Colorado State’s basketball pipeline to Northeastern Junior College has sprung a leak.
The Rams’ two early signees from the Sterling school have requested a release from their letters of intent, said Northeastern coach Eddie Trenkle.
“They wanted to test the waters. I think they are handling it the right way,” Trenkle said Tuesday. “They did sign to play for Coach (Dale) Layer. When that situation changed, their minds changed.”
Layer was fired as CSU’s coach after this past season and replaced by Tim Miles, who visited 5-foot-10 guard Omar Leary and 6-7 forward Shane Edwards last week. Both signed last fall.
CSU has a returning player from Northeastern, 6-3 guard Tyler Smith. Layer hired Trenkle’s predecessor, Brian Joyce, for his staff last season but Joyce was not retained by Miles.
Trenkle said Leary and Edwards still list CSU as their No. 1 choice but want to take at least one more visit.
“Coach Miles told them he is running a big business and would go find other kids. They both understand and know,” Trenkle said.
Northeastern’s coach has been contacted by other schools interested in Leary and Edwards but won’t allow them to contact the players until the release forms arrive from CSU.
“I told our players to wait until the end of the year to sign,” Trenkle said. “Those two chose to sign early. They knew Coach Layer might be on the hot seat.”
Miles, meanwhile, completed his staff by hiring DeMarlo Slocum, most recently an assistant at Idaho. Slocum is a Las Vegas native who coached a Las Vegas AAU team. One of those AAU players, 6-6 forward Andre McFarland, was released from his letter of intent with Idaho and is expected to sign with CSU.
Miles also hired Mark Amaral, a seven-year assistant at Cal-Santa Barbara. Craig Smith, who previously worked with Miles at Mayville (N.D.) State and North Dakota State, will be CSU’s director of basketball operations.
Today is the first day of the spring letter-of-intent period. Aurora Central coach Bob Caton said he expects his All-Colorado forward, 6-5 Stephen Franklin, to fulfill his commitment to sign.
Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
