ROBBING THE CRADLE

If you ask any big time college basketball coach what the most important aspect of their job is, the vast majority of them would say, “Shaping the lives of impressionable young men, so that they can be successful citizens on and off of the basketball court.” If you believe that, then chances are that you also believe that Pacman Jones will win NFL Man of the Year (for his contributions to the college funds of many adult entertainers). What these coaches are really thinking is, “My job is to win as many games as possible, by any means necessary, so that I can move on to another program or get even more money here. Either way you look at it, the goal is more wins, which will equal more “STRAIGHT CASH HOMEY!!!!”

In college basketball, the key to winning games is recruiting. You must have great players to win, no matter how good of a coach you are. Don’t believe me?, look at Bob Knight. He is one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time (whether you like him or not), and even he couldn’t win big with the talent that assembles annually in Lubbock, Texas. With this in mind, coaches will do anything to convince the next big thing to come and play for them.

College coaches have done some pretty reprehensible things through the years to win a coveted recruit. These things include, paying players, giving their family members or AAU coaches jobs in the program, steering them to certain professors that were “friends of the program” to ensure their eligibility, and also creating classes that will allow them to receive course credit for attending basketball practice. All of these actions are horrible and completely undermine what college athletics is supposed to be about; coaches should be dealt with if they are caught doing such things. With all of that in mind, there was something in the news recently which simply turned my stomach. My favorite college basketball program of all time, the KENTUCKY WILDCATS (the program with the most wins in the history of college basketball), OFFERED A SCHOLARSHIP TO AN EIGHTH GRADER. This is ridiculous! Where is the NCAA when you need them? This is an easy issue for the NCAA. There is no need for an investigation at all. All that they have to do is create one new rule. This rule should simply state that, “No scholarship offer can be extended to a potential student-athlete before the completion of his sophomore year of High School. “And if the student isn’t that bright and has to repeat the tenth grade, then he can‘t receive a scholarship offer until the completion of his final sophomore year.

If this practice is allowed to continue, there is no telling what will happen in the future. You could potentially see coaches watching kids shoot NERF baskets in Toys R Us trying to find the next Ray Allen. Even worse, we could see coaches developing relationships with obstetricians, so that they can contact them each time they deliver a child over 24 inches long. Where does it end? The problem is, in the high stakes game of big-time college basketball, it never ends. Billy Gillispie and the administration at the University of Kentucky should be ashamed of themselves. For not only offering a scholarship to a kid whose voice hasn’t changed yet, but for also starting what I’m sure will be an ugly and disturbing trend. I can see it now, a five year old holding a press conference in his kindergarten class to announce his college decision and signing his Letter of Intent with a fat pencil with no eraser. Don’t laugh, because if the NCAA doesn’t step in now, this very well could become a reality.