Ask a College Basketball Coach

[Casper05]

[ QUOTE ]
Have you ever had a kid walk on? Do you know if it's more common at division III?

[/ QUOTE ]yes, there is at least 1 walkon on almost every D1 team...sometimes more than 5 or so. Walkons are definitely more common at D3 though (D3 doesnt offer athletic scholarships btw, but they obviously still recruit and tell people they are guaranteed to be on the team)

[iggymcfly]

I've got a question for you. How do you do the initial scouting process for high school players. Do you just look at stats of area players and then try to go watch games of players who are doing well. Do you talk to high school coaches and ask them who looks like they might be ready? Or is there some big database somewhere that you use and then send out form letters to players who fit your system. I'm really curious how you decide which players to pursue and which ones not to.

[Casper05]

[ QUOTE ]
I've got a question for you. How do you do the initial scouting process for high school players. Do you just look at stats of area players and then try to go watch games of players who are doing well. Do you talk to high school coaches and ask them who looks like they might be ready? Or is there some big database somewhere that you use and then send out form letters to players who fit your system. I'm really curious how you decide which players to pursue and which ones not to.

[/ QUOTE ]Summer (aau circuit) is when we go out and look at kids. The entire month of July is tournament after tournament...Vegas, Orlanda, Houston, etc etc...we always have 3 coaches on the road- sometimes at the same tournament and sometimes spread from Cali to Florida. Other than watching teams from our area, we look at the scouting services (rivals.com, scout.com, and numerous smaller sites) to see what they think of kids. We talk to local 'experts' as well.

Some kids to send in tape, but we rarely will get a kid that has to send us a tape...there is normally a reason why we haven't seen him in person.

[Snipe]

Casper,

What kind of ball does your team use for practice? Games?

Why the hell is the NBA ball so hard?

[dlk9s]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
we dont compete with them

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
am currently an assistant coach at a Division 1 University in Texas.

[/ QUOTE ]


OK

[/ QUOTE ]

I used my mod powers and figured out where the OP coaches (don't worry, OP, won't spill it). Trust me, his school does not compete with Texas.


Actually, I have a question related to that and one of the latest questions you fielded. When it comes to recruiting, do you even try to get the top, top high school players (in the country or even the state)? Or do you know that you don't realistically have a shot at beating out Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, OSU, etc. and don't even bother wasting your time?

I went to Virginia and even though we have a major basketball program, it's still tough (impossible?) to out-recruit UNC, Duke, and more recently, Maryland and GT. Is it demoralizing at all to not be able to get the big recruits (forgive my ignorance if you have), or is it just a fact of life you don't worry about?

Great thread. Thanks for starting it. I think I may now put you on my list of teams to root for behind Virginia and Marquette (family history).

[gusmahler]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually, I have a question related to that and one of the latest questions you fielded. When it comes to recruiting, do you even try to get the top, top high school players (in the country or even the state)? Or do you know that you don't realistically have a shot at beating out Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, OSU, etc. and don't even bother wasting your time?


[/ QUOTE ]
The top, top recruits wouldn't even consider a mid-major, so I'd imagine that the answer is no.

I don't know about Texas, but I know a little about California. A mid-major like UC Santa Barbara or Long Beach State would have no shot at getting a player like OJ Mayo. So even though UCSB and USC are in the same metro area, they aren't competing for the same players.

Where they do compete would be a little bit below that. A top 20 recruit can start anywhere he wants. The question is for someone out of the top 100 recruits: would you rather ride the bench for UCLA or be the "star" for UCSB/Long Beach State?

You can look at the ESPN recruit page to see where recruits signed.
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recruitin...=2007&set=2

In the top 60 players, the only mid-major school represented is Gonzaga.

[Casper05]

[ QUOTE ]
Casper,

What kind of ball does your team use for practice? Games?

Why the hell is the NBA ball so hard?

[/ QUOTE ]We use Nike 2004 balls for our games/practices. Not all the schools in our conference use this ball, so we also have 2 of each of what they use to use before our games with them.

I've never touched an NBA ball [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Casper05]

[ QUOTE ]
When it comes to recruiting, do you even try to get the top, top high school players (in the country or even the state)? Or do you know that you don't realistically have a shot at beating out Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, OSU, etc. and don't even bother wasting your time?

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah, we don't even go for those guys..we recruit a whole different type of player. We don't worry about it...its a fact of life.

[ QUOTE ]
Great thread. Thanks for starting it. I think I may now put you on my list of teams to root for behind Virginia and Marquette (family history).

[/ QUOTE ]Thanks, your welcome, and please do! We may be coming up your way next year as well..

[7ontheline]

You state that your program is clean, but do you have any good stories about what other programs are doing to cheat in terms of recruiting? You obviously don't have to name the programs, but any stories about sex or money for the recruits?

[quirkasaurus]

what is your opinion specifically on the George Mason team of
2005 leaving college early to go pro? ( and then laboring in
obscurity )

what is your opinion on endeavoring to keep these college kids
IN COLLEGE and not make a premature leap to the NBA?