Recruiting

Note: Because of NCAA rules, I can't mention names of recruits and/or their high schools. That is why some of the information is vague.

After our last practice of the semester on Friday, I headed to a game to watch one of our top recruits in Wisconsin. Though I wasn't able to watch him play, it was great to make contact with him after the game. This recruit has told us that we are one of his top two schools. He is hurt right now, with a broken ankle. I think it says a lot about how much we want him if we see him when he isn't even playing. Hopefully, the visit went a long way.

After watching that game, I traveled to my hotel outside of Chicago. The Chicago area was getting the western part of the storm that buried the East Coast. The roads weren't too bad but it's always interesting to see how people drive in that type of stuff. I arrived around midnight and went straight to my room to get some sleep.

In the morning, I was able to catch a practice near Evanston. It is always good to watch how different coaches approach practice. It was the night after a game for this team and their two best players (one of them, a kid I was watching) barely practiced. They had a tough game on Friday night and play at 9am on Monday morning. Once practice was over I was able to talk with our recruit. It was the first time I was able to meet him in person and it's always good for him to put a face with a name he has heard on the phone a bunch.

After watching practice, I headed back to the hotel and watched a bunch of college games including the Texas-UNC matchup. I'm a huge UNC fan and Texas just flat out beat them up. The Tar Heels rely on a lot of younger guys and they didn't exactly respond to the physicalness that Dexter Pittman and Longhorns brought. I thought it was very similar to how our Hamline team is. We both can get stops but second opportunities hurts us. I won't compare Nelson or myself with Roy Williams but I think both teams will be much better down the road.

I got sick of sitting around and decided to head down to the North Central part of Illinois. There was a local eight team tournament that one of our recruits was taking part in. I wanted to check out the 3rd place game and the Championship game. You just never know what and who you will see. Both Nelson and Jamison were able to watch the kid I was looking at this summer, so this was the first time I have been able to lay eyes on him. Needless to say, I was very impressed. Once again, I talked to him for the first time in person yesterday and I was very impressed with him as a person and how he interacted with everyone from his community. He is getting recruited at all different levels and rightfully so, hopefully we can be involved until the end.

Now, I'm sitting in the hotel room watching a replay of the Whitewater-Mount Union football game on tv. Today is a off day as far as watching hoops but I get my fill tomorrow at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic starting at 9am. It should be an interesting day and a lot of sitting on my rear end.

To everyone, have a great Sunday and a Merry Christmas. This will be my last post until we get out to California.