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Want a cautionary tale on the perils of college recruiting? Meet David Chadwick Jr. He is a 6-foot-9, 215-pound basketball player from Charlotte with smooth offensive moves, superb grades – and no scholarship.
It's not like there has been no interest in Chadwick, who starred at Charlotte Latin and is the son of David Chadwick Sr., the well-known Charlotte pastor and former North Carolina basketball player. Two plastic tubs bulge with recruiting mail in the Chadwick family home.
But Chadwick Jr. saw his original college plan crumble in April. Signed to go to Washington State and play in the Pac-10 under family friend and rising-star coach Tony Bennett, Chadwick's basketball life unraveled when Bennett suddenly bolted for the head-coaching job at Virginia.
Chadwick still had a scholarship offer from Washington State, but no longer wanted to travel 2,600 miles from Charlotte to play if Bennett wasn't coaching him. Instead, he drove this week to Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., where he will attend prep school for a year.
The family will pay the school's tuition – which in some cases can run as high as $29,500 a year. Chadwick Jr. will work on his game, try to earn another top-flight scholarship offer and distance himself from some of the outlandish recruiting pitches he has heard since deciding not to go to Washington State.
The running joke in the Chadwick house is that the family loved the recruiting process so much it has decided to do it all again. In reality, though, the Chadwicks have realized that college coaches' recruiting pitches and promises must not be taken just with a grain of salt, but an entire salt shaker full.
“I'll be more skeptical this time around,” Chadwick Jr. said.
Chadwick has a high basketball IQ and can score with either hand around the basket. He's a good passer for a big man and has a variety of strong post moves.
The biggest question marks in his game: Athleticism and strength. Can he defend against more explosive players? And with his lean build, will he be strong enough to muscle for rebounds against major-college opponents?
Chadwick ultimately had about 30 scholarship offers to Division I schools, he and his father said. But other than Washington State, most were from mid-major schools that didn't really appeal to him. And, as Chadwick Sr. said: “You shouldn't marry somebody you don't love.”
So, prep school.
Telling friends goodbye
It is the second time Chadwick Jr. – by all accounts a great kid and a very good player – has chosen to be left behind by his academic class in his quest to become a great player.
The first time came in ninth grade. Chadwick repeated that grade – not because he needed to academically, but because he had had knee problems. Now he plans to go to a college prep school even though his grades need no prepping (which is the reason most future college basketball players attend Hargrave).
Assuming Chadwick signs a Division I scholarship for the 2010-11 season – and, barring injury, he should have a number of offers to do so – he will be 20 years old when he enters college. He will be 21 by the time he plays his first college game in November 2010.
“It's been weird,” Chadwick said. “My parents and others keep reminding me that 50 years from now, two years won't seem like anything. But it is weird being older, not quite being in college yet and having to tell your friends goodbye when they go.”
But Chadwick has stayed committed to the prep school decision. Some schools have contacted him within the past month – Memphis, Marquette and New Mexico were among them, the Chadwicks said – and asked if he would be interested in pursuing a last-minute scholarship for this school year.
Thanks, but no thanks, Chadwick said.
It's not because he's holding out for his dad's alma mater North Carolina. “They haven't been in touch with me in a couple of years,” Chadwick said.
And it's not because Chadwick Sr. is set on his son playing in a major conference like the ACC. Chadwick Sr. said he has tried during this process to be his son's mentor without attempting to shape the decision for him.
“David is going to own the decision,” Chadwick Sr. said. “I'd be happy for him to be in college somewhere right now, but I'm not going to tell him to go to a school where he doesn't want to go. It is costing us some money for this year, yes, but it's costing him a lot more. He's delaying his whole life a year to make sure he gets this right.”
Chadwick Jr. said he thinks the delay to play a season at Hargrave – where he will team with players like Lorenzo Brown (who originally signed with N.C. State) and Shawn Kemp Jr. (who originally signed with Alabama) – will help him figure out what he wants to do.
National recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons of All Star Sports Report has watched Chadwick play since ninth grade. Said Gibbons: “I think this year will buy David some time and help him raise his game. He should end up in the ACC if he wants to be there. He'll have great players to practice against every day. What this year ultimately does for David is up to David. But he's a great ‘effort' guy, so I think it will do a lot for him.”
‘You couldn't blame him'
It would have been easier, of course, if Bennett had stayed at Washington State. I sat on the Chadwicks' couch recently and asked Chadwick Jr. what happened.
“He was sitting right where you are sitting right now [in September 2008],” Chadwick Jr. said of Bennett. “He was saying, ‘I've just signed a long contract extension at Washington State.' But that's the nature of college basketball. When he called me to tell me about Virginia, I said, ‘Tony, I completely understand what you're doing.' Virginia is a better area to recruit from, has more potential, has better academics and he got a big pay increase. You couldn't blame him.”
Bennett apologized to the Chadwicks, the family said, and has been in touch a couple of times since. But he never offered to take Chadwick with him.
Bennett declined comment about Chadwick or his family for this story. Through a Virginia spokesman, he cited the NCAA rule that prohibits coaches being quoted about players who are still in the recruiting process. For the same reason, other college coaches cannot publicly talk about Chadwick, either.
The Chadwicks have known Bennett for almost 20 years. Chadwick Sr. had met and befriended Bennett while Bennett was a guard for the Charlotte Hornets. Bennett went with the Chadwicks on a couple of family vacations. Bennett met his future wife Laurel while attending Forest Hill, the Charlotte mega-church where David Sr. serves as senior pastor. David Sr. performed the Bennetts' wedding in Baton Rouge, La., in 1995.
“So when Tony called David and offered him a scholarship,” Chadwick Sr. said, “this obviously seemed like a God thing, like everything had fallen into place.”
And then Bennett took the Virginia job. It didn't shake the Chadwicks' faith in God, but it certainly derailed their college plan.
“I have no ill feeling toward Tony,” Chadwick Sr. said. “I love Tony. But I do really wish David could have played for him.”
Bennett had signed four players to his 2009 recruiting class at Washington State. The other three stayed. Chadwick left. He had believed in Bennett so thoroughly that he had committed to Washington State sight unseen after Bennett's home visit and subsequent scholarship offer.
Then came another recruiting whirlwind. Chadwick got his official release from Washington State on a Thursday in April. St. Louis coach Rick Majerus came to his home Friday and stayed 4 1/2 hours. Creighton coach Dana Altman came on Saturday.
But the messages were sometimes mixed in the spring, the Chadwick family said. Butler coach Brad Stevens called one day to gauge Chadwick's interest in his program, Chadwick Jr. said, then called back a few days later saying he didn't have a scholarship available.
Sometimes, the pitches were ridiculous.
Chadwick said he was told by one coach he wouldn't name: “You'll play 30 minutes a game as a freshman. Then, three weeks later, the same coach called us and said they had a logjam at my position and no scholarship at all.”
Another coach told Chadwick he would be the face of the program for four years, he said, and do for that team what Stephen Curry did for Davidson. That statement was nutty enough, Chadwick said, that he never believed it to begin with.
“Each school had its own little story,” Chadwick Jr. said. “I wasn't in a rush at all. Then sometimes they would come back and say, ‘We don't think you're very interested.' I took it as a sign of God protecting me from where I am not supposed to be.”
‘The wrong cards'
How far Chadwick ultimately goes with basketball is questionable.
Could he be an NBA player? Not unless he improves dramatically in prep school and college. But there are some precedents. Josh Howard once went to Hargrave and later starred at Wake Forest and in the NBA. Joe Alexander was lightly recruited in high school, went to Hargrave, starred at West Virginia and became the No.8 pick of the 2008 NBA draft.
“I would love to play basketball for a living somewhere,” Chadwick Jr. said. “That's my goal. If it's in Europe, that'd be great, too.”
First, though, he must run the recruiting gantlet again. He hopes, most of all, that people tell him the truth and nothing more. “I think coaches will be very careful what they say to me,” Chadwick said. “They know I've been dealt the wrong cards a couple of times.”
Chadwick could either make a decision on college in November during the early signing period or wait until the spring of 2010.
If Bennett decides to recruit him again at Virginia – and Chadwick said Bennett had promised to come watch him at Hargrave – Chadwick said he will listen.
“I wouldn't say I would shut that door,” Chadwick said. “But I wouldn't say I'm going to open it immediately, either.”
