Getting that Scholarship Offer

There are many D1 programs that will throw out scholarship offers to any good player they can think of.  There are also many that are extremely selective when handing out scholarships.  The hope is like with many things, college programs are in that "in between" area when it comes to giving out scholarships.

One of my former players, Nick Carroll went on a little twitter rant this morning in regards to offers (see below).

Too many schools are scared to be a kid's first scholarship offer. If you like the kid, go after him. If you don't, don't waste his time.
— Coach Carroll (@CoachNACarroll) July 16, 2014

Interesting dynamic in college recruiting: every school wants the hidden gem, but 99% of schools will wait to offer til someone else does.
— Coach Carroll (@CoachNACarroll) July 16, 2014

Worst case scenario, you offer a kid and don't get them. Every kid remembers and speaks highly of the first school that offered them.
— Coach Carroll (@CoachNACarroll) July 16, 2014

Maybe you get them on bounce back, or more importantly, your program becomes relevant to future recruits. Bottom line, if they fit, OFFER!
— Coach Carroll (@CoachNACarroll) July 16, 2014

Nick makes some really valid points here but I don't necessarily agree with him.

Now, I don't know what school(s) or what player(s) he is talking about in regards to his twitter rant but my guess is that it has to be about one or a few of his D1Minnesota 17u players.  So, he is a little bias to his players, as he should be.  I've only seen Nick coach high level AAU once but I do know that he gets his kids to play extremely hard and they really compete on the defensive end (Saw his previous teams play a lot).

Another thing that we aren't sure of is the amount of scholarships that the mentioned schools have left for the 2015 recruiting class.  We don't know how many other offers that school has thrown out to kids other than Nick's kids.  Nick might know, but I don't.  Even if an assistant coach is constantly contacting Nick and/or the player they could be doing it as a backup plan to the "priority" guys they have previously established.  If it's the head coach that is constantly contacting the kid then I would totally agree with what Nick says in his tweets.

I personally can't say that I've ever been able to hand out basketball scholarships to kids.  So, at times, it is very difficult for me to fathom a program offering someone after seeing them play once or even twice.  If you are going to invest a full (or even partial) scholarship you want to learn as much as you can about a kid before you offer.  You want background info, academic transcripts, as well as how they are as a person. You can't do that after four days in July (I have no clue how long these colleges have been recruiting Nick's kids).

There are also a few schools that will not offer until the kid has completed a visit (official or unofficial) to the school.  What the unofficial visit does is tell the school's coaching staff that the player is actually interested in attending the school by spending their own money on a visit to a school.  If the family is interested enough to spend to their own money to come on a visit then the program is interested enough to offer a scholarship (Just because you visit doesn't necessarily mean there is an offer waiting for you).

If I'm a college coach, here is a list of things that I would do before I would offer someone a scholarship:

- Make sure he/she can play
- Get HS transcripts (could take a while if interests increases during the summer)
- Get full game tape from the HS season (with background on opponent)
- Talk to both AAU and HS coaches
- Talk to parent(s)/guardian
- Talk to kid

Again, this is an investment into the coach's program. They will make mistakes but they want as much as info as they can gather.  There are times when coaches don't even get past the talking to AAU or HS coach.  Why?  There just isn't that mutual interest.  It works both ways.

I know it's not easy and it could be tough considering the timeframe that a lot of prospects have but I (if I'm a college coach) want to see how they practice and also I would love to see a HS game.  Now, I understand this isn't always realistic at D1 level because of NCAA restrictions but I feel it would give me, as a coach, a better gauge on the kid.  I would say that some HS programs will run a more complicated offensive and defensive system than the kid would in AAU because of time.  I would love to see how quickly they pick up new concepts as well as to see if they can play other positions.  My system isn't ideal unless the coach has started the recruiting process before or during the kid's junior year.