Final Day of the Hoops Signing Period: *Crickets*
By Mark Knight
The final day to sign basketball players for the 2011-2012 season came and went with UW still having 2 scholarships remaining and no noise being made.
Much to my dismay there wasn’t anything surprising or even anything unsurprising about today, in fact, today was silent for UW recruiting. No news on Daouda Soumaoro, Joey Van Zegeren, or Marek Soucek and all of them plan to play NCAA basketball next year, and unless they slipped an LOI in last minute and it just hasn’t been reported yet, all 3 are going to have to work out a scholarship arrangement with their university of choice.
UW is certainly not done and maybe one of those recruits are still the answer and as reported by Percy Allen earlier today, Romar still plans to have at least one more big man come to UW in the fall.
The most likely option is Martin Breunig as it seems like UW is the heavy favorite and he just plans to compare UW with a mid-major University and then decide on his plans. Sources are still indicating that UW is expected to get his commitment, he just didn’t have to worry about the signing deadline today because he has already used his LOI for Maryland. Since he was released from this LOI, he will not be able to obtain another one and will have to go to his university of choice by way of either a financial aid package or a scholarship arrangement.
This scholarship arrangement/financial aid option is a hard one to breakdown because at each school it could be different and could be worked out in a different way. Breunig would most likely receive one of those remaining two scholarships though it technically wouldn’t count against the scholarship total until the following season. However, with the scholarship agreement in place, the arrangement would be made that one of those 2 scholarships were reserved for him when the NCAA would allow him another LOI in 2012.
Like I said, it is a confusing and sometimes an interesting line that is hard to navigate but there are always loop holes and exceptions. Now, unless something changes in the next few months it looks like UW will use 1 scholarship in a similar situation as described above and would save one for the 2012 recruiting class.