San Diego State’s Steve Fisher unhappy in losing recruit

By Gary Bedore     Jun 19, 2011

Richard Gwin
Kevin Young watches the alumni scrimmage during the Bill Self basketball game on Wednesday at Horejsi Center.

San Diego State basketball coach Steve Fisher was not a happy camper Friday upon learning prize Aztec recruit Kevin Young had decided to switch his commitment to Kansas University.

“I’m disappointed that a young man who I am very fond of would not feel an obligation to honor an eight-month commitment,” Fisher told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Young, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound forward who played two years at Loyola Marymount before taking classes at Barstow Community College last school year, signed a financial aid agreement with SDSU in November. He ultimately changed his mind and elected to play his final two seasons at KU.

“And I’m equally disappointed in a program and coach I’m very fond of to pursue a player who made an eight-month commitment,” Fisher added.

He, of course, was referring to ninth-year KU coach Bill Self, who issued his take on the situation Saturday in an interview with the Journal-World.

“I don’t blame coach Fisher for being disappointed at all because Kevin did commit to them,” Self said, “but Kevin also told them he wasn’t going to San Diego State before we recruited him, so we didn’t steal him from San Diego State by any stretch.

“We would not have recruited Kevin if he was committed to San Diego State. He did de-commit from them before we pursued him at all. We did not recruit him until after he de-committed,” KU’s coach stressed.

San Diego State, which is in rebuilding mode after losing several players off last year’s Sweet 16 team, currently has eight scholarship players to KU’s 11. The maximum is 13.

“Unfortunately, the only people who suffer in this situation is us because we passed over three or four very talented players because we did honor our commitment (to Young),” Fisher told the Union-Tribune.

Financial aid agreements bind a school to a player, but not a player to a school. Young could not sign a national letter of intent with SDSU in November because players can sign just one letter in their college careers. Young has signed a financial aid agreement with KU and is enrolled in summer school.

“It (SDSU) is a great school as well,” Young told the J-W. “There’s nothing they did wrong or anything that made me change my mind. I just figure this is a bigger stage and a lot more opportunity.”

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