WR Abner Brown

[RE Tycoon]

Catchy tune...the bubbles are just odd though.

[originaloverthehilltop1]

if he's a first yr juco, are we recruiting him now or for a year from now?

[Stallion]

its easier for SMU to get transfers in as Freshman at SMUbecause of the transferable hours issue but that means they must be full qualifiers I believe out of high school. Otherwise, they need to graduate with a degree from a JUCO.

[BUS]

That is something that needs to be worked on.

[PonyPride]

if he's a first yr juco, are we recruiting him now or for a year from now?

I think Bobby Chase did one year of JUCO before he arrived. It can be done, in the right situation.

[Stallion]

Ike only spent a year at JUCO.

[me@smu]

its easier for SMU to get transfers in as Freshman at SMUbecause of the transferable hours issue but that means they must be full qualifiers I believe out of high school. Otherwise, they need to graduate with a degree from a JUCO.

How does this all work with Prep schools? Because some of the worst students go for a year at prep school and suddenly are qualified?

[Pony4Life]

Yes. There are a lot of prep schools that offer post-graduate years. The vast majority of them are not factories structured to fast-track athletes to Div. I-A powers - they are highly academics-based institutions that do require their post-graduate athletes to perform in the class room before they perform on the field or the court. Plus, at many of these schools, those post-graduate athletes are not allowed to compete against certain schools (basically schools without PGs). That limits the number of games, and the number of practice hours leading up to those games also is limited. In theory, the athlete can spend some of that excess time on academic work. Get a degree from one of those schools, and more often than not, it's a valid indication of scholastic ability after the completion of very respectable classes. Those places send more students to Ivy League schools than they do to jock factories, and make their students earn everything they do.

[Stallion]

most of the top Prep schools where the Top Prep recruits come from have separate teams for their Prep teams and high school teams and they most certainly are Division 1A factories. Bamba was an afterthought at his Prep school and I'm not even sure Mike Walker who we signed for next year is even starting this year.(The basis of this hunch is that I saw a report concerning a University of Washington recruit named Isiah Thomas who reportedly has moved into the starting PG role at South Kent according to a quote from the South Kent Head Coach). These schools can have 6-8 Division 1A players-that's not by coinky-dink. These kids fly all over the country to play in special All-Star tournamts-South Kent just got back from a Tournament in California. Prep schools are often used by players who need to "wash" a bad core curriculm grade from high school, improve SAT/ACT scores or add an extra year of seasoning for a development player and without losing two years of eligibility for most JUCOs. The Prep Schools are all about Basketball and getting their players eligible for Division 1A Basketball. This article will give you a feel of what Prep schools are about today

Prep schools getting a little more respect
Stoneridge hoping to give West Coast basketball prospects an alternative to junior college.
By Robyn Norwood, Times Staff Writer
December 1, 2006


Some mainstays of the largely East Coast phenomenon known as prep school basketball — private boarding schools that take fifth-year players as the athletes seek to enhance their college prospects — will compete at Calabasas High today through Sunday in the first Stoneridge Holiday Prep Classic.

Stoneridge, a small, 40-year-old school in Simi Valley, is trying to make a go of it with a different approach after being banned from the Southern Section Division V-A boys' playoffs in 2003 because of ineligible players and parting ways with former coach Ron Slater because of players' academic shortcomings.

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The new model is spearheaded — and bankrolled — by Mike Mahoney, a retired venture capitalist who lives in Manhattan Beach and has donated about $250,000 to fund scholarships, pay for cross-country travel and lease a large Simi Valley home for players from as far away as Senegal.

Mahoney said he grew interested in establishing a West Coast program after sending his son, Shane — now a freshman at Lamar — to a prep school in Pennsylvania as he tried to enhance his chances of receiving a scholarship.

"The notion came to me that there should be a prep school environment here. There should be an alternative to junior college," Mahoney said.

Mahoney hopes the program will break even this year with a combination of scholarship players and players paying $25,000 in tuition, room and board and other fees. The school is seeking to raise money to build a dormitory.

Prep school programs drew the attention of the NCAA last year after reports of "diploma mills" — where athletes were not earning the academic credit they received.

Since then, the NCAA has launched a certification program that has left some 25 schools unapproved, said Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president for membership services. Stoneridge received approval in part because it is accredited by a major organization, the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges, Lennon said.

"That's one of our significant criteria," said Lennon, adding that the problem schools typically have no accreditation or state oversight.

Bob Gottlieb, a former college coach and head of Orange County-based Branch West Recruiting Assistance Service, praised the Stoneridge program as the first of its kind in Southern California and for helping prospects earn scholarships.

Mychel Thompson, son of former Laker Mychal Thompson, is going to Pepperdine, and Charles Boozer, brother of NBA player Carlos Boozer, will go to Iowa State.

"I don't know if Mike intends to make a great deal of money — I don't think he needs the money," Gottlieb said. "It's a labor of love."

USC Coach Tim Floyd, who has been recruiting some of Stoneridge's 7-foot international players, called the school "a whole new phenomenon" on the West Coast, comparing it to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, where USC prospect Brandon Jennings plays.

"I know that it's serving a purpose for a lot of young guys that had typically gone to junior college," Floyd said.

Players who attend junior college lose a year of college eligibility, as opposed to those who attend prep school.

Five of the schools participating this weekend — Stoneridge, South Kent and St. Thomas More from Connecticut, Brewster Academy from New Hampshire and a program called Boys to Men from Illinois — were ranked among the preseason top 20 prep school programs. The sixth, Findlay Prep from Nevada, is playing prep school basketball for the first year.

"What's happened in recent years is all these other schools have sprung up," said Clark Francis, a Kentucky-based recruiting expert. "There are basketball factories in Georgia, Mississippi. Some of them are totally legit. Some of them, kids don't know where the front door is.

"To label all prep schools as good or bad is wrong. You have to take each on its own basis."


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