Dynasty with FSU

[FSU_Nole15]

Keep up the good work! Me and Point Guard have been on these forums the longest, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm probably the recruiting guru, that's the area of the game I most enjoy. Hard to believe my 14th anniversary on the forums is in a couple weeks lol! Life moves fast ...

Thanks bud, I'm pretty solid on recruits, but I do have a couple questions:

1. Do you usually "over" recruit or "under" recruit. Meaning, if you need a PG, do you spread your time on calls for say, 5. Or pick 2 that you want and hope one picks you?

2. What is the biggest way that recruits become interested in your program? If you keep calling them every week does that help your chances? Or could you let your assistants call?

3. What are the chances that a recruit that has no interest in you signs with you after spending the recruiting period working on him?

[PointGuard]

Keep up the good work! Me and Point Guard have been on these forums the longest, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm probably the recruiting guru, that's the area of the game I most enjoy. Hard to believe my 14th anniversary on the forums is in a couple weeks lol! Life moves fast ...

Thanks bud, I'm pretty solid on recruits, but I do have a couple questions:

1. Do you usually "over" recruit or "under" recruit. Meaning, if you need a PG, do you spread your time on calls for say, 5. Or pick 2 that you want and hope one picks you? Given your description of over and under, I definitely over recruit. But I usually coach with lower prestige schools, so then its more necessary to spread the wealth on the number of recruits you have on your list and who you are actively working on since a higher percentage of the recruits won't choose your school that if you were coaching a high prestige school.

2. What is the biggest way that recruits become interested in your program? If you keep calling them every week does that help your chances? Or could you let your assistants call? Yes, calling (not necessarily every week though) can and does turn some recruits from no interest to interested. Of course there are other ways: having a recruit do a campus visit, going to a camp where that recruit is participating, your assistant's calls creating interest in the recruit, parents of the recruit having been alums of your school, doing a home visit (although I personally never waste a home visit on a recruit who is uninterested), sometimes a recruit worrying that he won't get offered a scholarship ANYwhere (desperation)...oh yeah, and then there's always offering a bribe...not that I would ever do that!

3. What are the chances that a recruit that has no interest in you signs with you after spending the recruiting period working on him?Possibly might happen in April.

These are just my opinions so it will be interesting to see what others have to say.

[jksander]

Posted these before reading PG's so we wouldn't just be repeating each other, giving our own opinions ...

Keep up the good work! Me and Point Guard have been on these forums the longest, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm probably the recruiting guru, that's the area of the game I most enjoy. Hard to believe my 14th anniversary on the forums is in a couple weeks lol! Life moves fast ...

Thanks bud, I'm pretty solid on recruits, but I do have a couple questions:

1. Do you usually "over" recruit or "under" recruit. Meaning, if you need a PG, do you spread your time on calls for say, 5. Or pick 2 that you want and hope one picks you?
I tend to focus based on my school size. If I am a tiny school and can only afford the basic $5,000 report, I generally cast a wide net within my state and start out with all the players in that state's class that meet my school's requirements. If it's a good academic school, no one under 2.7 GPA because I have never had a 2.7 or higher not qualify. And yes, it is possible for a player to sign his LOI and then when they take the SAT and fail, you get the scholarship back and are back at square one. (This does not apply to JuCos.)

Note that if you are at a state like South Dakota, your list will be super short. Recruit the in-state kids first, but add kids from surrounding states too. There is a shot a couple months in that some of those underrecruited kids will allow you to visit them eventually. They may turn your request down in July, but be open to a visit in August.

When I coach a bigger school, I focus on the National top 50 and try to find two or three blue chips at each position to recruit hard. I then fill the rest of my slots on the call list with top 100 players who are lower overall but who my scouts say have good upside in key areas like athleticism, defense and potential (your $30,000 regional report can help with this, focusing on, say, the top 25 players in your region). I may lose my top choice, but all my targets are top 100 so I stand a good chance of building a decent class even if I get sniped in September by Krzyzewski.

So from there, once I have my list, I tend to hand my visits out based on the quality of players, hitting my top prospects first to gauge interest. It's always good to have a few of each just in case one winds up losing interest, or not getting interested enough ... a (***) interest level is really safe. But if your top PG is only at (*) you are taking a risk ... you can get a big bump if you visit that kid in September and he is super excited (make sure you offer those kids scholarships fairly early in the process to help boost their interest if they have any.) But a player with interest can lose it fast if you target the wrong aspect.

Example: Say you are a coach who is hard on discipline, a real Bobby Knight. If a kid says his most important factor is discipline, and you're a hardass, that can help a lot. If a 4.0 GPA kid says academics is his most important thing, targeting "academics" on your visit won't help if you're at Valedosta Tech.

2. What is the biggest way that recruits become interested in your program? If you keep calling them every week does that help your chances? Or could you let your assistants call?
Calling doesn't help their interest, from my knowledge. Campus visit is the key start. If a kid has visited your campus and has no interest, cut ties. The next big boost is in August, after they've had all their contact with coaches. If you went to certain camps and a kid was at your camp, you can get an interest boost from that. The CRITICAL one is the coach visit, September 11 through October 1. Use those wisely. You only get 16 total over four weeks -- you can target your top four that way on week one, then start hitting other guys lower down who you might like and think are being overlooked ... when your top guy ditches you on September 25, the visit you make that week can help you with late recruiting in March if you're waiting on a late LOI.

If you have a 95% rated recruiting assistant and your recruiting rating is 50%, you may get more from your assistant on the phone calls (though it never hurts to go the extra mile). In most cases you're going to have a better rating, and therefore leaving it all for your recruiter is taking a big risk that the right question won't get asked.

3. What are the chances that a recruit that has no interest in you signs with you after spending the recruiting period working on him?
Pretty much if you take a no interest kid and have him visit your campus, if he is not interested, he will stay that way. I have had players at no interest visit and go up to one or two stars, worked them with the phone calls over the next two months to find their sweet spot, and if it's one that works for me -- close to home at a small school, etc. -- then I can take a shot at Coach Visit. If the guy wants playing time and I lie, offering PT and then can't deliver, he will probably transfer out sooner than later. It's all knowing what your needs are and what their wants are.

Hope that helps!

[PointGuard]

Think I may have misinterpreted your question #3. If you're asking if a recruit who has no initial interest, and then you take actions to gain interest, will that guy sign with you...sure, that's definitely possible. If he stays at "no interest" then I think it's pretty much a lost cause unless it's April and he's desperate to latch on SOMEwhere and nobody else is offering a scholarship.

My only real difference from what jksanders (he provided some great advice) said is that a recruit with no interest who accepts your phone call will go from no interest to a low degree of interest in your school. From there it's a matter of increasing his level of interest in other ways. But continued phone calls can gain info on HIS interests (academics, playing time, playing near home, etc).

I find that the feedback from the recruit on campus visits is MUCH better normally the higher the recruit's interest in your school is BEFORE the visit. If he's not interested in your school and he does a campus visit, chances are much greater he'll not be impressed. I haven't done much recruiting at top prestige schools, so at those maybe this isn't accurate....visiting Stanford or Duke might be impressive to most any recruit.