eggers76 wrote:wataugan03 wrote:appgrouch wrote:Maddog1956 wrote:Three weeks since the last post here and it seems all is well!
Seems like the sports world has forgot all about it.
We may never get a recruit from Devonte's school, but if we do I bet they take their NLI serious.
Or Devonte could turn into another Donte and it serve as a warning about trying things that this.
One thing about Donte though . . . he came back and was the difference maker that gave us one of our greatest seasons ever. There is no way he would have come here if we had refused to let him out of his LOI and made him burn a year of eligibility while he was prepping. While there is no doubt that we can fully enforce the LOI, we are operating outside of custom. When you bypass custom you piss people off, even if you are within your rights to do so. The national media has certainly forgotten about this, but the Garner Road program hasn't. And the elite HS basketball community in Raleigh is very small. Its nothing like football. I think our reputation has been harmed there. That said, we can do fine without players from that area the next couple years.
ASU66 will remember the details better than I do but I don't believe Donte ever signed a LOI wth us because he did not have the required test scores. Thus when he went to prep school he was free to sign anywhere.
It was a sordid affair. Actually, Donte did sign a LOI with App in the early signing period. His scholarship offer and his signing were dependent upon him obtaining a qualifying SAT score before the opening of the fall semester. All was well until Donte became MVP of the State AAA tourney while leading his West Rowan Falcons to the state championship. Then EVERYBODY wanted him. The only prob was he was legally bound to ASU by his signed LOI.
Opposing basketball recruiters knew that all they had to do to get their hooks into Donte was to convince him to intentionally flub his summer Sat test. That would automatically make him ineligible to play at Appalachian. Once that was checked off the checklist, these unscrupulous coaches had to get Donte into a prep school program for a year to beef up this core course credentials and then get him to take the SAT over again for real. At that point, his recruitment was re-opened. Appalachian and any other program were free to go after him.
Donte's high school coach at West Rowan, Mike Gurley, and former C of C coach Tommy Herrion were the bad guys in Donte's recruitment. Herrion tried in every way possible to get Donte to Charleston. When Charleston fired him for unscrupulous dealings, he moved to UVA as an assistant coach under his old mentor, Pete Gillen. Again, Herrion went after Donte--and this time he was successful. He filled Donte's head full of fantasy. Donte turned his back on Fancher and signed with UVA--only to sustain a nagging knee injury that took away his leaping ability. Although he started several games at UVA. he fell out of favor because of his injured leg. When Pete Gillen was fired (bought out of his contract), the new coach Dave Leitao immediately let Donte know that his scholarship would not be renewed. Donte was damaged goods and Leitao had someone else in mind. There was a lot more dirty dealing from Donte's "handlers," but you get the idea of how nasty it got. Donte struggled emotionally for a couple of months and finally called Fancher--who took him back and provided the training/medical support to nurse him back to health. He also provided him tutorial support to get his GPA back under control. You know the rest of Donte's story. He became a special player for the Apps and graduated on time. He also engineered a win for the Apps over his old UVA team in the San Juan tourney. That was a sweet, sweet win for Donte Minter! And for Houston Fancher.