A warning to expectant mothers: Don't be surprised if college basketball coaches start asking for copies of your ultrasound films. Recruiting is getting that crazy.
OK, maybe not that crazy, but the NCAA Legislative Council has lowered the grade-level age of ''recruitable'' boys' basketball prospects from ninth to seventh. The intent of the new rule, put into place last week, is to prevent overzealous college coaches from overstepping bounds and getting a leg up in the recruiting process as they solicit middle school students.
By implementing the rule and getting younger players on the NCAA radar, the organization can now monitor and regulate college coaches' contacts and visits with seventh- and eighth-graders, as they do with high school students. It had become a concern because of the increasing exposure young players are getting through AAU youth tournaments and elite summer camps, which college coaches attend.
Last May, eighth-grader Michael Avery of Encino, Calif., accepted Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie's scholarship offer to play for the Wildcats in 2012. Granted, Avery had not even selected a high school at that time, but that didn't stop him from committing to UK. Gillespie had seen Avery play in an AAU tournament in Akron, Ohio, and the courtship began.
A year earlier, eighth-grader Ryan Boatright of Aurora, Ill., committed to the University of Southern California's Tim Floyd after attending a camp at the school. And in 2006, Dwayne Polee Jr. of Los Angeles gave USC an oral commitment. Both players were 14 at the time.
Read the full story at MiamiHerald.com