Jermaine Lawrence Eligible To Sign Tomorrow, And The Art Of Roster Finagling

Tomorrow is April 17th which marks the beginning of college basketball’s regular signing period. As such, Mick Cronin’s headliner in this cycle Jermaine Lawrence will finally be allowed to sign his National Letter of Intent and officially become a member of the 2013 class. But when he does it will create a problem for Cincinnati coach. He will have 5 signees in the 2013 class and just 4 scholarships to give.

By that math UC will have to get creative to accommodate the 5th signee and below are a couple of options for Mick.

Temporary Walk-On Status

Mick Cronin is only allowed to give out 13 scholarships each year. However that doesn’t mean his roster necessarily has to be limited to just 13 players. The UC head coach can absolutely accept walk-ons who don’t count against his scholarship restrictions. That’s how the Louisville Cardinals are able to list 16 players on their basketball roster.

So how does that 14th guy get on this team next season? Well he could potentially apply for an academic scholarship in, say, the Lindner Honors program which gives in-state students full-rides during that year so long as they exceed the minimum educational requirements. I’m not certain of Summit High School product Kevin Johnson’s eligibility for this but if he grades are strong enough he might want to consider applying for the program. In addition, one of the incoming signees, or a current Bearcat for that matter, could potentially pay his own way. Obviously I’m not privy to the financial situation of any of these players or their families but the option is always out there.

Lack Of Qualification

The easiest answer for Mick Cronin would be that one of his 5 signees doesn’t qualify academically. This basic requirement is what high school recruits first and foremost must surpass before joining their college teams. But if they don’t make the grades the NCAA will put up the stop sign on them making the move. In this class, rumors abound about Deshaun Morman falling into that group. He’s already reportedly signed his Letter of Intent to join the Bearcats however 247 Sports, the publication on the forefront of everything recruiting, still lists him as a “Hard Commit”.

What this leads me to believe is that there’s something fishy going on with Morman. Maybe everything checks out and he shows up in Clifton sometime in the next few months. But maybe he doesn’t. If that’s the case expect him to go to prep school or a junior college which would free up room on the roster. Morman would then be allowed to rejoin Cincinnati a year (prep) or two years (JUCO) later.

Run Someone Off

Obviously this would be the ugliest scenario of the three but certainly would allow for the 5th signee to join the team so long as the first two scenarios don’t work out. This kind of thing happens more than you’d think in college football, especially when new coaches are hired and even more so after the first recruiting class comes in when he starts filling the roster with “his guys”. No matter the situation, though, you’ll find that at least one player on any given program in any given level of college football will be forced out year-to-year.

In basketball it’s far less prevalent but is something that does occurred when teams need to make room on their rosters. Frankly I don’t know if Mick goes this route. It seems so unlike him to simply wave sayonara to a player, a person, he’s been grooming in his program. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s capable of doing it, but only as a last resort. If he was forced to take this option I’d bet cold hard cash that it was David Nyarsuk who was asked to move on. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this, however.