Recruiting Tips: Do Not Lie About Recruitment
In this series “Recruiting Tips” we will dive into a different issue in each story that deals with recruiting and can help guide the prospect through the world of recruiting. Today we look at this simple concept: DO NOT LIE!
As a recruiting analyst I want to help get players names out there so they will get the recognition and hopefully the college attention they deserve. I enjoy nothing more than seeing a student athlete nobody knew about sign with a college program and succeed. Part of my job is discovering players, scouting them, and evaluating what level I think they can succeed at. Another aspect of my job is writing feature stories seen on PrepHoops about player’s games and their recruitments. I watch a prospect play, evaluate them, and determine a level of where they fit in terms of colleges. I might interview that player after the game and ask who is recruiting them. If in my notebook I write D2/D3 and you say you are getting recruited by Kansas and Kentucky I might as well stop the interview.
Think that doesn’t happen? I could write a novel on the stories of prospects that have lied over the years about the schools they are getting recruited by! Some of it is just absurd! Doing this in NO WAY helps the recruit. In their mind they think if I float out there I am being recruited by certain schools, then other schools will recruit me that are that level. First of all it will never appear in print and second it will give you the reputation of being a kid that doesn’t tell the truth. There are players every year I refuse to write feature recruiting stories about because what they are saying is mostly false. If it does get out you are being recruited by D1 schools when in reality you are a D3 player the schools that should realistically be recruiting you won’t be because they think they are wasting their time because you are either above their level or completely oblivious to who you are as a player.
On a daily basis on twitter I see athletes posting they have been offered by a certain school. In most cases you can use common sense to figure out this isn’t true. It takes about 30 seconds in most cases to know it is not true. I have even seen players go as far as doing fake commitments to schools. Announcing they will attend school at a certain university on social media. Their friends and classmates all believe it because they don’t know any better. In reality that school had never talked to the player. What is the point? What is the end gain? They aren’t going to magically end up at the school they “fake committed” too. It is only hurting that recruit!
Let’s look at a few signs of knowing if you are really being recruited by a school. The first is a school is consistently talking to you. They are calling you, texting you, inviting you on visits to their campus. This might sound obvious, but the head coach knows who you are! If you are truly being recruited by a school the head coach will talk to you and be a part of the recruiting process. Coaches are at your high school games, open gyms, and travel team games when they are allowed by the NCAA rules. There are “live” periods during the spring and summer where college coaches can be at grassroots games evaluating and showing their interest in your services. If they are not consistently at your games that school doesn’t look at you as a priority. If they were not at any of your games you are not being recruited by them!
Don’t get confused with a coach being at your game and the fact they are recruiting you. I’ve had prospects tell me they are getting recruited by a blue blood school because the big name head coach has been at my games. In reality that coach is recruiting their teammate or someone on the other team. A few other things that do not mean you are getting recruited by a school. One of the biggest is getting letters from schools. Just because you get a questionnaire in the mail or a brochure on the school doesn’t mean they are recruiting you. Colleges send thousands and thousands of these out daily. Paying to go to an elite camp doesn’t mean you are being seriously recruited by those schools either.
In recap DO NOT LIE! It will not help at all and will actually hurt you.