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Inside College Basketball
Posted: Tuesday October 19, 1999 03:57 PM Big Continent's Comeback Will Jason Richardson play for Michigan State? By Seth Davis
The citizens of Michigan had been waiting for several years to see Jason Richardson don a Michigan State uniform, and when he finally did, he did not disappoint them. The coltish 6'6" freshman, a McDonald's All-America last season at Arthur Hill High in Saginaw, put on a dazzling air show during Midnight Madness last Friday night at the Breslin Center. During one foray into the ether, Richardson twirled 360 degrees and brought the ball between his legs before flushing a one-hander.
In late August the Spartans persuaded the NCAA to grant Richardson partial qualifier status, which means he can accept scholarship money and practice with the team but can't compete in games. Now the school is awaiting the result of its appeal to the NCAA's Initial Eligibility Committee to fully reinstate Richardson. The Spartans expect to hear a final decision from the NCAA in the next two to four weeks. Richardson's case brings to mind that of former New Mexico forward Kenny Thomas, who thought he had satisfied his core requirements but was declared ineligible by the clearinghouse in the summer of 1995. Thomas engaged the NCAA in a protracted legal battle -- he played for three seasons under a court-ordered injunction before sitting out the first five games of his senior year as part of a negotiated settlement -- but Richardson says he has no intention of following that route if his appeal is denied. "If it's not meant for me to play, I'll just work on getting ready for next year," he says. Losing the opportunity to play for a national championship contender would seem to be a harsh fate for an athlete whose only transgression was committed not by him but by academic professionals. "It's just a tough pill to swallow because the kid really didn't do anything wrong," Spartans coach Tom Izzo says. "I understand we need standards, but everything isn't black and white."
Missouri's New Coach: His voice hoarse, his Hugh Grant hair flopping jauntily, Quin Snyder dropped onto a sofa in his new office at Missouri last Saturday, visibly jazzed that practice was finally under way. Six whirlwind months after the 32-year-old Snyder left his top assistant's job at Duke to replace the retired Norm Stewart, it is hard to say who's learning more -- the first-time head coach or his new team, which will junk Stewart's antediluvian ball-control system for one based on defensive pressure and an up-tempo offense. Snyder is overjoyed by the warm reception he has gotten from his players and the Show-Me State's fans, but he hints darkly that not everybody has been so welcoming. Last month Missouri reported itself to the NCAA following a published account that the mothers of two top recruits, Detroit-area high school stars Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson, had joined their sons on a chartered plane for a campus visit. (Though the women say they paid for their seats, the NCAA is investigating whether they paid full value.) When asked what he has learned from the episode, which probably won't result in sanctions, Snyder chooses his words carefully, accepting responsibility but subtly pointing a finger at rivals whom he believes were the source of the story. "It has raised my awareness about certain competitive elements in the industry," he says. "It's also made me aware of how much attention we have to pay to all the details on every level, and that begins with me."
Big Continent's Comeback: NBA scouts were both surprised and intrigued when a 7'3", 350-pound behemoth named Brad Millard played Wake Forest's Tim Duncan to a virtual standstill in the first round of the 1997 NCAA tournament. Millard's team, St. Mary's, lost the game, but the Gaels' center showed he had a nice shooting touch and the sheer bulk to give the 6'10" Duncan fits. Dubbed Big Continent because he looks like an expanded version of Bryant (Big Country) Reeves of the Vancouver Grizzlies, Millard could have jumped to the NBA right then, but he was just a sophomore, and he needed more seasoning. That summer he attended Pete Newell's big-man camp, where he impressed Newell with his play. His future looked bright, but since then he has suffered a couple of major injuries. And now time is running out on his college career. The first setback came in the third game of the '97-98 season, when Millard broke his left foot. He had to sit out the rest of the year with the injury. Then disaster struck again. Millard broke the same foot -- in a different place this time -- in September '98. It appeared that he would have to sit out another full year. As St. Mary's stumbled through its second straight sub-.500 season, Millard did his best to stay in shape and monitor his progress. In late February, X-rays showed that the injury had healed better than expected. With only one regular-season game and the conference tournament remaining, he decided to come back to try to help the Gaels get an NCAA tournament bid, even though the risks were considerable: The atrophied foot muscles made him more susceptible to another break, and playing would cost him a medical redshirt year, meaning he'd lose a season of eligibility. His heart, though, told him to go ahead and play. His close friends Frank Knight and Eric Schraeder were seniors who wouldn't have another chance at tournament glory. "These were guys I had been through so much with," says Millard, "and I thought we could do some damage with me in there." Millard's presence led to an emotional win over Santa Clara in the regular-season finale, but in the West Coast Conference tournament an upset win over San Diego was followed by a loss to Gonzaga, ending the Gaels' hopes of an NCAA bid. "I was totally against him playing at the end of last year," says Gaels coach Dave Bollwinkel. "But his reasons for playing really told me a lot about what kind of kid he was." Millard's sudden, late-season comeback left his foot so sore that his summer basketball was limited to free throw shooting, plus drills in the pool. It wasn't until three weeks ago that he was finally cleared to play. So is Millard still on NBA radar screens? Says Dave Babcock, director of scouting for the Bucks, "If he stays healthy and plays all his games, he's a lottery pick." —John O'Keefe
Issue date: October 25, 1999
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