Recruiting Is Never Finished
In case you missed it over the holiday weekend, it might be worth taking a look at my colleague Jay Drew's popular recruiting blog item from last week.
In it, he points out how the Utes continue to recruit players for the 2008 class, in the common practice of "over-recruiting" to account for unforseen circumstances like transfers or academic failures.
The Utes already have a full complement of prospects who have committed to sign letters of intent, but coach Jim Boylen is still chasing some players who appear to be fairly long shots.
One of them is Oscar Bellfield, a 6-foot-1 point guard from Westchester High School in California who injured his groin and essentially missed the summer club basketball season. Another is 6-1 point guard Demetri Goodson of Klein Collins High School in Texas, whom -- like Bellfield -- the Utes appear to be chasing, in part, just in case Brighton's Jace Tavita fails to qualify academically.
The Utes reportedly have offered scholarships to both of them, as well as 6-7 forward Jared Swopshire of the IMG Academy in Florida and 6-4 shooting guard Jordan Cyphers of Southeast High School in Kansas. Only trouble for the Utes is that all four are being pursued by plenty of other quality programs, such as Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Marquette, Cal, Arkansas and UNLV.
In it, he points out how the Utes continue to recruit players for the 2008 class, in the common practice of "over-recruiting" to account for unforseen circumstances like transfers or academic failures.
The Utes already have a full complement of prospects who have committed to sign letters of intent, but coach Jim Boylen is still chasing some players who appear to be fairly long shots.
One of them is Oscar Bellfield, a 6-foot-1 point guard from Westchester High School in California who injured his groin and essentially missed the summer club basketball season. Another is 6-1 point guard Demetri Goodson of Klein Collins High School in Texas, whom -- like Bellfield -- the Utes appear to be chasing, in part, just in case Brighton's Jace Tavita fails to qualify academically.
The Utes reportedly have offered scholarships to both of them, as well as 6-7 forward Jared Swopshire of the IMG Academy in Florida and 6-4 shooting guard Jordan Cyphers of Southeast High School in Kansas. Only trouble for the Utes is that all four are being pursued by plenty of other quality programs, such as Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Marquette, Cal, Arkansas and UNLV.
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 10:48 AM |
2 Comments:
Wait, what if they commit, and everyone else is eligible? Does somebody get the boot?
Jefe ...
One way or another, yes, though there are a lot of options. For example, a current player could leave the program -- not entirely unlikely early in the tenure of a new coach. Or, the coaches could talk one of the incoming players to walk-on or delay enrollment, perhaps with the promise of a scholarship down the road. Or, most drastically, they could release an already-committed player from the commitment -- as they did by mutual consent with former recruit Nemanja Calasan, who wound up at Purdue instead.
-- Mike
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