Colleges Wait to Hear Their Name Called by Elite Recruit

[Tugg Speedman]

April 16, 2010
Colleges Wait to Hear Their Name Called by Elite Recruit
By KEVIN ARMSTRONG

BALTIMORE — Last Friday evening, Josh Selby, the nation’s most explosive high school guard yet to commit to a college, walked out the back door of Lake Clifton High School here with the Tennessee assistant Steve Forbes. The two kept chatting as they approached a light-blue Mercedes-Benz with tinted windows. Selby, keys in hand, popped the trunk, threw sneakers in it and joked with Forbes. Selby said goodbye, and drove away. It was Selby’s last visit from a coach before making his college decision.

“It’s not a fairy tale, but this has been surreal,” said Selby’s mother, Maeshon Witherspoon, who keeps photographs of her and Forbes on a wall in her room.

The demand for Selby has increased throughout the protracted recruiting process. With legs that double as trampolines, Selby has attacked the rim with ferocity while bouncing around to three high schools in four years. He originally committed to Tennessee but then in July chose to reopen the competition, which now includes a host of blue-chip programs: Kansas, Kentucky, Connecticut and Arizona.

On Saturday night, Selby’s whirlwind journey will finally come to an end when he announces his decision in his characteristically outsize way, on national television during the Jordan Brand Classic at Madison Square Garden.

It is the culmination of years of anticipation for a player who has dazzled coaches since he first took to the court and has attracted a bevy of suitors.

Lake Clifton Coach Herman Harried had long heard about Selby’s skills and first saw him play two years ago.

“Josh made it so hard for me to keep a straight face and composure,” he said. “He would give me a look after a dunk like, ‘How you like that?’ I would just turn away. I knew some of the stuff he was doing was outrageous.”

Selby said that Kansas Coach Bill Self joked that his whole staff would be fired if Selby did not sign with the Jayhawks. An Indiana fan wrote on his Facebook page that he would “slap his own mother” to have Selby suit up for the Hoosiers. Runners for agents have called, sent e-mail messages and walked up to his mother at gyms. Witherspoon is currently taking online courses in sports management to better understand what is happening with her son.

“Now don’t take that to mean I’m trying to be an agent,” Witherspoon said.

Even though N.C.A.A. rules forbid players to have agents, that has not stopped a host of would-be agents from trying with Selby. When inquiries became too much, Witherspoon said, friends recommended she speak with Robert Frazier, who goes by Bay and is the business manager for the Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, who is also from Baltimore.

Witherspoon said she soon recognized Frazier from her elementary school, and now talks regularly with him. “Bay’s been a lifesaver; so glad we reconnected,” said Witherspoon, who previously worked as a manager at McDonald’s and the overnight supervisor at a Kmart. Later, she added: “He’s behind the scenes providing a place for us to meet with coaches and giving so much information. He don’t need us. To be honest, we need him.”

Frazier is just one example of the increasing role that advisers play in the recruitment of elite athletes. As long as there is no contract between the family and the adviser, the relationship hovers in a gray area where the N.C.A.A. has little say.

“It’s a new hustle in Baltimore,” Frazier said. “People think they can take a kid out for a meal or buy him something, but that’s not what I am about. I’ve had relationships with Carmelo and Josh since they’ve been young.”

When it came time for college recruiters to visit Selby, Witherspoon, who lives in a house with her mother, Pat, asked Frazier if she could host the college coaches at his home instead. Shortly after midnight on the first date that coaches could visit prospects in their homes, UConn Coach Jim Calhoun and an assistant showed up at Frazier’s door.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ ” Selby said. “I thought I was dreaming.”

Selby acknowledged Calhoun but quickly excused himself. He said he had class in the morning.

Frazier has promoted Selby on Twitter, mentioning that he is going to see the guard, whose Twitter name is Misundastood32. He also posted that he attended Kansas’ game against Missouri in January and likened it to the atmosphere that Anthony enjoyed in his year at Syracuse. The Jayhawks are considered the favorites to land Selby.

“Bay and I are just two goofballs getting along,” Selby said.

At the N.B.A. Players Association Camp in Charlottesville, Va., Selby was approached by William Wesley, an influential power broker in college basketball circles, after a game. Wesley, who is known as Worldwide Wes and now represents coaches in the N.B.A. and college ranks as an agent, asked Selby, “Can you play?”

Selby said, “Didn’t you just watch the last game?”

Selby walked away, and Wesley, put off by the affront, was introduced to Selby’s mother after a later game and told her that her son needed to watch his mouth because he did not realize who he was talking to. He also advised her to hire a track coach to help improve Selby’s speed.

“When he said his name, my face froze,” Witherspoon said. “I was like, ‘You’re the infamous Wes. You’re the guy who everyone told me to stay away from.’ I had read all those pages about him being powerful in GQ.”

Witherspoon said Wesley recently called to congratulate her son on winning the McDonald’s All-American dunk contest last month.

As a single mother, Witherspoon said she had done all that she could to help educate her son. She attributes most of the ups and downs of his development to her own trial-and-error approach to life. Selby said he had seen drug transactions and a pistol-whipping in his East Baltimore neighborhood.

“Deaths here make us look like the L.A. Lakers,” Witherspoon said. “Back-to-back-to-back.”

Selby has spent most of his time on basketball courts, like the legendary playground called The Dome with a tin roof over an open concrete court with barbecue grills on the sideline. When he explodes on the court, fans have said he is “frying” the competition. On the steps outside his apartment, he has done so many toe raises that he said he “feels like I could use a wheelchair because I’m crippled.” Endurance is not a problem. He ran cross-country in the fall for the first time, and wears a tattoo that reads “Brothers Dat Ball all Day.”

“I never said he was an English major,” Witherspoon said.

There has been at least one teacher who helped Selby through his development. His name is Scottie Bowden and he was a principal at Golden Ring Middle School when Selby was a student. He then coached him with the Baltimore Select team, which he helped found in 1992.

Bowden has remained a supporter, offering advice and sometimes allowing Selby to drive his Mercedes-Benz.

“He told me he’s going to get me a Benz when he makes the N.B.A.,” said Bowden, who is now a coach with Anthony’s team, Team Melo. “I told him that’s not what this is about. I’m not in this for gain. I’m in it to see him succeed.”

[mu_hilltopper]

I can't read enough stories about elite recruits who won't play for Marquette.  Keep 'em coming!

[VegasWarrior77]

I wish I could have been driving a Benz when I was a senior in high school!

[martyconlonontherun]

To be fair, his mom could've had a great job and got it by the books...........Oh wait, she works at McDonalds and Kmart and they live in a bad neighborhood.

Yea, that adds up.

[tower912]

So, he disses WWW and Wes is offended and makes an implied threat.   Same guy who keeps directing players to Coach Octopus.   Nothing shady there.  

[spartan3186]

To be fair, his mom could've had a great job and got it by the books...........Oh wait, she works at McDonalds and Kmart and they live in a bad neighborhood.

Yea, that adds up.

Maybe you should read the entire article. The last paragraph basically explains that he was driving his coach's car.

[4everwarriors]

Just another example of the twisted priorities that have infested this country and how hero worship contibutes to the moral and ethical wasteland we find ourselves a part of. Because someone is a talented actress or proficient with a basketball in their hands is no reason for people to prostitute themselves for this absolutely worthless skill.

[Tugg Speedman]

Just another example of the twisted priorities that have infested this country and how hero worship contributes to the moral and ethical wasteland we find ourselves a part of. Because someone is a talented actress or proficient with a basketball in their hands is no reason for people to prostitute themselves for this absolutely worthless skill.

This doesn't happen to successful businesspeople or politicians.  Here is the difference.  Businesspeople/politicians are seen as educate and of strong opinions.  They are perceived as sure of themselves and therefore hard to influence.

Athletes and actors, on the other hand, are seen as lesser educated and unsure of themselves (insecure).  The con artists of the world (WWW) think that can smooth talk these types of of their money. 

[Dawson Rental]

This doesn't happen to successful businesspeople or politicians.  Here is the difference.  Businesspeople/politicians are seen as educate and of strong opinions.  They are perceived as sure of themselves and therefore hard to influence.

Athletes and actors, on the other hand, are seen as lesser educated and unsure of themselves (insecure).  The con artists of the world (WWW) think that can smooth talk these types of of their money. 

Now I know that you're not from (where's mine) Chicago!!

[Tugg Speedman]

Now I know that you're not from (where's mine) Chicago!!

You think Chicago pols are conned?  Its the exact opposite ... they are the con artist.  See the current occupant of the White House.

[jficke13]

haha. mocking chicago always amuses me.

[Wareagle]

For those interested, Selby committed to Kansas.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/news/story?id=5106954

[DaCoach]

This doesn't happen to successful businesspeople or politicians.  Here is the difference.  Businesspeople/politicians are seen as educate and of strong opinions.  They are perceived as sure of themselves and therefore hard to influence.

 

That would explain the current recession. The world and its people is not as easily defined as you seem to surmise.

[MarquetteDano]

For those interested, Selby committed to Kansas.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/news/story?id=5106954

Once again Taylor gets recruited over.  Even with Henry and Collins gone.   He averaged 23 minutes a game this past year.  Will it go up that much this next year?

[HoopsMalone]

Once again Taylor gets recruited over.  Even with Henry and Collins gone.   He averaged 23 minutes a game this past year.  Will it go up that much this next year?

Collins and Henry are leaving though.  I could see Selby and Taylor in the backcourt together.  I guess you can't ever expect to be the feature guy at a school like that.  Heck, Xavier Henry was not necessarily the featured guy there even though he was a top ranked recruit.