As the NCAA makes it harder and harder for college coaches to evaluate players, two things are happening at an alarming rate. First players are picking schools earlier and earlier and players are transferring like we have never seen before. There is a clear reason why both there issues are showing its face more and more.
The NCAA continues to shorten the July recruiting period; coaches and players are affected in a major way. The players are not seen enough and the coaches simply don’t have time to watch the players play enough anymore. This is causing an avalanche of problems for all involved. The shorten July recruiting period leads to snap shots of players and brings coaches evaluation skills into play in a major way. Now most people will say isn’t that a college recruiters job? The answers are yes, but know this, any player on a great day can look special and any good player can look bad on that same day. This is the main reason why so many mistakes have been made in the recruiting process in recent years. So often kids are attending schools that they cannot play at, only to become unhappy and transfer and make no mistake most kids transfer due to lack of playing time.
Now why are kids signing earlier and earlier these days? That’s an easy one …because coaches now know the NCAA makes it very hard to out recruit and out work somebody for a kid. So what have colleges figured out? Get ahead of the curve and go after kids harder and earlier and hope they can secure a verbal commitment from a kid before July and eliminate the competition before the recruiting period begins. Most players will verbal either before their senior year starts or before the summer July recruiting period starts. Now if that disturbs you, know this, some kids are making verbals before their sophomore starts. 7th grader’s are for example are considered recruitable athletes, unlike years ago when a player was not considered a recruitable athlete until 9th grade. Now kids can take a paid visit or an official visit in January of their junior year, unlike in the past when a player had to wait for their senior year to start. People the game is changing and so are the college coaches approach. The coaches have all figured out that the sooner you can get involved with a player the better. The players have figured out a bird in the hand is better than a bird in the bush. Why? Because kids know the pressure of playing in the July period, they understand the coaches may only watch them play one or two times. They understand playing on the main court now means more now than it’s ever did. What made Penn State so great during the recruiting period was coaches could move smoothly from gym to gym and watch a large volume of kids play. The NCAA banned D1 colleges from hosting recruiting events. So the Penn State event which has over 300 college coaches attend now will be in York, Pa and be spread out across the city. This no doubt will have an effect on the kids who are looking for exposure and the college coaches trying to see as many kids as possible.
The NCAA took away the open gym period because of all the problems and the rules surrounding what was an open gym. But they added something every kid should know about. Coaches can now run open skill sessions on their campus. This is great for colleges because now they can really see where a player’s skill set levels are for themselves. This is great for players who are on AAU teams not seen or weak, you now have a chance to play in front of college coaches of your choice. College men’s basketball teams already have a rule already in place that allows players to work out on campuses starting in January. Trust me the women will have the same rule in place come next year. I find it hard to believe any coach would not want to work out any player they want to sign. Now players please pay attention…. getting to camps and having somebody Identify your weakness is HUGE NOW…. Do not walk on to a college campus if you do not know how to perform drills properly. Your footwork and understanding of drills is BIG…now more than ever it’s important to find a quality camp and learn as many drills as possible. This is why I urge everyone to attend camps and I don’t care how old or experienced you are! HOOPGROUP.COM has a list of camps!
Now there is a flip side to the new rule, in some cases kids may not understand what a college skill session is like and more importantly how to prepare for such workouts. These workouts also may expose a weakness that a kid or a coach may be hiding. So players now more than ever will need to build their skills set and make sure they understand what is ahead of them.
The NCAA rules change all the time, I recently read on a message board a person discussing the NCAA recruiting rules. She was shocked to hear the kids where now being recruited as eight graders. She also was shocked to hear kids were picking schools as early as they sophomore year. I will say it again the recruiting process is starting earlier and earlier…LIKE IT OR NOT….
A reminder the GIRL’S ACADEMIC Elite is on July 29th most can and should make this event, if you are a quality student. It’s the one event that allows players to “Separate themselves from other students” I believe it’s the best event a good student can attend this summer. This year will not only have the Div 1 school s from the Ivy and Patriot conferences…but a heavy representation of Div 2 and 3 schools.
BALLING HANDING AND SHOOTING CAMP IS NEXT WEEK…3 HOURS OF BALLHANDLING IN HE MORNING AND 3 HOURS OF SHOOTING IN THE AFTERNOON….NO GAMES!! …5 DAY EVENT…9-12 BALLHANDING …SHOOTING IS 1AM-4PM
JUST A REMINDER JULY 25TH-29 IS THE NBS BASKETBALL CAMP. THIS IS CAMP IS FOR THE SERIOUS PLAYER TRYING TO GET READY FOR THE SUMMER AND GREAT FOR ANY LEVEL OF PLAYER.
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