CBS Sports: Sonny Vaccaro Working To Get ’09 Recruits To Europe

Potential Negative Effect on NC State’s ’09 Class?

In my opinion, Sonny Vaccaro is no friend of college basketball, and even in his retirement, Vaccaro continues to work against the interests of collegiate hoops:

Europe Still An Option For Recruits

Vaccaro said he had breakfast Monday morning with a table of people working on behalf of or in association with European clubs, and that there are “six or seven” clubs considering offering a contract to an American more interested in spending at least one season in Europe than college. Furthermore, Vaccaro said there are people “right now” scouting various high school players, and that this will continue through March.

“They will make offers,” Vaccaro said. “They will make offers (to players) they think can play.”

As far as this senior class, there is no consensus top 10 list, per se. But the prospects most commonly identified as “top 10-caliber” recruits are Derrick Favors (uncommitted), John Wall (uncommitted), John Henson (committed to North Carolina), Xavier Henry (committed to Memphis), Renardo Sidney (uncommitted), DeMarcus Cousins (uncommitted), Lance Stephenson (uncommitted), Kenny Boynton (committed to Florida), Abdul Gaddy (committed to Washington), Avery Bradley (committed to Texas) and Jordan Hamilton (committed to Texas). Again, Vaccaro declined to name names. But CBSSports.com has previously reported that the prospects who remain uncommitted — specifically Wall, Sidney and Stephenson — are the most likely to explore Europe as an option, though it’s worth noting that Vaccaro insisted the group of prospects who are intrigued by Europe isn’t necessarily limited to uncommitted players.

I’ve given teams the names of the kids I think would be worth looking at,” Vaccaro said. “That, I’ve already done.”

In other words, though not exactly (especially legally) Vaccaro is acting as an agent of either the Euro league looking for a one-year wonder or the players.  Your pick.

What is an undeniable fact is that Vaccaro could single handedly wreck the recruiting classes of a number of colleges, NC State included.

Imagine this scenario: NC State gets commitments from any combination or Wall, Favor or Demarcus Cousins, and Vaccaro talks any of them (or all) into going to Europe to play.  That would be bad very news for NC State indeed.