Posted on Sat, May. 10, 2008

UK's Todd sees merits of early recruiting

HAS OVERCOME MISGIVINGS ON ISSUE

By Jerry Tipton

JTIPTON@HERALD-LEADER.COM

When asked last week about an eighth-grade athlete committing to a college, University of Kentucky president Lee Todd initially expressed misgivings. Then early this week he met with ninth-grader Vinny Zollo in helping UK's recruiting effort.

Todd explained that apparent contradiction by noting how much he learned about basketball recruiting.

"When I first heard about an eighth-grader, I thought of a bunch of coaches sitting around a little gymnasium during middle school watching kids learn to dribble," Todd said on Friday. "It's a little beyond that."

The trend in college basketball recruiting includes younger and younger prospects. That trend has become a hot topic as college educators and "basketball people" debate how young is too young.

In a Thursday story in USA Today, one of Todd's colleagues, Brit Kirwan, the chancellor of the University of Maryland system and co-chair of the Knight Commission, harshly criticized the idea of offering an athletic scholarship to players who've barely entered puberty. He said he found the trend "appalling."

This left Todd wanting to meet with Kirwan, a Lexington native and someone who has advised the UK president, to explain how Kentucky came to get a commitment from eighth-grader Michael Avery.

"I will give him some of the circumstances and see if that adjusts his thoughts," said Todd, who noted that UK was not predatory in getting a commitment from a middle schooler. "This was more happenstance. We're not going to all the eighth grades in America or even 10 percent of them looking for eighth graders.

"I can see why (Kirwan) reacted that way. But I look forward to talking to him and explaining things."

Todd said he felt better after learning that prospects are rated as early as the sixth grade, that an eighth-grader can be 6-foot-4, that tournaments are set up to showcase middle school talent and that players can be exceptional beyond their years at such an age.

"When you first mention the word eighth-grader, it sounds awfully young," Todd said, "till you think about how some of these kids start thinking a lot younger than they used to."

And, Todd added, parents can seek athletic scholarships for their children.

"I did sense some relief in their minds," the UK president said of a parent's reaction to a scholarship offer. "They got the decision out of the way."

All such commitments are non-binding. A national letter of intent, which cannot be signed until the high school senior year of the prospect, weds player and college.

Until then, player and/or college are free to renege on the commitment and seek other options. Todd applauded the freedom this gives players "as they grow into body and thought processes."

Todd called for coaches such as UK's Billy Gillispie to try mightily to honor such early commitments even if more promising prospects emerge.

"I'd hope coaches won't take these types of decisions very lightly," the UK president said. "... If they give the expectation to these young players they want them to play for them, I think we need to stick to that."