The inspirational story — one that’s become a rare underdog anecdote in Michael Jordan folklore — goes something like this: Jordan gets cut from his high school varsity team sophomore year, improves, comes back and becomes the best player ever.

These days, though, a similar scenario might unfold more like this: The next talented basketball player gets cut sophomore year, misses a key recruiting period and never gets another sniff from Division I recruiters.

Today college coaches begin scouting earlier than ever before, hoping to gain an edge on increasingly steadfast competition.

“We’re already evaluating sophomores,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Things are being moved up a little bit, and that can lead to bad decisions.”

Think that’s bad? Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said he’s recruited players in sixth and seventh grade.

The trend toward earlier and more intense recruiting came under scrutiny this summer when Derrick Caracter, then a 6-foot-9, 286-pound rising ninth-grader from Scotch Plains, N.J., asserted himself as one of the most dominant players in a Nike showcase camp.

In front of top college coaches and NBA scouts, the 14-year-old turned himself into an instant celebrity — and assured himself of four high school years of unceasing attention.

“Now, everything’s pushed up,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said, “so you have to be a part of cultivating relationships from an early point.”

And that’s the challenge, because strict NCAA rules prevent many kinds of contact between college recruiters and prospects before the middle of a player’s junior season.

For example, players are only allowed to make an official campus visit after Jan. 1 of their junior years. Assistant coaches cannot even telephone a recruit until March of that year and are allowed only one call per month.

Therefore, much of the early contact is done through unofficial visits — allowed at any time except during July. Unofficial visits require prospects to pay for most of the expenses incurred during the trip.

“You try to get things under way as soon as possible and watch them,” SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins said. “You try to meet (recruits) unofficially as often as possible and kind of develop that relationship.”

So long as the relationship doesn’t flourish into a commitment, there’s little reason for concern, SU assistant coach Troy Weaver said. Yet there’s no NCAA rule guarding against verbal commitments from high school underclassmen — something that’s becoming more and more common.

In consecutive weeks this summer, two high school stars who just wrapped up their sophomore years committed to a pair of ACC schools. First, DeMarcus Nelson, a 6-foot-3 guard from Vallejo, Calif., gave Duke its earliest commitment of coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career. Days later, JamesOn Curry, selected North Carolina.

“I don’t think it’s a good thing,” Weaver said. “You could get a commitment from a sophomore, and that happens all the time now. But the risk is that once he’s set with a commitment, he might lay back and not progress or develop like he should.”

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This and that

Former SU player Damone Brown, who spent his rookie season in the NBA last year with Philadelphia, was waived last week by the 76ers. Brown averaged 3.9 minutes last year and never gained the weight that Philly coach Larry Brown desired. … Freshman Matt Gorman added a measure of intimidation to his game this weekend, shaving his head bald. … Syracuse opens its two-game exhibition schedule Tuesday with a game against the Nike Elite at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.

Published on October 29, 2002 at 12:00 pm