stewart retirement

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Something's Up At Missouri. . .
Stewart To Retire?--(March 31, 1999)

ESPN is reporting that Missouri basketball coach Norm Stewart "will make an announcement Thursday regarding his future", and the speculation is that he will announce that he's retiring from the school after 32 years. ESPN also reported that Stewart and his attorney were "negotiating with university officials for a contract buyout." Stewart has two more years remaining on his contract, and in the recruiting arena, Stewart has been chasing Kareem Rush hard, as well as Jason Kapono and Jason's friend Josh Kroenke.

If Stewart leaves, this could be very interesting, especially concerning the recruitment of Jason Kapono, who just got a double-whammy with the news that University of Rhode Island coach Jim Harrick has accepted the Georgia coaching job and will leave Rhode Island. Of course, the schools on Jason's list were UNLV, Utah, Missouri, and Rhode Island (he dropped Syracuse from the list a while back). We haven't been able to reach Jason for comment (he's in Michigan at the Magic Roundball Classic with his family) but a source close to the family told us yesterday that Jason was still considering all of the schools on his list (Utah, UNLV, Missouri & R.I.) and would make a choice "sometime" during the late signing period. Of course that was before the news about Stewart and Harrick, so we'd guess that Utah and UNLV are now the favorites and possibly Cal, which got into the game late, still might have a pretty good shot at Jason's services.

As for Kareem Rush, we've got to believe this bodes well for UCLA's chances to sign him. Of course, only time will tell, and as far as crawling inside the head of a 17 year old young man and trying to figure out what he'll do, well. . . . . time will tell. But that fat contract extension and bonus which UCLA gave coach Lavin yesterday has got to be looking pretty good right about now. Better and better all the time.