Just a Little on Recruitment

Friday Feb 17, 2012

Not much to talk about today. Maybe I should discuss Jeremy Lin like everyone else? Nope, but he does make me think about all the HS players nationally who are under recruited. I continue to be amazed at the people division 1 basketball programs listen to regarding potential players. I cannot over emphasize the huge number of services that actually charge for misinformation based on the evaluators they use never ever played the game, coached the game, or until recent years never even watched the game. But there they are sitting court-side taking notes and evaluating players. What a joke!

There are many Jeremy Lin's out there just waiting to be discovered. What ever happened to college coaches actually going to games to find players as opposed to going to games to evaluate players who they read about or get on a list compiled by one of the so called experts?  I again say it is a good thing Dean Smith did not read reports that had Mike O'Koran listed as a D3 player at best by a notable scouting guru who actually is very good if not great at what he does. If this guru can make such a mistake what makes college coaches think they can depend on the ex soccer player looking to be important and make a few bucks?

Speaking with my friends I now understand why certain low and mid D1 teams are not doing well. When was the last time they just went to see Dewitt Clinton in the Bronx? How about just showing up at John F Kennedy in the Bronx where they have Johnny Mathis as the Head Coach and the benefit of Nate "Tiny" Archibald as a teacher in practice based on his long friendship with the coach?   What about all the high schools inn South Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania outside of the Philly and Pittsburg areas? What happened to the time when coaches went on actual 2 week road trips to find and recruit players?

Funny thing how this recruiting thing goes. A kid could go totally under recruited or even not recruited at all. All of a sudden one D1 school expresses an interest and others decide they better go and take a look see. Let that kid get a few schools from out of the area interested and the flood gates might just open. Want an example? I have many but will use only one.

Chris Jones was getting alot  of low D1 looks with the biggest school recruiting him being Rhode Island of the A10. Now those many low and mid D1 schools knew he was a diamond in the rough and would have loved to sign and steal him early. I am not even sure if Rhode Island, which is a very good program,  even offered him a scholarship. But most of the others from the MAAC, and NEC sure did. I even sent a email to Notre Dame telling them to watch him but of course they never did lol.  Fast forward and he starts receiving alot of interest from Colorado and Nebraska and all of a sudden Pittsburgh and UConn became interested.  Than Virginia Tech and calls from other ACC schools start going to Teaneck HS. In fact a very good  and connected friend of mine on the West Coast told me yesterday that both UCLA and UNLY are monitoring him in case certain players do not commit to those schools. I am only telling you what I was told and it sure is not anything I heard from a coach but my person is pretty reliable.  I would not be surprised to see places like NC State and Virginia try to get involved soon.

Now what I did hear from another reliable person who attends games with me is  at last nights Paramus vs Teaneck game at Teaneck coaches from Seton Hall University were in attendance to see what Chris Jones is all about.  Now I will say the recruitment does not surprise me based on this kid getting better every hour of the day. He looks to be a legit 6 ft 6 with true guard skills and great athletic ability which means he can dribble, pass, shoot, run and dunk lol.   But it took 1 or 2 big programs to notice b4 the others realized just what they were missing.

Recruiting remains hard work. And much of the hard work is who do you put your efforts into recruiting?  Why in heavens name are schools such as FDU, St. Peters, NJIT, and Binghamton out at games trying to get the high profile players? Sorry to say you need ALOT TO OFFER in many cases to even get visits from such players. Now do not let me tell you some stories about recruitment in Chicago, and the deep south lol. If i were those types of programs I would be at all the games that just might have that diamond in the rough. Like the kid that Rider recruited who became a NBA Pro!  On the larger school level all 3 local big time programs need to be much more thorough regarding players from NY, NJ, PA. MD., and DC.  Seriously!!!!!  I think Seton Hall and Rutgers understands this!!!!