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Should coaches hold off on scholarship offers?
by Ken Tysiac, Staff Writer , The News & Observer
But he has exceptional passing ability and a dead-on jump shot from 22 feet at Forsyth Country Day. And he already has coaches with the Charlotte 49ers, Auburn and Virginia telling him they will pay his tuition, room and board if he will play basketball for them.
"At first I thought it was a joke," Tyler said of his first offer, from Virginia Tech, which came last summer.
It's no joke. College coaches looking for a competitive edge are in some cases recruiting and accepting commitments from players earlier than ever.
Earlier this year, a player committed to Kentucky before picking a high school.
Recruiting analysts say about 10 current sophomores and a couple freshmen have committed to schools for basketball. Some coaches and administrators say it's not wise to put the pressure of choosing a college on teenagers who aren't mature enough to make such a decision.
"Kids aren't rational, autonomous decision makers," said William Morgan, a sports ethics expert at the University of Southern California. "... They seldom think about the long-term consequences of their actions."
The NCAA, the governing body of college sports, doesn't have a rule preventing coaches from offering and securing non-binding verbal agreements from players of any age. But the National Association of Basketball Coaches' board of directors in June asked coaches not to offer scholarships or accept commitments from players before June 15 following their sophomore year of high school.
Before then, some coaches say, it's difficult to predict a player's athletic and academic potential. The NABC doesn't have power to enforce its principles beyond perhaps withholding Final Four tickets from coaches who don't follow them.
But the NABC is working with conference officials to push forward legislation to curb early recruiting. One current NCAA proposal aims to stop coaches from working at camps (except at their own school) where seventh- and eighth-graders are receiving instruction.
Around the nation
Some coaches, particularly those at schools that aren't traditional powers, say that identifying prospects early and developing longstanding relationships helps them compete for talent against high-profile programs such as Duke and North Carolina.
NCAA rules limit their contact with players in the middle school and early high school years, but coaches develop relationships through players' high school and club team coaches.
NABC executive director Jim Haney, though, said players who make early commitments are done a disservice because schools are gambling on how they will develop athletically and academically.
"We care about these kids," Haney said, "and we want to get them in the right setting."
Diaper dandy
"Change your diaper," a rough crowd taunted Tyler two years ago when he started as a seventh-grader on Statesville Christian's varsity against Camden (S.C.) Military Academy.
Only 13 years old, Tyler scored 27 points that night.
He began getting serious attention from recruiters last season as an eighth-grader at Forsyth Country Day. Coaches who would come to scout Ravenscroft High standout Ryan Kelly, who recently committed to Duke, saw Lewis score 13 points in a triple-overtime loss.
"(He) looks like he shouldn't be on the court with the kids he's on the court with," said Rusty LaRue, the former Wake Forest three-sport standout who coaches Tyler at Forsyth Country Day, located about 12 miles west of Winston-Salem.
Some of the plays Tyler makes are dazzling. At the Prep Challenge at Charlotte last summer, he chased down a loose ball near midcourt. With his back to the basket, he made a perfect, no-look pass over his head to a teammate for a dunk.
In the semifinals of a team tournament at UNC-Greensboro during the summer, Tyler tipped the ball over an opponent's head as they chased a rebound, then caught up to the ball just in time to put it behind his back to avoid another opponent. Then he faked a left-handed, behind-the-back pass to freeze a defender before finishing a layup with his left hand.
"Everybody huddles around him and says, 'Did he just do that?' Because he's just such a small kid," LaRue said.
Through 11 games this season, Tyler averaged 13.5 points, 4.3 assists and 2.1 steals steals as Forsyth Country Day was 9-2. He is an odd combination of naive and sophisticated.
Rick Lewis, his father, coaches the Carolina Flight club team that has taken him and Tyler to Orlando, St. Louis, Las Vegas, New York, Cincinnati and San Diego in search of top competition. He established the club in 2002 in part because he wanted to coach Tyler.
On most weekends from September through March, Lewis runs a drills and skills camp at North Mecklenburg High.
Tyler, who loves to watch "Spongebob Squarepants" and prefers chicken fingers when ordering at restaurants, has taken unofficial visits to seven schools, including Charlotte, N.C. State, South Carolina and Wake Forest. He said he isn't in a hurry to choose.
He has no idea what he might want to study in college. He likes math, but remember, he's just in ninth grade and started Algebra II this fall.
"I'm going to wait a little bit longer (to commit) so I'll have a better look at the academics and stuff like that," he said.
Youth movement
Players can't sign binding scholarship agreements until November of their senior year, but that hasn't stopped schools and young athletes from making non-binding verbal agreements.
In May, eighth-grader Michael Avery of Encino, Calif., gave a non-binding commitment to Kentucky.
Closer to home, N.C. State took a commitment from Raleigh Word of God's C.J. Leslie in 2007 at the end of his freshman year. North Carolina received commitments from Kendall Marshall of Arlington, Va., in September of 2007 and Reggie Bullock of Kinston in January of 2008 when they were sophomores.
All those commitments came before the NABC established its policy.
Because they're not binding for either party, commitments don't always last.
Taylor King of Huntington Beach, Calif., committed to UCLA in 2003, shortly before entering ninth grade. King changed his mind, played as a freshman a Duke last season and then transferred to Villanova.
King is one of many players who have had a change of heart, "decommitted," and choose other schools instead.
"To me, that's a problem," said Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, who is disappointed when players go back on their word.
(None of the coaches recruiting Tyler will comment on him specifically. NCAA rules prohibit coaches from talking about recruits until they sign with the school.)
If committed players mature and develop as expected, coaches urge them to keep their word. But if a player unexpectedly fails to grow or improve, coaches sometimes find ways to get out of their end of the commitment.
In those cases, Greenberg and Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said, a coach might explain to the player that he won't get much playing time. If the player still wants to come, Greenberg and Lebo said, the coach is obligated to honor that commitment.
"You've got to be honest with kids," Greenberg said. "I think that's the only way you can be. Because you certainly don't want someone coming in under false pretenses."
To avoid coming to a school where they wouldn't play, coaches say, players usually agree to find a new school. Charlotte 49ers coach Bobby Lutz said he has never withdrawn a scholarship offer, but other coaches do.
"I'm aware of many offers that have been rescinded, whether officially or unofficially, through the years," Lutz said. "It's happened for years. It may be more pronounced now, but it's not just a recent phenomenon."
'Abdication of ethics'
Haney, the NABC executive director, said it's difficult to predict if a junior high player will make enough progress on the court and in the classroom to live up to a commitment.
"Kids committing in the eighth or ninth grade, in some cases they haven't even taken a core course toward initial eligibility," Haney said.
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Davidson coach Bob McKillop said college presidents and deans of admissions need to stop coaches from offering seats at their universities to players with no high school academic credentials.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski worries about high school students getting preoccupied with college instead of focusing on high school academics and experiences like the prom.
"They're going to get screwed up a little bit," Krzyzewski said. "You've got to stay in the moment. As a parent, I think you would be concerned."
Morgan, the sports ethics expert, said coaches under intense pressure to win sometimes do things they otherwise wouldn't. He said it's up to the schools to stop them.
"Institutions can't get off the hook here," Morgan said. "Simply leaving these kind of decisions up to the coaches is an abdication of an ethical role of these institutions."
Morgan, author of "Ethics in Sport," "Why Sports Morally Matter" and other books about sports ethics, said it's up to parents and high school coaches to protect them from college coaches who might not have their best interests at heart.
Morgan said parents sometimes get starstruck by the attention and don't act in paternalistic ways, either.
"Obviously the younger they go, the more problematic it becomes," he said.
Will he grow?
Because of his extensive background as a club team coach, Rick Lewis isn't as awestruck as some parents when he meets famous coaches or players.
He said Tyler has been around so much big-time basketball that he isn't easily impressed, either. During the summer, he played in the backcourt alongside New Orleans Hornets All-Star Chris Paul at a Pro-Am event at Forsyth Country Day.
Tyler enjoyed it but wasn't used to playing with another point guard who commanded the ball.
"It's pretty cool playing with him," Tyler said. "He's a good leader. He tells you what you need to do on the court and what man to pick up and everything."
What's Tyler's basketball future? During a break at his annual Tournament of Champions club basketball event in Chapel Hill last summer, All-Star Sports recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons spoke glowingly of Tyler, who twice has attended Gibbons' evaluation clinics for younger players.
Gibbons calls him an outstanding passer and playmaker and says his point guard skill level is advanced far beyond his years. He says Tyler is a precise shooter if there isn't a taller player guarding him. Gibbons believes he has "tremendous upside" if he continues to grow.
If not, Gibbons said, it's difficult to project him as a prospect for a major college program.
"That's the unknown factor," Gibbons said, "and the risk coaches take in offering players this young and immature."
Most high school freshmen do grow, and Tyler said coaches like seeing him shine now against bigger, older players. He surmises that coaches expect him to get quicker and stronger. In the past year, he has grown two to three inches, and his brother Colby is 6-2 as a high school senior.
Tyler grew up a North Carolina fan and said he probably would go there if given a chance but is in no hurry to decide on a school.
"As I get along in high school, I can go visit some more colleges, see how I like them, meet the coaching staffs," he said.
His father is proud and excited about his son's prospects, but also is more pragmatic. Rick Lewis wants to make sure Tyler won't sit the bench wherever he goes.
He acknowledges that the schools that offered scholarships early made an impression on the family with their early interest. That's the edge some coaches are seeking, despite the NABC's objections.
"Whoever shows you the most love early," Rick Lewis said, "you have to show them some respect."
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