College Recruiting

Over the course of my time in Minnesota I've seen some crazy things in regards to college recruiting. These are some of the misconceptions that people have regarding the college recruiting process.

Interest:

Many prospects throughout the state of Minnesota are getting interest from many Division 1 colleges and universities. This generally means that you are getting letters from each. In the grand scheme of things, letters truly mean nothing except that you are on the school's recruiting list. (Ex. I received letters from at least 12 D1 schools while in HS but never got a phone call from any and I was an average D3 player.) According to NCAA rules, college coaches can not directly contact you as a high school athlete until June 15th of your Junior year, so 2016's can be contacted directly. If you are younger, the only thing they can send you is a questionnaire and a camp brochure.

D1 Schools that do a good job in MN and usually put themselves out there with letters to athletes are NDSU, SDSU, UNI, North Dakota, South Dakota, Drake, Eastern Kentucky, Bucknell, Wofford, Loyola (MD), and Lafayette. I'm sure there are a few others that I'm not aware of as well. If you are a talented player, chances are you will get a letter/information from these schools at some point during your high school career.

Colleges' recruiting lists are generally very big for younger prospects (most 2016 lists are MUCH bigger than their 2015 lists). Some 2016 players will get contacted by D1 schools right now and then never play D1 basketball. And there are many 2016 prospects that haven't been contacted by D1 coaches that will play D1. There are also many 2015 prospects that are getting consistently contacted by D1s but will never play D1 because of limited scholarships, lack of development, and/or grades.


Offers:

There are many misconceptions about scholarship offers in regards to recruiting. Some kids think an offer is when they get a letter. A true scholarship comes directly from the head coach of that college. If it comes from an assistant, chances are, it means very little.  If you hear from directly from a head coach or you get a letter with a "we are offering you a full basketball scholarship" from so and so school, then you have an offer. And "we want you" in a text message is different than "we are offering you a scholarship."

If you hear about a younger player (2017 and 2018 this year) getting a scholarship offer, chances are it doesn't mean much unless they are at the level that Tyus Jones was at. Many times, schools will offer a younger prospect in the hopes of breaking into a certain high school program, AAU organization, and/or state and "offering" will break the ice. Does this offer really mean anything? Like I said above, no. There are exceptions to this but most of the exceptions are for the really high major player.

Military academies scholarship offers are different. Why? Each year, they probably "offer" more athletes than "regular" schools because they have a system that is entirely different. Army (West Point), Navy, and Air Force all have prep schools that they run. They will send most of their incoming freshmen there. When I most, I mean that 12 of the incoming 16 players will be sent to prep school. There aren't many athletes that go directly to the initial school that recruited them. I believe (I could be completely off base on this) that once you complete their individual prep school that you are automatically admitted into their service academy. Players can also use the prep school as a "prep" year and decide that military route is not what they want and then head elsewhere. The Citadel and VMI (Virginia Military Institute)are different and you will go there right away.

Parents and prospects must remember that schools don't have unlimited scholarships. Schools are limited to 13 scholarship at the D1 level for their roster. That usually means that the school will have three to four scholarships per year. Sometimes it's one scholarship and sometimes it's seven.  Meaning, you can't take a legitimate scholarship offer for granted.

Roles of Coaches:

There are generally two coaches involved in the recruiting process. The high school coach and the travel team coach.  Sometimes, they HS coach runs the recruitment and sometimes it's the travel team coach. Usually, it's an effort from both because the college coaches are contacting both on a consistent basis.

Having a prospect from HS or AAU program does nothing but help programs.  For some HS programs having a D1 player will increase the "profile" of the program and will help the younger generation in the program as well as help bring in the occasional or numerous transfer(s) to the school. For the AAU program, it brings a notoriety to the program that will help with future players as well as brings in more money into the program. "We've had this many D1 players, you could be the next." That's a great sell for a program.

If you are a coach and you are pushing kids to a level to make sure your program (I'm talking HS and AAU programs) produces nothing but D1 and/or D2 prospects then you are doing the prospect and their parents a disservice. The goal is to help your athletes get to a school that is the best "fit" for the prospect. When I say "fit" I mean what is the best situation for the prospects academically (most important), athletically, and socially.  There are many times that a prospect will pick a D3 school over a D1 or D2 because of "fit." Sometimes the D1 is a better fit than a D2 or D3.

In conclusion, help the kids out. Be honest with them and support them through the process.

I hope this was helpful and excuse my poor writing.