Jun
21
USC Head Coach Tim Floyd Lands 14-Year-Old Prospect Who Doesn’t Even Know Where He’s Going to High School!
What’s wrong with this picture? A 14-year-old basketball prospect has committed to play basketball at USC before even deciding where he will go to high school. You heard right. A brief blip in today’s Chicago Sun-Times details how former Chicago Bulls’ Head Coach Tim Floyd has landed a 14-year-old prospect from Aurora, Illinois by the name of Ryan Boatright. After participating in a basketball camp at USC this weekend, Boatright was offered a scholarship by Floyd on Monday and accepted on Tuesday. While the 5’10’’ guard knows where he is going to college, Boatright has yet to decide where he will attend high school. His choices are between East and West Aurora High.
Boatright’s mother Tanesha was described in the story as saying that North Carolina and USC were her son’s dream schools and that he couldn’t pass up the scholarship offer from Floyd, whom she described as a “warm, nice man” who made them “feel comfortable.” Apparently so!
Ryan Boatright was quoted as saying that “USC was his number-two school since forever,” with forever, of course, standing for since he was 12 years old or something to that effect.
This is a sad indictment of what modern college basketball recruiting has come to. Boatright is 14 years old, doesn’t know where he is going to high school, and hasn’t even played a game on that level. No offense to this kid, but I doubt he knows his ear hole from his you know what at the age of 14. I know I certainly didn’t at that age.
I’m not going to cast blame on this kid. He’s 14 and is jumping at a college scholarship opportunity out of the eighth grade! The blame should go to Floyd and the boy’s mother. While a verbal commitment is not binding at this time, it’s ridiculous that college coaches can get to impressionable kids at this young of an age. Sadly, these kids are now probably being recruited as early as fifth and sixth grade. This is just embarrassing how coaches like Floyd will do anything to get a competitive edge.
Boatright’s mother also shares a lot of the blame in this situation. While a college scholarship offer doesn’t typically come this early (even though it’s becoming a trend to get players to verbally commit as freshmen nowadays), Boatright’s mother should be shielding her child from such pressure at such an age. Ryan Boatright may be physically advanced on the basketball court but is he any different from any other 14-year-old in terms of how he thinks? I highly doubt it.
His mother should be protecting him at this point. I don’t think a 14-year-old who has never spent a day in high school is mature enough to be making such a major decision on where he is to go to college. In fact, this kid shouldn’t have to be worrying about this decision at this point in his life. But that’s right. It’s not about education. It’s about where he’s going to play basketball.
And we wonder why athletes act so entitled nowadays. They display a flash of talent and are given the world before ever proving anything. Once again, I’m not attacking this kid but am rather going after this shady recruiting system. The NCAA should step in and ban such actions. Floyd should be ashamed of himself.
Now what happens (God forbid) if Boatright tears up his knee playing basketball while a freshman in high school? Will Floyd revoke his scholarship? What happens if Boatright changes his mind one day and wants to go somewhere else like UNC, his number-one choice? Will he be portrayed as a villain?
I hope not. In an age where coaches can text-message recruits and flood them with emails, it is no wonder why some kids come to rushed college decisions that they later regret. I mean, after all, they are only teenagers. Unfortunately, coaches like Floyd are acting like teens themselves looking at the finer things in life and getting ahead rather than serving as positive role models and exemplary male influences.
When you elevate winning above integrity and right and wrong, you are bound to get burned. Here’s hoping Tim Floyd gets what’s coming to him in this atrocious example of blue-chip recruiting at its very worst.
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Probably a rhetorical question more than anything, but is this even legal? Having someone to commit to a college before they’re even in high school? And being offered a scholarship?
If he’s anything like West Aurora’s recent stars, Dameon Mason, Justin Cerasoli and Shaun Pruitt, I’m sure he’ll bust and be transferring to Auburn by his junior year of high school.
Hey Chris, just found your site, so I’ll be adding comments wherever I may have any insight.
Melissa and I got married on Sunday. All seemed to go well and my posse ripped apart Frankie’s Fun Park all weekend. We’ll be sending you the standard thank you card, but I just want to give you a bonus thank you for the gift. That was very nice of you. Ken Tanner ambushed 3 different people, including former ump Rich Garcia (famous for botching the Jeffery Maier play) last homestand with his Bobby Cox picture and story. Brutal.