Fighting On for a Full Ride

If things work out, Collin Robinson and Keith Wilkinson will help nudge the USC men’s basketball team out of the Pacific 10 Conference cellar and Trojan Coach Tim Floyd will extend their scholarships.

If not, the freshmen will have lost a high-risk, high-reward gamble.

Borderline major college recruits out of high school, Robinson and Wilkinson were given one year by Floyd to prove they can play at college basketball’s top level. Otherwise their scholarships will be given to someone else and they’ll have the choice to transfer or stay and try to earn a position on the team as a walk-on.

“Originally, it was against my intuition,” said Robinson, a 6-foot guard from Diamond Bar High, “but after careful consideration with my family members and the people close to me, I decided [Floyd] would give me a fair chance, and that’s all I needed to take off, so I took it on.”

With eight scholarships available when he was hired by USC in January, Floyd found the talent supply could not possibly meet his demand. Most top players had signed elsewhere, and Floyd had to, as he put it, get “creative” with several prospects that he otherwise might not have recruited.

“I told them on the front end that I cannot commit myself for more than one year,” Floyd said of his pitch to Robinson and Wilkinson. “I said, ‘You’re going to have to show me you can play for [conference favorite] Arizona to be here a year from now.’ We just have to have those scholarships beyond that for guys that can do that. I can’t get too committed.”

Technically, all scholarships are for one year. But the assumption among recruits is that their scholarships will be renewed for four years, as long as they meet academic requirements and satisfy the basic demands of their coaches.

For Robinson and Wilkinson, more will be required. “We told them we want them to try and knock us out,” Floyd said. “If they knock us out, great.”

Robinson had been lightly regarded by recruiting analysts before a senior season in which he averaged 25.9 points, including 37 points during the Brahmas’ playoff run to the Southern Section Division I-AA semifinals. It didn’t hurt that he broke Keith Van Horn’s school scoring record and poured in a career-high 42 points against Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula in front of USC football Coach Pete Carroll, whose son Nate plays for the Panthers.

Robinson turned down full scholarship offers from Colgate, Boston University, UC Riverside and UC Irvine in favor of a one-year trial period at USC because he liked the broadcast journalism department and figured he could contribute to a basketball program that featured 10 newcomers.

“It was a completely fresh start, and that’s what drew me in,” Robinson said. “There were no predisposed notions of who was going to be able to play or not.... I looked at it as pretty much an open book that was waiting for me to write it.”

Like Robinson, Wilkinson was a late bloomer. The 6-foot-9, 215-pound forward from Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley has added about five inches and 100 pounds to his frame in four years but was still so frail that his high school coach, Brian Mulligan, discussed the player’s attending a junior college or an East Coast prep school.

“He said, ‘No, if I can get one of these good [offers], I’m going after it,’ ” Mulligan recalled.

Wilkinson had drawn interest from UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and several Ivy League schools. None stood a chance after he visited USC.

“I figured this was the place for me to be if I want to be successful, whether it’s in basketball or in business or communications,” said Wilkinson, who like Robinson wants to become a sportscaster. “I fell in love with the school.”

Will Wilkinson still feel that way in a year?

“It’s a huge longshot,” Mulligan said. “The guys that Tim Floyd is recruiting are not All-South Coast League guys; they have bigger credentials than that.... I think [Wilkinson] can eventually play at a level close to that, but there might have to be some patience, and I don’t know if they can keep him on a scholarship when they need so many players.”

On the surface, Floyd acknowledged, he appears to be over-committing with his next recruiting class. He has signed four players and could expand that number to five, even though he has only three available scholarships, not counting Robinson’s and Wilkinson’s.

Junior Lodrick Stewart and sophomores Gabriel Pruitt and Nick Young are candidates to declare early for the 2006 NBA draft, Floyd points out, and it’s always possible that someone might be declared academically ineligible.

“I feel comfortable that it may not be just the two kids that are here that we’re recruiting over; they could be back here next year if we lose a couple of the other guys,” Floyd said.

Bob Withers, who coached Robinson at Diamond Bar, said Floyd would be wise to stick with his former pupil for more than one year.

“I know Coach Floyd is going to get commitments from very good players, but if he watches Collin’s progress and then projects that, I don’t think he can recruit another player that can be as good as Collin over the next four years,” Withers said.

Wilkinson and Robinson do have recourse if their scholarships are not renewed. Each can request a hearing conducted by university officials not affiliated with the athletic department to appeal the decision.

Kent Barrett, associate director for public and media relations for the NCAA, said the appeals process ensured “that campus leaders are comfortable with the reasons why athletically related financial aid is not renewed.”

Wilkinson said the thought of losing his scholarship, valued at $42,018 a year, had been a driving influence.

“Those mornings when you wake up and you’re sore from long practices, you get up and you’re thinking, ‘Man, I really don’t want to practice,’ ” he said. “But you know that that guy over there that’s on a full ride for four years isn’t going to go as hard, so I’m like, ‘All right, this is my chance. I have to go hard to prove it to them.’ ”

Wilkinson and Robinson have impressed Floyd with more than their eagerness. Though both are undersized for their positions, Wilkinson has a feathery 20-foot jump shot and Robinson is quick and aggressive.

“They’re going to get to play, and it’s one of the reasons they came,” Floyd said.

Playing time has been sporadic through the Trojans’ first eight games. Robinson has played 14 minutes, Wilkinson 15, mostly in blowout situations. Robinson has made two of three shots and Wilkinson one of three.

“My playing time might increase and if it doesn’t, I’m just happy that the team’s winning and everything’s going well for us,” Robinson said.

Said Wilkinson: “Right now I’m just kind of observing and getting used to college basketball, watching the tendencies and studying the game. I just have to be ready for my opportunity, whether it’s now, two days from now or the end of the year.”

Robinson, one of 10 guards on the Trojan roster, said he did not spend time worrying about whether his scholarship will be there next year.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re going to renew my scholarship, just from my work ethic,” he said. “But if it does happen, I have options. This is still a really great school. I’m not sure if my parents could cope financially, but I have really good grades right now and I know those credits will transfer anywhere else because this is a great school.”