Recruiting,
Intensified:
NCAA Division I Coaches
The
Exposure Biz
Pregame
OK, I’ll admit it. When I first set out to write this book, I really
wanted some dirt. I had read Sole Influence, after all, strangely
fascinated by some of the warped principles and shady characters in
men’s basketball recruiting. Certainly, I thought, since women’s
college basketball is becoming as competitive and cutthroat as men’s,
women’s recruiting must have those same unethical dealings and personas
– money changing hands under tables, agents getting rich off their prep
protégés, sneaker companies in cahoots with college and high school
level coaches. I would hunt down those corrupt folks, force them to spill
their guts, and divulge their nasty secrets in my tell-all masterpiece. I
would be the Ralph Nader of 21st-century women’s basketball. top
However, I
soon discovered that my end result would be far from an exposé for
several different reasons. First,
although many in the space believe that women’s basketball is heading
down the same evil path as men’s in its corruption, and there is
evidence to support this theory, it is not yet as soiled because the cash
is just not there. Until women’s pros haul in seven-figure salaries,
recruiting will remain untainted in comparison. Yes, women’s basketball
recruiting has its shady characters, but they represent a smaller
percentage. To write only about them, although exciting, would have been a
distortion. It also would probably have driven away many of those I hope
will read the book, high school girls’ basketball players and their
parents.
I had also
read some how-to-get-a-college-scholarship books. While I’m sure that
some of them help many students, I did not want to write a how-to-book
either. I wanted to focus on my favorite sport, and I wanted to present a
more personal, in-depth view of recruiting from every possible angle.
Also, although I would represent NCAA Division I, I also wanted to include the other, less publicized
levels of women’s college hoops. Armed with tape recorder, pen, and
steno book, I threw myself into interviewing lots of people involved with
women’s basketball recruiting. Over the course of eight months, I talked
with college coaches at different levels, from NCAA Division I, II, and
III to NAIA and junior college. I talked with high school and club coaches.
I talked with players and parents, camp directors, recruiting report
organizers, NCAA officials. Well, I listened, mostly.
Along the way,
a story emerged and revealed the book I really wanted to write.
I tried to invent a suitable, snappy analogy to women’s
basketball recruiting, such as buying a house or shopping for a used car,
but none of them really worked. Truthfully, the process is really like no
other, and it is confusing, even for seasoned college coaches. Even those
who follow all of the advice given in this book will find no guarantee for
recruiting success for any involved party. Recruiting is light years from
exact science.
I was somewhat
surprised, and somehow comforted, to learn that recruiting often baffles
even the most experienced and successful coaches. “I’m not sure I ever
knew exactly why kids chose to come to UCLA,” Billie Moore said to me.
Moore notched a 436-196 record in 24 years of head coaching at UCLA and
Cal-State Fullerton, and she also coached the first-ever Olympic team to a
silver medal in 1976. “Somebody
like a Jackie Joyner-Kersee [the Olympic track star, who actually played
under Moore at UCLA on a basketball scholarship], said from day one,
that’s where she wanted to come to school,” Moore added. “I never
knew that until five years after she was out of school. She wasn’t going
to let me know that. And I’m not sure that you know. Some people come because
they think it’s a chance to win .
. . But you never know what makes that person click.” Moore seems as
qualified as anyone to demystify the process. When the Women’s
Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) operated camps in the mid- and
late-1990’s, she served as a master counselor and gave recruiting
seminars.
Just when I
thought that women’s basketball recruiting was as pure as freshly fallen
snow, however, my interviewees described the head games that every single
participant can play. A recruit tells a college coach that his
school is number one on her list, when really she is holding out for
another college coach to come through with a scholarship. A parent says
the same thing to a college coach, using that institution as the backup. A
high school coach tells a college coach his player is more talented than
she is. A club coach only talks with NCAA Division I coaches. A college
coach promises a prospective student-athlete that she’ll start, or does
not tell her that two other prospects are being recruited ahead of her in
her position.
Neither the
NCAA, NAIA, nor NJCAA rules police will arrest any of the above as a
result of these conversations. However, their mere existence means that
complete and open honesty may be a recruiting rarity. For the most part,
coaches and recruits are not out there blatantly breaking major rules, but
there are buckets of more minor recruiting violations by NCAA women’s
basketball coaches. In fact, according to NCAA officials, women's
basketball now has roughly the same number of reported recruiting
violations as men's basketball. Only football leads the two in that
statistic. What’s more, coaches at all levels, athletes, and parents
admit that they are “as honest as they can be” during the recruiting
process – that is, not completely honest. Many say that they wish it did
not have to be this way, but that in order to afford themselves the best
opportunities, that’s the reality.
Unfortunately,
partly because of the perceived necessity to hold back information about
one’s background, personality, or list, both coaches and
student-athletes make commitments in recruiting under false assumptions.
Combined with the fact that they may not have ample time to get to know
each other, this can lead to bad matches in college programs.
“Sometimes I wonder, are kids being rushed into decisions that
they’re not going to be happy with later on?” Nan Elrod said to me.
For seven years, Elrod worked on the WBCA’s camps and High School
All-America Game. She is now the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s
Director of Programs. “It seems like we’re seeing a lot of kids now
having a change of heart once they’ve actually gotten on campus, and
they’re transferring, with some kids dropping basketball altogether,”
she added. “That’s sad, I think.”
Sometimes coaches or others rush girls in recruiting, and sometimes
girls rush themselves, just to get it over with.
Although
I consider myself somewhat of a women’s basketball expert, when I
plunged into educating myself in more detail on the recruiting calendar,
terminology, and regulations, at all levels, I wondered how anyone could
really make sense of the rules. As I surfed web sites, read manuals and
talked to officials, I thought, how can parents and students, and even
coaches, understand the real-world applications of these regulations? Even
though every single student-athlete considering playing in college should
read the recruiting materials put out by the NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, and other
organizations, this may not be enough. “If you get the [NCAA] Guide for
the College-Bound Student-Athlete, does it really cover everything?”
Elrod pondered. “It gives you some basics and all, but does it really
prepare you for dealing with this? It’s such a different world, and for
so many people it’s a one-time experience.
How many are actually going to have two or three kids that are any
caliber of athlete at all that are going to be recruited?
Preparing that [NCAA] Division II or III athlete – that might
even be more important. There again, you’re dealing with a young
person’s ego there, that hey, they may have been the best that ever was
at their high school, but it’s a whole different world out there as far
as recruiting.” It is, indeed.
Something
struck me most heavily in interviewing the people that you will meet in
the following pages. For everyone in women’s basketball, from coaches at
all levels of experience to parents to blue-chip recruits to
student-athletes not sure where they will fit in, or if they will fit in
at all, the recruiting process is stressful and complex. Although all can
take steps to make it easier, it will never be simple. However, I think it
helps to get inside the minds of those who have been through the process
in some manner, one time or a hundred times.
They give some funny and slightly bizarre recruiting anecdotes as
well. Happy reading, and
consider perusing this book one step in understanding the world of
women’s basketball recruiting.
I write this
during the NCAA’s National Letter of Intent early signing period. I
can’t help but wonder about the futures of the student-athletes who put
their names to paper this week and this year. Who will flourish at her
selected institution, and who will realize that she made errors in judgment
during the recruiting process? Is there really a way to make the process
easier?
So who’s got
next?
