Recruiting high school teenagers can be a tricky pursuit. These are 16, 17, and 18 year olds holding leverage over college coaches. Coaches will send letters, emails, notes, and text messages to try and secure a commitment from a player. Sometimes all it takes is ugly school colors for a player to cross a school off his list. That’s what happened with Baylor and Archie Goodwin.
Goodwin is a 6’5″ shooting guard from Sylvan Hills High School in Arkansas. He’s reportedly considering UConn, Kansas, Memphis, Kentucky, and Arkansas. One school he’s no longer considering is Baylor. The reason is equal parts aggravating and entertaining.
“Coach Scott Drew is a great guy. I love Coach Drew. They were one of the first schools that were recruiting me. But I didn’t like that they were an adidas team, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t go to Kansas because Kansas is a great team. I can look over the adidas thing – I own some adidas stuff. [Goodwin played recent summers with the Arkansas Wings Elite team, which is sponsored by Nike] I didn’t like their colors, either. I don’t like green and gold. That’s ugly …. When you got ugly colors like that, you gotta be Nike. …. Baylor has some ugly shoes, too.”
Sports Seer adds that one of the coaches moved on to the NBA, and that Goodwin wasn’t interested in playing in Baylor’s 2-3 zone. Still, citing ugly school colors as a reason to eliminate a school seems pretty lame. But I guess when you are a top prospect and every school wants you, you’re able to make decisions based on such simple factors.
Maybe if a Baylor fan had offered to name their first-born child after Goodwin he would have reconsidered.
Thanks to The Dagger and Eye on College Basketball for the story
