Differences in football and basketball recruiting
This entry was posted on 8/14/2009 6:57 AM and is filed under Boys Basketball News, Girls Basketball News.
The website Recruiting-101.com had a recent article regarding the differences between football and basketball recruiting. While we obviously in most cases don't care about football recruiting it does point out the different approaches that coaches take in evaluating players. The article listed five items for comparison
1. Basketball: One sport is king | Football: We love multi-sport athletes
2. Football: A recruiting highlight video is vital | Basketball: A recruiting highlight video is fine
3. Basketball: AAU is your best chance for a scholarship offer | Football: Camps may help you land a scholarship offer
4. Football: A tweener could make a perfect tight end | Basketball: You are too small for power forward and too slow for small forward
5. Football: More room for error | Basketball: Much less room for error
The following is an excerpt from the article from the website Recruiting-101.com.
For basketball, coaches want to see the athletes competing against solid competition. As a coach once told me, a scrub can put together a good highlight video from the last two minutes of every game. That is why seeing them in person is important.
Basketball: AAU is your best chance for a scholarship offer | Football: Camps may help you land a scholarship offer
As mentioned above, college basketball coaches want to see an athlete perform in person and judge their abilities. They don’t take much off of a recruiting highlight video. While it can help some basketball players, it is not always needed. For football recruits, if you have already landed offers from your recruiting highlight video, then you don’t exactly need to go to summer camps. These camps could help but they are not needed like summer basketball teams.
The remainder of the article can be viewed here:
The differences in football recruiting and basketball recruiting
As item 5 points out basketball scholarships are much harder to obtain than a football scholarship. D-I football programs may sign 20 to 25 players per year, in D-I basketball there is a limited amount of total scholarships (13 for men, 15 for women). This includes ALL years of recruiting not just the one year.
Basketball coaches don't have the luxury of making mistakes on scholarships that other sports have. That is why live evaluation of a recruit is so important in basketball. Basketball coaches want to see you play against the best competition possible. Rarely, if ever, will a basketball coach offer a scholarship without a live evaluation. Basketball players will want to maximize their opportunities for live evaluation.
A "tweener" is a player that their size indicates they should play a certain position but their skill sets and abilities are limited for that position. If you are an undersized post, for example, unless you development perimeter skill your recruiting will be limited due to your lack of size as compared to your skills.
Bottom line here is that you need to continue to work on your athleticism and skills. Also, the more live evaluation you can receive the better the chance of having the right coach find you and offer an opportunity to play at the next level.
