SoCalHoops Recruiting News
SoCalHoops Recruiting News
No, we don't mean they'll lose five games. . . that's probably a given. We mean they'll be losing five players from this year's roster. There have been several articles on this subject recently and the message forum has been pretty wild with rumors, innuendo and speculation. But it's a certainty that Vince Okotie, Jeffrey Berokoff, Joe Mann and Walter Small will not return to the team, along with Eric Rohwer. Okotie and Mann were San Diego locals in high school. Berokoff was a star at Sonora, Walter Small was part of the championship Dominguez teams with Tayshaun Prince, and Eric Rohwer attended Burbank high school. Four of them were sophomores this season; Rohwer was a true freshman. All five will be elsewhere next season. Some of them were informed recently by SDSU coach Steve Fisher that they did not fit into the team's plans. Others were told they could come back but wouldn't play much. Not a happy situation.
We spoke briefly with Jeff Berokoff at the Rockfish Spring League last weekend (a week ago, not this past weekend) and he confirmed that he would be leaving the team. Will the moves hurt San Diego's recruiting? Probably not. That's just the way it is. Competition to play at a D-I program is so intense, particularly in the West where there are fewer Division I programs than in the midwest and the highly concentrated northeast, that it will probably cause the Aztecs to miss a beat. Coach Fisher has some good recruits coming in next season, including Chris Walton and Aerick Sanders, and they're probably the only school still recruiting Kenny Brunner heavily, but this will open up some additional room to get some help, possibly at the JUCO level so that Fisher can get some immediate help.
This past week, there were two articles published about the impending departures in several local San Diego papers. The North County Times featured perhaps the most interesting story on the subject last week. Here are some excerpts:
Could the housecleaning ---- which was publicly endorsed ahead of time by athletic director Rick Bay after a 5-23 season ---- affect the program's reputation for sticking with scholarship athletes? With next month's national signing day approaching, the possibility exists that coaches recruiting the same players as the Aztecs could use the departures against SDSU.
Bay doesn't expect that to be the case.
``Stories can always be twisted to one's advantage in recruiting regardless of the topic,'' said Bay, ``but I feel that while it's always bothersome to me when a player leaves for any reason no matter whose initiative it is, the way I'd like to see it handled is that we were honest with the players and some players would rather play elsewhere than feel like they don't have a role here.
``We addressed the problem directly and early and decisions were made.''
Okotie, a 6-foot-7 forward who started 31 games the past two seasons, said he decided to transfer prior to a postseason meeting with Fisher. The Grossmont High alum said he was uncomfortable with a coaching staff that didn't recruit him and with changes in the offense.
``I just felt it was time to go,'' said Okotie, whose scoring average dropped from 8.5 as a freshman to 6.3. ``Things weren't working out for me the way I wanted them to and I felt now was a good time to leave. It was a different style of play and I don't think, personally, I would've flourished in that style of play so I decided to leave.''
Mann, a Poway High graduate, said he has chosen to transfer despite Fisher extending him an offer to return as a walk-on. Mann averaged 1.9 points this season and 2.2 as a freshman.
``I had a meeting with Fisher and he didn't see a spot for me on the team,'' said Mann, a 6-10 center. ``I have to call around and see what's out there. I knew there was a chance of this happening, but it was a bit of a shock. It took a day or two for it to sink in. I was disappointed, but I have to move on.''
Berokoff, a 6-3 guard, said he chose to transfer because it was clear to him that Fisher didn't want him to return.
``He said I could come back but I wouldn't play much,'' said Berokoff, who averaged 3.8 points this season and 4.0 as a freshman. ``I'm not his kind of player and not the kind of player he thinks the program needs.
``I'm not just going to sit here and not play. I'm a competitor, I want to compete. I could tell he wanted me to leave. I think he knew if I wasn't going to play, I wouldn't stay.''
Berokoff said he wasn't surprised at the turn of events.
``I foresaw it early in the year,'' Berokoff said. ``I remember playing well for four or five games and I had the stats to back it up. The Ball State game for instance, I had two 3s in (seven) minutes and I was gone. Just little things like that and they added up as the season went on.''
Small, a 6-4 forward, was a seldom-used reserve who averaged 3.0 points this season. Small, diagnosed with lupus in the latter part of his freshman campaign, was offered a medical scholarship that would allow him to remain at SDSU but would preclude him from playing basketball.
Instead of accepting the offer, Small has decided to pursue finding a school at which he can continue playing basketball.
Rohwer, a 6-9 forward, played just five minutes all season. Rohwer played only one minute in Mountain West Conference play, despite the team's 0-14 record and six losses by 21 or more points.
Fisher declined an opportunity to comment about the departing players, citing student privacy rights. But he did address the possibility that the departure of five scholarship players could be used against the Aztecs in recruiting.
``I've always run the programs that I have been at with the kids' interests at heart,'' Fisher said. ``I have a college student of my own and I've tried to deal with each of these kids as if each were my own. I think everything that I've done and am doing with our team is thought of in that context.''
A school official said there is an appeals process any of the five could choose to pursue. Under that scenario, the players would have two weeks from the day they were notified they would be released from their scholarships in which they could appeal to a campus committee that has no ties to the athletic department.
Bay said none of the five departing players have contacted him.
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