ESPN.com - Cleaning out the notebook

ESPN.com: Dave Telep Blog

Friday, January 11, 2013
Cleaning out the notebook

By Dave Telep

Over the course of seven days in recruiting, you see, hear and get texted a lot of things. Some of the info turns into stories. Some of it is not to be repeated. And some gets filed away in the notebook.

As a new weekly feature, we’ll be cleaning out the notebook every Friday with a ton of notes and thoughts collected during the week. Our debut edition includes info on Jabari Parker, Dakari Johnson, Indiana, Michigan, Wake Forest, post-game offers and a ton more.

Wake Forest strikes while it’s hot


	ESPN 60 point guard Shelton Mitchell committed to Wake Forest last week.

On Jan. 2, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons scored a big win over Xavier, their third straight victory and longest streak of the year. Coach Jeff Bzdelik is no dummy, and he seized upon a recruiting opportunity.

It’s no secret this is going to be a rough ACC season for the baby Deacs. Wins are likely to be difficult to come by. Therefore, you’re forced to operate under the “strike while the iron is hot” mantra. Bzdelik did just that.

Shelton Mitchell (Waxhaw, N.C./Cuthbertson) is one of the best traffic directors in the 2014 class. Wake was all over the point guard during his freshman season and blanketed him this past summer. The kid kept it close to his vest, but Wake Forest was his favorite all along. Last Friday, two days after the Xavier win, Mitchell committed to the Deacs.

To me, that’s good recruiting. You get a great in-state player and a big public relations pick-me-up at the same time.

What the weight of a decision can do

Chicago Simeon coach Robert Smith summed it up best in speaking about his star player, No. 2 senior prospect Jabari Parker.

“You can look at his face and see the smiles again,” Smith said. “It was a ton of weight on his back. He didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I told him he could only go to one school. He was relieved, and it’s over with now.

“He was already hurt, and him trying to impress people … now he can just go out and be the player that he is.”

Smith is talking about the stress and toll the decision-making process took on Parker, who last month ended his recruitment by committing to Duke. I’ve seen it tons of times. Good player, not performing well, under stress with his decision. Then boom, he makes the choice and things return to normal and his play mirrors his new state of mind.

Having seen No. 1 prospect Andrew Wiggins a ton this year, I wondered if his coach felt the same way. Is the recruiting process having an effect at all on Wiggins?

“I think it does to a degree,” Huntington Prep (W.Va.) coach Rob Fulford said. “He does a good job of diverting all that. I’m not sure it hasn’t affected his teammates as much as him. There’s a lot of speculation. Andrew’s handled it pretty well. It’s affecting our team and those guys.”

From a courtside seat, here’s what I have sees with Wiggins: Plenty of stretches where he looks terrific, but there have been inconsistencies as well, some of which is natural. There’s a bull’s-eye on him, and the eyes of a recruiting nation watch his every move.

I know kids at this level are supposed to deal with this stuff -- it comes with the turf. All I’m saying is the weight and magnitude of a decision, in my opinion and experience, has an impact on kids. The guys who decide before their senior year have a better shot of enjoying the ride and reducing their stress.

Indiana out in front

Here’s where props are needed. Hat’s off to Indiana assistant coach Kenny Johnson, who convinced a junior from Australia to take one of the longest flights possible for an official visit this weekend. Dante Exum (Melbourne, Australia/Australian Institute of Sport), a star with the Australian national program, is the son of Cecil Exum, a reserve on UNC’s 1982 national title team.

Trey Burke’s replacement


	Michigan signee Derrick Walton, No. 30 in the final ESPN 100, could be the next great point guard for the Wolverines.

Michigan, which is fast becoming a point guard factory, is set to introduce another next year, and he’ll be ready. Derrick Walton (Detroit/Chandler Park) is on a high school team that cannot travel outside of its region. He’s not getting prime matchups, but he’s playing well. How about 27 points per game and near triple-double numbers with assists and rebounds? He went for 47 points in one game and dropped 15 dimes in another.

How Dakari decided on TV

Last weekend, we didn’t plan ahead for the decision of Dakari Johnson (New York, N.Y./Montverde). The day before his nationally televised game against Simeon, he reached out to us and said he was ready. At that point, the TV side mapped out a slot for him to announce at halftime of the game after his.

What was cool about his announcement (he picked Kentucky) was that the scene was spontaneous and he was surrounded by his teammates. Sometimes the best-laid plans are never laid at all. It helped that Johnson was awesome in front of the mic and was as composed as any kid we’ve had during an announcement.

Regarding his decision: Neither Georgetown nor Syracuse knew Johnson was about to decide. That leads me to think that John Calipari’s presence both Friday and Saturday night at the Cancer Research Classic in West Virginia was no accident. He must have known something was up, and even though Wiggins was also there, showing his face twice in front of Johnson wasn’t a bad idea to make a kid feel great about his decision.

Doing what it takes for a signature

In preparing for a TV game last week, I had conversations with Salesian (Calif.) coach Bill Mellis. The subject of California-bound Jabari Bird and his recruitment came up, and Mellis couldn’t say enough good things about Washington’s Lorenzo Romar.

Sometimes we forget how difficult the recruiting game is. There wasn’t a head coach who outworked Romar for Bird, but he still didn’t get the kid. It happens. I remember watching Romar watch Bird and No. 7 senior Aaron Gordon (San Jose, Calif./Bishop Mitty) last summer. He would actually be the last person to leave the gym just so he could get the extra face time with Bird and Gordon.

Now Romar is locked in a battle for Gordon against another noted stubborn recruiter. When current Arizona head man Sean Miller was recruiting Julius Hodge as an assistant at NC State a decade ago, the story goes that he once outlasted three other assistants who didn’t want to leave Hodge’s head coach in a hotel lobby. Miller won by staying until the wee hours of the morning. Months later he helped Herb Sendek sign Hodge.

Pet peeve: post-game offers

I never understood this one. A kid is done playing his game and an assistant coach gets word to the player (likely through the head coach) that his team wants to offer the player a scholarship. Really? I get that’s a big deal to the kid. He hears someone wants him and gets excited. I’m good with that. But what I’m not good with is the value of the offer and the semantics -- not to mention the messenger.

Head coaches make decisions. To me, if an assistant coach offers, that’s great. But put the head man on the phone or it doesn’t count. Plus, saying “you can play for us” is not an offer and it does nothing more than confuse the kid.

My point is, these post-game offers carry little weight. If your program is big time, then there’s a process you go through in making an offer to a player -- at least that’s how I’d do it. Saying “we want you” is nice, but hearing it from the head coach who has done his homework and taken the time to get to know the kid means a lot more. It’s genuine, straightforward and shows that you hold your program to a standard and keep scholarship offers at a high value.

Quick thoughts

• Elite sophomore big man Elijah Thomas (Dallas/Prime Prep) wants to be a player. His attention to detail regarding his conditioning is helping his game physically and mentally.

• UConn coach Kevin Ollie spent an entire day at the Cancer Research Classic last weekend. I know fans are going to say, “Isn’t that his job?” Sure, but to have a head coach in season devote a whole day to watching and evaluating players is rare. Ollie knows he needs talent and he was there to see and be seen by the recruits.

• La Lumiere (Ind.) junior center Jonathan Wilkins has a smattering of mid-majors and high-majors on him. VCU is coming hard, while Xavier and Auburn have offered. The Big Ten schools plus Dayton are also coming to see him.


	Washington signee Nigel Williams-Goss is a proven winner.

• Team Final travel coach Rob Brown on Arizona signee Rondae Jefferson (Chester, Pa./Chester): “I’ve been around some special kids like Michael Gilchrist. This kid Rondae Jefferson is cut from the same cloth (of competitiveness).”

• Findlay Prep (Nev.) coach Todd Simon on Washington-bound senior point guard Nigel Williams-Goss: “Nigel’s been the rock. He’s been here four years. We were talking the other day and he’s 111-7 in his four years here. He started for three years.”

• Montverde (Fla.) point guard and Florida signee Kasey Hill picked a bad year to be born. He’d be a great choice as the nation’s best point guard if it wasn’t for caricature guard Andrew Harrison (Richmond, Texas/Travis). Harrison’s body and size make it seem like he’s cast right from “Space Jam.”

• Freshman Tyus Battle (Edison, N.J./Gill St. Bernard) is likely to have UConn, Kentucky, Villanova, Duke, Rutgers and Seton Hall knocking on his door very early.

• Trent International in Texas is home to an unsigned big man. Amadi Hamdi is hearing from Xavier, Auburn, Drexel and LaSalle. Auburn’s presence on the list is curious. Last month I ran into Auburn coach Tony Barbee at a game in Dallas. Maybe that trip was predicated by Hamdi?

• Pittsburgh watched signee Josh Newkirk (Raleigh, N.C./Word of God) on Wednesday, as did I. WOG scored a 15-point win and Newkirk had 14 points. The kid is cat quick and his speed is elite, even at the highest level. However, he needs to tighten up his decisions and become a consistent perimeter threat.