Today I’m going to give you a real dose of reality. I have always said when it comes to recruiting; information is king. Now more than ever you better pay real attention to what I’m about to tell you. If you do not understand the new recruiting model your in serious trouble. If your AAU coaches don’t understand the game has changed, your in bigger trouble.
If you are a junior or a senior right now without a offer. Unless you have some name recognition starting in the fall or a serious game plan…that’s not changing anytime soon. So let me explain why you need a game plan. The fall recruiting period has always been a chance for a kid to get one final look from college coaches especially D1 coaches. It’s always been a time when many schools are in scramble mode. Meaning they have missed on all their top recruits. Those days are GONE. There is no last look and the scramble mode for college coaches is now in a different mode. But I’m going to tell you how you can still keep your recruiting dreams alive.
First if you do not have a QUALITY AS IN HIGH QUALITY summer highlight tape. Stop reading this blog right now and go make one. Your highlight tape is more important than ever now. It will not get you a scholarship but it will create interest and get your name into college coaches recruiting meetings. It’s called name recognition and nothing is more important in recruiting. Next you better have somebody coaches respect calling on your behalf. Yes, it matters who is calling for you. Not to brag but Tiny Green calling for you is better than your local YMCA coach. But you need to listen and listen good for what I’m about to say next. Somebody calling on your behalf one time is not an advocate. Your advocate must be relentless, in calls, texts, e mails and most important follow up calls. You must personally speak to coaches and sell yourself as well. You must convince coaches to come see you play in open gym and during the season. You must convince them to truly watch your videos. Here is a little secret about college coaches, they only watch game tapes, if they have a real interest in learning more about you. You better make sure they really want to get to know you or like you. If they do like you, they will want to help you, even if you don’t attend their school. The days of sitting around waiting for the live period and hoping to get discovered is for the birds. When a school says their out of scholarships pay no mind to that. Somebody every year transfers or has their scholarship taken…
Now you must try and film everything, why? The stakes are too high now and quality video in HD with real quality audio is going to rule the fall and winter. You better invest in some good equipment and sell it to another player down the road when your done, trust me the way the NCAA is going…there going to need it!!. Now once you have the video you better have the competition. Now if your goal is D2/D3 it will be easier to find quality competition. But remember the top D2/D3 schools don’t want to settle for D2/D3 players early in the recruiting process. There trying to steal a D1 type player. Those schools want to see you against the D1 players as well. Now if you plan on playing D1, make no mistake, who you are playing against on film matters. Coaches will want to see you against other D1 competition. At NBS for example a player will be in the gym with up to 50 D1 players at one time. It is not easy to create that type of environment. But if D1 is your goal you better get on the phone and start calling some of the better players to play pick up.
Now everyone should be asking their coach “when are the open gym dates”. Now first of all call me crazy, but I would have a open gym every single week or weekend. So what if you only get one college coach. But if you just got one coach a week for each level of college basketball, its adds up to a lot of coaches throughout the fall. But there is a real dilemma with open gyms for some schools. If you are at SJV, RBC, Manasquan, Manchester, St. Rose your open gyms will always have coaches. Now if your not at a top school you have a problem, for two reasons. First your competition and talent is probably not deep enough to draw in coaches. So here is my advice. Run you open gyms on the same day as one of the powerhouse schools and work your time around there times. If their going at 4pm… you go at 6pm. Trust me, once a coach is out on the road, they want to use all their time seeing as many kids as possible. Remember to film your open gym. If you don’t like social media too bad, your going to need to tweet at as many coaches as possible. Tweet your open gym times directly at as many coaches as possible…DON’T JUST TWEET…YOU MUST TWEET AT THE COACHES DIRECTLY. Follow any and every school and their entire staff if your interested on twitter. Just know this is the new recruiting model and its going to take work for those on the outside looking in….especially seniors without a school and juniors with no offers or interest.
You must take unofficial visits to schools that are not recruiting, that you have a interest in. Why? Because how are they ever going to start recruiting you if they don’t know you. Pick up the phone and call the coaching staff to make an appointment, if your nervous have your advocate make the first call. But know this, D2/D3 schools do not have the money to travel every week to watch you play. Yet local schools may watch you over and over. You can go to there schools and play pickup with their players. D2’s and D3’s coaches want to see as many kids as they can at one time. This year I will have a D2/D3 recruiting day at NBS …no charge. Why to create visibility and maybe a D2/D3 may steal a D1 player. Maybe a D2/D3 coach will tell their D1 friends about a sleeper. Things have changed and you better get with the times folks. Now here is something all D1 prospects better understand, it’s help you 100% to attend D2/D3 live events. I can’t get go into the reasons why here, but just trust me.
If your not in the gym working on your skill sets. If you are not preparing every day for your high school season. I feel bad for you, because I can promise you, there will be more college coaches out at high school games, this year, than in any other time in recent years. Getting off to a good start is a must, you need to play well early, so they will come back and watch you again. There are going to be lots of schools trying to find players….MORE THAN ANY OTHER YEAR. College Coaches now must use the high school season to get ready for the one or two LIVE weekends in the spring and July. Coaches are going to need to watch a lot high school games. The recruiting window will not allow coaches to occasionally go blindly to games during the live period. The high school season will become their new fall recruiting period. It’s why the NCAA has given college coaches almost unlimited days out during the high school season now.
Finally, let me say this last thing, you better have a great relationship with your high school coach. You or your parents better not piss them off. The high school coach now has REAL POWER and you can be 100% certain they will be talking to college coaches more than any other time. Coaches will be calling and asking for updates, and high school coaches will have a choice to brag about you or say nothing…here is a little something every college coach knows…when the high school coach says nothing, he or she are saying a lot….like that kid is doing NOTHING!
Enclosing, seniors and juniors that end of the world is not coming. But don’t kid yourself. Your back is up against the wall, and that you better understand. If I am scaring you…then good, go to handle your business. Recruiting is different now for those NOT on the radar. It just got harder…so you better work a little harder and know it’s there for you, but you must be pro active.
UPDATES….
THE GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL SESSION IS SOLD OUT..
THE BOYS HIGH SCHOOL SESSION HAS SPOT FROM 9AM-11AM
THE 3rd- 6th grade Session has spots…9am-11am