Herb Pope talks

Herb Pope reached out to Jason Groves yesterday. Our commentary will follow:

Pope commits to Seton Hall
Former Aggie player thanks NMSU fans, coaches, teammates
Jason Groves
Las Cruces Sun-News
9/02/2008

LAS CRUCES — Herb Pope confirmed late Monday that he is taking his services to Seton Hall.

"I am going to Seton Hall," said Pope, the day after New Mexico State University had announced that they had parted ways with the 6-foot-9 sophomore forward from Aliquippa, Pa.

Pope was on the Seton Hall campus last week. Since NMSU granted him the opportunity to seek another school, Pope said he also received interest from Duquesne, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Robert Morris and West Virginia. But it was Seton Hall that had an available scholarship and Pope said the other pieces fit as well.

"I have family matters back home and I wanted to get closer to the east coast," Pope said. "I am a father and I want to get closer to my daughter because I don't want her to go through the same things that I went through..."

Go here for the remainder.

It's all water under the bridge at this point and we extend best wishes to both Pope and to the players on the New Mexico State basketball team -- may they all have the best of college experiences from here on out.

The truth will never be known about what was decided when and by who and how so -- and maybe shouldn't be.

But that doesn't stop us from offering these comments:

But Pope came to NMSU because of Reggie Theus -- no Theus would have meant no Pope in Las Cruces. But it was that AND reduced interest from a number of other teams in the East. So why the pulling back? Certainly some of Pope's personal troubles were a factor plus also that while Pope was a talent, he wasn't going to be an immediate program changer. All this combined to provide the Aggies a toehold that was capitalized on quite well.

But we still think it's doubtful Pope would be at New Mexico State even if Theus was still there. Pope's limited post-high school options probably even surprised himself so playing for a former NBA star was enticing, as it would for most young men. It was the best situation available at the time but one that was going to be shaky despite the best of intentions and any coaching staff makeup.

It's curious that a number of those same coaches/teams who ended up shying away from Pope were now reaching out once it became known that Pope wasn't returning to Las Cruces. But that's the sometimes bizarre nature of recruiting.

We also believe that the sports administration at NMSU was less than forthcoming throughout this matter the last few weeks. Now maybe it was to protect Pope but some of the comments that were made seemed quite self-serving.

We also wonder (granted, this may be getting way too speculative) if Coach Marvin Menzies' greater media assertion of late changed the power equation at least to some degree in NMSU athletics? We offer this because generally, it is the head coach who handles media matters involving players but AD McKinley Boston was the primary 'source' of information early on until Menzies became quoted in the last few articles from the L:as Cruces Sun-News.

Our sense -- albeit an unprovable one -- is that Menzies himself made the determination that Pope was no longer to have the opportunity of remaining an Aggie, shutting down the seemingly daily 'shuttle' of Pope between staying and going. A coach has to have the ability to control his roster in order to retain overall respect and it appears Menzies finally decided enough was enough, asserted himself and made the call. Why this decision didn't happen earlier is curious.

Maybe we are way off base with all this but that's our sense. Again, we offer our hopes that Herb Pope succeeds handsomely in his future endeavors on and off the court and that the Aggie basketballers enjoy a wonderful college tenure.