The Big Green men's basketball team received an enormous blow earlier in the week when Jihan Bowes-Little, a top-recruit at point guard, decided not to attend Dartmouth in the fall.
Bowes-Little had committed to the Big Green earlier in the year, but will now accept a full athletic scholarship to play at the University of Portland, a Division I school.
"Jihan had an outstanding spring and summer and became more of a prospect than he had been during the season," Head Coach Dave Faucher said. "Once he started to improve and other schools became interested, we became worried that something like this could happen. I am very, very disappointed to lose him as a member of our team."
Athletic Director Dick Jaeger believes Portland and their basketball program wereout of line.
"I don't know what they offered him, but this seems to be very unethical," Jaeger said. "There seems to be a great problem in college athletics today with people and their behavior, and to come in and take a kid away from another school in the middle of the summer is wrong."
According to Bowles-Little, the opportunity to play closer to home and at a bigger program helped to change his mind after receiving the offer from Portland during the summer. Portland had not recruited him during the season.
"Earlier this summer, I played in a tournament in Long Beach [California] where there were lots of college recruiters," Bowles-Little said. "Portland coaches noticed me and got in contact with my coach, and together we sat down and decided I would be better off at Portland."
The 5'11" recruit had been projected to start at point guard for Coach Faucher's Dartmouth squad. The position was open due to the graduation of Kenny Mitchell '97, who led the nation in assists last season.
"Jihan was a true point-guard in the sense that he was quick and explosive and could penetrate off of the dribble," Faucher said. "We will probably utilize a two-guard system now that will have everybody handling the ball rather than pushing the ball up the floor in a fast-break style."
The spot opened by the loss of Bowes-Little cannot be replaced by the recruiting process this close to the start of school.
"He valued Jihan as a big part of our recruiting class, no doubt about that," Faucher said. "The coaching staff thought he could have been an impact player in the league."
Because Dartmouth and the other seven Ivy League schools do not honor the National Letter of Intent, Bowes-Little can attend Portland without penalty.
"Dartmouth and the rest of the Ivy League schools believe in letting a student go to their school of choice and take their word for commitment," Jaeger said. "In this case, when a student says he is coming to Dartmouth, and has already started sending boxes to Dartmouth, he is planning to go to school here."
Bowles-Little said that he would have signed a letter-of-intent had Dartmouth had one, but when offered the chance to go to Portland, , he couldn't pass it up and had no binding ties to Hanover.
"This is the first time in 14 years that I have ever lost a recruit in August," Faucher said. "Jihan is a great student and a great kid, but he is still very impressionable as we all are. The whole recruiting process relies on making impressions."
Jaeger says athletes do occasionally back out of their commitments because there is nothing binding them to Dartmouth except their word.
"We don't lose that many kids to other schools after they commit, but it does happen more often then we would like because of the way the rules are set up," he said. "Incidents like this one, though, make us take a closer look at our recruiting process and what changes can be made."
Both Faucher and Jaeger emphasized that they believed finances and possibly academics were involved in Bowles-Little's decision.
"There is no doubt that financial issues were involved and that a full scholarship was hard for the family to turn down," Faucher said.
A strong student, Bowles-Little said the only thing that Dartmouth had over Portland was academic opportunites, but that Portland made strides to compensate for that gap.
"It was hard for me to pass up the chance to go to Dartmouth," Bowles-Little said. "But Portland offered me a place in their honors program and said that they would help me get into an Ivy League graduate school."
The promises from Portland did not surprise Big Green officials.
"Obviously this late in the process, something has to be offered that wasn't there before, either ethically or unethically," Jaeger said. "We believe Portland portrayed themselves as having academic opportunities that Dartmouth didn't have and that enticed Jihan."
Bowes-Little graduated from Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, Calif. in June. While at Cardinal Newman, he was named an All-League guard, earning numerous All-Tournament honors. Along with the athletic honors, Bowes-Little was class vice-president and a national achievement scholar.
While this type of incident occurred two years ago with women's point guard Nicci Rinaldi '99, she returned toDartmouth and the team after leaving Auburn University early in the fall. However, Faucher does not think Bowles-Little will ever play for Dartmouth.
"I do not think Jihan is coming back -- this is permanent," Faucher said.
