High Point University or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Panthers

[Wayne23]

"Every time I've hosted a good recruit while at a smaller school, it soured the recruit on my team, so I've just given up on them altogether assuming the problem is that the smaller schools have bad facilities" Yep, you're right. With low rated schools that seems to happen. I should know that, my SC Upstate started at the very bottom and I experienced the same thing.

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]June 26, 2011[/SIZE]

Ok, first day on the recruiting trail. Time to work the phones & kiss some babies, or something like that

First name on the list is SF Johnny Driver from Walhalla, SC, the #34 recruit in the nation. Not only was Johnny willing to talk to me about what he's looking for in a school, but he just happens to be interested in the 2 main perks we can offer: playing time & being close to his home. Score! Maybe this will be easier than I thought

And then the rest of my phone calls happened....telemarketers would've felt bad for me

Well, Driver is a start, even if he is more of an off guard at 6'3. Went ahead & offered him a scholarship as well to really show him how serious we are, serious enough to offer him a full ride without seeing so much as a youtube highlights video of him

Well, 6 phone calls in the book, time to call it a week. I feel like I really earned my 6 figure paycheck. Will hit the grindstone again next week, but for now it's off to the strip cl, er, my house. Yes, off to my house where I certainly will not see scantily clad women pole dancing in an attempt to come between me & my hard earned cash while also trying to mooch off my blow

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]July 4, 2011[/SIZE]

Coming in on July 4th? Really? Gonna have to have to say pass

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]July 7, 2011[/SIZE]

Ok, a week & a half break since recruiting started, time to hit the phones hard again

After touching base w/ Mr Driver again, I then got another prospective recruit to humor me by staying on the phone. SG Aaron Williams (#46, from Lynchburg, VA) was quick to tell me how important playing close to home is to him. Again we quickly offered a scholarship to the top 50 player in hopes of making an impression

And it turns out that during his round of phone calls, Coach Wilde was able to help us get our foot in the door for PG Chris Stidham (#159, from Gaithersburg, MD). Another recruit mostly concerned about not straying too far from home. However, unlike Driver & Williams, we aren't offering Stidham a scholarship just yet, but we will be scouting him in person this week (along with Driver & Williams)

So today I was able to bat .500 in term of people actually answering the phone. It's all about baby steps

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]August 7, 2011[/SIZE]

After a month of working the phones & scouting some of the recruits' games, we've managed to stay in contact with another half dozen recruits from our shortlist. From those 6, we managed to narrow it down to the 2 players we want to offer our 2 open scholarships to: C Desmond Burrough (#169 from Asheville, NC) & PG Chris Stidham (#159, from Gaithersburg, MD)

Stidham doesn't rank as highly in the recruiting reports as another pair of PGs we've been talking to, but he rates out much higher in our scouting of the 3 PGs (combined with Stidham's coach raving nonstop about his work ethic), so Coach Calloway & myself decided to give him the nod. Since we're set to have walk-on Jason DePina as our sole true PG next season, picking the right PG recruit will be crucial to our 2012-13 season's success

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]September 11, 2011[/SIZE]

The recruit rankings have been updated again. Williams & Driver remain ranked in the top 50 while Burrough has climbed into the top 100 & Stidham saw his stock drop (now #483)

But, now it's time to hit my targeted recruits with the full court press & give them the hard sell as i make my rounds this week, visiting my top 4 targets: Driver, Williams, Burrough & yes, we're sticking with Stidham (the ratings we gave him upon scouting him are just too good not to stick by him, at least for the time being)

Our goal going into the recruiting phase was to land at least 2 guys from our shortlist and we have no reason to back off from that goal at this time

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]September 18, 2011[/SIZE]

I feel like I really made some headway on my home visits and will be visiting the same quartet again this week. could really see us landing as many as 3 of these guys now that Stidham's ranking has taken a hit

In some non-recruiting news, the OOC schedule has been announced for this season


Nov 14: @ Appalachian St Mountaineers
Nov 17: vs Wofford Terriers
Nov 21: vs Davidson Wildcats
Nov 24: vs Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks
Nov 28: @ South Carolina Gamecocks
Dec 1: vs Furman Paladins
Dec 5: vs Citadel Bulldogs
Dec 8: @ Vanderbilt Commodores
Dec 12: @ American Eagles
Dec 15: @ Richmond Spiders
Dec 19: @ UNC Wilmington Seahawks


Going all local schools for both road & home games. Have a good mix of money grab road games, good mid major programs & low major teams. With 5 games against SoCon teams, I feel like we should be getting an invite to their conference tourney at season's end as well

We'll also be playing a pair of exhibition games:
Nov 5: vs North Carolina Central Eagles
Nov 10: vs Winston Salem St Rams

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]September 25, 2011[/SIZE]

The in-home visits the past 2 weeks couldn't have gone any better. We got a verbal commitment from a pair of recruits, including top 50 reruit SG Aaron Williams!

SG Aaron Williams - 6'4, 195 lbs, out of Lynchburg VA, currently ranked #43 in the nation
PG Chris Stidham - 5'11, 159 lbs, out of Gaithersburg, MD, currently ranked #483 in the nation

Both kids loved the location pitch, validating the call to stick with regional kids in targeting

We'll definitely keep focusing on Driver & Burrough. Don't have much of a contingency plan in place should either commit elsewhere, would probably aim for one of the other PG recruits we're still keeping in touch with & then target a transfer in the spring with the open scholarship

[ezpkns34]

[SIZE="1"]October 2, 2011[/SIZE]

Buck Wilde & myself managed to real in another big fish! High Point received a verbal commitment from our 2nd top 50 recruit. SF Johnny Driver, much like our other 2 commitments, was firm in his desire to play close to home & he felt the 3 hr car trip to HP was close enough to feel comfortable while not feeling like he's still living at home

A huge day for the High Point basketball program, as we feel like we've managed to land at least 2 players that can be immediate contributors to next year's squad, and possibly a 3rd in Stidham

Back on June 26, we would've been quite content to land 3 of the 4 players we were targeting and now we're this close to landing all 4 of them as we anxiously await big man Desmond Burrough's decision

Also, with it being1st week of the month, we've got another recruit rankings update. Nothing too major in way of changes for the players we're talking to & those already committed to us other than Stidham moving back into the top 200 (#155)

[CoachC]

We'll start with this recruiting report I bought from a door to door salesman. I admit, I'm a little skeptical about any report that doesn't list NC as part of the southeast region, but what the hell, I put it on the university's credit card

lol! my first thoughts too first time I recruiited out of NC. SC is out of region but Maine isn't?? in the end , didn't make much difference. Instead of competing with the South East Cheaters, I was competing with the Big Least. Was gonna have to deal with the ACC either way.