USC hoops get verbal commit from 14 year old

Im not sure how I feel about it as a basketball coach but if I remember correctly this isnt the first time that this has happened. Surpisingly coach, a lot of the big time basketball players began getting scouted in middle school. I believe it was earlier this year, but one of the big sports magazines (I think ESPN) ran a story about a kid who wasn't even in middle school that was supposedly like the best basketball player in the class of 20and whatever year he would graduate. LeBron had his own diary in SLAM magazine as a sophmore and they said he was the best ball player in high school then. In Bob Knights book he admitted going to watch Damon Bailey play in junior high. That could be one result coach but at the same time these top tier high school basketball players get so much attention that pumps up their egos it's unreal. If he hadn't signed at 14 and he is really that good he is likely to be all over tv, magazines and newspapers until he goes to college. My point is that the ego inflation and attention were going to come reguardless if this kid is that good. I mean ESPN reported on LeBron like he was already in the NBA. If the kid has good parents he will be ok. Dwight Howard was a phenom and he appears to have a solid foundation at home and he seems very humble. 4 this reason he wasn't plastered all over our tv's,magazines and newspapers with the exception of the game that was nationally televised when he played against Randolph Morris. This is all IMHO

How about the teacher who has to fail one of these kids and make them ineligible? Sorry kid, I know USC has had you locked up for 5 years....but...

all i know is that it makes my life as an 8th grade boys basketball coach that much harder now. All my kids already think they are NBA material as it is, now they are going to play the "your ruining my scholarship" angle now.

he can't be offered a scholarship. The coaches aren't even allowed to make contact with the player unless the player comes to them. But they can accept verbal commitments. Basically it means nothing. They don't have to offer him a scholarship if they don't want to when he is actually able to sign. You can't sign until late in your junior year so this really all means nothing. The kid has got to have a huge ego over this. How would you like to be the varsity coach that doesn't bring a freshman up to play even though hes already commited to USC. its a joke really.

Example #3,289 why Basketball is a joke, and why Football is the only sport I care about in this country.

Actually, if an athlete signs a national letter of intent, then the penalty for backing out is that he must attend the 'new' university for 1 full academic year before he can participate.

Now, the thing can be nullified if the student-athlete fails to qualify for admission (sat scores, gpa, etc.). After a recruit signs a letter of intent, other schools are prohibited from recruiting him.

Wow tuff to compete with the Football program at USC??? If I was a coach there I would be heated makes the entire athletic program look stupid, I wish Pete Carroll or Pat Ruel would punch Tim Floyd in the mouth.......Oh by the way were is Mike Garret on this makes the former Trojan back look like an idiot also.

Oh, I agree Phantom. I heard Floyd interviewed on the Dan Patrick show, and he said the same thing. This is a case where the NCAA needs to play the "bad cop" so that the parents/kid will be upset with the NCAA and its rules, and not the schools.

He is in between a rock and a hard place... but not that hard a place. This is a case where the parents are caught in the loony world. Asking a coach if he would accept a commitment of an 8th grader..simply ludicrous, and most likely done for the ego.