It’s April 17th, the beginning of the regular signing period for the Class of 2013 basketball recruiting cycle. As such, Jermaine Lawrence has gifted Mick Cronin, the University of Cincinnati, and Bearcats fans everywhere with his John Hancock this morning, locking him into a scholarship for next season. Obviously this is exciting news as we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that UC’s most gifted prospect in years will absolutely, 100% be heading to Clifton.
But this now presents a problem for Mick Cronin. He has 5 signees in the 2013 class and just 4 scholarships to give. The Bearcats head coach will have to get creative in his roster management this offseason in order to stay within NCAA guidelines next Fall. I explained the finagling Mick will have to undergo in yesterday’s piece but in short these are the most conceivable options available to him:
- Lack Of Qualification
- Run A Player Off
- Temporary Walk-On
I have arranged those scenarios in the order of their likeliness to happen. Firstly, look for one of the recruits in this class to not qualify academically. This player sounds like it could be Deshaun Morman. Despite signing his letter of intent way back in November, 247 Sports, the service on the beat of all things recruiting, still lists him as a “hard commit”. Something funny’s going on there, I’m sure of it. Then there’s the ugly scenario of running a player off. Mick’s done this before but I doubt he’d like to go this route especially if the first two are still on the table. And finally, the most unlikely option but is within the realm of possibility is if a player pays his own way or accepts an academic scholarship. They would then play for the Bearcats as a walk-on.
So that’s the challenge that Mick Cronin faces now. He has 14 players with just 13 scholarships to give. Keep an eye on this in the coming months.