More on recruiting

WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Staff columnist Jenny O'Bryan continues her recruiting report this week with the emphasis on the prospective  student-athletes' perspective today. You can catch Jenny also on CARDINAL COUPLE RAIDO HOUR every Saturday on CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO!)

Last week I talked a little bit about the recruiting process and terms that relate to the coaches perspective in recruiting.  Today is more about recruiting but from the prospective athletes perspective. 

The NCAA has rules and guidelines about the recruitment of prospective student athletes.  There are rules about coaches communicating, visiting, watching them play, and the lists go on and on.  There is also a process put in place to help the student athlete navigate the recruitment process. 

Prospective student athletes can make any number of visits to colleges of their choices.  These are called unofficial visits.   On an unofficial visit the athletes must pay their own way.  They can make unlimited visits to as many schools as they want.   These visits can be taken at the convenience of the recruit.  Unofficial visits.   

Somewhere along the way an athlete will start to make a list of schools that
 they are potentially interested in.  They will do their homework; decide what they want out of a school as well as an athletic program.  They may even attend a basketball camp being hosted by colleges they are interested in.    At some point their list of suitors has grown.  Also, at some point, they will start to whittle their list of schools they are interested in.  Eventually, they will get to a manageable list. 

In the fall of the student’s senior year in high school they can take an official visit.  Each athlete is allowed 5 official visits.  The school being visited pays for an official visit.    This cannot happen until fall of their senior year.  Official visits. 

Anywhere along the way a student may verbally commit to a program.  A verbal commitment is just that, a verbal commitment.   Nothing is a done deal, for either the student athlete or the college program that is receiving a verbal commitment, until a Letter of Intent is signed. 

In November of one’s senior year they are eligible to sign their LOI in the early signing period.  The signing period is over the course of a certain amount of days.  Once that signing period closes, they cannot sign again until April of their senior year.  The April date is considered the regular signing period.    Once a LOI is signed, the student athlete can get out of their agreement only under certain conditions (coaching change for instance) and often with penalty for doing so (for instance, not signing with another school within the same conference). 

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At this point, since the summer evaluation/viewing periods are over and summer ball is over for rising seniors, fans of recruiting can expect to hear a lot about recruits they are following.  Lists of recruits top schools and scheduling of unofficial and official visits are the primary news that is happening daily. 

However, several top recruits have not been shy about making their decision and verbally committing to the college of their choice.  Louisville got such information from Mariya Moore just last week. 

Two other top 20 kids from the class of 2014 have verbally committed in back–to-back days.  Sierra Calhoun and Lynee Belton both committed to Duke this week.  Belton had Louisville (this was new information for me) in her top 3, UConn being the third, before she committed to Duke on Tuesday.  (As an aside, Belton is an AAU teammate of Ariana Freeman who publicly wished her well at Duke, but was “saddened she did not decide to join the Cardfam”.)

All of this is to say that we can expect a lot of information to be forthcoming in the next few weeks and months.   I look forward to following the information and giving you the most up to date info we have.

-Jenny O'Bryan  

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