It has been slow recently, but there were a few interesting articles/topics to highlight this afternoon.
The first deals with an athletic director “think tank” that for some reason doesn’t include our own Lee Fowler. The topic of this year’s meeting in Durham, NC was athletic budgets in the recession:
DeFilippo said it’s difficult for an individual school to eliminate certain expenditures if its rivals aren’t doing it, too.
“We need to look at it on a national level so there’s a more level playing field,” DeFilippo said. “None of us want to disadvantage our student-athletes or our coaches or our teams. If Stanford is going to lose three administrators, then so does Boston College and everybody else. If Stanford is going to lose a coach, then everybody needs to do it. Stanford shouldn’t be the only school hurt.”
We previously discussed the contract extension of BC’s DeFilippo and compared it to the extension Lee Fowler received several years ago here.
Because news has been so slow, we will point you towards this story about a top combo guard rescinding his commitment to Herb Sendek and Arizona State:
Like many early pledges, Turner cited a desire to be recruited and echoed similar statements that he did it too early. “I never went through the recruiting process and I just wanted to open up to any school to see what other schools are like. It wasn’t schools in particular that I wanted to go to, I just wanted to open it up to see who would come.â€
Turner said he’d like to hear from Pac-10 and SEC programs.
â€I will consider (Arizona State). I’m open to anybody. If they want to recruit me, they can. I really like (the Sun Devils).â€
This was interesting and relevant for several reasons:
1. Sendek struggled during his tenure at NC State to recruit point guards and that appears to be continuing at Arizona St. Not to mention, the lack of quality guards in our program has significantly hindered Coach Lowe’s first three teams.
2. Sidney Lowe also lost an early commitment from pivotal recruit CJ Leslie (as did Boston College as well). CJ also wanted to open things up to other schools. CJ committed to NC State as a freshman in high school.
Which leads us directly to an Update from the Trail by Jim Young of the ACC Sports Journal who conducted a solid interview of Packpride’s James Henderson:
Just how long a coach should be given to turn a program around is really subjective and can vary from person-to-person. I think most on our boards want to see this year’s team show some promise. The rotation could include as many as seven freshmen and sophomores. The expectations won’t be high, but if the team can show some steady improvement over the course of the year then I think most Wolfpack fans would definitely like to give Lowe a fifth season where he could bring in Brown and Harrow who project to be impact players. With that being said, if Lowe isn’t given another year I highly doubt those two would enroll.
Having followed basketball recruiting closely for 20+ years, I don’t remember many examples of kids rescinding verbal commitments. However, there does appear to be a trend for kids committing earlier in the process and then those same kids changing their minds over the next several years before they matriculate to college. It is worth pointing out that if Lorenzo Brown isn’t allowed to enroll at NC State, then his letter of intent is immediately voided. Also, Ryan Harrow won’t be eligible to sign a letter of intent until October. Anyone remember year five of the Sendek era when neither of our top recruits (Julius Hodge & Levi Watkins) signed letters of intent putting us in a situation of either keeping a coach to get two key recruits or firing a coach and losing both players? We could be headed down the exact same path.
