The Michigan Daily--Tuesday, July 13, 1982--Page 11
Cage recruits can commit earlier

i.i'

From staff and wire reports
When LSU was still recruiting
Richard Rellford in late March, after
the high school senior cager had
already verbally committed to
Michigan, Michigan head coach Bill
Frieder posed a question.
"What I'd like to know, is what
recourse a high school player has to
keep a school from harassing him after
he's verbally committed."
WELL, FRIEDER'S question has
finally been answered, as an innovative
change in college recruiting of high
school basketball players has been ap-
proved by the Collegiate Com-
missioners' Association-an
association composed of 300 members
of the NCAA which sanctions a volun-
tary National Letter of Intent Program.
The change will enable a high school
star, under heavy recruiting pressure,
to end it all by signing a national letter
of intent before graduation.
Under the change, to be outlined in an
upcoming edition of the NCAA News,
member schools will have two time
periods for the signing of national let-
ters of intent by high school student-
athletes-Nov. 10-17, 1982, and April 13-
May 15, 1983. A letter of intent is a for-
mal notice that a player has decided on
which college to attend.
THE CHANGE is undoubtedly aimed
at players such as Michigan recruit
Robert Henderson who, after verbally,
committing to Michigan, said "You
have to open 100 pieces of mail a day
and answer all those calls, and

sometimes you have to leave the house
to get away from it all."
"There has been discussion of
something like this (change) for some
time now," said Fred Jacoby, com-
missioner of the Mid-America Con-
ference.
Jacoby recently completed a two-
year term as ,president of the CCA,
composed of the 13 major athletic con-
ferences and several independents.
JACOBY, A member of one of the
three NCAA steering committees, said
the dual signing date, especially the fir-
st date in November, would be open to
all prospective recruits who have com-
pleted their junior year, have made
visits to college and/or university cam-
puses, and want to make a decision.
"The ones who did not sign during the
first dates could sign in the second and
it will be one or the other dates,"
Jacoby stressed,adding,"and no one is
made to sign in the first period."
Jacoby also made it clear that this
split signing agreement will affect only
the sport of basketball.
"I THINK it will do several things,"
Jacoby explained. "It will reduce
pressure on the athlete and make it
easier on the coach and star player that
they might not be hounded continuously
throughout the season. And, it might
reduce some recruiting violations."
Jacoby said the CCA will step back
and take a strong look at it after the
season is over and the membership has
had one experience with it."
The NCAA itself does not sponsor a

national letter of intent program, LSU head Coach Dale Brown sees
Jacoby added, and has consistently nothing but good coming from the
voted down proposals raised at general changes in the program.
membership meetings. Brown said heavily recruited high
JACOBY SAID that's because the school players who want to get away
program is voluntary for the CCA, from that kind of pressure can
while with the NCAA it would be man- eliminate it by signing in November.
datory.
LSU coach changes
tune on reeruiting
By RON POLLACK
LSU basketbell coach Dale Brown apparently has changed his ways.
When asked what he thinks of a new change in the recruiting of high school
basketball players that will allow them to signa letter of intent earlier in the year
so as to reduce pressure, Brown said that he sees nothing but good coming from the
change.
Such an attitude is far different from Brown's actions during this past season's
recruiting campaign. Michigan's prized recruit, Richard Rellford, committed
early because he "didn't want to put up with all the tension."
Brown, however, ignored the fact that Rellford had already verbally committed
and continued recruiting the then high school senior. Rellford said that he received
phone calls from LSU every other day. Brown justified these actions by saying that
Rellford had said he was confused and wanted to visit LSU.
Rellford, meanwhile, denied that he ever told anyone at LSU that he would like to
visit the southern campus. "I told one of their assistants that I was committed and
that I wasn't interested in LSU because I'd already made my mind up," said
Iellford in March.
When this was all going on, Michigan head coach Bill Frieder said, "As far as I
know, Richard is not confused as to where he will go to college. I'm a little disap-
pointed in Dale Brown because Richard has committed to Michigan and he has
sent a letter to LSU saying that he's coming to Michigan and that he would ap-
preciate it if he (Brown) and his staff would stop recruiting him."

Red Wings choose
Devellano as new
general manager

DETROIT (AP)-- Jim Devellano, the
assistant general manager of the
Stanley Cup champion New York Islan-
ders, was named, yesterday, general
manager of the Detroit Red Wings.
Devellano, 39, takes over a Detroit
team that had the second-worst record
in the National Hockey League last
season. In addition, the team has made
the postseason playoffs only twice in
the past 16 years and not since 1978.
,They also have changed coaches 15
times in 15 years.
THE TEAM recently was sold by the
Norris family-owners for the club's 50
years in the league-to Detroit pizza
restauranteur Mike Ilitch,who announ-
ced Devellano's hiring at a news con-
ference.
"My hope here is to build a winner,"
Devellano said. "I'm hoping to build
like the Islanders did into a Stanley Cup
winner."
Devellano has been assistant general
manager and director of scouting for
the Islanders since 1981. He had been
head scout for New York since 1974, two
years after joining the team as a scout.
Before that, he scouted for the St. Louis
Blues for five years.
DURING HIS New York tenure,
Devellano and his scouting staff drafted
and signed such NHL standouts as Mike
Bossey, Clark Gilles, Bryan Trottier.
and Denis Potvin-all of them an-
choring an Islander team that has
swept to three straight Stanley Cups.
"My job is to get the coach players,"
he said, noting that a new coach would

be named probably the first week of
August.
"I will make a commitment right
now," he said. "As long as Jimmy
Devellano is the general manager of the
Detroit Red Wings, we will not trade a
draft choice. We won't trade a first
pick, a third pick, a sixth pick, a 10th
pick. We will keep our draft. Hopefully
we will be able to get some good players
in here.
"YOU DON'T build a Stanley Cup
contender through trades. You do it
through the draft." The Wings in recent
years have squandered top draft
choices through trades for established
players who failed to produce.
"The challenge is very, very ex-
citing," he said. "It would have been
nice maybe to stay in New York but
really I was the second person there
behind General Manager Bill Torrey
and Coach Al Arbour and their great
people. It's a chance to do something on
my own and build a franchise. That's
why I'm here."
Devellano said he had a multi-year
contract with the Wings. While the
team had "five or six players that made
me feel pretty good," no one on the
team was untouchable as trade bait, he
said.
He replaces Jim Skinner, who served
in various administrative and coaching
positions for the Wings during a 38-year
career. Skinner had said previously he
likely would retire once the change in
ownership was completed. -

JIM DEVELLANO (RIGHT) was named general manager of the Detroit
Red Wings yesterday by the new owner of the National Hockey League club,
Mike Ilitch (left). Devellano was formerly the assistant general manager of
the New York Islanders.

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