A couple more WAC tidbits

Chris Murray offers the latest on Fresno State's Paul George. What will be fascinating is does an NBA team go after the highest ceiling (George) talent from the WAC with the hopes such an altitude is reached or nab an instant producer (Luke Babbitt) with less physical gifts?

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Gotta love the NCAA "the we do it all for the student-athletes) -- read on:

Bob Gottlieb of the Branch West Recruiting Assistance Service offers this on one-time Boise State recruit Maverick Ahanmisi:

"Maverick Ahanmisi, outstanding shooting guard from Golden Valley H.S. two years ago, visited the prestigious Big 10 school Minnesota, last Wednesday and was offered a full basketball scholarship by Head Coach Tubby Smith. 

The recruiting process was not an easy road for Maverick. Unless you are a super prospect that everybody wants, it never is. When quality athletes are on the bubble of being recruited at the mid or hi major levels, usually it involves finding a school that really needs what you bring to the table. Minnesota needed a hi quality combo gd who could reall shoot and score.

Maverick is a highly talented scoring combo guard. Probably the best shooter we have had at Branch West in the last 10 years. Maveric averaged close to 23 ppg as a senior in high school, including a 41 point explosion in the CIF playoofs vs. Foothill H.S. (OC).

He literally shot the lights out for Branch West last summer including 37 vs. Joe Ward's All Stars from Phoenix. (including ten 3 pointers) A great many D1 coaches were in attendance at that game, but it was late in the recruiting process and very few still had scholarships left at that point. 

However, the Head Coach of Boise State Greg Graham, fell in love with him, had a scholarship left, and flew Maverick to Idaho in the WAC Conference, and offered him a scholarship. Maverick was going to accept as he liked the school and the program, however, they discovered that his paperwork for the NCAA Clearinghouse was not complete.

Though he was over a 3.0 gpa student and solid SAT scores, without Clearinghouse approval, a college may not extend an athlete a scholarship. 

The family quickly completed the paperwork, but were informed that the Clearinghouse had a major backlog, mostly due to football, and that it would likely be a month to two months before they got the approval.

Dad would have had to pay $10,000 towards the cost of his schooling until the school received NCAA Clearinghouse Approval, and only then could he be put on athletic scholarship. Dad turned it down. This was in August.

We (meaning his dad primarily-with my advice) decided to put Maverick into prep school and reopen the recruiting process. SMU and Weber State tried to sign him in November and he opted to wait until the spring and see what else developed. 

His dad decide to formally retain BG and the Branch West Recruiting Assistance Service last December. His dad asked me to put together a new film package for Maverick, which included his 41 pt. explosion in the CIF Playoffs vs. Foothill H.S. (OC) in Spring 2009, but mostly some of his truly superb games playing for Branch West, mostly from last summer, but we subsequently added some excellent film from this spring.

Pacific and St. Marys both showed great interest as did a number of other schools. Pacific ended up offering another guard who took it, and St. Marys was hoping a scholarship would open up. A number of schools such as St. Louis and Loyola of Chicago also began to show significant interest. 

However at the Final Four, BG ran into Joe Esposito, Administrative Assistant at Minnesota, and formerly the Head Coach at Angelo State in Texas, where some years ago, he had taken a guard from Alaska who had turned out real well.

As we talked and I asked what they were still looking for, he indicated that they badly needed a quality guard, a combo guard or a point guard. 

They had pursued the best guard in the country, Cory Joseph from Findlay Prep and had lost him to Texas. Not only that, but Justin Cobb from Bishop Montgomery here in LA, had shown real promise, but became disenchanted when he only played 10 minutes/g as a freshman and he had decided to transfer to Cal in the Pac 10.

Every year I attend the NCAA Final. Have missed once since 1968. Though it's been a while, I was an NCAA D1 coach for 15 years (Creighton, Kansas State, Long Beach State and Oregon State as an assistant and 7 years as a Head Coach at Jacksonville and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee) 

Most college coaches at all levels throughout the USA, attend the Final Four as the Annual NABC Convention is always held at the smae time in the same town as the Final Four. Its also a dead week in recruiting. I have been and still am a member, for 42 years.

Most coaches use the convention to assist in looking for a better job. The relationships you make there are invaluable professionally to college coaches of every level, and many high school coaches attend as well.

I, on the other hand use it to primarily promote the many athletes we are formally involved in their recruiting . I use it to identify school that still need players, and which position they are looking for, and to recommend and promote our many client athletes.

When I told Joe Esposito of Maverick and described him as a player and as a person, he became highly interested and asked that we send him Maverick's film package as soon as we got back to California. Duquesne, Tulane, Miami and Florida State were other schools that we met that also requested Maverick's films.

Once Joe Esposito received the films back home in Minnesota, he watched them himself and fell in love with Maverick and called BG immediately. He then turned them over to Ron Jursa, their Recruiting Coordinator and he watched them and was equally impressed. They both indicated that Head Coach Tubby Smith was out of town but was due back in the office in a couple of days and he would look at them himself.

Tubby not only looked at the films, and also fell in love with Maverick, as a player. He immediately personally called BG. We have known each other casually for some 30 years, but got to know each other much better when he was the Head Coach at Kentucky and was recruiting former Branch West star big man Deon Thompson.

Kentucky came a close 2nd to North Carolina with Deon. I was asked by Deon's mom to sit in on all his home visits and was exceptionally impressed by Tubby Smith, the man. He is about as classy as it gets. Comes from a family of 17 children. Great role model.

When Tubby called, he told me that he loved what he saw on the films. However, he wanted to know, what was he really like as a young man? What was his family background? What else could he do besides shoot? Tell me about his ball handling. Could he play the point guard as well as the shooting guard. Tell about his speed, his size, his mental and physical toughness. 

Maverick is one of the best we have had here at Branch West as an all around outstanding offensive player, and maybe the best end of the game shooter/scorer that I have ever coached. 

Not only that, he is bright, picks up everything extremely quickly, plays within himself and is a delightful young man to be around and to coach. We have exceptional mutual respect as far as player/coach relationship, as well as with his dad Victor Ahanmisi.

Tubby decided to bring Maverick in for an official paid visit last Wednesday. Usually a Head Coach meets the young man and they assign an assistant to show him around. 

Tubby Smith himself spent most of the day with Maverick and then brought him into the office, and without ever seeing him play in person (they did not ask him to work out while on the visit), they offered him a scholarship. (highly unusual) Maverick was so excited he wanted to sign right there and then, but Tubby advised him to return home, sit down and discuss this with his family, and then if he wanted to come to Minnesota, they would love to have him.

Knowing their team for next year, they are loaded with at least four 7'0" athletes and badly needed a quality guard. I expect Maverick to play 15-20 min/g and possibly start before the season is over.

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