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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Draughan To Yale; Childress To
Stanford: Er, Um, Signing?--(Nov. 9, 2000)

This morning's Long Beach Press Telegram carried a story by James Melroy about the verbal commitments of Mayfair's duo of Josh Childress (6'-6" Sr.SG) and Edwin Draughan (6'-5" Sr. PG), about how it's going to be difficult for the two of them, who have played together for so many years, even before they started high school, to be at different schools, Childress at Stanford, and Draughan at Yale.  Some nice quotes by the two, including these:

Draughan on Childress: "It's going to be pretty tough.   I am sure we'll still be friends and we'll probably try and see each other sometimes." 

Childress on Draughn: "Edwin is one of my best friends. I was really hoping that we would be able to go to the same school. But I am really happy for him and the decision that he was able to make."

The two also described why they committed to their respective schools. For Childress, the choice was, interestingly, for "basketball" not because of the education at Stanford:

"Education is very important, but I am going to school to play basketball," said Childress, who had narrowed his choices down to playing for the Cardinal or at Kansas. "(Jayhawks' head coach) Roy Williams is a great coach and a great guy, but my comfort level with the coaches and players, and how I fit in at Stanford, won out in the end."

For Draughan, while neither the quote nor the story seem to say so, the selection of Yale had to be for the education rather than basketball, since the Eli Bulldogs aren't considered a breeding ground for the NBA (well, maybe one or two players every decade, but generally, one goes there for the education).

But then the story noted something, and had a quote from Edwin, something we found odd, and which had us thinking about the underlying premise of LBPT story and tying it to "signing" day:  The article was premised on the concept that "On signing day, 2 long-time friends commit to separate". . .in fact that phrase is the sub-headline carried on the article. 

If the story was limited to just the nice human element about two kids who've played together for a long time who will now be going to different schools, fine, that's a great human-interest angle.    But there was more than the sub-headline, including this quote from Draughan:   "I was going to wait and see what other colleges would come up with throughout the season," Draughan said. "But I decided that now would be the time to sign, because I didn't want there to be any of that pressure of having to make a decision during the season." 

The statements again got us thinking about what Draughan/Melroy were talking about:  Sign. . . sign what?  While yesterday was the first day of the NCAA signing period,  and Childress will undoubtedly sign a National Letter of Intent with Stanford (although the story never actually says that, he will) the "signing" applies only to those schools who subscribe to the National Letter of Intent system, and guess what?  Yale, like the other Ivy League schools, does NOT subscribe to the NLI system.   Which means that players who commit to Yale (or Columbia, Brown, Harvard, Penn, Princeton) do NOT sign anything (other than perhaps their admissions application materials, their personal essays, and whatever else they send in to the school, like a check for the application), and most assuredly, they do NOT sign an NLI.

A small, but very important point.  And if you think we're over-exaggerating the difference between signing an NLI and committing to a school which does not subscribe to the NLI system,  we're not.  One, the NLI contractually binds the player to the school. The other, a verbal commitment, does not.

Just ask Spencer Gloger. . . .

Hey, we don't want to overshadow just how great it is for a young man to be offered and to have made a commitment to Yale, or any other prestigious institution of higher learning (and if you want to read a better quote about why Edwin chose Yale, hop over to PacWestHoops and read their story, including the quote from Edwin's father about the value and importance of a Yale education). . . but there really is a difference between committing and signing.

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