Ashley, who played at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland last year, received his first scholarship offer, from San Jose State, when he was a ninth grader. Cal and Stanford wooed him intensely. But when Ashley whittled his list of potential colleges to seven this month, not a single one of the Bay Area’s six N.C.A.A. Division I programs made the cut.
Ashley heads what many scouts and observers say is the strongest Bay Area recruiting crop in years. The flourishing local talent has turned the region into a high-stakes battleground for recruiters. And yet, to the distress of many local fans, Bay Area teams are increasingly left out in the cold, beaten out by schools with bigger budgets and more national exposure.
Bay Area coaches “are putting the time in, but it’s almost like the game changes when the bigger programs come calling,” said Mark Olivier, director of the Oakland Soldiers, a powerhouse A.A.U. team that features several top recruits, including Ashley. Olivier said he received about 50 calls a day from recruiters.
The University of Arizona is one of several national powers now big-footing Bay Area schools.
Last March, the Arizona Wildcats came within a game of the Final Four. Shortly after, the team’s head coach, Sean Miller, arrived in San Francisco, where he predicted “an absolute war” over Bay Area talent. Miller was seeking to replenish a roster that lost forward Derrick Williams, the second overall pick in this year’s N.B.A. draft.
“If you gave me one area of the country to be successful recruiting the next two years, the area that I would pick is this one right here,” Miller told a group of Arizona fans during a May 19 speech at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Miller has already signed two Oakland Soldiers players: guards Josiah Turner and Nick Johnson, who committed to Arizona last year. Ashley, ranked by ESPN as the No. 6 recruit in the country, has Arizona on his short list, along with U.C.L.A., Kentucky, Oregon, Texas, Syracuse and Georgia Tech.
“Let’s say Cal or Stanford finished last year like Arizona did,” Olivier said. “I guarantee that would probably make it easier to recruit.”
A half-dozen highly rated prospects with Bay Area ties went elsewhere last year; Cal lost recruiting battles for four, including De’End Parker, a San Francisco native ranked by one scouting service as the No. 4 junior college prospect in the country. Parker, who played at City College of San Francisco, committed to Cal but then changed his mind and signed with U.C.L.A.
Last week, Dominic Artis, a point guard from Vallejo who is one of the fastest-rising recruits in the country, announced he had also chosen U.C.L.A. over Cal.
According to Coach Mike Montgomery of the Bears, “The fact is that Cal is a very strong school academically, but for some kids that’s not a priority. They’ll give you lip service, but at the end of the day, they’re not going to come.”
Not long ago, Cal and Stanford built successful teams around local recruits. In the 1990s, Cal landed Jason Kidd of Oakland, who led St. Joseph Notre Dame High in Alameda to two state championships, and Lamond Murray, who went to John F. Kennedy in Fremont. Both were Top 10 N.B.A. picks.
In 2003, when the region had its last big talent surge, Cal signed three highly rated Bay Area recruits, including the future N.B.A. player Leon Powe out of Oakland.
Montgomery knows firsthand that winning can quickly change how recruits perceive a school. As Stanford’s coach in 1998, he led the Cardinal to the Final Four. He said top prospects soon began mentioning Stanford as an ideal college destination. Montgomery took Stanford to the N.C.A.A. regional finals in 2001. The Cardinal spent four weeks as the No. 1 ranked team in the country during the 2003-4 season, when Stanford went 30-2 in Montgomery’s final season.
But Stanford has not had a high-profile local recruit in more than a decade. Coaches and scouts said they detect some fundamental changes that made it more difficult for Bay Area schools to recruit. Montgomery pointed to a modern basketball culture in which prospects increasingly view college as a steppingstone to the N.B.A.
Montgomery said local schools can deal with that issue. “You can present the notion that if you’re going to be a pro, the N.B.A. will find you,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment