make some really nice points, but none of them fit this situation or what the father had to say in the article.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

Uhmmmm, did you read the article? You make some really nice points, but none of them fit this situation or what the father had to say in the article.

I did not read anything in the article that dismisses what I said. It did say he had a grandmother that lived in Indianapolis. And if you know anything about Indiana, there are people that have affection or interest in Kentucky basketball. Then again in this age of 300 games on TV in a month and satellite TV, I am sure kids today have affections for school and they have no direct ties to those schools by family members or where they live.

There were two kids recently that committed to Illinois as freshman. I am sure the only reason those decisions were made was because they lived in the State and got to watch Illini in the Final Four recently, with a lot of former IHSA players on the squad. Their decision was certainly controversial to many in this state, but if that is where they want to go, that is where they want to go.

Peace

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Coltdoggs

Look at Greg Oden...Do you think he didn't know about his knee problem when at OSU...if that were to come out before last year's draft, do you think he would have been picked where he was....Maybe with him, but a lot of other guys who had knee issues never made the guaranteed money of the first round.

Yes. The NBA (and its teams) do an enormous amount of testing before the draft. If there was something there that could have shown up on a physical exam or an MRI, they whould have found it. You think they'll make multi-million dollar investments without spending a few hundred for an MRI?

Originally Posted by Coltdoggs

Again...sign the LOI and scholly offer as fast as you can kid!

He can't....they're not recognized until sometime around the Junior year. All he can do at this point is verbal...and that is not binding in either direction.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

...
If the parents had thought through it at least as long as it took them to get the coaches phone number from the AAU coach they could have maybe realized this will not be the last chance the kid will have. And who knows...? maybe in 4 years the very last thing this kid will want to do is move from SoCal to Kentucky.

In short, it was a stupid, shortsighted decision to let the kid commit at this point.

Really?? He gets an offer from one of top all-time programs (certainly the top 4 and perhaps the top program) and he should hold out for a better opportunity?

Any kid would be stupid not to take an early offer from UK, UNC, Duke, Kansas, and sometimes UCLA. If the offer were from others, perhaps you're right, but not the perenniel powers.

Also, he's free to back out any time as it is since it is not a binding agreement. If he does so, so what, he moves on and there are no real repercussions. If UK backs out, they look like a bad guy. The kid is in a win-win situation.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Really?? He gets an offer from one of top all-time programs (certainly the top 4 and perhaps the top program) and he should hold out for a better opportunity? ... The kid is in a win-win situation.

Except you're dealing with a 13 or 14 yo kid who 4 years from now may decide he wants to go backback Alaska for a year with his gf, or join the peacecorps, or the Marine Corps, or maybe he wants to join a seminary or maybe that coach and program will hit the skids with who knows what kind of ncaa trouble, or maybe as I said earlier he'll just decide Kentucky is not a cool place to play ball afterall.

You think the pressure of being that 8th grader who committed won't impact what he thinks might be *his* options?

If your goal as a parent is to make a good deal for your 13 yo to be a pro basketball player then yeah it's a win-win.

OTOH if as a parent your goal is to help the kid realize that with his talents many other options exist.... I dunno Camron, you tell me what the role of a good parent should be? It's easy to say take the money and run. I guess.

and btw... do you think it's OK to tell your 13 yo he should *commit*, fully accepting that it's OK to back out of his *commitment* at any point he feels less than comfortable?

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

do you think it's OK to tell your 13 yo he should *commit*, fully accepting that it's OK to back out of his *commitment* at any point he feels less than comfortable?

If all parties understand that this is what is actually being committed to, then yes. You've surrounded the word commit with asterisks, perhaps you should have used quotes. We're using a word with very permanent and settled connotations to describe a situation that is in reality a very distant and uncertain.

[TheOracle]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

That is garbage. It's not the "times we live in" - it's the climate we have allowed to develop where little Johnny is a superstar because he's taller than all the other kids and can shoot/throw/pass/kick a stupid ball better than others. It's crap...

I agree with you 100%. 8th graders committing is pretty foolish. But do you thikn it was the same 30 years ago? Kids didn't sign that early, but athletes have always gotten away with things to stay eligible and in school...With the internet, it is just harder to hide the blatancy now.

Bad as it sounds, as long as an 8th grader stays eligible in HS and then at college, he's following the rules and meeting expectations. I think the high schools and colleges should be raising their standards and not allowing athletes to skirt requirements. But that'll never happen.