TERRY MOSHER
Everybody is jumping in with an opinion on what is happening with Nathan Hale High school in Seattle and its conspiracy theory connection with Washington basketball and its coach Lorenzo Romar.
So, I guess, I will jump in, too.
What has happen is that Nathan Hale has hired as basketball coach Brandon Roy where highly prized and nationally recruited Michael Porter Jr. and his two brothers, Jontay and Coban, lately of Missouri, will attend and play basketball beginning this fall.
It just so happens that last month Romar hired their dad, Michael Porter Sr., demoting former Western Washington basketball coach Brad Jackson to make room on his staff for Porter.
If this smacks of what you think it smacks, well, you are right. Jontay, a junior who is six-foot-nine, verbally committed to Romar and Washington a year ago and Michael Jr, a senior and also highly sought after, is the godson of Romar, who is a close friend and former teammate of Michael Sr. on an Athletes In Action basketball team years ago.
So there you have it.
It’s not illegal to do what has happened here. Under an NCAA rule, Romar can hire who he wants as long as the person actually acts as a coach, and a college basketball program is allowed just three coaches. That is why Jackson was demoted to a non-coaching position to make room for Porter.
And, this sort of thing happens about as often as you think it does. Larry Brown hired Danny Manning’s dad when he was coaching at Kansas, John Calipari, when he was coaching at Memphis, hired Dajuan Wagner’s dad, and when Ben Howland was coaching at UCLA he hired the AAU coach of two recruits.
The list goes on, but you get the idea. I don’t think it’s unethical or morally wrong. You do what you have to do, within the rules of course. And within the NCAA rule, this is acceptable.
What you might feel a little queasy about is the hiring of Roy, a former Washington Husky and NBA star at Nathan Hale just when the Porters arrive from Missouri and their dad is hired at nearby Washington.
It can’t be a coincident, can it?
Nah, it probably is not. But again, it’s not wrong. It’s just part of the game; a game some people don’t think should be played, but is. I see nothing wrong with it. Roy might do a wonderful job and turn Nathan Hale into a Metro League terror that it hasn’t been for a long time.
In the crazy world of college recruiting, who knows, Roy and Nathan Hale might turn out to be a feeder program for Romar and the Huskies and if it is done by the rules that can’t be all bad.
I think the underlying factor here is that Mr. Nice Guy – Romar – probably feels the heat under his feet to get his Husky team back to the NCAA Tournament (they haven’t been there for five years although the program has had five players make the NBA in that time) and has amped up his recruiting to give himself a solid chance at saving his job.
Romar will have help this coming season with projected one-and-done prospect Markelle Fultz joining the Huskies, so it’s going to be interesting to see if adding Fultz will propel the Dawgs to the Big Dance.
If the Huskies don’t “dance”, it may be Romar’s last Washington waltz, no matter what happens with Roy, the Porters and Nathan Hale.
That’s it for today from here. Hope this weather stays this way at least through the Fourth of July weekend.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
