Morgan entering critical time period
People say basketball games are won on the
court. This is only half correct.
The other way games are won is in the recruiting
wars.
Eric Boyum
These wars begin tomorrow and continue
through November.
This three-month time table begins the
early signing period when college coaches can contact high-school and junior-college
players in attempts to lure them to universities with promises of filled
arenas, television exposure and education.
Some of these promises are truthful. Some
are hogwash.
The next three-month recruiting period
could determine how many games the 49ers will win in the next few years.
For men's basketball Head Coach Wayne Morgan,
the next two months may determine how long he will keep his job.
Morgan is entering his fourth year of a
five-year contract. All of the players now on his roster are players he
has recruited.
None are left over from former Head Coach
Seth GreenbergÍs program.
As a result, Bill Shumard, LBSU athletic
director, is expecting results, not next year, but this year.
Morgan will have at least three seniors,
possibly four in his starting lineup this season if DÍCean Bryant
is granted an additional year of eligibility as a Prop 48 qualifier.
The NCAA is expected to grant Bryant this
additional year because he has fulfilled his graduation requirements in
the given time of less than four years as mandated by the NCAA.
These seniors will be joining junior shooting
guard Ramel "Rock" Lloyd in the starting lineup.
Lloyd has been tabbed as the favorite to
earn Big West Conference player of the year honors by Lindy's Magazine.
It should be noted that this is the same
publication that predicted Bryant would finish as a preseason All-Big West
Conference selection last year. Bryant did not.
If Morgan can mold this group of upperclassmen
together and make a run at the Big West Conference championship, he may
be rewarded with a new multi-year contract.
The next batch of players Morgan will build
his team around will come from this yearÍs recruiting class.
Tom Lewis, MorganÍs assistant coach
for four years, has been given the title of director of recruiting to help
Morgan with this.
It will be the focus of Lewis to get California
recruits to attend school close to home as Morgan did as an assistant coach
with New York City's recruits at Syracuse.
Morgan recruited Sherman Douglas, Ron Seikaly
and Derrick Coleman, all of whom went on to the NBA.
Now the question remains: Can Morgan and
Lewis land a big-chip player at Long Beach State?
Morgan said last season that a blue-chip
player must be "the right fit" to attend a school such as LBSU.
The Big West Conference, which the 49ers
are a member of, does not carry a "big time" basketball reputation. Nor
does LBSU itself.
This lack of reputation is a problem when
it comes to convincing a player to come to a smaller school such as LBSU.
It is hard to compete with similar offers when they are coming from the
likes of Duke, Stanford and UCLA Ñ all of which are traditional powerhouses
in basketball.
So Morgan and his staff must sell the good
weather, sunshine and beaches to East Coast recruits and hope LBSU may
intrigue a local player to stay close to home.
If you build it they will come. And in
the case of Morgan, he has had nearly four seasons to build it.
However, the bottom line remains: If the
49ers begin to win more games than they lose, the whole recruiting pitch
will get much easier for Morgan and Lewis to sell.
Eric Boyum is the sports editor of the
Daily Forty-Niner. |
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