Coach Hewitt and The Apology

I caught wind of this story a couple of days ago, yet really was not sure how to approach writing about it. The background is this: A US Congressman from Tennessee has loudly rasied the issue with the NBA's current rule about the minimum age a player may enter the draft. His opinion, in a nutshell, is that it is wrong to make talented prepsters wait to enter the draft. The New York Times reported on this issue last week.

Here comes the rub. The last few sentences in the Times article, where the Congressman takes what really seems just a flat out cheap shot at former Tech hoopster Thaddeus Young, and by extension, the Tech men's basketball program.

Coach Paul Hewitt took exception as well and requested an apology for the smear on Thaddeus Young (who was a good student in high school acccording to the Commercial Appeal), and the backhanded smack on the Tech men's hoops program. As reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Congressman heard the uproar, and did contact both Coach Hewitt and Thaddeus Young with apologies. As a side note, I appreciate the character demonstrated by Coach Hewitt for being discrete about the apology.

I am admittedly somewhat out of the mainstream with aspects of this story. I think if a school offers you a scholarship, and you accept, you have a certain responsibility to the school and the program to be there longer than one year. Purely in terms of economics, though, I don't have any problem with any athlete trying to maximize their earning potential.

Another concern I have, outside of just homerism for my favorite school, is the immaturity level of too many of these athletes, and the advice they are receiving from those close to them. My next post will cover this issue more in depth, but basically, I argue that for every successful jump to the NBA (Lebron, Kobe, etc.), there are many more who don't make such a smooth jump, either through going undrafted, or getting drafted and not being able to handle the lifestyle. From this standpoint, you have to look deeper than dollars and cents.

From the Times article, I also took a little issue with the Congressman's use of golf, baseball, and hockey, as evidence that there are racial overtones in the NBA rule. This is the difference as I see it. In baseball and hockey, most of your young draftees go into a minor league system that gives them a little time to mature before the glare of the spotlight hits in the big leagues. Golf isn't team based, and is such an individual sport, I don't even see the connection.

Bringing it back around to Tech. I would say that to a degree, Coach Hewitt is sometimes a victim of his own recruiting. The guy can flat out bring in the talent. The problem, too much of that talent leaves early, preventing the team from developing and gelling. Continuity and experience count a heck of a lot when it comes to tourney time.

Maybe Coach Hewitt needs to pull a page from Coach Paul Johnson's recruiting manual, and just focus on getting solid, quality kids (not that the star recruits weren't) who maybe are not blue chip super talents, but just good ball players. Remember, our last deep run in the tourney came with just such an experienced team, one that really didn't have any superstars.