Under Pressure : Don MacLean Judiciously Handles Crush of Prospective Colleges

As basketball coach at Simi Valley High, Bob Hawking knows all about the guerrilla tactics favored by some college recruiters. Persistent fellows with the oily persuasiveness of a used-car salesman and the go-for-the-jugular mentality of Count Dracula, they have been known to attempt anything short of kidnaping to get their man.

Although the NCAA has tightened rules and increased penalties to deter the unscrupulous, the unethical and the underhanded, Hawking has gone even further to protect his star player, 6-foot, 10-inch Don MacLean, one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation. Establishing and strictly enforcing guidelines that have limited access to MacLean, Hawking has successfully shielded the 17-year-old center and his family from the potential horrors of recruiting.

“The worst thing that can happen is that things get out of control,” Hawking said. “But if you establish a set of rules--if you tell recruiters that you’re in control--you can maintain sanity.”

With some 200 colleges expressing an interest in MacLean, Hawking envisioned his player spending most of his waking moments dealing with recruiters instead of homework. So last spring, with NCAA rules permitting colleges to make personal contact after a player’s junior season, Hawking put MacLean off limits except for the hours between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunday nights.

“It wouldn’t have been unusual for a school to call every night,” Hawking said. Considering the large number of interested colleges, MacLean would have been forced to get an answering service. And even though recruiters faced the prospect of three hours of busy signals trying to get through on Sundays, “All the schools followed our requests. They were really above board,” Hawking said.

MacLean’s mother is especially pleased that reason rose above potential chaos. “The way it was handled was terrific,” said Pat MacLean, a six-footer who met her 6-8 husband at a club for tall singles.

Fortunately, talking on the phone for three solid hours isn’t beyond the capabilities of a normal teen-ager. So MacLean, since April, has spent his Sunday nights at home, yapping with recruiters and coaches instead of girls. He used his sister’s telephone, which was a calculated move: It doesn’t have call waiting, meaning that he could make small talk and ask questions without constant interruptions.

“He couldn’t have finished a conversation if he used my phone, which has call waiting,” Pat said.

MacLean’s friend, Tim Laker, a former Simi Valley baseball player, spent numerous Sunday evenings at the MacLeans, discovering what it must be like to be Mr. Popularity. “He’d get call after call,” said Laker, who attends Oxnard College. “It was pretty hectic. I don’t know how he put up with it.”

Enduring the frenzy of college recruiting has been made somewhat easier by the NCAA’s early signing rule. This year, high school seniors can terminate their recruiting headaches by announcing the college of their choice during a one-week period beginning today. To condense the possibilities into a reasonable number, the NCAA set up additional guidelines: from Sept. 17 to Oct. 7, recruiters from 10 schools were allowed to come into a recruit’s home a maximum of three times; then, within 20 days, the recruit had to select five of those schools to visit.

But Pat MacLean thinks that choosing the final five is a process that needs careful thought, and 20 days is not enough time. “The period was too condensed,” she said. “I wish Don had had more time to absorb everything.”

MacLean’s final five: UCLA, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Georgia Tech and Nevada-Las Vegas. To help him narrow the field intelligently, Hawking put together a questionnaire so he would have significant information on which to base his decision. During those Sunday-night phone conversations, MacLean would ask: How many athletes graduate? What’s the weather like? How’s the social life? How many starters are returning? How many forwards are you recruiting, and who? Will I have a chance to play right away?

“The most important factors now are whether I’ll play right away, what the head coach is like, what the degree means, what the city is like and what kind of support the team gets,” said MacLean, who averaged 25.2 points a game last season in leading the Pioneers to a 26-2 record. Recruited for college as a small forward although he plays center for Simi Valley, MacLean says he was told: “I’m the best-shooting big man in the country,” but beyond promising him an education, none of the five, he says, did anything illegal to score points with him.

“Me and the coach, especially the coach, have been on top of the situation,” MacLean said.

While most of his 2,400 schoolmates must be content with visiting the mall or the beach on weekends this fall, MacLean has been taking trips to distant cities. But MacLean says he has not used the occasions to get down and party. A serious student with a 3.37 grade-point average last year, MacLean understands that he’s being courted, seeing and doing things the coaches want him to experience. Football games. Pretty hostesses. Dinner with the coaching staff. Hanging out with the players.

But reality, he realizes, may be different, even for a basketball star. So he walks around the campus asking questions, recording impressions, doing what Hawking calls “reading between the lines and investigating on your own.”

“I’m not there to have a good time,” MacLean said. “I’ve got to find things out for myself. If I can fit in. How classes are handled. What’s there to do on weekends.”

But despite his adult attitude and the support from Hawking, MacLean is still a youth, impressionable, vulnerable. “He’s getting more and more confused with each school he visits,” Pat said. Laker remembers picking up MacLean from the airport after a visit. “He really liked the school a lot,” Laker said, “but the next week, when he got back from another trip, he wasn’t sure.”

Even though MacLean’s No. 1 priority is playing basketball in college, academics won’t be ignored, he says. His mother is a teacher at Royal High, and she has stressed the importance of looking beyond college, even past the professional ranks. “I hope he chooses a school that can develop his potential in both basketball and academics,” Pat said.

MacLean, still undecided on a major, thinks he will study business as a hedge against a short or nonexistent professional career. “You can’t play forever,” he said, adding with uncharacteristic teen insight: “Once I stop playing, I’ve got to be prepared to handle myself in life.”

MacLean, his parents divorced, lives with his mother. Divorced parents can be a divisive element in the already pressure-packed recruiting situation. Last year, Fairfax High star Sean Higgins was pulled at from many sides in a bitter family dispute. His father, living in Detroit, wanted him to attend Michigan. His stepfather in Los Angeles insisted on UCLA. Higgins picked UCLA, then changed his mind.

“That’s not going to happen with me,” MacLean said. “My dad is very supportive, and my mom wants me to go where I fit in best.”

Even though MacLean is being handled with kid gloves, Pat has noticed that “Don’s under a lot of pressure.” MacLean, however, feels he is holding up well, “but I think there will be more pressure as signing day approaches.”

Both MacLean and his mother consider him lucky to have a coach and adviser like Hawking. “He’s the most influential person in my life right now,” MacLean said.

Hawking has more than a passing interest in MacLean. They have known each other for a dozen years, ever since MacLean, even then a head taller than his contemporaries, attended Hawking’s basketball camp along with future Pioneer teammates Butch Hawking and Shawn DeLaittre. The coach has seen MacLean grow not only in stature but ability and maturity.

“What makes Don special is not that he’s 6-10,” Hawking said. “There are thousands that big in high school. Don is different. He’s extremely motivated to be the best. Then he pays the price to do it. He works very hard, he’s very persistent. He doesn’t take it for granted that he’ll be good because he’s 6-10. Don has taken basketball seriously since he was 6 at our basketball camp.”

With his son, DeLaittre and MacLean all seniors this season, Hawking calls this season the culmination of “a lifetime project.” MacLean, he said, “is like family to me. I try to help him along. But anybody who makes such a monumental decision--and choosing a college is one of the three or four most important decisions you’ll make--would be foolish not to have an open mind and look for counseling and guidance.”

Still, both Hawking and Pat MacLean emphasize that Don’s decision will be his. “I’d love to have him close,” his mother said, “but I’m not the influencing factor. The final choice is Don’s. Bob feels the same way. We can’t say, ‘Don, this is where you should go.’ ”

There is a possibility that MacLean won’t be able to reach a decision during the early signing period. “I’d like to make it by then,” he said, “and I wish I could so it would be over, but I’m still debating.” His mother added, “I wish the signing period was in December. It’s so rushed now. But if Don’s not 100% certain, he’s not going to sign early.”

Said Hawking: “The decision shouldn’t be made on the basis of ‘Let’s get it over with.’ If he’s uncertain, he should hold off to unmuddy the waters.”

If MacLean waits until after his senior season to make up his mind, would it create even more confusion and turmoil and perhaps hurt his performance?

“Even if I sign late, I’m going to have a good season,” MacLean said. “Recruiting won’t affect that.”

Hawking agreed: “Holding off wouldn’t affect Don negatively.”

But Pat MacLean isn’t sure. “If he’s undecided,” she said, “it could be in the back of his mind and affect his play.”

Still, MacLean is in a position that few, if any, of his schoolmates will ever know. “It sure would be nice to be in his shoes,” Laker said. “A lot of people envy him--him traveling and all. I always hear, ‘Who’s looking at Mac this week?’ But I tell them, it’s ‘Who’s Mac looking at?’ Most people don’t have that opportunity.”