Great STrib article on Riley Dearring, recruiting starting earlier and earlier

Myron wrote a long piece on how basketball recruiting is starting earlier and earlier and profiled Hopkins' Riley Dearring who is in 8th grade and already the recipient of much recruiting interest. Dearring is the cousin of Caron Butler and has been in the Hopkins district since kindergarten. It sounds like his Dad has a great head on his shoulders and is not pushing the recruiting scene hard and if anything, is trying to delay it on behalf of his son.

The article also talks about the paths that Cash Eggleston, The Hump and Kam Taylor took to their respective basketball careers.

I would link the story but it is one of the STrib's "only in your Sunday paper" exclusives. Hopefully people get a chance to read it.

Go Gophers!!

This trend is getting to the point of utter ridiculousness. And it happens in all sports, most notably in college hockey. Kids are committing and getting recruited earlier and earlier, which is very troubling on several levels.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the NCAA established some kind of age limit in terms of college coaches speaking to kids about their school. As it currently stands, the whole process is getting completely out of hand.

I might have to go out and buy the paper. Didn't Cash Eggleston put up 100 in game once?

I went out and bought the paper and was impressed with the article. Dearring appears to be a budding star and his dad has the right approach. Ive been critical of Myron in the past but this was a good look. I would have liked a quote or two from Cash though.

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"This trend is getting to the point of utter ridiculousness. And it happens in all sports, most notably in college hockey. Kids are committing and getting recruited earlier and earlier, which is very troubling on several levels.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the NCAA established some kind of age limit in terms of college coaches speaking to kids about their school. As it currently stands, the whole process is getting completely out of hand. "



This is the main reason why Tubby and Minnesota won't be holding an Elite camp any longer. The NCAA and the coaches association both came out recently and said that schools we're using these camps to evaluate kids who are as young as seventh grade and it is a practice that should be outlawed. Well, since Tubby is head of the National Coaches Association, he has decided it would be hypocritical if he continued to hold these camps so Minnesota will just have a team camp and a basic camp from now on even though it puts us at a competitive disadvantage as most schools are still doing it.

Ending summer recruiting would be a start and would go a lot further in curbing the excesses on the recruiting trail. Putting recruiting back into the high schools and restoring the emphasis of that as opposed to the summer circuits would be bigger helps than the elimination of "elite camps" which already exist in both basketball and football.