When the high-profile college basketball coaches Tubby Smith, Bob Huggins, Billy Gillispie and John Beilein left their teams for new jobs this spring, speculation was widespread about the reactions of the players who had signed national letters of intent with the universities they were leaving.
As of this week, only one of those 12 players had asked for a release from his letter of intent, said officials at Kentucky (Smith), Kansas State (Huggins), Texas A&M (Gillispie) and West Virginia (Beilein). But elite college basketball recruits who had not already committed to a program may have learned something from the shuffling of so many coaches: Holding out for as long as possible before signing can have its benefits.
Traditionally, most basketball players have signed letters of intent during the early signing period, in the fall, rather than during the late period, in the spring. But waiting until this year’s late signing period paid off for two recruits.
Point guard Jai Lucas of Houston signed Monday with Florida. Power forward Patrick Patterson of Huntington, W.Va., signed with Kentucky Wednesday, the final day of the late signing period. By waiting, Lucas learned that Florida’s starting point guard, Taurean Green was leaving to enter the NBA draft. Patterson learned that Kentucky’s coach next season would be Gillispie.
Patterson was the only one of Scout.com’s top 40 players to sign a national letter of intent in the late signing period, said Dave Telep, the Web site’s national basketball recruiting analyst. Because of the recent flurry of coaching changes, he said, he expected more elite players to wait.
“If I were a big-time prospect who was nervous about this situation, I would commit to my school and say, ‘Coach, if you’re there in April, I’ll sign the papers with you,'” Telep said. “Given the nature of the game right now, I think that’s pretty fair.”
Greg Monroe, a 6-foot-9, 195-pound power forward from Harvey, La., is among the prospects in the class entering college in 2008 who must decide whether to sign a letter of intent during the early signing period, Nov. 14-21, or during late signing period next year, April 16 through May 21.
Monroe is the nation’s top-ranked player in his class considering Kansas and others, and he said he often wondered if the coaches who offered him scholarships would be there for his freshman season. He said he had not decided when he would sign a letter.
“The coach is the main component of your decision,” Monroe said. “It’s always in the back of your mind now he might be gone.”
JaMychal Green, a power forward from Montgomery, Ala., who is rated among the top 20 players in the class entering in 2008, said that even before the recent coaching shakeup, he was unsure whether he would be ready to sign during the early period. Now he plans to make a decision during the late signing period to reduce the possibility of signing with a program that changes coaches.
“I just don’t want to get burned,” he said.
There are potential pitfalls for players who wait until the late signing period, especially for those who are not elite prospects, Telep said. They risk scholarship offers being rescinded.
“The power is still with the school, because at the end of the day people get nervous if you start removing options off their plate,” Telep said.
Florida Coach Billy Donovan said the letter-of-intent agreement between a recruit and a college should be changed to include a clause that would allow a player to transfer without penalty if the program’s coach leaves before the player’s enrollment. Currently, if a university does not release a player from his commitment, he must sit out a season if he transfers to another Division I program.
“If a coach has the freedom to pick up and leave and go somewhere else, the kid should, too,” said Donovan.
The associate commissioner for compliance for the Southeastern Conference, Greg Sankey, whose office administers the Collegiate Commissioners Association’s national letter-of-intent program, said the current agreement stands on its merit.
“It’s one that has worked for a large number of people in a positive way,” Sankey said.
