Recruiting News: Is Harvard's Recruiting Cooling Off?

Success in Ivy League basketball recruiting is assessed by stepping back and examining the big picture. Successful recruiting is not defined by who you choose to recruit and the hype and buzz around your program's efforts. If the players don't choose to enroll, the effort amounts to nothing. And even then, it only matters if the new recruits eventually win basketball games and do it in the right way.

Harvard could be learning this tough lesson.

After all of the summer hype and buzz in the national media, this week highly touted-guard, Pe'Shon Howard of Oak Hill Academy in Virginia seemingly backed out of his verbal commitment to attend Harvard. Then yesterday, Rod Odom of the Middlesex School in Massachusetts told AZCats.com that his list of upcoming college visits may not include Harvard. Odom visited West Virginia last weekend and said "My next visits I will take are Arizona and Boston College. I will be at Arizona on September 18th and then onto Boston College on October 3rd." He added, "I'll make my decision around late September or early October," said Odom. "I doubt that I use all of my visits." Odom previously told members of the media that he might visit Harvard on September 25. There is no public confirmation if the visit was cancelled. Additionally, Keala King, a 6'5" wing from Compton, California also told Rivals.com that he intends to play in the Pac 10. In all three cases, Harvard was hoping to land a commitment.

Harvard could still pull off a surprise and assemble a strong recruiting class. But from the looks of the above developments, it has not been a good couple of weeks in Cambridge.