How a Providence blunder let Tim Duncan get away

The next time you bemoan an important recruit who escaped the clutches of your favorite program, just remember Providence fans almost certainly have a more painful story of the one who got away. In the fall of 1992, then-Providence coach Rick Barnes only had one vacant scholarship yet he secured a pair of commitments, one from top target Eric Williams and the other from a little-known center from St. Croix named Tim Duncan. When Barnes sought permission to sign both players, the response wasn't what he expected. "I knew we had a guy that was going to transfer, maybe two," Barnes told ESPN.com for a piece on noteworthy recruiting hits and misses. "I went to our athletic director and we went to the president, who was a priest at the time. I told him I wanted to sign Tim and he said, 'But you don't have a scholarship.' I said, 'I will.' He wouldn't let me sign him." Making it worse for Barnes is that two other Providence players di...