With Michael Porter Jr., Huskies are learning why programs shouldn’t cater to one recruit
Mar 23, 2017, 11:02 AM | Updated: 12:55 pm
(AP)
The Porters’ arrival in Washington was suspicious.
Actually, that’s about the most charitable description possible for a situation involving a desperate college basketball coach, a lifelong friend and two basketball-playing sons who became Seattle basketball royalty for all of about nine months or so.
But whatever you thought about the circumstances of the Porters’ arrival, the family may be leaving in an even seedier matter.
And you know what? Washington deserves every bit of it.
Not Mike Hopkins, the new coach at Washington. He didn’t deserve to have his introduction as the Huskies’ new head coach counter-programmed like it was Wednesday. While Hopkins was on stage for his introductory press conference, news was circulating that Michael Porter Jr. would ask for his release from Washington (which he was granted Thursday). He also said some other stuff about the new coach not reaching out to him and his dad having a job offer from Missouri, but we’ll get to all that in a little bit.
First, let’s make one thing clear: Michael Porter Jr. is not coming to Washington, which shouldn’t be a surprise. In fact, no one should have expected him to after the school fired Lorenzo Romar.
What we’re seeing now is the residue of what happens when you cater to one recruit, or in this case one family. Michael Porter Jr. will be remembered in Washington not for his high-school state title at Nathan Hale, but as the most costly recruit never to play a minute for the Huskies.
Not that Washington is the victim here. Not at all. The Huskies signed up for this sort of nonsense when Romar went down this road, hiring Michael Porter Sr. as his highest-paid assistant (wink, wink). Of course, Michael Porter Sr. also happened to be the father of two prominent recruits, the oldest of whom was the top player in the entire country. The whole family relocated to Seattle, and the sons went to a high school that was suddenly coached by Brandon Roy, a former NBA player who also happened to be the best player out of Washington during Romar’s tenure.
Not that any of that really bothered me. Then again, I’ve been known to joke that a Rose Bowl appearance is worth two years of probation. I don’t mistake NCAA rules as some sort of moral code. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for winning entirely above board, but if you have to choose between winning and being above any reproach, I’ll take the ‘W’ for the UW every time.
I thought one assistant coaching job to land a pair of top recruits was a more than fair trade-off, but that also came with a different price: control.
When you empower and entitle the individual players – or in this case, a family – you have to know that sword might get turned around on you. In other words, when you make the sort of arrangements that Romar did to help in the recruitment of the Porters, you can’t be surprised when the family ends up thinking it’s more important than the coach of that institution.
Which means that in some ways, Washington is getting what it deserves in the form of an exit that is as unbelievable as the story that was spun to explain the Porters’ arrival.
Within 24 hours of Romar’s firing, there were reports that Michael Porter Sr. would be added to Missouri’s coaching staff. This was odd given that the dad remained under contract at Washington. That report was accompanied with the statement that Michael Porter Jr. had not signed a National Letter of Intent with Washington. This was also odd because the son had in fact signed a National Letter of Intent.
On Wednesday came the capper as Michael Porter Jr., while being interviewed after being chosen as the Gatorade National Player of the Year, stated that Washington’s new coach had yet to reach out to him. His family then told Jayda Evans of The Seattle Times that Michael Porter Jr. was the only incoming recruit that Hopkins hadn’t talked to.
Whether that means the new coach isn’t courting the kid or the family is freezing out the school doesn’t really matter all that much at this point. All that’s left is the conclusion, which no one should feel very good about.