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Gillispie explains recruiting style

COACH: COMPETITION TOUGH FOR BEST PLAYERS

By Jerry Tipton

JTIPTON@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie respects that someone might object to offering an eighth-grader a scholarship, but he vowed to continue recruiting any prospect that might help UK win.

Although the chancellor of the University of Maryland system, Brit Kirwan, was quoted in USA Today last week as calling the recruitment of eighth-grade players "appalling," Gillispie suggested school presidents don't understand the changing nature of recruiting.

"If you're in recruiting, it's very, very competitive," Gillispie said at a news conference on Saturday. "You start earlier and earlier all the time because you're seeing guys earlier.

"It's a little bit different for us, maybe, than for university presidents."

When asked at a news conference on Saturday if he'd recruit, say, a 12-year-old, Gillispie said, "I'd never say never.

"You have to understand and respect everyone's opinion. To say something negative, it's OK. I understand that because it's not normal. But it is a little bit different when you're trying to recruit the best players."

Earlier this month, two 15-year-olds accepted scholarship offers from UK. The two were guard Michael Avery, an eighth-grader from Lake Sherwood, Calif., and forward Vinny Zollo of Greenfield, Ohio. Those commitments sparked news stories in the national media about the ever-younger prospects on the college-recruiting radar.

NCAA recruiting rules prohibited Gillispie from commenting publicly about Avery and Zollo.

"You're not going to Las Vegas to see a 12-and-under national tournament," Gillispie said before adding, "Maybe we should be. I'm not saying we won't in the future. But that hasn't happened yet."

Such early commitments can be good or bad for prospects or colleges, Gillispie said.

While acknowledging the risk involved in committing to a middle-school student, Gillispie vowed to honor such commitments even though the NCAA limits scholarships to 13 and more talented players may emerge in the interim.

"When you make a commitment, you make a commitment," said the UK coach, who added that he felt a "100-percent" obligation to honor commitments to young prospects.

Gillispie noted how prospects are playing in many more national events at an ever-younger age. This necessitates evaluations of ever-younger prospects. One such evaluation was of Avery at an event in Akron, Ohio, the weekend before the player committed to Kentucky.

"I saw the best players I've ever seen in my life," Gillispie said of the trip to Akron. "There's always risks. No question. The younger they are, the more risk they have because there are so many variables.

"But I'd never seen so many players in that particular tournament that were so good, so big, so advanced."

Gillispie cited an advantage to recruiting young prospects. At that age, the players have not yet become basketball celebrities who acquire hangers-on like barnacles on a ship.

"In recruiting, the biggest problem we see is people who don't get a chance to make their own decisions," Gillispie said. "The longer you go in a recruiting situation, there's more possibility a person is going to make a decision for a player. ... And it's usually outside the family.

"With an early commitment, you're 100 percent with the family. ... You know 100 percent for sure that the family is going to be thinking of one thing, that's of the child, with no other agenda.

"Maybe (that's) the part of recruiting, unless you're in it, you probably don't understand it enough."

Gillispie suggested that too much was being made of a prospect's grade in school. The more important factor, he said, was the age of the prospect. For instance, the UK coach noted that a 15-year-old could be a high school junior or in the eighth grade.

Critics have linked early commitments to drawing attention away from academics before college and leading to more transfers once in college.

Gillispie rejected both arguments. He saw no link to transfers.

As for academic performance, he said such commitments could spur better work in the classroom because prospects would have better communication with their future college.