Nebraska looses one to CSU

[cruncher]

This situation and the Utah thread illustrate a fundamental rule of business: as the stakes (read $$$) get higher, self-interest becomes more important in decision making. Coaches do it. Players do it. Parents do it. We should not be surprised by this turn of events nor should condemn kids, who almost never hold the cards in this game.

Business is business. Caveat emptor!

[jgrout]

With the story I heard at a Final Four some years ago about Jen Saleamua being left home from a road trip and told to work on her academics if she wanted to keep playing, it's hard to believe that Nebraska would let a player get so far behind that she was about to flunk out of school, which is one scenario where enrolling in junior college is clearly best for the player.

The only player whom I know was in that scenario... a prominent Big Ten hitter... ignored her program's advice to withdraw and enroll in junior college to keep her last two years of eligibility. When she did flunk out, she lost a year of eligibility and (I believe) turned pro without playing college volleyball again.

[huskervbfan]

jgrout said:

With the story I heard at a Final Four some years ago about Jen Saleamua being left home from a road trip and told to work on her academics if she wanted to keep playing, it's hard to believe that Nebraska would let a player get so far behind that she was about to flunk out of school, which is one scenario where enrolling in junior college is clearly best for the player.

She wasn't close to flunking out. They kept her home to make sure she didn't get close to that point. It worked because she did graduate. In fact, I believe Cook, rather than staying and getting ready for Stanford, went back to Lincoln on the morning of the last Final Four in Omaha to attend her graduation ceremony.

[dishdaball]

huskervbfan said:

jgrout said:

With the story I heard at a Final Four some years ago about Jen Saleamua being left home from a road trip and told to work on her academics if she wanted to keep playing, it's hard to believe that Nebraska would let a player get so far behind that she was about to flunk out of school, which is one scenario where enrolling in junior college is clearly best for the player.

She wasn't close to flunking out. They kept her home to make sure she didn't get close to that point. It worked because she did graduate. In fact, I believe Cook, rather than staying and getting ready for Stanford, went back to Lincoln on the morning of the last Final Four in Omaha to attend her graduation ceremony.

This discussion is amusing to say the least.....bottom line...Cook shafted this recruit.....he knew Bartek was leaving and so what if it was January....the article says Minch's decision was based on information Cook presented to her a month ago about "grayshirting"....the whole thing stinks and if Cook didn't have credibility issues before he certainly should now as he is ultimately responsible for the program.

[LoveTheGame]

Minch was accepted into NU and was academically eligible. Even had a student ID number. They didn't actually take her scholarship, they asked her to postpone it to the 2008 season. She will do great at CSU and we wish her the best!

[Tex_VB_Fan]

Asking her to "postpone" her freshman season by one year sounds like it was taken away to me. It's all technical but a 4 year scholarship from 2007-2010 and 2008-2011 is not the same. Think about it; she was asked to give up playing with the defending national championship team, 5 AAs, 2 POYs and a heavy favorite to repeat for what should be considered a "rebuilding" year in 2008. "Umm we want you but not quite yet". That is just not cool IMO.

[el fagel]

My understanding is that a greyshirt is only a postponement of one semester. After the first of the year, it's a new year.

Happens in football all the time. "All the teams" do it. (For various reasons)

[beachman]

calhornfan said:

Asking her to "postpone" her freshman season by one year sounds like it was taken away to me. It's all technical but a 4 year scholarship from 2007-2010 and 2008-2011 is not the same. Think about it; she was asked to give up playing with the defending national championship team, 5 AAs, 2 POYs and a heavy favorite to repeat for what should be considered a "rebuilding" year in 2008. "Umm we want you but not quite yet". That is just not cool IMO.

A nice situation to be in, no doubt, for Mr. Cook........MORE TALENT THAN HE KNOWS WHAT TO DO WITH!!!! Still means that a lot of young ladies will WATCH instead of PLAY!!

[brybry]

elfagel said:

My understanding is that a greyshirt is only a postponement of one semester. After the first of the year, it's a new year.

Happens in football all the time. "All the teams" do it. (For various reasons)

So Houghtelling would use the scholarship during the fall, then presumably she would graduate, then Minch would have taken over the scholarship in spring and the rest of her time at NU?
I don't think Cook is horrible for doing this. But I could understand if Minch and her family were upset.

[SakiBomb25]

brybry said:

elfagel said:

My understanding is that a greyshirt is only a postponement of one semester. After the first of the year, it's a new year.

Happens in football all the time. "All the teams" do it. (For various reasons)

So Houghtelling would use the scholarship during the fall, then presumably she would graduate, then Minch would have taken over the scholarship in spring and the rest of her time at NU?
I don't think Cook is horrible for doing this. But I could understand if Minch and her family were upset.

If this were the case, then it should have been up to Cook to have presented this information to Minch during the recruiting process. He should have said that there was a possibility that she would have had to grey shirt and if Minch still decided to sign the NLI, than she has no basis to complain. But if he pulled this out of no where... well than it's Cook's bad all the way.

I just don't understand how Cook did not know that he wouldn't have one scholarship available. I think all of the girls he signed verballed in the summer and by the time Houghtelling said she was going to redshirt, he could have told Minch of the possiblity of the grey shirt BEFORE she signed the NLI.

Unless Minch knew ahead of time about the grey shirt and just decided recently that it wasn't want she wanted, than I am not sure how Cook will come out in this situation.

[roy]

brybry said:

So Houghtelling would use the scholarship during the fall, then presumably she would graduate, then Minch would have taken over the scholarship in spring and the rest of her time at NU?

I am pretty sure that Minch doesn't get a scholarship for the Spring 2008 season. She would need to go to community college for the fall and transfer over to Nebraska in the spring, paying her own way in both cases. Then in 2008, she would get a scholarship.

And I am in complete agreement with Saki. If this was presented earlier, this is not on Cook but on Minch. But the fact that she signed the letter of intent in November seems to me that the option was given to her after, as she wouldn't be asked to sign if she would be going to a community college first.

[vbfanatic]

You all are treating this situation like there is an excusable reason for Cook to do this. The fact is... a talented outside hitter in Salvo came available in April when she decided to transfer from Utah. He wants her on his team but the only way he could do this was to cut one of his signed kids loose. Totally unethical and not unexpected considering the source.

[Keystonekid]

vbfanatic, your post is almost completely void of the facts. First off most everyone weighing in is starting their post by saying " I heard someone tell someone in Reno........" People are making a judgement based on the facts "they heard" which is much different than the facts "as they are" I can appreciate that the timing of Salvo leaving Utah and Minch's decision to look elsewhere after Nebraska asks her to consider altering her path, looks suspicious. But, have you considered that the situation with Minch may have been going down well before Salvo even decided to transfer? Or that Salvo contacted Nebraska and expressed her interest in them? Or Minch has said to many that she blew her situation at Nebraska? First of all he didn't cut her loose, he asked her to get better prepared and would still be a scholarship player at Nebraska, secondly Salvo has not been offered at Nebraska so the theory he 86'd Minch for Salvo doesn't even make sense.

If this was a case of Cook dumping Minch with the sole intent of picking up Salvo, I would be the first to rip the Huskers. This isn't the case. This whole situation is a function of getting early commitments from players who are in essence projects or players who will be great "if" they develop. If the player simply doesn't develop as projected, than it's on the coach and he should eat his mistakes. If the player doesn't work as hard as she can or failed to fulfill commitments made to assure her development, than its on the kid. Lets not forget Nebraska did not pull her scholarship, that is an enormous piece of the puzzle that people are conveniently leaving out. The grey shirt is a great situation for undeveloped players and is very common in football. In the end Mich is in a much better situation in terms of being in a program she can make a strong contribution in. Hopefully this gets players and coaches to look more closely before they leap in regards to making commitments.

[roy]

keystonekid said:

vbfanatic, your post is almost completely void of the facts. First off most everyone weighing in is starting their post by saying " I heard someone tell someone in Reno........" People are making a judgement based on the facts "they heard" which is much different than the facts "as they are" I can appreciate that the timing of Salvo leaving Utah and Minch's decision to look elsewhere after Nebraska asks her to consider altering her path, looks suspicious. But, have you considered that the situation with Minch may have been going down well before Salvo even decided to transfer? Or that Salvo contacted Nebraska and expressed her interest in them? Or Minch has said to many that she blew her situation at Nebraska? First of all he didn't cut her loose, he asked her to get better prepared and would still be a scholarship player at Nebraska, secondly Salvo has not been offered at Nebraska so the theory he 86'd Minch for Salvo doesn't even make sense.

If this was a case of Cook dumping Minch with the sole intent of picking up Salvo, I would be the first to rip the Huskers. This isn't the case. This whole situation is a function of getting early commitments from players who are in essence projects or players who will be great "if" they develop. If the player simply doesn't develop as projected, than it's on the coach and he should eat his mistakes. If the player doesn't work as hard as she can or failed to fulfill commitments made to assure her development, than its on the kid. Lets not forget Nebraska did not pull her scholarship, that is an enormous piece of the puzzle that people are conveniently leaving out. The grey shirt is a great situation for undeveloped players and is very common in football. In the end Mich is in a much better situation in terms of being in a program she can make a strong contribution in. Hopefully this gets players and coaches to look more closely before they leap in regards to making commitments.

I'll agree with 99% of your post. Cook is too smart a coach to drop Minch just under the possibility of getting Salvo. Even if Cook was interested in Salvo, he wouldn't drop a recruit under the hope of getting her. This will reveal itself in time. If Salvo ends up at Nebraska, there are going to be a lot of people (including Husker fans) who will be disappointed in Cook. If Salvo ends up elsewhere, then it would be obvious this would have nothing to do with Minch's situation. Again, Cook is too smart to drop a recruit and then have to scramble to find someone else for the 2008 season, as most of the top players have commit. He would need to find another project player or hope that he gets a pretty good transfer.

The only problem I have with the grayshirt is that while this is common in football, volleyball is a completely different creature. We are not at the point where any program can ask a fairly well recruited player to pay her own way to a community college and then for the spring at her chosen university when other comprable programs are throwing scholarship options her way. A greyshirt can still lift weights and train with the team in the spring but how helpful is taking a semester off from any kind of volleyball training? If any player needs that extra 6th year to become the volleyball player any coach sees in her, maybe she just isn't cut out to play for that high level a program.

Again, as had been said before, the really odd factor in all of this was that she signed the letter of intent. Had it been on Minch in something she did (or didn't do), I would suspect that Cook would have flagged the situation before the letter of intent was signed.

[LoveTheGame]

vbfanatic said:

You all are treating this situation like there is an excusable reason for Cook to do this. The fact is... a talented outside hitter in Salvo came available in April when she decided to transfer from Utah. He wants her on his team but the only way he could do this was to cut one of his signed kids loose. Totally unethical and not unexpected considering the source.

You hit the nail on the head!! This is exactly what has happened!! Minch was only offered the "greyshirt" thing only 'bout 10 days ago. Put it together people.