The National Association of Basketball Coaches Board of Directors on Thursday implored its membership to curb the urge to offer scholarships, or the urge to push for verbal commitments, to athletes in the 10th grade or lower.
The NABC statement reads:
"The Board of Directors asks coaches to not offer scholarships or accept commitments from students earlier than June 15 following the conclusion
of the sophomore year, which is the first date of permissible contact
with prospective student-athletes according to NCAA regulations."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski agreed during a talk with reporters on Tuesday that going after and offering scholarships to eighth graders and freshman was silly. The earliest Duke has offered a player was to DeMarcus Nelson late in his sophomore year of high school.
But riddle me this: What happens when Marshall Plumlee, younger brother to incoming Duke freshman Miles and 2009 recruit Mason, starts thinking he wants to give Krzyzewski the trifecta?
Will Duke wait? Assuming Marshall Plumlee has the goods to be a high major Division I basketball recruit, will Duke's competitors wait to present their own cases if they're thinking Duke has an inside track?
Consider Marshall Plumlee, a rising sophomore at Christ School in Arden, N.C., a local test case for this proposed new era of, ahem, restraint among college basketball coaches.
