There is a very warm and very touching piece about Ronald Ramon learning about basketball and life from his parents — but especially his relationship with his father. It is well worth reading it all. Hopefully no feminists/Title IX fanatics will read it too close or they will get upset about this small part.
Ricardo drilled his son on more than basketball. He taught him to be respectful of coaches and teammates and to put academics first. When Ronald’s grades slipped, his father threatened to take away basketball.
“I wanted him to set an academic example for his sisters,” Ricardo said.
Ramon has four sisters, and for some reason I hear strangled shrieks of outrage that a father would think the athletically gifted son needs to set the example for his daughters with his academics.
As for later, a story on once Tennessee recruit, now at Hargrave Military Academy (Sam Young prepped there) and potential Pitt recruit Tyler Smith.
John Calipari, Tubby Smith and countless others have come to recruit Smith.
Kentucky, Memphis and Pittsburgh are presently at the top Smith’s short list. Iowa comes next. He’s already visited Pittsburgh and Iowa and plans to visit Kentucky and Memphis after graduation. Florida, Indiana and Arkansas have tried to woo Smith after signing his Hargrave teammates.
There will be no visit to Tennessee.
“(Bolivar Central guard) Willie Kemp and (former Ridgeway center) Pierre Niles are going to Memphis, and Coach Cal is a real cool guy,” Smith said. “Pittsburgh’s in the Big East, and it doesn’t get any better than that. You get to play in places like Madison Square Garden, which is everybody’s dream.
“I don’t want to go through another situation like Tennessee. I want to do it where I can enroll in summer school. I’ll decide possibly at the end of March, but probably in April.”
Smith is considered a top-20 small forward in the 2006 recruiting class. He took a visit to Memphis at the end of January and is considered to be tough and athletic (i.e., he would be a fit at Pitt).
Final story is just this little aside in the Indiana angst over who should be the next coach at Indiana.
As for Majerus, he may have better credentials than anyone else IU could consider: 422 victories in 20 seasons, a .742 winning percentage – 21st best all-time – and 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament. But Majerus, 57, has serious health issues. And he has said the only college job he’d be interested in is Southern Cal. There are some “hot” coaches around, too, like Rick Barnes at Texas, John Calipari at Memphis and Jamie Dixon at Pitt. But who knows if any of those guys would consider IU a step up.
It says something for the Indiana psyche that they even question whether their head coaching position is one of the most desirable in the country. Personally there isn’t much I like about the state that looks like a spent, dripping penis; but that’s just me.
