If you think our society rushes kids along too quickly, robbing them of their childhood, you won't want to hear this story:

Another college basketball coach has offered a scholarship to an eighth-grader.

The University of Kentucky's Billy Gillispie recently received a verbal commitment from Michael Avery, a 6-foot-4 guard from Encino, Calif.

"This is an inexact science when you're evaluating a junior, never mind an eighth-grader," Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said Tuesday.

When it was suggested to Greenberg that this is nothing but a sleazy publicity stunt on Kentucky's part, he didn't automatically agree.

"If a kid has a dream school and he wants closure, I'm not sure there's anything wrong with it," he said. "But if it becomes the norm, then you've got to wonder what's going on."

Dream school?

Avery has never visited Kentucky. Supposedly, he has yet to speak with Gillispie, who extended the scholarship after watching Avery in a couple of games at a youth tournament in Ohio.

Kentucky is following the dubious example set by Southern California. Last year, Trojans coach Tim Floyd received a verbal commitment from eighth-grader Ryan Boatright of Illinois. The year before, he offered a scholarship to 14-year-old Dwayne Polee Jr., from California.

"In a perfect world," Floyd said last year, "we'd all wait until spring signing date when these kids are high school seniors. But that's just not the world we live in in college basketball."

Greenberg agrees.

"It's very, very hard to evaluate an eighth-grader," he said. "But, you know, that is our business today. The earlier you can identify and evaluate, the better off you are."

Recently, Greenberg and his staff sat down to discuss the summer tournaments they'd be scouting.

"You've really got to spend time going to the 15-and-unders and 14-and-unders," he said. "Which is crazy."

No crazier than the parents of eighth-graders allowing their kids to accept scholarships so far out from college. You don't think something like this could swell a 14-year-old's head and make him more difficult to coach, do you?

In any case, the scholarship offers don't mean anything. One reason a commitment from an eighth-grader feels like a publicity stunt is that nothing about the process is binding. The school can back out. So can the player.

"How many times," Greenberg said, "have you seen a kid commit and change his mind?"

But players aren't the only ones who experience second thoughts.

Howard Avery, Michael's father, said his family was "flattered and excited" that his son would have a chance to play at Kentucky. But there have been plenty of stories about kids who committed to a program very early, then grew less attractive to the coach. Either they didn't develop or the college recruited better players in the interim.

Besides, who's to say Gillispie will still be at Kentucky in 2012?

Greenberg believes that, in most cases, the earliest any player should decide on a college is 10th grade.

"But he needs to sign a letter of intent," he said. "If he's not ready to sign that letter, he shouldn't commit."

Speaking of commitment, though he's already settled on a college, Avery doesn't know where he'll be attending high school next fall.

Maybe he's waiting to be recruited.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373 or bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com