Miscellaneous Athletic Recruiting Ramblings – 4/27/2008

Spread the word
I know I have asked this many times over the last six months or so but please help spread the word regarding this site. I want to continue it being a free site in the future (That is definitely the goal) but with the lack of traffic and users supporting the sponsors, it is getting tougher and tougher to continue doing. So please help out by telling others and getting the word out.

NBA Draft
The NFL Draft may be going on this weekend but the bigger recruiting news involves the NBA Draft. At last count, there were thirty under classmen who declared themselves eligible for the draft. Considering somewhere around only sixty players end up getting drafted, that number is very, very high. Many of these players are expected to either return to college or not get drafted. I hate seeing the players that pass up college eligibility to play in the D League and overseas. You might as well enjoy the free education you are receiving and live it up. Things are much tougher in the real world, especially if you are bouncing from league to league.

NFL Draft
I do have to at least talk about this weekend’s draft in terms of recruiting. It is always interesting to see what players the experts at Rivals and Scout either got right or wrong during the evaluation process. As the years pass by, the experts have less and less excuses regarding the prospect being an unknown. Both Rivals and Scout had the eventual #1 pick in the draft, Jake Long of Michigan, rated with four stars. Rivals did not have him among their top 100 in 2003 but did rate him as the sixth best player in the State of Michigan. Considering that the only other player on that list that I heard of was LaMarr Woodley, things turned out pretty well for Long.

Rivals not happy with comments from Ron Zook
Bobby Burton from Rivals.com was not happy with what Illinois football coach Ron Zook said regarding media. “We’re turning the recruiting over to the so-called recruiting gurus,” Zook told the Arlington Heights, Ill., Daily Herald. “Now, all of a sudden, just like you’ve got basketball coaches complaining that it’s turning over to the AAU coaches, now we’re turning it over to these guys that can call them. Click here to see what Burton thought of this. While I don’t think Zook meant Rivals specifically, if there were people he was not happy with, he should speak with them beforehand.

Visiting Coaches
For those football recruits that are sought after, now should be a big time with coaches calling and visiting your high school. As I have talked about before, now is the time to make a great first impression. Make sure you are at school, well groomed (Think of this as a job interview), and ready to say just hello to the coaches (That is NCAA rules).

Hoops heating up
For those basketball players on AAU teams, many have been traveling the country to play against the best players around. This AAU experience is great exposure so that you can get out playing in front of college coaches. The more people that get a chance to see you, the better. It may be hard to get on an AAU team now but if you are not on one, speak to the coaches about possibly being an alternative.