If a recruit wants out, what's a school to do?

Sporting News, The, May 5, 1997 by Mike DeCourcy

Arizona's progression from a fading, disrespected, fourth-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament to national champion looked like the biggest upset of the 1996-97 season. Alas, it was not even the biggest upset this month. That distinction now belongs to Schea Cotton.

A senior at St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, Calif., Cotton overcame an opponent far more dominant than Kentucky, North Carolina or Kansas. He escaped his national letter-of-intent.

Cotton, a 6-5 small forward, is considered one of the top basketball prospects in his class. He signed during the fall with Long Beach State, eager to join his brother, James, so the two could play the 1997-98 season together with the 49ers.

Financial needs forced James to enter the NBA draft after a fine junior season, which spoiled the brothers' dream. On that basis, Schea Cotton obtained a release from Long Beach State coach Wayne Morgan. He then appealed to be spared the one-year eligibility penalty.

Quickly, painlessly, Cotton was set free. Beth DeBauche, who directs the national letter-of-intent program out of the Southeastern Conference office in Birmingham, said Cotton filed an appeal "based on extenuating circumstances," which was granted by steering committee chair Roy Kramer, the SEC commissioner.

DeBauche says her desk has a stack of appeals from athletes in all sports hoping to be released from their commitments without penalty. But those aren't often granted.

Cotton's family is facing a difficult time. According to Morgan, Cotton's father needs a serious back operation, and the five he underwent previously have rendered him uninsurable. In that regard, though, leaving Long Beach and playing at Southern California or UCLA will not make a significant difference. All three schools are reasonably close to Cotton's home.

Morgan figures he might have acted differently had Cotton gone through the full recruiting process before signing with the 49ers.

"Schea Cotton committed to Long Beach State for one reason: In order to play basketball with his brother," Morgan says. "He basically came in and said, `Coach, no offense, but if you look at why I came here, it wasn't because it was an unbelievable recruiting job.' Which is true.

"So I released him. Simple as that."

It rarely is so simple in matters involving a letter-of-intent. Guard Tony Harris, a McDonald's All-American from East High in Memphis, is debating whether Tennessee is the right school for him now that coach Kevin O'Neill has left for Northwestern. Don't expect Harris to be cut loose with no penalty.

Center Lester Earl wanted to transfer from LSU to Kansas after being kicked off the team by then-Tigers coach Dale Brown. Brown refused to release Earl from his letter-of-intent, threatening him with a two-year eligibility penalty.

Since the letter-of-intent program was conceived and designed almost entirely for the benefit of the participating colleges, it probably helped Cotton to have Long Beach work on his behalf.

The school petitioned the appeals committee to give Cotton an unconditional release. Long Beach probably didn't need the negative publicity that might have resulted from a lengthy appeals battle.

The 49ers already have lost the services of six other players who would have been eligible next season. With three starters returning from a 17-11 team in 1995-96, the 49ers had been predicted to win the Western Division of the Big West Conference this past season. Instead, they had to rally for six wins in their final eight games just to finish 13-14.

"We're in this business to try to be proper role models, do the right thing by these young men," Morgan says. "Under that circumstance, this was the right thing to do. He only has one life."

Clock watching

The decision of the, NCAA rules committee to reinstate the five-second count against closely guarded ballhandlers and force early-season tournaments to experiment with a 40-second shot clock is a clear admission that the 35-second shot clock has been a disaster.

Scoring and shooting percentages have declined dramatically since the shorter clock cycle went into place in 1993-94. In the last season of the 45-second clock, teams scored 73.6 points per game and shot 45.2 percent from the field. This past season, it was down to 70.2 points and 43.5 percent.