Stephanie Ready wasn't the only female in the gym at the Nike Peach Jam in Augusta, Ga., last week. She was, however, the only female Division I college assistant recruiting the male players on the court.
The Coppin State assistant stood out to her fellow coaches, not to mention to the players and the summer league coaches in the crowd. But, that is exactly what she and legendary Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell want in a shortened July recruiting calendar that resumes with a second week of recruiting July 25-31 in Las Vegas, Orlando and Los Angeles.
"Because I'm the only one, I stand out in people's minds," said the 25-year old Ready, who is one of two female Division I assistant coaches. The other one, Jennifer Johnston of Oakland University (Mich.), isn't on the road recruiting.
"You're always trying to separate yourself in recruiting from the hundreds of other schools in the summer months and when you're handing out business cards, there is a good chance they'll remember me," Ready said.
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When I'm out there, the guys playing notice I'm a scout and a woman. They start calling me 'Ms. Scout' ... sometimes, the curiosity alone gets us in the door. ” |
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— Stephanie Ready,
Coppin State assistant coach |
Ready, however, isn't a gimmick.
Mitchell, who is 269-172 in 15 seasons at Coppin State, is known to be a trailblazer in the biz, in part because of his scheduling of guarantee games that make a low-profile school out of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference into an NCAA Tournament Cinderella (just ask South Carolina in 1997 when 15th seeded Coppin State beat the second-seeded Gamecocks).
But Mitchell didn't put Ready and recruiting together right away, even though he was convinced a basketball-savvy woman with a strong and outgoing personality would be a hit with families during in-home visits with recruits.
He watched Ready when she played for the Coppin State women's team from 1993-97 and liked her fire on the court. The 5-foot-8 Ready also lettered in volleyball in 1996 and '97. Once she finished school, Mitchell, who doubles as the school's athletic director, wanted Ready to take over the volleyball program after he struggled to find a coach in a national search. She did and, he said, turned a team that lost 127 straight games into a competitive program.
When it was time to find an assistant for his staff, he said it was a no-brainer to hire Ready three years ago. Ready was the restricted earnings coach her first season and spent last summer on the road as a recruiter. This is her second summer recruiting and likely her most productive.
"When I look at a person, I look at their character and I want my players to reflect the positive beliefs the person has," Mitchell said. "If you could clone her, I would appreciate it. She has been great. She goes out there and knows how tough the recruiting wars are. We'll start to reap the benefits next year."
Ready admits she's more of a "closer" in the home. That's where she and Mitchell agree she can relate more to a family than any other coach.
"She's talking to parents and if you look at the sport of basketball, there are a lot of minorities involved and the fact is you have a high percentage of single-parent families," Mitchell said. "There isn't a problem having a woman talking to a woman. She can communicate well and take advantage of that."
Ready said talking to mothers is where she excels, especially when the Eagles are recruiting a player from the West Coast or Texas, hours away by plane from Coppin State's Baltimore campus.
"If the mom is hesitant to send her kid, she's not as much after talking to me," Ready said.
Mitchell said he doesn't see a problem of Ready coaching men. After all, plenty of men coach women and Ready knows her boundaries. During the season, she enters the locker room after the players are dressed. Ready, who oversees scouting late in the season, prepared for the pregame talk on a chalkboard she rolled into the locker room when the players were dressed and ready. She said she has never had a problem with the players.
"It's just like the other side when men coach women," Ready said. "They don't barge in."
Ready handled all the individual instruction for the Eagles in the spring after sharing the responsibilities in the fall with assistant Jimmy Dubose. Ready was originally supposed to work solely with the guards but worked with the big men as well. She took over the offense last season, putting in a playbook for the team for every game, with Mitchell handling the defense.
Ready isn't using this summer as experience toward landing a head women's job. She's in the men's game to stay.
"If I cross over to the women's game, I won't be able to come back," Ready said. "Men can come back and forth, but once I go, I won't be able to get another men's job."
Ready believes she could land a head coaching job eventually and it doesn't have to be at Coppin State. She expects more Division I schools to hire women assistants in the future.
"A lot have considered it and now coach Mitchell has done it," Ready said. "He's setting a precedent and you'll see more. There's no reason why you shouldn't. My goal is to be a head coach, but coach Mitchell isn't leaving anytime soon so I might have to leave the nest eventually."
Next week she's off to Las Vegas and Los Angeles to continue to evaluate possible Coppin State recruits. The pressure is on the low-profile schools to get as many looks as possible in a shorter time. Most of the elite schools are already looking at juniors with commitments from rising seniors. The 10-day dead period from July 15-25 hurts the low-profile schools as they try to play catchup and figure out who is left to see in the final week of recruiting this month.
There's a good chance Ready will at least be seen when she's on the road next week.
"When I'm out there, the guys playing notice I'm a scout and a woman," Ready said. "They start calling me 'Ms. Scout' and keep walking by. We can't talk (NCAA rules), but when the coach does talk to me about Coppin State's interest, sometimes, the curiosity alone gets us in the door."
Kedrick Brown blazing a trail
LSU coach Kermit Davis might not be the only one shying away from junior college players if they follow Kedrick Brown's path. Brown burned the Tigers when the signee out of Okaloosa-Walton (Fla.) CC declared for the draft.
Brown went No. 11 to the Celtics and already is a hit with Boston after a double-double at the Shaw's Summer Pro League in Boston earlier this week.
"After what happened with Kedrick Brown, we've talked about getting more four-year players," said Davis, who lost Stromile Swift a year earlier after only one-and-a half seasons at LSU. "We'd like some three-year players at the very least. We used to think the JC players were the safest area but we're skeptical about that now. We got Stromile and we won the SEC (West). But Gonzaga has four-year guys and look what they've done."
Brown said he anticipates more JC players following him to the NBA. He said he doesn't know why NBA scouts haven't reached into the JUCO talent pool in the past, but he's confident they will in the near future. He said Kei Madison, a former Indiana and Alabama signee who will be at Okaloosa-Walton this summer, could play with the talent at the summer league.
Meanwhile, Brown's and Madison's coach, Bruce Stewart, anticipates Madison will bolt for the NBA. He wouldn't be surprised to see Wabash Valley guard Antwain Barbour, who is a finalist for the World University Games team heading to China in August, and Northeast Mississippi JC forward Qyntel Woods declaring for the draft. All three have Division I eligibility remaining and Woods committed to Memphis. Memphis coach John Calipari can't talk about Woods, but is aware of the push to get Woods into the draft.
But, like DaJuan Wagner in the spring, Calipari is still confident that Woods will ultimately choose the Tigers.
"There will be two to three JC players in the draft every year," said Stewart, a former college and CBA coach. "Kedrick is opening the door for everyone this season."
The last JC player to go in the first round was Alek Radejovic to Toronto in 1999 but the 7-1 center hasn't been able to contribute significantly. Second-round JC picks in 2000 -- Ernest Brown and Cory Hightower -- weren't able to stick, either.
|  | | Mike Davis has done a great job selling 2002 recruits on Indiana. |
Davis making an impact
Indiana coach Mike Davis is on the verge of a stellar recruiting class before the end of the month, making his impact on the Hoosiers felt in just his first summer as a fulltime head coach.
Davis secured the commitment of Marshall Strickland, a 6-2 guard from Winchendon School (Mass.). He's close to getting 6-8 Sean May (Bloomington North/Ind.), 6-3 wing Bracey Wright (The Colony High/Texas) and 6-1 John Gilchrist (Virginia Beach Salem High/Va.).
"This says a lot about coach Davis," said May, whose father, Scott, played for former Indiana coach Bob Knight. "He can still recruit. He'll turn Indiana's program around like it was in the '70s and '80s if he gets a class like that."
Gilchrist said the reason he was intrigued by Davis was his "genuine heart," and his ability to be "real with you, like a father. I respect him for that."
Wright said Davis' composure during the interim year made him believe in Davis as a head coach.
"He stayed strong after Bob Knight was fired," Wright said. "Whenever I talk to coach Davis it's productive. None of us have played together but we know our strengths and weaknesses. If everyone is there then we could make a push for a national championship."
Nike put Gilchrist and May on the same team, with assistant coach and counselor Jared Jeffries of Indiana, at camp last week. But Jeffries could bolt after his sophomore season, making the decisions of May, Gilchrist and Wright unrelated to Jeffries.
"I'd love to play with Jared, but the chances of him being there are slim," May said. "He might stay if all four of us came, but I can't guarantee that. He'll make the best decision for him. I could go there whether or not he's there."
Weekly Chatter
A controversy is brewing between the organizers of the Coaches vs. Cancer and the American Cancer Society over the dispersal of funds from the tournament that each group receives. A potential divorce might lead to the two splitting for the 2002 season, not to mention a difficult decision for Syracuse.
The Orangemen are committed to the 2002 event, but under the headline of the Coaches vs. Cancer, considering that coach Jim Boeheim is the chair of Coaches vs. Cancer for the National Association of Basketball Coaches. But the organizers, New Jersey-based Gazelle Group, have a contract for nine more years at Madison Square Garden and three more with ESPN.
The American Cancer Society already began contacting teams like Gonzaga about the 2002 event, but it wouldn't have an exempted status (meaning the games only count for one not two on the schedule) because the NCAA put a moratorium on exempted events. The ACS wouldn't have a TV contract or Madison Square Garden and would likely have to hold a tournament on campus, sometime during the regular season.
The Gazelle Group has the second week of November, usually the 8-9, locked up at MSG. The Gazelle group would likely join with another charity to put on a similar event. Syracuse would only be in the Gazelle Group event if it went to a charitable organization. If not, then the Orangemen would back out of the deal and schedule another home game in 2002-03. They would then be eligible for another exempted tournament in 2003-04.
Meanwhile, tournaments run by companies like the Gazelle Group are going to file a court injunction against the NCAA on Monday because of the two-and-four rule. The rule allows schools to go to two exempted tournaments in four years, but the organizers claim they don't have enough teams to fill their tournaments with this rule. The moratorium the NCAA put down is in effect until January 2004. Close to 36 tournaments have been certified for the 2001-02 season, including the IKON Classic, benefiting the Coaches vs. Cancer, which will feature Temple-Florida and Maryland-Arizona.
There seems to be some confusion among college coaches about the starting date for the 2002-03 season. Schools can play regular-season games beginning Nov. 22, 2002 (exempted tournaments like Coaches vs. Cancer and the Preseason NIT can begin earlier). A number of coaches assumed the starting date is similar to the 2001-02 season when it begins on Nov. 16. But the NCAA confirmed the Nov. 22 date to coincide with the 136 days, including Sundays, in between the starting date and the Final Four. The Final Four in New Orleans in 2003 will be one of the latest ever, with the semifinals on April 5 and the national championship on April 7.
The NCAA management council meets Aug. 9 and the board of directors Aug. 10 in Indianapolis where they could (that's could) decide to put in immediate legislation to suspend the 5/8 eight scholarship limitation. The rule -- which has come under fire from the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the ACC and the Big 12 -- limits schools to only five scholarships in a given recruiting class (that actually gets on campus in the fall) and eight in two years. Instead of suspending the legislation, the Basketball Issues Committee is expected to take up the matter when it meets in September with the possibility the management council could address it again in October. If that's the case then it could be immediately suspended after the November early-signing period but more likely for the spring signing period in April of 2002.
The 5/8 rule is catching a few schools already.
Marquette has two scholarships left to give to get to 13 for 2002-03, but can only use one because of the 5/8 rule. The Eagles signed five players last year and have two commitments this summer. They can't sign two more because that would put them at nine in two seasons. Marquette tried to be done with recruiting -- an amazing feat for a school not considered one of the elite right now -- but Detroit Crockett High shooting guard Maurice Ager spurned the Eagles, Michigan and Missouri and committed to Michigan State. The power for Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is still strong in the state, even with Tommy Amaker on board at Michigan as his top competition and Missouri assistant Tony Harvey a mainstay in the recruiting circuit in his native state.
The ineligibility of foreign athletes because of the recent letters sent out by the NCAA challenging any players who played with pros overseas will be a hot topic next week in Las Vegas. Division I head coaches are expected to meet prior to the Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas next week.
Cal coach Ben Braun is waiting to see what comes out of the meeting before he pursues any legal action on behalf of Amit Tamir, the 6-11 Israeli who committed to play for the Bears this season. Tamir played on an Israeli team with former Indiana Pacer Haywoode Workman and would have to sit for every game he played with a pro. Coaches like Braun believe that if this rule is enforced then foreigners won't come to the U.S. to play college basketball in the future. A number of coaches like Braun say foreign players could seek compensation from the NCAA for years they turned it down because they thought they would be NCAA eligible.
Temple might have found a replacement for Cincinnati on its home schedule with Charlotte on Dec. 1 in Philadelphia. The Owls were offered a chance to play at Minnesota Dec. 10 on ESPN, but they desperately want a home game after being snubbed by the Bearcats two years in a row. Temple would return the game to Charlotte. If the Atlantic 10 Owls add the 49ers then they'll have a loaded Conference USA home schedule with Memphis (and all of Camden in attendance to watch DaJuan Wagner) and DePaul.
The Pete Newell Challenge, set with San Francisco against Michigan, and Stanford versus Michigan State in Oakland, is going up against Louisville-Kentucky Saturday, Dec. 29 (on CBS at 4 p.m. ET). But the Newell challenge is usually played at night and is looking for a television outlet. The Newell contacted ESPN and it's reviewing the package after Fox's deal ran out. Fox could still decide to pursue the contract for the event. Meanwhile, more tickets should be available with Cal out of the event. But the Bears and Cardinal committed for the 2002 event.
Cincinnati was expected to finally fill its assistant opening with Michael Wilson from Auburn. But it didn't work out and Wilson stayed at Auburn. Huggins is now turning to Andy Kennedy from UAB. If Kennedy is hired then he'll replace Mick Cronin on the road, who went to Louisville, and would likely join Keith LeGree on the road recruiting.
The Five Star Basketball Camp in Pittsburgh has had better players then normal because of the 10-day dead period. Top players like Lenny Cooke, Raymond Felton, Jason Fraser and even Tony Key, the 7-foot undrafted high school player who declared for the draft, were expected to make appearances this week.
Texas Tech coach Bob Knight wasn't at the adidas or Nike camps last week but did make an appearance at the Great American Shootout in Denton, Texas. TCU coach Billy Tubbs spent some time with Knight and said he was in great spirits. He said Knight was going to take advantage of the dead period, like a number of other coaches, and go on a trip -- fishing in Alaska. A lot of coaches have taken the 10 days to go on vacation (Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton went to Europe) while others are at home making recruiting calls and catching up with their present players. Coaches can't hold camps with players who are recruitable athletes (that means high school). "I don't know what to do with myself," Tubbs said.
Okalahoma is one of the schools desperately still trying to fill its schedule. The Sooners need a game in Oklahoma City on Dec. 28 and another in Norman for a guarantee with the dates being negotiable on the latter.
Fresno State president John Welty pulled the plug on the Bulldogs playing at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas against Gonzaga (Dec. 6). Both teams were part of a doubleheader with Pepperdine and USC at the same venue. But the whole event is in doubt with Fresno State's decision. Organizers are trying to move it to the Forum in Los Angeles. If it still occurs, then Fresno State would have to drop a game, likely Pepperdine at home. Fresno State committed to a game against new Division I member Savannah State, including paying for their airline tickets.
Gonzaga vs. St. Joseph's is on for New Year's Eve in Philadelphia on ESPN2.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com. His Weekly Word on college basketball is updated Thursdays/Fridays throughout the year.
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