DePaul Recruiting, Georgetown News, Notre Dame Recruiting, Providence News, Providence Recruiting, Rutgers Recruiting, Seton Hall News, Seton Hall Recruiting, Transfers, USF Recruiting

BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (9/10/2008)

Keno Davis is having some success on the recruiting trail, now he can also put his attention towards his current Friar club and getting them up to speed on his system that PC will be running this year.

Recruiting updates are found on Christian Laettner’s nephew, who has verbally committed to the Big East, Givon Crump, who sets some official visit dates and Dominic Cheek, who kicked off his in-home visits with a meeting with a local Big East program.

A few writers heap some praise on the Big East. With the help of Mike DeCourcy’s latest article on the SportingNews.com, we take a look at the new trend of applying for a hardship waiver to hopefully gain immediate eligibility after transferring from one school to another instead of having to sit out. Seton Hall, who has one recruit suing the NCAA and the Big East to be eligible immediately, has two players hopeful they can avoid the residency rule for transfers and play immediately. While the NCAA has granted this waiver recently in a couple high-profile cases, it might be a long shot for SHU to prevail in these cases.

Earlier today we finally got around to the Providence Recruiting Update on their latest verbal commitment, Duke Mondy. New Providence coach Keno Davis Has the Friars Ready to Hit Basketball Court with New System (Providence Journal) as the preseason workouts are aimed to get the players familiar with Davis’ style so when regular practices begin October 17th, PC is not too far behind the rest of college basketball.
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Just a quick note on recent Notre Dame commitment Mike Broghammer as he is the nephew of former Duke star Christian Laettner. Here is a Chicago Tribune article on his commitment: Laettner’s Nephew Commits to Notre Dame.
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A couple more recruiting notes from ZagsBlog.net as Givon Crump Sets Visits and Bob Hurley Reviews Dominic Cheek’s Visit with SHU.

Givon Crump will visit Oregon State (9/13), DePaul (9/20) and Baylor (10/4). The class of 2009 small forward from Brewster Academy will also consider a visit to South Florida and possibly Michigan. Crump has visited Rutgers on an unofficial visit previously.

Dominic Cheek, his uncle and grandmother met with Seton Hall head coach Bobby Gonzalez and assistant Scott Adubato at the home of St. Anthony’s head coach Bob Hurley last night for an hour and a half. It was the first day the NCAA allowed coaches to make in-home recruiting pitches in this contact period and SHU put their full 90 minutes to good use with Cheek and his family.

The latest trend around college basketball that is getting a lot of public attention, mostly due to recent transfers into Seton Hall by Herb Pope (New Mexico State) and Keon Lawrence (Missouri), is players applying for a hardship waiver to play immediately after transferring schools and not having to sit-out the NCAA’s mandatory year of residence before becoming eligible at their new school. The process got major attention last year when Tyler Smith was granted such a waiver to move from Iowa to Tennessee as his father was battling cancer. Billy Smith passed away last fall, before getting the chance to see his son in a Vol uniform.

Last spring, it was announced Julian Vaughn was transferring from Florida State and chose hometown Georgetown in the process over another local, George Mason. For reasons remaining private, Vaughn was granted a waiver by the NCAA and will be eligible to play this season.

Mike DeCourcy of SportingNews.com writes that college Coaches Concerns Over Transfer Rule are Justified and the fear of a form of free agency in the college game could ensue if the NCAA is too lax on the rule, which, they have not shown any evidence in doing so, yet.

In the past, players have long been transferring due to personal reasons, so that is nothing new. As the DeCourcy noted, transferring often can result in the loss of transferrable credits. In the case of Lawrence, it has been reported he is not eligible to play in the first semester at SHU because he will not have enough credits to be eligible. However, the Pirates hope he is granted the waiver and will be eligible for the second semester, seems kind of ridiculous to waste a half year of eligibility in challenging the transfer process. Lawrence’s waiver is no slam dunk, even though there is the existence of personal issues that have been made public and he is transferring close to his home in Newark (NJ). The Columbia (MO) Tribune reported in early July that Lawrence would consider Villanova, Georgia, Memphis, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall, Providence, Maryland or Louisville as his transfer destination, not quite the short and neat list of hometown schools Vaughn or Smith were interested in moving to from the beginning.

Then, there is the case of Pope. DeCourcy makes note of the fact that SHU is over 400 miles from his Aliquippa home. Some have indicated he wanted to move closer, but not too close to home as a fear of retaliation from his testifying in the case against Marcus Longmire, who shot Pope in April of 2007 after Pope was involved in a fight with Tremayne Foster outside of a party at 3 AM. Longmire ended up pleading guilty and was sentenced last December as Pope returned to the area from New Mexico for the trial. It was just a couple weeks later where Pope got himself in trouble in the Pittsburgh area charged with reckless endangerment, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, underage drinking and a traffic offense when at 2:27 AM on December 28th police found Pope unresponsive in a car stopped in a northbound traffic lane of Business Route 60 near International Drive, according to court documents. When offers approached, they said the engine of the locked car was running and Mr. Pope was alone and in the driver’s seat. So maybe the Pittsburgh area is not the best place for Pope. However, sorting out the reasons for Pope leaving New Mexico State and schools he was interested in and schools he was not interested in (both near and far from Pittsburgh) will be up to the NCAA and other parties to decide.

Speaking of Seton Hall and uncertainties, the Mike Glover case is starting to get more attention as the Basketball Recruit Sues the Big East and NCAA (Providence Journal) over the NCAA not determining him a full qualifier and the Big East not allowing non-qualifiers to play in their conference. The judge has denied Glover a temporary restraining order which would allow him to play while the case is ongoing while the NCAA has asked the judge to throw it out. Seems to be a lot going on at Seton Hall off the court…

For some more new on the Pirates, check on our article Catching Up With Karron Johnson as the talented forward prospect in the class of 2009 is very high on coach Gonzalez and Seton Hall.

Not much of a newsworthy item here, but nice to read anyway, to nobody’s surprise, the Jay Bilas blog at ESPN lists the Big East as the Toughest League from Top to Bottom in the nation.
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With the mess that seems to be Big East football this season, Rick Bozich is more than happy to start Some Big East Basketball Chatter (Louisville Courier-Journal) as he looks forward to something much more exciting to cover.

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