What has Isiah Thomas done now?

I’ve been trying to think of a way to open this story up and failing, so I’m just going to jump in head first. Dominique Ferguson, a top twenty recruit, has committed to Florida International University this week. Well, let me be a little clearer: Dominique Ferguson, a top twenty recruit (top ten if you listen to ESPN, and here’s a heads up, don’t listen to ESPN), has committed to Isiah Thomas this week. Ok true, for now it’s only a verbal, but Ferguson promises to make it official come November. And now to explain why it matters: mid-majors rarely win recruiting battles with perennial powerhouses.

To back up a little, let me tell the tale of Ferguson. He was recruited hard by Billy Gillespie while he was still at Kentucky. Ferguson was the shining star, the crown jewel of Billy G’s 2010 recruiting class. He decommitted from UK when John Calipari took over. Calipari kept in touch with Ferguson, however, he was no longer the top target of the program. Ferguson’s recruitment was wide open, and he was courted by Duke, UCLA, Indiana, and Florida. Then, out of nowhere, FIU comes not only into the picture, but straight to the commitment. Who would expect that a guy thinking about UCLA, the program that has more national titles than any other, would chose a program that has only been to the NCAA tournament once?

According to Ferguson, he just wanted to play for Isiah Thomas. Given who he committed to last time, I’m not sure choosing a school based on the coach is something Ferguson should be doing, but I can’t imagine Thomas being anywhere near the disaster Billy G was. That isn’t saying much, of course, and with this move, Ferguson is taking a double risk. Not only is choosing to play for a completely new coach a bit of a leap, but also Ferguson lacks the safety net that is built in to playing for a basketball powerhouse.

If Ferguson’s end goal is the NBA (and I’d bet the farm that it is), he needs to be somewhere where he can garner obscene amounts of attention. Mid-major schools simply do not get the air time and attention that major programs do. If Ferguson was at Duke (an awful choice, in my mind), he’d get TV time and scout attention no matter what. At FIU, he’s going to need to work a lot harder to get those things. If I sound discouraging about playing for a mid-major, I do not mean to be, at all. Players do come out from the mid-majors and into the NBA, but the route is arguably harder than going through a school like UCLA.

This all boils down to Ferguson really putting a premium on working with Thomas. I’m not here to dig up all the dirt on Thomas, by the by. It’s pretty irrelevant when it comes to Ferguson’s future. What really matters is whether Thomas’s NBA experience and the connections it has brought him will really be helpful to Ferguson. I don’t think this is something many high school players think about or want to admit to, but most of them do need a year of playing in college or Europe or something to get them the skill set necessary for the NBA. Even in top ten players, they’re not all Lebrons. Connections are important. They can get someone pretty far, but they can’t do all the work.

I completely believe that Thomas has some pretty nice connections, some famous friends, that’ll help his players get looks. But Ferguson needs more than that. This summer has seen him slip down the rankings. While it seems that he isn’t in a freefall that might drive him to commit somewhere fast before the offers are withdrawn, it does look like he might see his stock fall a bit. It seems doubtful that he can make the jump to the NBA without working on his game.

And that might be why a combination of a mid-major program and a very high-profile coach might be an attractive choice. There are mid-major programs that might as well be considered major. Memphis is one good example – the whole town breathes basketball. But FIU doesn’t have that kind of fan base. Ferguson may be able to avoid the kind of pressure and fan attention that comes with programs like Kentucky and UCLA while still receiving attention from people in the business. I don’t know that his choice will convince many recruits to reject UNC-Chapel Hill for UNC-Asheville, but I can’t help but get excited about the prospect of having solid players constantly committing to mid-major programs. The only way college basketball can continue to be exciting is to have shake ups like this happen. It may be confusing, but it’s a hell of a lot better than predictability.

Tags: ailanthus altissima, basketball, Dominique Ferguson, FIU, Isiah Thomas, NCAA
Categories: Domestics

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Domestics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.