A parents guide to basketball recruiting - coaches in the gym
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Sorry for the month long delay in writing. Work and family life got insanely busy there for a minute. But I’m back!
I was blessed to spend quite a bit of time with college coaches the past month talking about recruiting and what they’re doing at camps and AAU events. Essentially, when they’re in the gym, what is going on in their world and what are they tasked with?
The biggest thing I heard is these AAU events and camps are often times about networking with other coaches not as much about finding players. Yes, they are looking and evaluating for sure (more on that in a minute), but the community of coaching is very powerful and the amount of opportunities available for them are narrow. So, keeping a network of people is critical. Side note on this point, that non D1 assistant coach you keep ignoring might become or already know the coach you’d dream of calling you. Don’t burn a bridge. Ever.
When it comes to recruiting high school players, they have fallen down the list of immediate priorities for most coaches. The rank is 1) current players 2) transfer players 3) prep school players 4) high school seniors. That does NOT mean if you’re a high school player you shouldn’t be communicating with and networking with coaches. It DOES mean that those relationships may yield fruits later and not immediately. A coach may see you at a camp and put you down as a player to watch develop. They may call their buddy from when they were a GA 10 years ago who’s a head coach and say “Player so and so isn’t quite ready for our level, but I think he’d be great there for 2 years or so and then we’d love to have him!” Yes, that’s happening these days. Non D1 programs are able to recruit D1 level potential talent if they treat it like a development program. Not everyone is doing that obviously, but a lot are.
I talked with a coach who told me he’s done over 15 camps and offered 1 player directly at the camp. Is this normal? Not sure. However, the camp is a place to connect and show what you can do not to pick up an offer right away. Whatever you do best on the court, do that 110% of the time. Talk, be loud, pick up full court, push the ball, shoot 3’s, get to the rim…whatever it is, do it. You have to stand out in some way shape or form. If you aren’t actively communicating with any coach at the event before the event, your goal should be to start that after the camp. A lot of these camps will have players invited by the coaching staffs to recruit them. If that’s not you, then you have to do something at the camp. The coaches want to come back with a few players to add to their recruiting list. If 100 players are at the camp, they may write down 5-10 names.
A few suggestions for players and parents:
Bring something to leave with the coaches - print a business card, use an NFC enabled card to share contact info, have your X account ready to share
Side note, most coaches I spoke with want to see contact info, grades, year of availability, highlight film, full game film, current stats. You can input all of this at www.prepbasketball.net for FREE!
Parents - you’ll probably do more harm than good if you try to press the coaches and talk with them. Be approachable. Be honest. Be kind. But don’t try to sell your player on the coaches. They’ll see evidence on the court, not in your biased words. I know you just dropped $200 on the event and want the ROI…I’ve been there.
Players - besides the above notes on playing the right way and leaving something behind, ask for feedback on your game and how you can get better. If you get a chance to speak with a coach, ask them to watch or ask what they saw. Then go do it.
Side note, in the camps I observed, about 95% of HS players are not physically strong enough or in good enough shape to compete in college at any level. Eat right, take creatine, use ChatGPT to devleop a lifting and agility plan. It’ll pay off.
These same things apply to the AAU events as well. Most coaches are there to meet with other coaches, recruit players they’re already recruiting, and possibly find an under recruited player. I’ve said this 100 times already, but if your AAU coach and program is only posting on IG and they are not actively hustling to build real trusted relationships with college coaches, it’s not very helpful to getting a scholarship. The IG posts and reels are nice and all, but AAU is between $5-10k a season. The goal should be to get college paid for while playing basketball. Vacations are fun. Take one if you don’t want to play basketball in college. Also, no college coach is recruiting 14/15u and under really. Sure there might be a small exception…but if you’re reading this post, it’s not you/your player. Have fun, get better, don’t go broke.
15-17u Club/AAU basketball should be about a process to help achieve the goal of having college paid for. The only people who can offer college scholarships are college coaches. Not your AAU coach, not the circuit, not your AAU program, not the social media person, not your parents…it’s a college coach. If you don’t know any of them, you will not get a college scholarship to play college basketball. How do you know if you know a college coach? Can you, your HS coach, your AAU coach, or anyone close to you reach out to a coach right now over text? If that’s a no…then you’re not being recruited. There might be coaches in the gym where you are playing, but if you don’t know them then they most likely don’t know you.
My son played in front of close to 600 college coaches during HS, AAU, and camps. He received 6 scholarship offers to play basketball…and that took a ton of work and time and networking by a lot of people around him AND by him sacrificing a ton and doing the right things. Just because coaches are in the gym…doesn’t mean they are watching you/your player.