Recruiting - Ain't It "The Pits?"

Bob's Question - Lobo or Loco?

Quotin' Bob has apparently had a run-in with a New Mexico site, and it has provoked the
longest, most involved writing we've ever seen from Bob.  After Cliff
Hawkins got in the UK truck, after previously giving a verbal to Fran Fraschilla and New
Mexico, this UNM website apparently went off on Bob, posting one article, at the
url http://www.lobobasketball.com/weasels.html,
which has since been removed. Given the title of the article we can guess where
he went with it (and why, too).  There is another article up, though,
which rips Bob Gibbons, Steve Smith, and Mike Sullivan severely. Clearly
this guy doesn't
like Quotin' Bob at all.

Bob has written a two-parter on the Cliff Hawkins
saga, entitling Part I the Illiad and Part 2 The Odyssey. It's pretty clear to
us that this UNM guys has freaked Bob out. He calls him "wacko" and
"loco" and a "raving lunatic." Wow! 

Somewhat hilariously,
Gibbons laments the great interest in recruiting  and that he no longer
feels good about it, while somehow failing to mention that he makes a good
living from the "sport within a sport."  He also expresses
concerns about the impact the internet has on recruiting (which we share) but we
don't see him sending the money back.

Anyway, here's the link for lobobasketball.com,
and here's Part
I of Bob's saga, and
Part II.  You'll note that Bob lists his co-writer as Homer. Is that
the guy who took Adam Boone from 6'2 to 6'3 and spotted him two extra ppg and
also raised him from #44 in Quotin' Bob's rankings to Top 30 or 25 after he
signed with UNC? Relax, that's a joke.

Ok, here's the "true Odyssey".  Before we forget, Bob
has truly made an innovation this time - the nestled quotations: "impromptu" campus visit"
for example. Let's see the "wacko" do something that cool.

PART I 

•   "Cliff Hawkins Iliad," 
• Cliff Hawkins  
• Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions  
• "young backcourt ace" 
• DC Team Assault 15-Under travelling team.
•   1998 Virginia AAA First Team All-State squad  
• completely outplayed senior All-American , 
•   Ronald Curry
• Curry 
• 1998 McDonald's National Player of the Year 
• 31 points, 
• 71-67.
• Ronald Curry
• basketball future
• "outside intervention," 
•  football grant 
• Virginia. 
• But, that is yet another story for another time, another place.
•   DC Team Assault 
• Tournament of Champions
• 16-Under All-Tournament Team.
• DC Team Assault
• DerMarr Johnson, Keith Bogans, Bernard Robinson, Derick Payne, et al; 
• " major milestone event" occurred for Cliff Hawkins.
• transferred for his junior year to Oak Hill Academy in remote Mouth of Wilson, VA.
• "defensive stopper," and "clutch player" 
• "game-on-the-line" situtations. 
•   the most memorable high school games that I have ever seen, 
• Tim Stevens' 
• Glaxo Wellcome Holiday Invitational Christmas Tournament 
• Cliff Hawkins 
• "the star of stars."
•   an intriguing "dream matchup" 
• nation's #1 rated high school team, 
• Oak Hill Academy
• nation's #2 rated high school team, 
• Christ The King HS
• Omar Cook
• That was "As Good As It Gets," in high school hoops, baby!
• the incredible ending 
• "unforgettable game," 
• January, 1999, issue of the Bob Gibbons All Star Sports Report Basketball newsletter. 
• Mark McCarroll 
•  Omar Cook, 
• Cliff Hawkins' subsequent "heroics." 
• Coach Steve Smith 
• Hawkins 
• Hawkins
• "patented dazzling moves," 
• Willie Poole and Omar Cook
•   "the kings of the hill," 
• 62-60 
• "vintage Cliff Hawkins"; a "money player," and always at his best in pressure-packed, clutch
  situtations.  
• "the man"
• 32-0 season, 
• USA Today's 
• 1999 No. 1 Rated High School Basketball Team.
• All-Tournament 
• Tournament Of Champions
• adidas Big Time Tournament 
• adidas ABCD Camp
• Norm Eavenson
•   Top Five point guards
•   Chatham, VA, Hargrave Military Academy;  
• Fork Union, VA, Military Academy.
• inconsistent outside shooting, 
• the scouting service ratings we do for college coaches. 
•  National Top 20 list 
•  #37 
• Top 100 rankings.
• Jerry Tipton
•   Lexington, KY, Herald-Leader,
• Cliff Hawkins
•  "the ideal future lead guard" 
• Kentucky 
• "better fit"  
• Adam Boone or Luke Ridnour.
•   If he's that good, why don't you have him rated higher?"
• as "journalistic sarcasm," or a challenge to my ability to rate players.
• My answer
•   Duhon, Boone or Ridnour.
• Cliff Hawkins
• "an absolute "bullet on the court;" 
• "consumate competitor," and "a true winner."
•   minus side
• inconsistent outside shot,  
• off guard last season 
•  the entire year to develop his point guard skills 
• Cliff Hawkins 
• "Wayne Turner-type" combo guard at Kentucky. 
• Kentucky won a national championship with Turner at the helm, 
• that ain't too bad. 
• Hawkins and The Wildcats, is the familiarity he has with current UK player 
• Keith Bogans.  
• DC Team Assault,
• Cliff Hawkins is the best possible backcourt recruit for Kentucky.
• This is most fortunate, considering that he was the only highly rated guard The Wildcats could have signed during this Early Period.

 

 

•   "Cliff Hawkins Odyessey,"
• New Mexico
• Kentucky
•   national impact and overall significance of these topical events.
•   the recruiting fortunes appeared very bleak for 
•   the premier program in college basketball; 
• fate, destiny, or just plain old-fashioned good luck, 
• "the Gods of Basketball Recruiting" once again smiled upon and blessed the Wildcats.
• "complex recruiting saga" 
• Coach Tubby Smith 
•  much-needed top backcourt recruit.
• And, it happened after a most improbable sequence of events.
•   Kentucky, 
• the most consistently successful collegiate basketball recruiting program  
• a point guard? 
• Chris Duhon, Taliek Brown, Adam Boone, and Luke Ridnour. 
• Adam Boone as 
• "the likely consolation prize for either Duke or Kentucky, the school that did not get Chris
  Duhon." 
• The Wildcats might beat Duke for Duhon.
•  chagrin and consternation 
• "The Big Blue's" 
• all four of UK's point guard prospects chose other schools.
• "heated" 
• Coach Tubby Smith  
• "could not recruit." 
• "Rick Pitino would have gotten Chris Duhon;" 
• "we've got to get us a basketball coach who can recruit."
• The stage was now set. The timing perfect.
•   And, right on cue, enter one Cliff Hawkins.
•   that Cliff Hawkins. 
•  New Mexico?
• Kentucky, Hawkins 
•  "second thoughts"
• The Lobos,  
• Coach Fran Fraschilla, 
• Steve Smith
• Keith Bogans
• Cliff Hawkins
• New Mexico 
• Troy Weaver, 
• DC Team Assault summer team.  
• Bernard Robinson,  
• Michigan 
• The Wolverines.
• Cliff Hawkins 
• "impromptu" campus visit" 
• Kentucky 
• national letter with Coach Tubby Smith's Wildcats. 
• For a "coaching staff that can't recruit," those guys now wearing "the UK coaches' attire" somehow managed to get a "pretty good prospect."
•  "unlikely "odyssey" 
• "twists and turns" 
• "The Land of The Blue Grass;"  
• Kentucky's long sought after future point guard.
• Cliff Hawkins' 
• New Mexico, 
• "instantaneous signing" 
• Kentucky
• New Mexico basketball program and fans.
•   all prospective student-athletes certainly have the right to attend the college of their choice.
•   "raving lunatic,"  
• "LocoBasketball.com." 
• "wacko"  
• Talk about wanting to "kill the messenger" 
• Cliff Hawkins'  
• "recruiting reversals" 
• Mario Austin, Justin Reed, Patrick Okafor, and Malcolm Battles
•   the burden of blame, guilt, lack of promise keeping, or whatever you wish to call it, has been placed solely upon the player; and not the university.
•   neither party is really to be blamed. 
• I certainly empathize with the programs that have lost top prospects that they had committed. 
• college athletics is but a microcosm of our society. 
• it is the system itself. 
• "heat of the moment"
•   a unilateral contract which favors the NCAA institutions, not the prospective student-athletes. 
• Once signed it is more difficult to get out of than a marriage.
•   many of these problems could be alleviated if the Early Signing Period were eliminated.
• one signing period for basketball be in April, 
• "rush to judgment" making the most important decision of their young lives.
• These young people are making decisions that will impact upon their entire lives. Choosing a college is not a
  game 
• " a sport within a sport."
•   about the present and future impact of the internet.