Innocence Ended - NCAA considers banning the recruiting of high school players during the summer

Basketball Digest, March, 2001 by Peter Abraham

In the wake of summer-camp scandals, the NCAA is scrambling to restore some order to recruiting wars

WE DON'T KNOW THEIR NAMES yet, but they're out there, a generation of young basketball players who someday soon will inherit the college game from Shane Battier, Loren Woods, and the rest. On the asphalt courts of the big dries or shooting at a run nailed to a barn in the country, they're getting ready.

Meanwhile, a battle for their hearts and minds is waging, a battle that, depending on its outcome, could dramatically change how the United States develops its young basketball talent.

"Make no mistake about it, this is the biggest issue in the game right now," Virginia coach Pete Gillen says. "Everybody, and I mean everybody, has a stake in this?

Gillen, like most college coaches, used to deal directly with high school coaches during the recruiting process. That changed when the best players started to identify more with their club or summer teams than their high school programs,

Club basketball is often known as AAU basketball, which is somewhat of a misnomer as the AAU directly sponsors no teams and only a handful of tournaments. But by any name, summer basketball is growing.

Summer tournaments and camps are the venue of choice for college recruiters. A high school game might feature only one or two top prospects, while a good tournament or camp has dozens.

Nike and Adidas are among the companies sponsoring high-profile teams, tournaments, and camps. Summer basketball is good business for them. Along with selling sneakers, a company just might hitch itself to the next Michael Jordan.

The NCAA, distressed by increasing reports of club-team coaches paying young players and shoe companies in a fight over the top prospects for their camps, is considering the radical step of prohibiting college coaches from recruiting during the summer.

Penn State president Graham Spanier, president of the Division l board of directors, has advocated the elimination of summer recruiting. Others want only a slight cutback. But only a minority of coaches and administrators feels the status quo is acceptable.

"We, and by we I mean the NCAA and the coaches, are trying to regain some control of the situation," says Mike Tranghese, commissioner of the Big East Conference. "A lot of people think the summer has gotten out of hand."

Rumors of players being paid, as well as other forms of corruption, have shadowed the summer game for years, but it wasn't until the spring of 2000 when documented evidence was presented. Myron Piggie, a Kansas City-based summer coach, was indicted on 11 counts of fraud. Federal prosecutors said he paid five players $35,550, compromising their amateur status and defrauding the universities they attended. Piggie, who was also tied to assault, drug, and weapons charges, plea-bargained down to one count of fraud and was imprisoned.

The case rocked college basketball, as Piggie's players included Corey Maggette of Duke and JaRon Rush of UCLA. And the stain spread wide: Players at six Division I colleges were suspended by the NCAA last season for accepting money or other benefits from summer coaches or others before they entered college.

For Piggie and others like him, handing money to young stars is an investment that could pay off like a winning lottery ticket. Two high school players, Darius Miles and DeShawn Stevenson, were chosen in the first round of the NBA draft last June, and as many as five high schoolers could be drafted in 2001. Others will spend only a season or two in college before turning professional. The best young players are basketball's version of a hot tech stock: Everybody in their circle gets rich quick.

"It's a business for these people," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun says. "The competition to find the best young players and get close to them is intense. You're seeing kids, 14 or 15, being offered what seems like the world to them just to come play for a certain team in the summer. It's out of control."

NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey personally attended the Adidas and Nike camps last summer and sent members of his staff to several tournaments to observe the situation.

"There are sides to this issue--particularly access to prospective student-athletes--that we are learning about," Dempsey says. "This issue has become a priority."

While the NCAA can't directly restrict the activities of summer coaches, it can cut off what fuels the summer game: exposure to the college recruiters. Take away the college coaches, and the camps and tournaments lose their power in the recruiting process.

The usual 24-day July evaluation period is being cut down to 14 days in 2001, which was somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction by the NCAA to the Piggie situation. Some within the NCAA advocate a complete restriction on coaches attending summer events, a step few coaches are in favor of. Coaches, particularly those from mid-level schools, are concerned with their viability if summer recruiting is eliminated.

"Take away the summer and you're killing a program like ours," Iona coach Jeff Ruland says. "I don't have the budget to fly all over the country to see kids, like a Duke or North Carolina. The camps give us a chance to see a lot of players without spending a lot of money."