Rick Rickert made it clear: He was going to Arizona. Then Rick Rickert’s parents made it clear: They wanted Minnesota coach Dan Monson to continue recruiting their son anyway.
Eventually the McDonald’s All-America forward from Duluth, Minn., reneged on his initial oral commitment and joined Monson and the Golden Gophers. In light of Indiana still recruiting Eric Gordon after his oral commitment to Illinois, it is indicative of the forces tugging at both players and coaches in the process.
“They’re 16, 17 years old,” Monson said of recruits. “The process is a lot of times recruiting the parents as well as the student-athlete. In my instance I did it, I felt justified. Am I proud I did it? No. Do I want to ever do it again? No. But to say it doesn’t happen or never would happen again isn’t reality.”
Monson said the practice of recruiting players after commitments is “a bad thing that is becoming way too common.” Just ask new Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin. Shortly after taking the job, he received a call from a recruit who was committed elsewhere–but the coach who recruited the player had left the school.
Cronin said he wouldn’t get involved unless the player told the other coaching staff first.
“We elect to take the oral commitments, it’s part of what we do,” Cronin said. “It’s never going to be an exact science. But it’s a problem–you promise a spot to a guy and you stop recruiting other people.”
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bhamilton@tribune.com
