Tyrone Bell is getting an early start on his college education. He`s learning that sometimes the more time and care you put into making a decision, the more confusing things get.
What Evanston`s standout guard has to decide is where to play college basketball for the next four years. Players who chose not to commit last November can resume signing letters of intent beginning Wednesday.
Few of the state`s top unsigned players will have decided by then, and one reason is the turmoil in the college coaching ranks. Already, about 40 Division I head-coaching jobs are vacant or have changed hands. By the time the current round of musical chairs stops, the turnover rate may approach the record tumult of 1987, when 67 Division I programs wound up with new leaders.
Bell is no more going to consider attending a college that doesn`t yet have a head coach than Siskel and Ebert are going to settle into the balcony without knowing who a film`s director is. Bell understands the need for caution. Had he signed in November, it might have been with Illinois State. Since then, Bob Donewald has been fired despite having had only one losing season.
Among the schools Bell has considered seriously in the last month are Evansville and Marquette. But he has watched media speculation connect Evansville coach Jim Crews with every high-profile opening except Cook County state`s attorney, and Marquette coach Bob Dukiet was fired a week after the season ended. Former Arizona assistant Kevin O`Neill was named Marquette coach Saturday.
Bell delayed his decision until the spring signing period to see if he could attract additional offers and make his options clearer, so he`s finding his current predicament as sobering as it is bewildering.
”It`s made me more aware,” said Bell, who is considering Southern Illinois, Michigan State, Illinois-Chicago and Marquette. ”It`s been kind of hard the last couple of weeks. Everything started to look clear at the end of the season. Then when it ended, a lot of changes occurred. It put me in a bad situation. I`m trying to go to school to get an education and have a basketball career, and it seemed every school I considered, the coaches were moving on or getting fired.”
Bell isn`t alone in his quandary. Among Rolling Meadows center Aaron Williams` four finalists, two-Loyola and Western Michigan-lost their head coaches. He will sign with Xavier of Ohio Wednesday.
Thornwood forward Tom Best has been seriously considering Eastern Michigan and Toledo, but both schools` coaches were linked to the Marquette opening. The uncertainty made Best realize there`s little guarantee he will play for the same coach for four years.
Dunbar guard Robert Johnson was leaning heavily toward Marquette before O`Neill was hired. His coach describes him as now being ”in limbo.”
South Shore guard McGlother Irvin has drawn strong interest from St. Louis but is trying to delay a decision because better offers may develop as coaches fill openings and start recruiting for their new schools.
”There`s too many changes,” said Mac Irvin, McGlother`s father. ”You don`t know who is going to be where. Why not wait till you can make a good decision? You can go to one, and all of a sudden the guy is gone. Then the kid is stuck.”
Recruits aren`t the only ones whose plans are thrown into disarray when a head coach is fired. The college`s recruiting program immediately shifts into neutral. If the assistant coaches are also released immediately, virtually all activity stops. If they are at least temporarily retained, they fight a holding action, trying to maintain prospects` interest until the new head coach is in place.
”It`s a tough situation,” said Marquette assistant Bo Ellis, who is still under contract and hopes to be retained by O`Neill. ”I try to explain what`s going on and hope they`ll be patient for a few more days. I really have to sell the university in a situation like this. I tell the player the most important thing should be his education and what a degree from Marquette can do for you, that regardless of who is the coach, it`s a great university.”
Among schools with coaching jobs up in the air, the importance of the spring signing period varies. Illinois State has already committed all 15 of its scholarships, and Northern Illinois, where Jim Rosborough was fired, has only a couple available.
Marquette, on the other hand, had just one scholarship freshman on the team last season and signed one player last November, so O`Neill needs to add at least a couple of more recruits. Loyola, where Gene Sullivan resigned under pressure, currently has just nine scholarship players for next season.
”It`s a major concern for us,” said Loyola Athletic Director Chuck Schwarz. ”It`s important for us to bring in three or four players.”
Schwarz said no one will contact recruits until the new coach is hired, which he expects to get done by the end of April. He hopes the new coach can overcome the late start by utilizing his contacts and perhaps signing players he was pursuing at his previous address.
Although recruiting is crucial, athletic directors such as Marquette`s Bill Cords caution that it`s still more important to take enough time to select the right coach.
”Our timetable is based on signing the best possible coach,” Cords said before O`Neill`s selection was announced. ”If you don`t do that, you can`t do the other (recruit effectively).”
On top of that, it`s not just the movements of head coaches that affect recruiting. Assistants usually spend more time with a recruit and develop a closer relationship with him than does the head coach. If an assistant fills a head-coaching opening elsewhere or joins the staff at a different school, a prospect he was close to may change his mind.
When coaches leave, players already at the school often also go elsewhere, usually because they either don`t get along with the new head man or don`t fit into his system.
Evanston`s Bell wants to avoid the transfer trap. What he has learned from his crash course in coaching mobility is the importance of choosing the right school. The coach may wind up five states away, but the chemistry lab stays put.
”You have to look at the school because you never know if the coach will leave,” Bell said. ”If there`s a new coach and you can`t acclimate to his system, you`re still at a good school. You may have to sacrifice your game more than you did, but if you still like the school, you can deal with it and still get your degree.”
