Eyebrows went up when the news spread like wild fire. It wasn't a secret that Austin Rivers, the son of former Orlando Magic and current Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, had a deep affection for the University of Florida and Billy Donovan.
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He had been attending the Gators' basketball camp since he was in seventh grade. His older sister, Callie, is a member of the Florida volleyball team. Older brother Jeremiah, now at Indiana, was recruited by Donovan three years ago.
But for the youngest of the Rivers' kids to announce UF would be his future college and make that announcement in early July? After just his freshman year at Winter Park High School? At the age of 15?
It was news that caused some tight lips and shakes of the head around the country. In mid-June, the board of directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches announced it strongly opposed 10th-grade students and younger making commitments to college programs.
NABC president Tubby Smith, the head coach at the University of Minnesota, is a good friend of Donovan. But when the NABC announced its stance, Smith had declared: "The academic and athletic profiles of these younger students are still very much works in progress. Coaches and athletes need to respect the process and allow development to occur in both areas prior to making commitments."
The NABC board asked men's college coaches to "refrain from offering or encouraging these young people to make such commitments."
So much for that request?
Recruits do not become officially binded to a college until they sign letters-of-intent -- the earliest of which can be during the early basketball signing period in November for high school seniors. Likewise, schools can not discuss a recruit until they sign.
But the fact UF avoided that plea by not discouraging Rivers' announcement just two weeks after it was made may have been the shot heard around the college basketball recruiting world.
NABC president Jim Haney hinted recently that his organization may go ahead and approach the NCAA about proposing legislation to make it against the rules to accept commitments from high school underclassmen. Rivers is the fourth commitment Donovan has gotten from a sophomore, others including Mike Miller, Teddy Dupay and Nick Calathes. All three went on to become star players.
Of course, Florida is not alone.
Southern Cal coach Tim Floyd accepted a verbal commitment from eighth-grader Ryan Boatright last year. Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie has received verbal commitments from both an eighth-grader (guard Michael Avery) and ninth-grader (forward Vinny Zollo) in his first two summers on campus.
Donovan also has a pretty strong case for going against the NABC's wishes. In addition to his family ties, Rivers, a 6-foot-3 guard, is already considered one of the top prospects in the 2011 class and one of just two rising sophomores invited to the Steve Nash Skills Academy in New Jersey after averaging 14 points as a freshman last season.
Donovan argues the main concern is that so many college coaches are now working camps for kids in seventh and eighth grades and offering them scholarships.
"I understand that being a problem,"
he said. "But also I think when you've got a situation with somebody that there is a relationship that goes on for a very, very long period of time, I don't think there is anything wrong with . . . I think it comes down to families that are making decisions."
