Chris Dokish, the writer of the very interesting article on J.O. Stright for Pittsburgh Sports Report was kind enough to agree to answer a bunch of questions I had for him regarding Stright. This is Part 2 of the Q&A. Part 1 is below.
[Continued from Part 1.]
Having said that, the events surrounding the trip to Arlington County Day School (ACDS) still seem quite vague. Are there other connections for Stright with ACDS and Rex Morgan beyond the AAU? Even with the AAU stuff, that just seemed downright odd to try and get him down to Florida when his family is in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
After Pope committed to Pitt, it was reported that Pope was transferring to ACDS. I quickly called Pope who was actually at the school. He said it was not true and was coming back to Aliquippa. But he did not want me to tell anybody until he came back on Monday (the call was on Saturday). He said it was because he did not want anybody there to know that he wasn’t staying. In the meantime, the local Pittsburgh papers were reporting that Pope was transferring to ACDS and even had quotes from ACDS coach Rex Morgan that said “he’s enrolled and going to class”. I called Pope back and he was already in Aliquippa. Pryor says that he and Pope were recruited by ACDS at an AAU tournament. These things do happen but it seems very coincidental that this school just happens to have a big connection with Huggins.
As for the connection between Stright and Morgan, Morgan is friends with the coaches at the Miami Tropics AAU team, who are best friends with Frank Martin, the right hand man of Huggins. Morgan sends his top players to the Tropics but it was understood that Pope and Pryor would come back and play for the JOTS in the summer.
Given that Huggins had no school/NCAA regulations to bind or restrict him this past year, along with the way he has openly and brazenly been recruiting players like Bennett, Mayo and Walker — to say nothing of Pope — there’s a lot of speculation as to the role of Stright beyond merely advising and funneling. Have Huggins, Stright and Pope gotten together in settings outside of HS games? The phone call from Pope to Stright you describe seems to imply that there has been more than a little direct contact with Huggins and facilitated by Stright.
Stright is more than a coach to some of these players, especially Pope. He is more like a mentor and they do know each other away from the basketball court. Stright did facilitate other contact between Huggins and some of his players including last month when he organized a tryout with Huggins that included Pryor, plus Schenley stars DJ Kennedy and DeJuan Blair.
Then there is Pryor. The early reports when he committed were that one of the major reasons Pryor made a verbal to Pitt and is viewed as more likely to actually follow through on it, has been that he wants to be able to stay close to his father and have him be able to come to the games. Then in the story, he was halfway to ACDS in Florida and ready to go to a prep school for at least a year anywhere Stright recommends. There seems to be a real question as to what level of influence he is exerting.
Most close to Pryor thinks there is a very good chance that he will end up at Pitt. Pryor himself told me last week that it was “90%”. He is not as close to Stright, though he does see Stright as the organizer for his recruiting since he really doesn’t have a strong family influence. He doesn’t live with either of his parents and neither does Pope for that matter. Any influence that Stright may have on Pryor may stop at college, though, as Pryor does not seem thrilled with playing at Kansas State and he never really said anything to me that indicated that he would follow Huggins. He is actually a very good kid who many think could be the superstar player Pitt needs to raise the program up even further.
As for Pryor almost attending ACDS, he said he sent in the papers to attend but then changed his mind. Stright said Pryor never sent any papers. When I tried to get clarification for this, Pryor said that he gave the signed papers to an assistant coach so if ACDS didn’t get them then the coach must not have sent them. I have no idea why Pryor would not question any of this and I am not sure which team this assistant coached for.
The comment in the story regarding the present Pitt coaching staff. What or who doesn’t Stright like or how they are recruiting players from his AAU team? Are they trying to bypass him?
Stright feels slighted that Joe Lombardi was sent to recruit his players and not Barry Rohrssen, though many college basketball analysts will tell you that Lombardi is an excellent recruiter. He was also upset that they did not recruit Ben McCauley harder. And, yes, he feels like Pitt does not ask for his advice more. One highly respected national basketball figure told me that Pitt should get the players they are interested in out of the JOTS but that is not realistic. For players like Pope and Pryor, Stright is all they know and he does have a lot of power. In this case, more power than Pitt, who would no doubt pay the price if they tried to get somebody like Pope away from the JOTS.
Does Stright even understand why he is regarded so, um, warily?
By that I mean, not only is he a very influential AAU Coach with tight personal ties with a college coach who is considered to skate a gray area with regards to recruits and recruiting. He is also tight with at least one prep school.
Huggins, AAU basketball and Prep schools have all come under more scrutiny in recent years. All three have been attracting increasing NCAA scrutiny in recent years.
There have been articles in recent months about many prep schools being nothing more than basketball mills and questionable practices. AAU basketball tournaments and the coaches are increasingly getting attention for the way they control so much of the players and their recruitment.
Not really. He is a very self-assured man who seems unfazed that Pitt fans think he is doing something wrong. I assumed he would be hesitant to talk to me but he held nothing back and was very talkative and relaxed. I actually kept a lot out of his Pitt criticisms out because it was unfair to Pitt since they can not reply, per NCAA rules, to any talk about Pope and Pryor.
Thanks once again to Chris for taking the time to do this. And also to Tony DeFazio, Editor at Pittsburgh Sports Report for helping arrange the Q&A.
