Recent ineligibility rulings of highly-recruited incoming freshmen brings up questions surrounding basketball academies and their usefulness. It’s also a good time to drive home the point of academic preparation.
Incoming freshman Xavier Rathan-Mayes of Huntington Prep (Huntington, W.Va.) was supposed to help Florida State make a run at the NCAAs, until the NCAA’s Eligibility Center ruled some of the coursework Rathan-Mayes completed in high school “did not satisfy” NCAA Division I initial-eligibility requirements.
According to ESPN.com, the NCAA has issues with some online classes Rathan-Mayes took at Huntington Prep and courses he took while at Christian Faith Center Academy (Creedmoor, N.C.).
Now, Rathan-Mayes is a Canadian native and probably wanted to come to the United States to expose himself to better competition and college recruiters. That’s commendable, but certainly not every kid who transfers to a basketball academy-type program is from outside the continental United States or needs the exposure those programs can offer. This is where potential trouble lies.
It almost turned into major trouble for 6-foot-7 Jordan Mickey to enroll at Prime Prep Academy (Fort Worth, Texas) after he and three of his teammates at Grace Prep (Arlington, Texas) followed coach Ray Forsett to the first-year charter school in the fall of 2012. Mickey, by all accounts, is a solid student. He was one semester’s worth of core courses from qualifying academically after his junior year and wasn’t looking to change schools to improve his scholarship chances or improve his grades. The same holds true for his former Prime Prep and Grace Prep teammate, 6-foot-10 Karviar Shepherd.
In early July, the NCAA’s Eligibility Center ruled Mikey and Shepherd ineligible to compete as freshman at LSU and TCU, respectively. Prime Prep’s administration had not completed all the necessary steps for NCAA certification and Mikey and Shepherd got caught in the middle. At the end of July, both won their academic appeal. Those two were good students going in and the appeal process worked, but not everyone who jumps schools for non-academic reasons is so lucky.
When a highly-regarded player announces he’s leaving his hometown high school for a basketball academy-type program, a generic, almost scripted type response usually follows.
“I want to test myself against some of the nation’s best players and living away from home will help better prepare me for college.”
Sound familiar?
Here’s a few key points for players to consider when mapping out their high school careers and deciding if leaving for a basketball academy-type program in right for them.
*Why am I leaving my original school?
Going to a school simply because it’s going to be in a couple of televised games is not a good reason. Some players do fall through the cracks, but if your good enough to play D1 ball 98 percent of the time it doesn’t matter which high school you play for. Chances are, you earned — or played yourself out of a scholarship — at a event that didn’t involve your high school team.
*Did you do your homework if you’re transferring?
Before you make a move, you and your parents/guardians should investigate things about the program you’re considering attending. How long has the coach been there? How long has the school been open? How many starters from the past three or four teams qualified as freshman, compared to how many didn’t?
Talking to a former player you don’t know well and one that transferred out or back home is also a good idea. Getting some feedback from somebody who won’t say just what you want to hear is always a good idea.
Some basketball academy-type programs offer a quality education and have been around for years. For instance, Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) was founded in 1878, is accredited by the Virginia Association of Independent Schools and has fielded a varsity basketball team for over 60 years. Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) is not nearly as old, but since Findlay Prep fielded its first team in 2006-07, the results have been favorable for its players. According to current UNLV assistant coach and former Findlay Prep coach Todd Simon, the school had over 40 full qualifiers as freshmen and zero non-qualifiers between 2006 and 2013. Amir Garrett, a 2011 graduate of the Pilots’ program, qualified mid-year at St. John’s, but besides him everyone else was eligible for the first game.
*Know Coaches Stretch The Truth
Now, everyone doesn’t have the opportunity to play for Oak Hill Academy or Findlay Prep, but no matter what basketball academy-type program a player is considering, know coaches will say what they have to in order to make their program look good. It’s in their DNA and just the culture of the sport. They are not going to say anything that might run a potentially good player off. It’s up to you to find out things about the program that doesn’t put it in a favorable light.
We’ve been compiling FAB 50 national rankings for over a decade and have been involved with national basketball rankings since the 1987-88 season. Many coaches have stretched the truth or flat out lied about their program, whether it be about carrying fifth-year players or about following rules of the athletic governing body in their state.
Not every kid has great options and if a coach doesn’t think you have any others, you could wind up in a bad situation like the one some foreign and domestic kids did at La Jolla Prep near San Diego, Calif. As this San Diego Union-Tribune story illustrates, it was a debacle and left a lot of players and parents with a bad taste in their mouth.
*Prepare and Get Ahead of the Curve Academically
Know the NCAA’s Eligibility Standards and the sliding scale requirements for freshman eligibility. If you have a 2.0 GPA in 16 required core courses, you must score 1010 or better on the SAT or 86 or better on the ACT. If you have a 2.5 GPA, your score at minimum must be 820 or 68 all the way up to a 3.55 GPA and above with a minimum score of 400 or 37.
Are you a low major prospect or not sure if your going to sign with a D1 school? Know there is no sliding scale at the D2 level. Every student-athlete must have at least a 820 on the SAT or a 68 on the ACT to be freshman eligible.
Years back, many kids would blow off their freshman and or sophomore year academically and were still able to make it up. The better a player you were, the more schools and colleges were willing to help you or work with you. Know you can’t blow off ninth-grade anymore, even if you’re still in a junior high school.
Even though the NCAA has reserved its decision to increase the SAT/ACT sliding scale that was supposed to go into effect in 2016, student-athletes and their parents have to know being academically prepared at the youngest age possible should be of great importance. After August 1, 2016, a full-time qualifier must complete 10 of the 16 required core courses before the beginning of the senior year i.e. seventh semester. Seven of the 10 core courses must be in English, Math or Science.
Each prospective student-athletes must register with and be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center in order to participate in athletics at a D1 or D2 college or university. (To start the process, visit eligibilitycenter.org).
If you’re prepared academically, you won’t have to scramble near the end of high school or look to leave your hometown because you have too many distractions to fulfill academic requirements. It will also lessen your chances of getting caught in a pickle like the one Rathan-Mayes is in, the ones the kids at La Jolla Prep went through or the one Chris Walker is currently going through.
A 2013 McDonald’s All-American out of Holmes County (Bonifay, Fla.), the 6-foot-10 Walker failed to qualify academically to enroll at the University of Florida for the fall semester. He’s attempting to gain eligibility for the second semester to play with the Gators beginning on December 17 against Memphis.
“Now I understand how serious high school is and that you can’t take the work lightly,” Walker told ESPN.com. “I didn’t do as well and work as hard as I should have early in high school.”
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