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Inside College Basketball The Big East was the big winner in attracting and retaining top talent By Seth Davis
When Darius Rice, a 6'10" McDonald's All-America from Jackson, Miss., announced on May 2 that he'd signed to play at Miami, recruiting aficionados reacted with surprise. After all, Rice was said to have narrowed his choice to Arkansas, Kentucky, Memphis or Mississippi State. He had even called an April press conference, reportedly to say that he was going to Kentucky, before canceling it. While some observers were puzzled as to why Rice would want to play for the Hurricanes, who draw the sparsest crowds in the Big East -- they averaged 3,995 fans per home game last season -- Rice, who ranks first academically in his class at Lanier High, believes he made the smart choice. "[Hurricanes coach] Leonard Hamilton has a good track record," says Rice, the nephew of San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice. "Miami has been to the NCAA tournament the last three years, and I like the way he develops players. That they lost three starters doesn't hurt, either."
*Seton Hall and Connecticut have the two top-ranked recruiting classes in the nation, and St. John's also is bringing in a highly rated group. (The Red Storm might have had the strongest class of all had signee Darius Miles, a 6'9" forward from East St. Louis, Ill., not entered the NBA draft.) Many of the incoming freshmen won't stay long, but player defections have long ceased to be an acceptable excuse for a program's taking a downturn. "Everybody's losing guys. You can't cry over it," says St. John's coach Mike Jarvis, who also lost sophomore point guard Erick Barkley to the pros and who himself is a candidate for a job in the NBA with the Wizards. *Several Big East teams that failed to make the NCAA tournament last season appear poised to step up next year. NIT runner-up Notre Dame keeps its top six scorers -- including league MVP Troy Murphy -- and adds 6'8" junior Ryan Humphrey, a burly transfer from Oklahoma. Georgetown has an emerging star in 6'11" center Lee Scruggs, who will be a senior, and the Hoyas will gain the services of talented 6'11" center Wesley Wilson, who sat out his freshman year for academic reasons. Though the rush to the NBA by today's teen stars has damaged the college game, it actually works in the Big East's favor because so many of the conference's schools are located in or near major cities and play in NBA arenas. "I like that I'm going to get to play in a lot of NBA cities." Rice says. "You get more exposure."
Michigan State
Man-child: At 6'9", 260 pounds, Marion (Ind.) High center Zach Randolph is accustomed to towering over his competition. But Randolph has never loomed larger than he did this spring, when he put together a remarkable string of Most Valuable Player performances. On March 25, Randolph, a Michigan State signee, had 28 points and 11 rebounds to lead Marion to a 62-56 win over Bloomington North in the Indiana Class 4A state championship game. Four days later he went for 23 points and 15 rebounds during the McDonald's All-American Game in Boston. On April 2, Randolph's game-high 24 points and eight rebounds propelled the USA Junior National Select Team to a 98-97 exhibition victory over an international squad in Indianapolis. Finally, on April 30, Randolph carted away yet another MVP trophy at the Kentucky Derby Festival Basketball Classic in Louisville, where he finished with 39 points, 24 rebounds and four assists. "In my estimation Zach has emerged as the best prospect in the class," says recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons. "For someone that size, he's as quick and agile as any player I've seen." Yet, Randolph wasn't even selected as the best player in his state. Indiana's coveted Mr. Basketball award went to Bloomington North 6'10" forward Jared Jeffries, who received nearly three times as many votes from a panel of coaches and media members, even though he scored only 10 points against Randolph and Marion in the state title game and his team lost. Jeffries, an All-America who signed last fall with Indiana, appears to have benefited from Randolph's checkered past, which includes three juvenile convictions and two 15-day stays in a juvenile detention center. Randolph committed his most serious transgression in February 1999 when he was arrested on (and subsequently pleaded guilty to) two counts of receiving stolen property after he had sold a gun that had been stolen by a friend. Instead of playing for Marion in the state tournament the following month, Randolph listened to a radio broadcast of the Giants' first-round loss in the Grant County Juvenile Center. "I remember visiting him and his saying, 'I hate this place,'" Marion coach Moe Smedley says. "I said, 'Well, you know how to keep yourself out of it.' That was a big learning experience for him. I don't think he wants any part of that again." Randolph has yet to qualify academically to play as a freshman, though he's reportedly only 30 points shy of earning the requisite SAT score and took the test again on May 6. He says the time he spent in detention changed him, and he has had no further off-court troubles since. Randolph also wrote a letter of apology which ran in the Marion Chronicle-Tribune shortly after he served his sentence. "I've learned some hard lessons," he says. "Sometimes you can be on top of the world, and the next moment you can be down."
Rhode Island
Recruit: While it's not uncommon for a coach to continue recruiting a player even after he has verbally committed to another school, rarely does one go about it as brazenly as Rhode Island's Jerry DeGregorio did in his pursuit of Dinno Daniels, a point guard from Tyler (Texas) Junior College. Daniels said in January that he planned to attend Miami but instead signed with the Rams on May 3. Afterward, DeGregorio told the Providence Journal-Bulletin, "It's always been my theory that when a young man commits to another school, it makes your job easier. Now you know who your competition is.
Issue date: May 22, 2000 For more Inside College Basketball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, May 17. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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