Wednesday, October 8, 1997
Cotton to attend one-year academy
Recruit will not lose year of eligibility, wants to attend
UCLA
By Mark Shapiro
Daily Bruin Staff
It looks like Schea Cotton will be playing basketball next year;
he just won’t be doing it for UCLA.
Cotton, one of the top recruits in the country, has elected to
attend St. Thomas More, a prep school in Oakdale, Conn., according
to the Los Angeles Times. While he had initially planned to attend
UCLA, an invalidated SAT score rendered him ineligible, prompting
his move to the one-year postgraduate academy.
Though he will attend classes and compete on the school’s
basketball team, Cotton will not lose a year of eligibility, a
luxury that he would have been denied had he attended a junior
college.
"The NCAA won’t allow me to go to UCLA, and I want to go to
school and play basketball," Cotton told the Los Angeles Times. "I
don’t want to leave home, but I want to play."
By competing with the St. Thomas team, Cotton will be
participating in organized basketball for the first time in nearly
two years. After playing in only 11 games in his junior year at
Santa Ana Mater Dei, Cotton sat out his entire senior year at
Bellflower St. John Bosco due to an injury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the academy will also
provide Cotton with the opportunity to retake the SAT, which is his
intention. Cotton has also stated that he would still like to
attend UCLA next year.
Cotton is following the same path as Rico Hines, who was one of
UCLA’s top recruits two years ago but was declared academically
ineligible by the NCAA. After attending prep school last year,
Hines, a 6-4 guard, has joined the UCLA team and has four full
years of eligibility remaining.
Cotton had declared his intention to attend UCLA after he got
out of a letter of intent to Long Beach State. He was declared
ineligible by the NCAA just days before the start of classes.
Though Cotton did file an appeal with the NCAA asking for a
reversal of the decision, the only response he received was a no
ruling from the NCAA before electing to attend prep school.