In the modern era of college basketball, everyone is looking to find the next great thing. It’s not the coaches fault, having such high pressure to grab top talent before someone else picks up and steals them away. But a new proposal from the RAPIC (Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet) might bring a little bit of sense back to the landscape. The new rule changes, coming to a vote in January, would prevent coaches from officially offering a scholarship to a player before July 1st of his senior year of high school. Obviously current coaches (and Billy Gillispie) are not fans of the possible change, and from a strictly professional standpoint, you can understand why. But from one casual observer to another, I say it’s about time.
If you could, please remember back to your younger days and think about your days as a freshman in high school. It’s a little longer ago than I would like to think, but try to think about what you thought about, what your priorities were, and what you were interested in. I don’t know about you, but for me those were looking cool, girls, and Magic: The Gathering respectively. It wasn’t even a question that I was going to college, but I wasn’t even thinking about where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to do when I got there. But it’s commonplace for rising stars 3 or 4 years away from actually stepping foot on a college to hear from coaches via text or letter. Cats fans can remember just 2 short years ago waking up to hear the news that Coach BCG had offered an eighth grader. The story hit national news and UK quickly became a scapegoat for everything that was wrong with college basketball, and set this train in motion. But other coaches were also among the outspoken that said this was the a product of the system. Bob Huggins also made public comments expressing his displeasure, saying,”Am I supposed to tell him, ‘Talk to me in two or three years’? That’s not going to happen.”
The bad news is, he’s right. For a college to continue being competitive, and for a coach to keep his job for longer than 3 years, the heat has to be on recruits for as long as possible. It’s about growing the brand, getting the name out there, and making your logo a well known one. Tony Wroten Jr.’s Twitter account will tell you that kids out there are ready to be in the spotlight, or at least they think they are. But in reality you end up with a confused kid sitting in front of dozens of reporters and three hats, looking nervously at the table in front of him (say hi to Terrence Jones for me). With college coaches ringing on his doorbell for the last 3 years, he still didn’t know where he should go to college to set himself up for his future career.
The good news is…I don’t know. Hopefully this new rule will get passed, and these kids can just go back to being kids for a little bit longer. The pressure put on youths today to succeed as much as possible as young as possible creates a stress unseen before and cannot possibly be healthy. I know I’m showing off my old man card, but it’s ridiculous to walk up to a 14-year-old and say,”Have you thought about where you’re going to continue your education?”. NO. No he hasn’t. He wants to hang out and do…whatever it is that 14-year-olds do nowadays. But even if the rule is passed, coaches will find a loophole to work through, they always do. And I’m expecting to see beloved Coach Cal on the forefront of the loophole market, but hey, just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I don’t recognize how the system operates.
Just don’t get caught night-putting with a “fruity smell” on your breath.
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