when Rollie was introducing me to his assistants and I started ribbing Calabria about his record against Villanova while he was at UNC, Calabria asked Rollie where Kittles was from. When he said Louisiana, one of the other assistants asked him if that was the guy he was recruiting where the other team was staking you out ...
Rollie said "no, that was Terry Sykes".
Then he went on to weave this quick tale [paraphrasing - not direct quotes]:
I went to see Rick Robey play down in Louisiana, he was a very highly regarded recruit that wound up going to Kentucky and playing in the NBA - he was with the Celtics for a long time ... this kid named Terry Sykes kicked Robey's butt in the game I was scouting so I started recruiting Sykes because I thought he was a guy with NBA potential and we wouldn't be able to get Robey anyway.
Grambling was all over Sykes and hardly anyone else was recruiting him.
We went down to visit Sykes and the Grambling guys were watching us from a couple of cars they had parked across the streets from Sykes' house. They followed our every move and wound up getting him to stay local and play for Grambling. Turns out he did play in the NBA so I was right about that.
Rollie said "no, that was Terry Sykes".
Then he went on to weave this quick tale [paraphrasing - not direct quotes]:
I went to see Rick Robey play down in Louisiana, he was a very highly regarded recruit that wound up going to Kentucky and playing in the NBA - he was with the Celtics for a long time ... this kid named Terry Sykes kicked Robey's butt in the game I was scouting so I started recruiting Sykes because I thought he was a guy with NBA potential and we wouldn't be able to get Robey anyway.
Grambling was all over Sykes and hardly anyone else was recruiting him.
We went down to visit Sykes and the Grambling guys were watching us from a couple of cars they had parked across the streets from Sykes' house. They followed our every move and wound up getting him to stay local and play for Grambling. Turns out he did play in the NBA so I was right about that.
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