College Recruiting
College recruiting is very different than what it used to be.
Illinois just received a commitment from a player who is due to be there for the incoming class of 2011. That’s the way things are going nowadays. A good player will always end up somewhere and deservedly so but the kids that show the most potential are getting offered earlier and earlier than ever. The game has changed.
The AAU scene has caused a great deal of this as players are seen and watched now more than ever. The kids play against better players from all over the country and the summer now means much more than the high school season when before that was reversed. Players now try to position themselves to get on the right team with the right AAU coach and it is crazy.
The kid that Illinois received a commitment from is named Tracey Abrams and by all publications is a top 50 talent for the class of 2011. Abrams is a point guard with incredible athletic skills and he had already received scholarship offers from 4 other big time programs. I would’ve loved that feeling. I would’ve loved knowing where I was going to college as a sophomore in high school. Abrams isn’t even having that great of a high school season but he lit people up over the summer. For his AAU team he has the ball in his hands but his high school team he doesn’t as much.
Colleges now have to get in on kids earlier and take the risk because that’s the way it is going. Players are evaluated and then gone after and it isn’t going away. I even saw a list of the top 6th graders in the country and that’s ridiculous.
Either way, I get messages from kids asking me how they can get recruited now that they are a senior and I want to say it is almost too late because D1 programs try to have as many kids commited as they can for the years ahead. If you are a high school senior looking to play college basketball then it is up to you to be seen and to research and find out what schools need a player like you. Be realistic and optomistic at the same time in knowing that if you can play, you can play and schools will see that. Be realistic in realizing that North Carolina might now be for you but North Carolina A & T might.
