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AUGUSTA NORTH, SC – They were all there, the biggest names in college basketball, lining the courts here inside the Riverview Park Activities Center for the first time in two years to watch most of the country’s top high school prospects come together. face off on the Nike EYBL circuit. Jim Boeheim and Bill Self on my right, Frank Martin and Juwan Howard on my left. Almost all of the top coaches and assistants were in attendance at some point over the weekend, each trying to determine exactly how badly they needed to adjust their recruiting approach given how bad the world is. varsity athletics had been altered in recent months.
“The game has changed, man,” Texas coach Chris Beard said.
Boy, does he already have it.
Emoni Bates, Bronny James, Jalen Duren and more: Parrish and Norlander recap their Nike EYBL journey in the latest episode of Eye on College Basketball.
As you probably know, players can now transfer once without penalty, which directly led to a record number of student-athletes in the transfer portal this offseason. Some are transferred in search of a bigger stage. Some are transferred in search of a larger role. The momentum is unprecedented – and the byproduct was a building full of coaches painstakingly assessing the prep prospects last weekend while asking themselves a simple question: How many of these guys do I really want?
“I am completely in favor of the single transfer,” said Pitt coach Jeff Capel. “But I think the people it’s going to hurt the most are the high school kids.”
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl developed this idea.
“We’re going to end up taking probably half the high school prospects we would have taken before,” he said. “Over a four-year period, in the past, we could have taken three or four high school players a year on average. Now it will be one or two.”
It’s a sentiment I’ve heard from countless coaches over the weekend – their point being that it will rarely be a good idea in the future to sign high school candidates early who don’t think they’ll play for. you as freshmen because A) you can probably find someone better in the transfer portal, and B) now that players are allowed to transfer without sitting a season, there are good Chances of spending a year developing a limited role freshman only to lose him after that year in a school that offers more play time.
“I actually told my staff that I think we have to look at it differently because it’s another time,” Capel said. “With this transfer portal, if a child cannot come in and have an impact [immediately], and if it’s unrealistic to figure that out, then you and him are preparing for a transfer. “
The word “transparency” came up time and time again when coaches discussed a tailored approach to pursuing high school prospects. They said they’ll need to ask more questions than ever, need to be more honest than ever, need to make sure prospects who project as actors out of rotation for their programs understand early that they are planning as out. of the players rotating for their programs early on, and that if they are uncomfortable with that, it might be best if everyone involved moved on because if a coach knows a player won’t play much sooner, and if that player knows he won don’t be happy if he doesn’t play much sooner, it’s just a doomed marriage.
“We’re going to tick more boxes than ever, do more research than ever,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. “The transparency that the players have, and that we have, will determine where we go.”
Pearl echoed this sentiment.
“If you recruit the 188th ranked prospect, now you have to make sure he knows he’s the 188th best prospect, and you have to tell him that he probably won’t play a lot early in his career because you have that. . guy and this guy and this guy, ”Pearl said.“ Kids want the truth. If you tell them the truth up front, they are less likely to leave you. So you have to be transparent with them. “
Ultimately, the days of large-scale programs signing six high school applicants in a classroom – some who can help immediately, others who likely won’t – may well be over because, in this new world, players who aren’t playing will often have a foot in the transfer portal by the end of December, and coaches know that because they just experienced it. So the new approach for many is to mostly forget about the two-year plans and the three-year plans and just build the best roster you can build every year with almost nothing but players who can and will play right away. – even if it means not using all of your available purses.
As Beard said, the game has changed.
Reasonable minds may disagree whether it is for better or for worse. But there’s no denying that the game has indeed changed, and the coaching teams that adapt the best will be the ones that thrive the most.
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