Taylor wants out
Written by: Todd Rosiak
Spoke with both Tyshawn Taylor and his coach at St. Anthony, the legendary Bob Hurley, and both said in no uncertain terms on Wednesday morning that Taylor is seeking to be released by MU.
"We're in the process of sending a letter to Marquette asking to be released from his scholarship," said Hurley. "I think the process of having to wait now for them to decide who their new coach is, and then having to find out if he knows anything about this kid that we care about...this is what's wrong with college basketball.
"From our end, we were going to be loyal to Marquette, and what happens is this is another example of the National Letter of Intent being only binding to the minor, not the adult."
Taylor said he spoke to Buzz Williams earlier today and that Williams couldn't offer much insight into what was going on.
"He told me that he was out of town when Coach Crean got the call from Indiana," he said. "He said Coach Crean called him and asked him to come to his house, and he had a meeting with the coaches or whatever. He didn't know too much. He said he was going to have a meeting with the AD this morning or this afternoon, and he was going to keep me posted on what was going on.
"He said he's not too sure about what he's going to do, so he said he can't tell me too much because he doesn't know too much."
Hurley said at this point, assuming Taylor will be released, he can't see a scenario in which Taylor will wind up at MU.
"I don't see it right now," Hurley said. "Never say never, but I don't see it because I just think in the recruiting process, that's the influence a head coach can have on a kid. We say to kids all the time, 'Build a relationship with the assistant coaches; don't grow too close to them because they can be moving on. The head coach is going to be the person that's going answer all your questions for the next four years.'
"We've got to be confident about the next thing. We're not going to leave him hanging at the end of his senior year, wondering what's going to happen."
As far as Taylor, he said it likely would take Williams remaining on the staff in some capacity to come to MU.
"I think the only way I end up at Marquette is if Coach Williams gets the head-coaching job, or if Coach Williams and another one of the assistants is still there," he said. "Coach Williams recruited me and I really want to play for him. I think that's probably the only way."
Hurley said other schools haven't wasted much time trying to get back in the mix with Taylor.
"It's going to work itself out," he said. "The amount of phone calls I received this morning from schools that are interested in him made me call him to say, 'Don't worry; everything's going to be fine.' At the same time, he was going to Marquette University -- no disrespect to Marquette University -- and Milwaukee, Wisconsin to play for Tom Crean."
(http://blogs.jsonline.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=141314)
http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/04/02/taylor-wants-out.aspx
Like I said, we need to keep Buzz on as an assistant. That will make all or most of the recruits happy.
here is what i think we should do... keep buzz as interim head coach, until a suitable (big name and appropriate) coach can be ink'd. This should keep the recruits happy for now, and hopefully the team will be happy enough to stay on board this ship.
If I were Buzz, I might be like "screw you, I know you're just using me."
Buzz might just need a few extra $$$ to get over that.
Crean continues to be painted in a great light! He's a helluva guy!
Quote from: PuertoRicanNightmare on April 02, 2008, 01:18:47 PM
Crean continues to be painted in a great light! He's a helluva guy!
Depends on where you sit PRN. IU fans are eating him up, so is Hurley and the kids he coaches. That's just reality.
Taylor should get released from his LOI for the reasons Hurley stated. I hate to see him go, but its not fair to him that Crean told him he would be his coach and then bolted. Taylor should be able to go to the school of his choice, and if that's no longer MU, then so be it. That said, I'd love to see him next year. Good luck to him.
Hurley is absolutely right. I was looking forward to seeing Taylor play, but he's not Eric Gordon. Let him go.
This is my biggest concern with this entire fiasco. Losing recruits and the possibility of Trevor transferring to Minnesota. I could care less about Tan Crean, Crean and Crimson, whatever...he took a job he wanted. A great head coaching job at that. It was shady the way it all went down but nonetheless he moved on to greener pastures. End of story. It's the domino effect that will most definitely take place in the next week or in the next month.
I agree that the worst part of all this by far is the possible loss of players, next year's committed players, and most importantly recruiting down the road.
That said, I think the school holding the LOI should at least be given a reasonable amount of time to hire a coach and try to convince the kid to come there before he is released from his obligation.
I think MU should not release any of the recruits from their LOI considering they DID NOT have to actually sign one in the first place. Secondly, there should be some accountability on these kids parts until a successor has been chosen. HS coaches need to begin to advise their players to not sign LOI's unless they are truly tied to the program and not just a coach; because they can decline to sign and still attend the university and even conversely can be dropped from their LOI's for any paultry reason such as grades, injury or etc. It may be a flawed system that hold much of the power in the hands of the university but if decided to sign a binding document that god damn it, live by that decision.
Quote from: CAINMUTINY on April 02, 2008, 02:10:38 PM
It may be a flawed system that hold much of the power in the hands of the university but if decided to sign a binding document that god damn it, live by that decision.
replace the party holding the power with "coach" and you could be talking about NCAA head coaches right there.
Either way these kids need to be advised that the current system of LOI's is optional and doesn't guarantee them much at all; and should they press on and sign a LOI then they need to live up to it PERIOD.