Path to the Hall of Fame

[randy]

Upon inspecting the potential roster for the upcoming season, I found 2 major problems


1. The big problem

The current roster has 13 walk-on players! That's right, 13. The only 2 scholarship players are:

- PF Keyon Griffin (incoming SO; 24.3 mpg, 10.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg)
- PF Mark Belton (incoming JR; 24.4 mpg, 7.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg)

Good thing both are non-seniors, so they will be returning next season

Now, time to take a look at the recruits that I will inherit ....


2. An ever bigger problem

With so many scholarships available, the number of incoming recruits for the upcoming season is ...... ZERO!

For some reason, the coaching staff was not able to recruit anyone. Not even the 1799th ranked HS senior. The coaching staff spent almost 46K in recruiting the previous season, and not being able to nab at least 1 recruit?

There is 48K left in the budget, but that is not useful anymore ... there is barely 3 weeks left to recruit before the next season officially begins



I'm facing the prospect of having 13 walkons during my first season of coaching. Not the way I envision to start my career ...

[randy]

At this point, the challenges I am facing are as follows

- Although there is an abundance of players still unsigned, being in a small-prestige school doesn't guarantee that they will sign
- No time to scout or even watch tapes (only 10 per week, and there's only 3 recruiting cycles/weeks left)
- Not even enough time to call all prospects and ask for their interest levels

So really, it all boils down to just giving an scholarship offer to the best remaining prospects, and just hope they accept. It's a "hit and miss" approach.



Some recruitment strategies

1. With small school prestige, it is more likely that I can recruit only within the region (GP). Realistically though, I may get interest only those from Texas

2. JuCos seem to be a viable alternative as well. But then again, I maybe able to get only those from nearby towns

3. I need to start offering scholarships now (this week - 4/9) and not wait for all the scouting reports (via watching tapes). If in case some prospects do not accept, I still have a couple of weeks to offer to other prospects.

[randy]

Using the above strategies, I offered 11 scholarships

- 5 guards, 5 forwards, 1 center
- 8 JuCos and 2 HS seniors
- 10 are from GP region (3 from TX), 1 from SE

Take note I can only make house visits to only 4 of them each week


After 1 week (fingers-crossed), the results are .....


The 3 TX prospects all accepted (all are JuCos)

1. PF Dana Cook (6'8, 228 lbs, 36th rank nationally)
2. SF Jason Carr (6'6, 221 lbs, 64th rank nationally)
3. SG David Coulibaly (6'2, 174 lbs, 224th rank nationally)

Got lucky with Cook and Carr, as they both are from TX

8 more scholarships to fill ....

[Wayne23]

Way to go! And yes, in region, Jucos, and probably students with low grades- as long as there's a good chance they can hit your school's SAT score.

[randy]

4/16

Given that I have a better chance in in-state recruiting, I may have to change my targets for this week

Before moving further to the following week, I fired all assistants and recruited a new set

[randy]

4/23

Only 1 recruit signed. And yes, another JuCo from KS (GP region)

4. PF Joe Majerus (6'7, 191 lbs, 44th rank)

Including the 2 holdover scholarship players + Cook, I now have 4 PFs who would most likely rotate on the PF/C slots, even if in case I won't be able to recruit a natural center. What I need are guards

One week left. 7 more slots to fill. I'm not really expecting to fill them all. May have to use some of them to recruit transfers once the new season starts

[randy]

I offered the remaining slots to those who have shown some semblance of interest, regardless of their ranking. My purpose at this point is to find bodies for next season.

Or maybe I should have just settled for a lot of walkons for next season, and have 1 full year to do the recruitment? Instead of recruiting a bunch of low-ranked players now? I dont know. Only time can tell if my decision is correct.

Anyway, during the last week of recruitment, 5 players signed (all from TX).

5. PG Keith Jackson (5-11, 172, 1351th rank), HS Senior
6. SG Brian Wadell (6-2, 186, 1039th rank), HS Senior
7. SG Osei Granville (6-4, 173, 1513th rank), JuCo
8. SF Jonathan Smith (6-4, 197, 647th rank), JuCo
9. SG Sam Thomas (6-0, 189, 1653th rank), JuCo

This means I will only have 4 walkons in the lineup for next season, unless I can recruit a couple transfers. Not so bad

At this point, I may have to play my top 4 recruits heavy minutes

2 - Coulibaly
3 - Carr
4/5 - Cook and Majerus

Sam Thomas can probably play the 1.

Oh well, enough thinking. Time to move to the next season ....

[Wayne23]

Transfers with GPA below 2.0 are the ones you'll have a shot at.

[Wayne23]

Even really good ones if you're lucky.

[randy]

5/1/93

Schedule request
- I requested the AD to schedule good teams at home

Lineup
- It is my first look at the scouting reports of my lineup. At this early, PF Dana
Cook looks very promising (4.5/5.0). But it's too early to tell

Grades
- 10 players have GPAs < 3.0. All of them will need to get tutoring. The rest need to study more

Recruitment budget: 60,000
- I decided to buy the GP Gold Report (30K)