Miles Jones was told to do a PG year to qualify for admissions at Duke. It was not a lacrosse decision for lacrosse advantage. He was being recruited by Duke as a natural sophomore. His game didn't need the help, his profile as a student did. Nice try.
I don't understand the idea of doing a PG year to get your grades up. What's the guarantee that will make a difference? First, one more year is one out of 5 high school years. Even if the kid pulled a 3.5 in his PG year, why would that wash away the 2.3 he pulled in his first 4 years? Secondly, there is no guarantee that the kid will do well academically in their PG year - he might find it very hard and pull another 2.3. Then what? Bottom line - I think the PG year to get your grades up is a sham. The real reason for the PG year is for the colleges to put the kid in a holding pattern on someone else's dime rather than redshirt him or carry him on the roster waiting for a senior ahead of him to graduate. Bam.
Schools such as Duke begin monitoring class loads of their early commits. They want the them taking a full legitimate class load and taking AP classes whenever possible. I know of one early commit who had to submit his Junior and Senior class schedules to the college for approval. They came back and told him to increase the class load and add some AP classes. Another commit felt that since he had the verbal and the grades to get accepted, he would rather take a light load his Senior year. The result - the school felt his academic commitment and accomplishments was not sufficient and asked him to PG.
