Decommitment is not in the dictionary, but it is on the minds of many basketball recruits and it is now a problem that needs to be addressed

from Mark Lewis Hoopgurlz writer at www.espn.com:

It’s time for Bill Gates and the boys to have a sit down with the dictionary folks at Merriam-Webster and American Heritage. Every time I type the word decommitment, the spell check in Microsoft Word tells me that I’ve misspelled it and offers no alternative or replacement. Several online sites agree there’s no such word and others define it as “dropping or turning away from a prior commitment.” No matter, whether it’s a word or not, it certainly is an action, and we’re seeing more and more of it in the recruiting environment of women’s basketball.

Decommitment is nothing new in our sport, and it’s virtually an everyday occurrence in men’s basketball. The real issue for us is the escalation in the number of recruits reneging on their commitments and the casual attitude that now seems to surround the decision-making process. The fact that it’s commonplace on the men’s side alone should tell you that it’s a problem. There are a lot of areas of their game we may want to emulate or strive to reach, but recruiting really shouldn’t be one of them.

To read all and there is a lot more important information on this topic, from Mark Lewis at HoopGurlz CLICK HERE…..

5 thoughts on “Decommitment is not in the dictionary, but it is on the minds of many basketball recruits and it is now a problem that needs to be addressed

  1. I believe that kids are letting people filled their heads with false information when it comes to their true talent. Some Ranking services are charging parents a fee to allow them to get their kids ranked so that colleges can jump at them because they may have ties to that particular coach. When that kid arrives on campus of a school that may be well over their head, they become disgruntled, pick up the cell phone and call home and usually mommy say “Come home kid its ok”. What lesson are we teaching here?

  2. I really like this article because I have a daughter that plays AAU and so often many of these kids are misled into thinking things are going to happen for them when in reality it will not. You end up spending a lot of money over the years because some AAU coach told you about scouts were watching your kid.

  3. Who’s Kidding Who Here? The student athletes are not the bad guys in this dilemma. They are merely playing by the rules established by the NCAA and do not kid yourself that the university’s know how to manipulate these rules much more effectively than the average family of a recruit. These professional rule benders have a lot of practice on many recruits to perfect the “bait and switch” while leaving many promises unfulfilled while adding to the coffers of their own fine institution at the expense of the athlete.

    Verbal commitments by high school student athletes are a mechanism for university’s to hang a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign around that young person’s neck so that other colleges do not pursue. Then once the university finds a better recruit, THEY renig on their commitment to the athlete and leave the kid with no place to go because they nievely put all of their faith in the recruiters and their Sirens song. And the worse ploy by the university is forcing the athlete into an early verbal commitment in the 8th or 9th grade, UNC-Chapel Hill is notorios for this ploy, especially in baseball.

    Scholarships are renewed annually and the university may elect not to renew the scholarship. College sports is a big-time business and every emloyee of the typical business has an opportunity to update their resume and look for better opportunities that may enhance their situation, college sports is no different. I love it every time an athlete comes out ahead in the deal because they have beat the house against tremendous odds.

  4. Who Knows

    Sorry but that is not the case. Normally a school would not pull and offer unless there are some extenuating circumstances that has occured. Colleges allow student athletes to decommit if a coach leaves that were previously recruiting them. Sometimes people may say that a school offered and they really did not even if a kid say that they would verbally love to go to that particular school. Many times student athletes will pull their verbal because they feel as though they may get a better deal. Whatever they think that deal may be? Colleges will honor their previous commitment even if they are recruiting some one else and if a scholarship is available and will let the student athlete know that. At that moment a student athlete and their parents may or may not elect to stay.

Comments are closed.