Saturday, July 31, 2004

New Recruiting Rule in Effect

Starting Monday, FEDEX will start losing a lot of business. No more overnight packages to recruits - only standard mail. The rule was sponsored by the ACC. Story here. Interesting comments on the recruitment of Chris Bosh.

Dean Keener, James Madison University's new men's basketball coach, can attest to that.

As an assistant to Paul Hewitt at Georgia Tech, Keener led the Yellow Jackets' pursuit of Chris Bosh. From the start of Bosh's junior year at Dallas' Lincoln High to the day in November 2001 when he signed a letter of intent to play for the Jackets, he received a piece of express mail from Keener every day of the week but Sunday - more than 375 envelopes in all.

Bosh's was an exceptional case. Still, Keener said, the new rule makes sense.

"It's like a lot of things in college basketball: You do it because you feel like you have to keep up with the Joneses," Keener said.