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When you have a coaching change, you tend to have a little bit of a recruiting snafu. The problem is largely because of the national letter of intent system, which removes all control from the high school player and gives it all to the school. There's nothing requiring the school to release a player when they make their official request, but as it tends to leave you with a giant public relations disaster if you don't release the guy, it tends to happen on a regular basis.
Unless the recruit is impressed enough by the new head coach, of course.
Sandy Cohen will be a member of Steve Wojciechowski's first recruiting class at Marquette. Confirmed tonight.
— Mark Miller (@WisBBYearbook) April 7, 2014
In case you prefer a more direct confirmation:
Sandy Cohen texts PT to confirm that he will not seek a release from Marquette. #mubb
— Paint Touches (@PaintTouches) April 8, 2014
And if you don't believe THOSE guys...
💙💛💙💛💙💛 couldn't be happier to spend the next four years of my life in the city of Milwaukee #MarquetteBound
— Chief Cohen ▲ (@SandyCohenIII) April 8, 2014
Shortly after Buzz Williams' departure for Virginia Tech, there was some miscommunication between Cohen and Marquette which led to the Seymour (WI) High School standout to think he had been released from his letter of intent. That wasn't the case, but even then, Cohen's reasons were based in logic.
"[Marquette] is probably my top school, but I don’t even know if I’m going to like the new coach or system there," he said. "I don’t know who it’s going to be. I’m not sure if I’m going to like the new coach. I want to have all my options available. Marquette is still my top school, but if I don’t like the coach, I still have other options."
Cohen's thought process was that he wanted the ability to take calls from other schools and listen to what else was out there in case he didn't like what the new Marquette coach brought to the table. You can't fault a guy for that frame of mind. But when Cohen met with Steve Wojciechowski, he obviously heard something he liked about the "basketball is meant to be played hard at all times" and "defense leads to offense" attitude from the first time head coach.
Now that Cohen is locked and loaded for the fall, we wait to see where things end up with Ahmed Hill (although they seem positive), Satchel Pierce, and Marial Shayok.