Cross posted from the Texas Forum
Letters of intent: There's a catch
In some cases, coaches try as hard to keep signees away as they do to recruit
09:43 PM CDT on Saturday, October 22, 2005
By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News
The NCAA's early-recruiting season enters its final weeks before the eight-day signing period. Signing a national letter of intent binds an athlete and a school to a one-year scholarship agreement that can be broken only by mutual consent.
But at least two basketball players who signed with Big 12 Conference schools last November were dismayed last spring when, according to their families, they were urged to release the schools from their financial promises.Not wanted by the programs that signed them, the players needed to sign the releases before they could be recruited again – by whatever programs that still had scholarships available.
It's more common for players to ask for releases, often when the coach who recruited them has left. When schools initiate and fuel the process, officials of the conference and the NCAA told The News, it's troubling
Tony Jones signed with Baylor last fall out of two-year Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas. But when practice began last weekend, he was at Idaho State.
"Give a kid a scholarship, his hopes and dreams [go] up," said Tony Jones' father, Jesse Jones, of San Antonio. "Then you drop him on his face."
Amanda Brown from Richardson Berkner filled her wardrobe last fall with Oklahoma State's orange and black after signing with the Cowgirls. But OSU changed coaches after the 2004-05 season, and Brown is now at Bucknell in Pennsylvania.
Her father, John L. Brown, said new Cowgirls coach Kurt Budke made it clear she wasn't welcome in his program.
"How can they do that?" he said. "She did nothing wrong."
Idaho State's Jones, a 6-7 swingman, wouldn't be interviewed. Bucknell wouldn't allow Brown, a 5-6 guard, to be interviewed.
Budke said he didn't want to be interviewed out of respect for the people involved. Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder said he shouldn't comment because he has held the position for only a month after 32 years as OSU's men's golf coach. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," he said.
Baylor men's basketball coach Scott Drew said this was the first time in 12 years of college coaching that he asked a recruit to sign a release. "If this happened every year, I'd write the story," he said.
Bears athletic director Ian McCaw said he learned of Jones' situation after the release had been arranged. McCaw said he doesn't condone the practice and doesn't expect it to happen again.
Jones was one of two Baylor players to sign releases last spring. The other was guard Roscoe Biggers, who averaged 19 minutes and 2.6 points last season as a sophomore.
If neither Jones nor Biggers had left, Baylor wouldn't have had a scholarship available to add its only signee of the spring period. That was 6-11 Mohamed Kone, ranked by one recruiting service as the best junior college prospect in the country last year. As it turned out, Baylor said Kone never qualified academically for admission.
Jones' father said he believes his son was encouraged to leave to make room for someone else. Drew said that wasn't the case. He noted that he has coached with rosters below his scholarship limit throughout his time at Baylor.
Big 12 Conference commissioner Kevin Weiberg said encouraging incoming players to sign releases, while not prohibited, is questionable and a potential problem.
"It [the letter of intent] is essentially in many respects a tender of financial aid, and I think it could raise a number of questions, some legal," Weiberg said. "From my perspective, institutions have to be very careful that they're dealing always in an ethical way."
The NCAA has no jurisdiction over letters of intent. But Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president for membership services, echoed Weiberg's concerns.
"Institutions need to, on a campuswide basis, consider the ethical implications of those practices," Lennon said.
Jim Haney, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said the only circumstance in which he could envision an early signee being encouraged to sign a release would be if the school hired a new coach who employs a drastically different style.
High-rated Baylor class
Tony Jones was among five players Baylor signed during last fall's early period, a group that the HoopScoop recruiting service rated ninth best in the country.
Jones graduated from San Antonio's Taft High School in 2003 and was captain of a team that reached a regional final that year. He averaged 14.6 points and 6.6 rebounds and was a second-team all-district pick as a junior and senior.
Jones initially signed with nearby St. Mary's, an NAIA school. He left after one semester and didn't play a game. The school's athletic department wouldn't elaborate on why Jones left. A friend of Jones' from high school, SMU junior forward Ike Ofoegbu, said Jones left because he wasn't named a starter.
Jones had not played a junior college game – new Hill College coach Swede Trenkle had seen him only in practice and pickup games – when Baylor signed him. Jesse Jones said Drew seemed enthusiastic to have Tony join his program and said Tony would be an important part of the team.
"Congratulations. You're a Bear," Drew said, according to Jesse Jones. "We're so happy to have Tony."
Jones' 2004-05 season at Hill was limited to 15 of 28 games because of a knee injury. Jones averaged eight points and six rebounds a game.
Soon after the season, Drew said, he and Trenkle agreed Jones would be better off somewhere other than Baylor. He wouldn't elaborate on their conversations. Neither would Trenkle, who added that he never had any off-court or disciplinary issues with Jones.
Jesse Jones said his next call from Drew was unlike any of the previous ones, with a first reference to the letter of intent being conditional: " 'Mr. Jones, I'm sorry that Tony's not ready to step into the spotlight and lead the team. And we're under the spotlight now and need somebody that can step in score about 25, 30 points. How's he capable of doing that?' "
The Joneses discussed the situation for a few days and, according to Jones' father, reluctantly agreed to sign the release. SMU's Ofoegbu said Tony Jones was frustrated that he'd turned away other NCAA Division I programs but couldn't be recruited again until he signed the release.
In April, the Bears added Kone. Their recruiting class ranking on the HoopScoop list rose from ninth to seventh.
Trenkle used his connections in the West to help Jones sign with Idaho State of the Big Sky Conference in mid-May. Idaho State coach Doug Oliver didn't want to discuss the events involving Jones.
"Twenty-five years of basketball – I've seen and heard almost everything," Oliver said. "There's a need for a scholarship, and there are different ways to go about getting it."
Jones was suspended indefinitely by Idaho State athletic director Paul Bubb in late September after an off-campus incident but was reinstated 15 days later. Bubb said Jones violated the school's conduct code for athletes but wouldn't elaborate. He said he reinstated Jones after he did some things that Bubb asked him to do.
Jones and a former Idaho State football player were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, which is still under investigation by the local police. Jesse Jones said Tony was defending himself after he and a teammate were attacked by some football players.
Idaho State will open at Kansas in four weeks, and Jones might start at small forward. Said Oliver: "This is a great decision for him."
Stellar senior year
Amanda Brown was an all-district selection as a junior in 2003-04. After signing with coach Julie Goodenough and Oklahoma State last November, she capped her high school career by being named District 10-5A player of the year. Her father said she picked OSU over Cal, Iowa State and Southern Cal.
Goodenough, a graduate of UT-Arlington, resigned last March after her third consecutive 20-loss season. She was replaced by Budke, who averaged 27 wins in three seasons at Louisiana Tech and previously had won four national juco titles at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas.
John L. Brown said he learned Amanda was no longer wanted in OSU's program from a midlevel athletics administrator who said Budke thought it would be best for her to sign a release. After a few more calls, he said, the school sent a release form by overnight mail without telling the family that it was coming.
As the school kept pressing for the release to be signed, Brown said, Budke called and was blunt in their second and final phone conversation.
"He said, 'She's not going to play for us,' " Brown recalled. " 'I won't let her practice, dress, travel. But I'll pay for her because I have to. She'll never play for me as long as I'm the coach at Oklahoma State.' "
Brown said he didn't know what to think when Budke then suggested that Amanda attend junior college so he could see her play and perhaps recruit her back to Stillwater.
An assistant coach at another Big 12 school learned of Amanda's plight soon after the release was signed, Brown said, and spread word of her availability at a coaches' convention. She signed with Bucknell of the Patriot League soon after.
A Bucknell athletics spokesman said no one from the school would comment on the events that led Brown there from OSU.
None of Goodenough's three out-of-state high school signees are on OSU's roster, whereas both of her in-state signees are. Budke added four juco players and two Division I transfers.
John L. Brown speculated that the NCAA's new academic-performance ratings could motivate a new coach to cut loose inherited signees. The coach could fear that the signees would transfer after a year anyway, he said, which would hurt the team's APR score.
He added that he's pleased with how things have worked out academically for his daughter, who's aiming at medical school. The dream of playing in a power conference close to home, though, is gone.
Richardson Berkner athletic director Jim Ledford said he won't allow Oklahoma State's women's basketball coaches on campus to recruit as a result of what happened to Brown.
"It looks to me like it's one-sided against the kids," Ledford said.
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