Radford and Miller

Pilot staff writers Rich Radford and Ed Miller cover Old Dominion University's men's basketball team ... and blog about it here..

Category: ODU Basketball

■ 14 November 2009 | 6:49 PM

Coop, and the recruits

There will be no redshirt for Chris Cooper this year, coach Blaine Taylor told me today during our brief conversation during halftime of the football game I was covering for the V-P in Dover, Del. Plans are to redshirt freshmen Anton Larsen and Josh Hicks.

Speaking of freshmen, as expected, both Dimitri Batten and Richard Ross signed their letters of intent this week. ODU made its formal announcement today. Look for a story with some comments from Blaine in tomorrow's Pilot.

Also look for a piece on ODU's size, and how this team might be the ultimate reflection of Taylor's coaching philosophy, which is to put together big, physical teams that defend, rebound and play multiple defenses.

Cooper, of course, is one of those big guys, a 6-9 sophomore. It seemed unlikely he would redshirt after he appeared in both of ODU's exhibitions. ODU compliance guru Jeff Wilson cited NCAA manual chapter-and-verse in an email to me after I asked him whether Coop's partcipation precluding redshirting.

His answer was that it did. He cited good ol' 14.2.3.1.3, which reads as follows:

14.2.3.1.3 Preseason Exhibitions/Preseason Practice Scrimmages During Initial Year. During

a student-athlete’s initial year of enrollment at the certifying institution, he or she may compete in preseason

exhibition contests and preseason practice scrimmages (as permitted in the particular sport per Bylaw 17)

without counting such competition as a season of competition. (Revised: 5/9/06)

The key phrase here is "initial year of enrollment."

Taylor said he thought that rule had been recently amended to allow returning players to play in exhibitions. Wilson told me he wasn't aware of that and would have to look into it. In any case, it's moot now, since Cooper is going to play, starting tomorrow in the season opener vs. Bethune-Cookman.

-- Ed Miller

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