College Hoops

Just wondering if anyone has insight on how the following plays out? A coaching staff makes offers to two, three or more recruits who play say the SG position. I'm sure the staff has them prioritized in their own rankings. What happens if their third rated SG recruit is the first call and say I want to verbal to your school coach?

I know in some cases a recruit is told he is the number one target, and in other cases that we've made offers to a couple of guys. Personally, if I were the number three recruit at the position and was told we'll conditionally accept your verbal (the condition being neither 1 nor 2 verbals) I think I would look elsewhere. Probably no set answer, just wondering what people thought.

Flyer75

I'm not sure that's the way it necessarily goes down...priority 1, 2, 3, ect. That's why you see programs like XU cast a wide net out there to similar type players. Take Archie for example....he's in on a slew of PGs for 2013 ranked 90-150. There's probably not a whole of difference between any of them and you cast that wide net to land one (maybe two of them). imo

Now, your example may happen when it gets down to only 1 ship left for the program but not when you have 3-4 to dish out. Still, I would hope that with only 1 ship left, the pool of players competing for that spot are similar in "rank". This is why sometimes you also see a "run" on commitments. You get one to get the ball rolling and then all of a sudden 2-3 more commit within a week or two.

antboy

My understanding is that good recruiters are usually talented at slow-playing their backup plans without souring them too much. I assume they tell them to hold off a bit for one reason or another, or even pull back the love just enough to make the recruit second-guess a verbal. Then when plan A falls through, they swoop in with all kinds of pressure and sale job on their program/themselves on the next in line. If the recruit verbals without having talked to the coaches first, they probably all of a sudden "cool" on that recruit (reduce contact, tell them to hold off, etc.). The scholarship offer can be pulled at any time until it's signed.

It's part of the reason I find the fan grousing about "decommits" (moreso in football than basketball) so stupid. These recruits are under tremendous pressure and often are being told all kinds of things from different coaches. Some decommits are more about the coaches no longer wanting a player than the player jilting that school, and yet fans love to get on message boards and rip them for it. Lots and lots of shady stuff going on.

Not everyone does this to the same degree. Some coaches at the non-elite schools target players early that are not all-stars, but look solid, and focus all attention on bringing them in versus also going after top talent (seems to be Charlotte's recent strategy). The former Charlotte coaches seemed to struggle to keep backup plans to their top recruits, and ended up going juco when it fell through (Clemson and VT took most of the top targets, while other recruits looked elsewhere). Coaches at schools like Kansas, Chapel Hill, Duke etc. usually can rely on swooping in to steal other school's recruits if their first options fall through, but non-elite programs probably require more of a balancing act.

College Hoops

flyer 75, I agree in part and also disagree with you in part. Regardless of the number of ships available, I think most coaches will have a priority target or two. Using Miller for an example, if Doug Harris' article is to be believed, then the Davis kid out of Chicago is a priority target for Miller. I do agree if you got a group of players at a particular position that seem to have similar skills and upsides you throw the net out and see who you catch first. Unless you had one returning at a position I don't think you're going to bring in two people at the same position, A PG & combo guard yes, but not two PGs.