July Madness

[Bomber]

July madness a different dance
Summer recruiting period can be ‘the ultimate grind’
July 06. 2008
TOM NOIE
Tribune Staff Writer

Three weeks of March aside, no stretch on the calendar may best measure the true madness of college basketball than July.

Starting today, and for most of the next 26 days, all 341 Division I college head coaches and members of their coaching staffs will hop-scotch across the country in search of players that they hope will help them to be included among the top 65 teams chosen each March for the NCAA tournament.

Today marks the start of the July recruiting period, a time when AAU tournaments dominate and college coaches try to see as many kids as possible before the clock strikes midnight. Or, in this case, August 1. Under NCAA guidelines, coaches cannot talk with potential prospects or their AAU coaches. It’s simply their time to see and be seen. If a coach isn’t in the gym to watch a certain kid, if only for a moment, three other coaches from his league, and their assistants, are present.

Save for a six-day break, just enough time to return home, do some laundry and kiss the wife and kids, coaches representing every conference from the America East to the Western Athletic will spend much of their days and nights in gyms from Akron to Orlando. They’ll eat and sleep poorly. They’ll rush to catch flights. They’ll share laughs and stories with colleagues over dinner and drinks. If they’re lucky, they might secure an official visit or two from elite prospects when the month finally ends.

Following is a look at July from four perspectives.

The veteran head coach
Loose ends on Mike Brey’s itinerary still remained as July arrived. Others in his inner circle wanted to tie everything together and start booking flights, finding hotel rooms and solidifying a schedule that will keep the two-time Big East coach of the year on the move for 20 of the next 26 days.

When he awoke this morning, Brey guessed it would be in Akron, Ohio, Cincinnati or Philadelphia. Notre Dame’s updated recruiting plan called for his marathon to begin in Washington.

“You’re moving fast,” Brey said. “It’s one of those things where you’re living day-to-day and have to be flexible.

“If you try to make this an exact science, you lose your mind.”

Brey figured to bounce around gyms until July 14. He’ll then return to campus, huddle with his staff and decide what kids need to be added or subtracted to their core recruiting list. The second phase of the evaluation period will monitor that group and also get a start on the juniors, and even sophomores.

Ten players set to start their senior years of high school have regularly received hand-written notes from Brey. That number could jump to 15 by the middle of the month, or shrink to three with an early commitment. It all depends on what the Irish coaches see and hear from their spot in the bleachers.

Much of this month is spent gauging interest by what the Irish coaches see and what their peers or recruiting analysts hear.

“You’re watching a kid to see if he’s good enough, but you’re also watching a kid to see who else is watching, then to get info on whether you can get the guy,” Brey said. “There are so many dancers going on. It’s unbelievable.”

With two scholarships to offer, Brey could zero in on a big man and a point guard, or chase one guy hard, then see what develops this winter. Options are plentiful.

“I’ll be intense and concentrating and thinking, but I won’t knee-jerk on anyone,” he said. “You can evaluate a little more.”

Come the first of August, Brey will be weary and worn down, anxious to get away for a few days to re-charge, a must since the Irish begin practice Aug. 4 for their foreign tour of Ireland. But July still provides plenty of juice for the 49-year-old Brey to gear up for the grind of another long college basketball season. He will not stop thinking hoops again until April.

“It’s a fast pace,” he said. “It keeps me young.”

The rookie head coach
Each summer, hundreds of college basketball coaches try to navigate the streets of Las Vegas, which hosts one of the circuit’s largest AAU tournaments. Games are held at 40 area high schools, so a rental car with a GPS device is a must.

For former Irish assistant coach Gene Cross, his ride was a convertible. Always. With the top down, shades on and Bluetooth activated, Cross embraced the city’s fast pace and triple-digit, yet dry heat.

“You’ve got to have a little bit more flair as an assistant,” he said. “I’ll probably tone it down this year.”

Now a first-year head coach at Toledo, Cross figured to miss those free-wheeling days as an assistant. Those were days when he had a better handle on the recruiting wish list.

“As an assistant, you go see the guys you know you need to go see,” Cross aid. “As a head coach, you’re going to see guys that your assistants tell you to go see. You lean on your assistants so much. It’s a lot different.”

Cross the assistant often stayed seated in the bleachers until the final AAU game. Leaving early meant walking out on a chance to discover a potential diamond. This month, Cross the head coach knows there are times when his body and his mind, and even his stomach, will scream for him to step away with games in progress. And he will. It’s something he learned while working the last two years for Brey.

“Now I can dictate whether I stay in the gym until midnight or not,” he said. “That’s why I liked being on the road with Mike. It would reach a point where he’d say, ‘I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.’”

July’s first evaluation weekend took Cross to Tulsa for three days. Stops in Cincinnati, Louisville, North Augusta, S.C., Los Angeles and Morgantown, W.Va., also were on the docket. So were quick trips to campus to check on his current players and spread the word of Rockets basketball. Cross plans to get off the road for a few hours and do a meet-and-great at the upcoming LPGA Jamie Farr Classic in Toledo. As for taking it a little easier now that he’s the boss, forget it.

“There’s no such thing as pacing yourself,” he said. “The longer you’re in this business, the more you just don’t look forward to July.”

The high school senior
Set to start his final year of high school this fall, Jack Cooley will see what’s left of summer vacation at home all but end this week.

Cooley, who verbally committed last winter to play for Notre Dame starting in 2009-10, is a member of the Rising Stars AAU team in Illinois. The Stars begin play Thursday at a four-day AAU Tournament in suburban Chicago. A native of Glenview, Ill., Cooley will skip the final day for the four-day Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta, S.C. From there, it’s off to Michigan for a quick family get-away. After that, Cooley will spend three weeks in Florida — two of which will be devoted to AAU play.

“It’s a grind, but I still love it,” said the 6-foot-8, 210-pound power forward. “There’s nothing I’d rather do than play basketball.”

Cooley rarely sees more than the inside of a gym and his hotel room. He’s often too tired to do anything but sleep after games, which begin bright and early and run late into the night, day after day.

“It’s not like we get to go sight-seeing,” he said. “The tournaments and the hotel rooms all blend together.”

The AAU circuit is an odd time for prospects. College coaches cannot talk to players, but often feel a need to “baby-sit” their commitments. They do so in part because players sometimes feel slighted if they don’t see their future coach in the stands. If Cooley spots Brey or Irish associate head coach Sean Kearney in the stands, great. If not, that’s no excuse to not chase down the next rebound.

“I’m appreciative when the coaches can come to my games,” he said. “But I understand they have to look at other guys, too. It’s hard for them.”

Cooley believes this month will be easier on him psychologically than last summer. He now knows his college plans and doesn’t feel any pressure to perform well enough to catch someone’s eye. Cooley often has heard from his father that he has played better since his commitment.

“He says I play a lot easier and more confidently,” said Cooley, who averaged 20.7 points and 11.2 rebounds as a prep junior. “I’m starting to realize that I can compete with the best.”

The recruiting analyst
Craving a hot shower, a change of clothes and a few minutes of stillness and silence, Scout.com national college basketball recruiting director Dave Telep stumbled back to his hotel room one July night and slid the key card into the appropriate slot.

Time and time again, the door wouldn’t open. Just as Telep tried to make sense of the situation, it struck him. Not only was he on the wrong floor, he was in the wrong hotel.

Such was the scenario after Telep had spent another marathon day evaluating college prospects for Scout’s annual 27-page recruiting guide that tracks 1,000 kids. He often loses track of his hotel. His rental car. The day of the week. Sometimes, his mind.

“This is my 12th summer and this has been the hardest year to get up for,” said the 34-year-old Telep, whose wife is due in September to deliver the couple’s second child back home in Wake Forest, N.C. “You need a week by yourself on an island to get ready for it, but you just don’t get it.

“It is the ultimate grind.”

Telep’s days start around 7 a.m. with a cup of coffee and review of the day’s games and prospects to scout. He’s in the gym by 8 and often doesn’t leave until midnight. It’s not uncommon for him to watch 12 games a day for five consecutive days.

“Nobody loves basketball that much,” he said. “It’s a joke.”

AAU tournaments take Telep to Las Vegas, but he never stays on the Strip, and Orlando. He stayed on the Disney property for 10 consecutive summers, but never saw more than the gym and his hotel room. If he’s lucky, he’ll get a four-day break. That window closes quickly as he pours over pages of notes taken in gyms, on airplanes and in countless fast-food joints.

“You get to August 1 and all you’re trying to do is dig out,” he said. “It’s just not normal. It’s insane.”

www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080706/SPORTS13/551975103/1001/Sports

[Sixth Man]

That's one crazy schedule for the coaches.

[Tipp City Raider]

Free-agent assistants free to 'recruit' whenever, wherever
July 25, 2008
By Gary Parrish

LAS VEGAS -- Miles Simon spent Thursday night on the sideline at Rancho High, coaching the Pump N Run Elite while wearing shorts and a T-shirt and looking relaxed as his talented squad from Los Angeles cruised to an easy win in the Adidas Super 64. And if you're wondering why Simon is coaching summer basketball, you must've forgotten that Arizona declined to renew his contract as an assistant in May, and by extension made him unemployed.

"I don't have a job right now," said Simon, the Most Outstanding Player of the 1997 Final Four. "But I'm looking for the best opportunity."

Well, then you are going about this properly, Mr. Simon, because the best way to get back into the business is to nurture relationships with prospects who can help people already in the business. It's the way this sport works, for better or worse. And that absolute fact of college basketball has helped develop a ploy that revolves around universities declining to officially fill openings on their staffs until after the July recruiting period, so that possible future hires can remain "unemployed" through the summer and thus bound by no NCAA rules.

In other words, if somebody wants to hire Simon it would be stupid to do it now.

The smart thing would be to let him coach the Pump N Run Elite -- the same program that just sent Jrue Holiday to UCLA and Larry Drew to North Carolina -- through the summer and develop relationships with recruitable athletes, relationships that could someday pay dividends.

Consider that Simon is currently bouncing around the country, eating meals and hanging out with Class of 2009 standouts Solomon Hill and Tyler Honeycutt and Class of 2010 stars Tyler Lamb and Kendall Williams, among others. Meantime, actual college assistants on college payrolls aren't allowed to have any contact whatsoever at any tournaments with players or their summer coaches, meaning Simon can basically do whatever he wants (buy a burger for a player, some shoes, a hat, etc.) but the men who replaced him at Arizona can't so much as have a conversation with a prospect.

This is why Xavier hired Emmanuel "Book" Richardson last August.

And why New Mexico hired Chris Walker last August.

The summer recruiting period ends July 31, you see, and Sean Miller and Steve Alford understood it didn't make sense to hire Richardson and Walker until after that date. Consequently, those schools had the usual three coaches on the road working the 2007 summer circuit in addition to Richardson (who coached the New York Gauchos summer team) and Walker (who coached the T-Mac All-Stars summer team). Those hires -- specifically the way they were structured -- helped Xavier and New Mexico develop relationships with New York and Texas prospects that they might not have otherwise enjoyed.

Advantage: Xavier and New Mexico.

"It's a huge advantage to have a future staff member out there helping you with kids before you officially hire him," said one high-level Division I coach. "As long as he's not hired, he can pretty much do whatever to develop a relationship with a kid. Then August comes and you make the hire official, and by then you've got ins with a bunch of players."

To be clear, Simon's situation doesn't exactly match Richardson's and Walker's from last summer because it was well known in basketball circles that those two men had those two jobs lined up well in advance. There is no such story following Simon. He said he doesn't have a job lined up, and I believe him. But it's still worth noting that Mike Burns and Gabe Carter were the two men primarily coaching the Pump N Run Elite team last summer and that both have since moved on to Division I college staffs. Burns is at San Diego, Carter is at Loyola Marymount, and it won't be surprising if the restriction-less summer they spent on the road last year helps them get a desired prospect at some point in the future.

"Working with the Pump N Run team is a great opportunity," Simon said. "It allows me to spend some time to get to know the SoCal kids even better."

Which is why Simon will be an intriguing candidate for some West Coast school, because he now knows the SoCal kids on a personal level thanks to this summer spent developing relationships without NCAA guidelines hindering his moves. That's a huge bonus, and if you don't believe me you should've seen Richardson and Walker in their Xavier and New Mexico shirts this past season, working the jobs they "officially" got a little less than a year ago.

www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10908967

[Tipp City Raider]

Candy-striped pants, Day-Glo T-shirts the new trend for coaches
By Dana O'Neil
July 25, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- It is courting season in college basketball. The time that coaches and high school players stare longingly at one another across the wide expanse of a court. NCAA rules prohibit the two parties from speaking to one another and with come-hither stares presumably outlawed in the rulebook somewhere as well, the two are left to find other means to make sure they're noticed.

The kids have it easy. They're on the court, running and dunking. Hard to miss.

The coaches? They're stuck in a sea of middle-aged men on the bleachers. Savvy haberdashery is their savior.

T-shirts and golf shirts with the schools logos, get more wear and tear in the month of July from well-paid college coaches than they do from well-oiled alums during football season. There is a hierarchy. Roy Williams might wear Carolina blue, but the shirt doesn't always include the UNC insignia. Rick Pitino's shirt says Louisville, but it's in the fine print. Lots of wins, Final Fours and national titles will earn you that right.

Low-major coaches, in the meantime, use everything this side of a bedazzler to make sure their players know they're in the building.

Bennie Seltzer just upped the ante.

There wasn't a person in or around the Las Vegas high schools who didn't notice the Indiana assistant this week. Seltzer reached right into Indiana's history books to get his competitive advantage, pulling on a pair of the red and white candy striped warm-ups as he went to work.

"I laughed at myself a little bit as I got dressed," he said. "But then I sort of got into it."

Seltzer hatched this plan earlier in the recruiting season. After spending a day riding the pine to watch one of IU's prospects, he read in an online story that the kid didn't think anyone from the Indiana staff was in the gym.

He didn't want that to happen again, so he jokingly told IU head coach, Tom Crean, that he was going to wear the warm-up pants. The more Seltzer thought about it, the more he liked it and Crean, never one to ignore an offbeat hook, agreed.

Were it not for the 109-degree thermometer reading, Seltzer would have sported the warm-up jacket as well.

"Last time I wore the shirt with the little interlocking IU," Seltzer said. "I watched the same kid again this week. I'm pretty sure he noticed me."

But here's the thing. Seltzer just might have stumbled onto a great new gimmick. Coaches already have tinkered with ways to stand out. Seth Greenberg sported orange and red sneakers that perfectly matched his Virginia Tech golf shirt this week and the lettering on the Baylor's staff shirts was so large it could have doubled as a marquee on the Strip.

Hell, Bruce Pearl wears Day-Glo orange every day of the week. Good luck not noticing him.

"Someone called it brand recognition. That's perfect," Seltzer said. "When you see those pants you think Indiana basketball."

Better yet, consider the endless possibilities that Seltzer's ingenuity could spawn. Phil Martelli could flap his arms like the Saint Joe's Hawk; Johnny Dawkins could pull a Pat Forde and prance around as the Stanford Tree; Pitino could bag the understated golf shirt and whip out the all white suit again (hopefully this time with properly colored boxers) and Bob Huggins could try to pull off the mustard suit and shoe combo one more time.

Imagine if John Calipari stamped his well-heeled shoes to get a recruit's attention or if Crean paced the bleacher sidelines like he does during a game?

Suddenly the drone of summer hoops, which sometimes appears as enjoyable as a colonoscopy, would gain some fun and brevity. Coaches rendered into marching, monotone Flat Stanleys, by NCAA rules that prohibit them from having contact with the kids they might actually coach for four years, would be able to show they have a personality. Gasp! The horror!

Along with plotting what game to watch next and which player to target, coaches would have to figure out what to pack so they stood out more than the guy dressed like Colonel Sanders.

The whole thing already is a circus -- hundreds of high school "amateurs" wearing brand new warm-ups, sneakers and uniforms, living in well-appointed hotels and walking the Strip in the wee hours of the night.

Why not send in the clowns?


sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=3503350

[Fastbreak]

I am so glad our coaches haven't resorted to any of these sleazy tactics to sign a recruit.

[Raider Country]

Jul 28, 2008 10:27:21 GMT -5 Fastbreak said:

I am so glad our coaches haven't resorted to any of these sleazy tactics to sign a recruit.

Amen to that.

[bballraider]

Well with Victor Ebong in Las Vegas, I doubt he needed any crazy tactics there, he sticks out in a crowd without a bright neon outfit, just from his size and his smile.

[Tipp City Raider]

Elite don't have to cheat -- they just get creative
July 28, 2008
By Gary Parrish

Want to see summer basketball coaches squirm?

Just pepper them about Elite Camps.

Once you do it, the same guys who will gladly spend hours telling you how they have the next Michael Beasley will grow more uncomfortable than Mark McGwire on Capitol Hill. That's what the topic of Elite Camps seems to do to most people. It makes them nervous. And for good reason.

So what's an Elite Camp, you ask?

It's an on-campus event run by a college program, usually reserved for about the best 10 or 20 prospects that particular program is recruiting. More to the point, it's a fine way for a school to exploit a loophole in the NCAA rulebook and funnel money to summer coaches who in turn use some of that money to pay for their best prospects to attend the Elite Camp of the school supplying the money. Schools are essentially paying summer coaches to gain influence and get prospects on campus in an unofficial capacity.

Right, John Beilein?

"I'm naive to that and how it happens," said the Michigan coach. "But people say it apparently happens."

Oh yes, Coach Beilein, it absolutely happens.

It's the scam of all scams.

Here's how it works: Let's pretend State U is recruiting two prospects from an AAU team in California, a couple of high-level prospects capable of someday winning a league title. Now let's pretend I'm the coach of that AAU team. What State U would do is hire me to be a "counselor" or "speaker" at its Elite Camp. My pay might be $2,500 and my job might be to talk about free throw shooting for, say, 30 minutes one afternoon. That's it. It's a great gig.

But the implied tradeoff is that I must use some of the money I'm receiving to pay for the flights of my two prospects so they can attend the Elite Camp because how else could they possibly afford to fly across the country in the middle of June?

And that's pretty much the deal.

It's a three-step process:
1. The school pays the summer coach to work its Elite Camp.
2. The summer coach pays for his players to attend the school's Elite Camp.
3. The school gets a summer coach and his prospects on its campus for its Elite Camp.

Yes, it's that simple.

And yes, it's totally legal.

Which is how it's justified across the board.

"The biggest thing is that everybody is working inside the rules," said Florida coach Billy Donovan. "If the rules change, everybody will change what they're doing. But right now people are working inside the framework of the rules."

Credit Donovan for not shying away from the subject or pleading ignorance to how it works. He's the highest-paid coach in college basketball, a future Hall of Famer with more national titles than Def Leppard's drummer has arms. You don't become that successful in this business without understanding how to create technically legal ways to gain advantages in recruiting.

Rest assured, Donovan knows how to create advantages. Hell, he might be the best at it, which is why it should come as no surprise Florida is the school most often credited with developing the Elite Camp concept, though it's important to note practically every high-level program -- Texas, Connecticut, Memphis, Kentucky, damn near all of them -- conducts Elite Camps or something similar these days.

"You say, 'Listen, what are some creative ways to get some guys on campus?'" Donovan said while explaining the thought process. "Either you are allowed to do something or you are not allowed to do something, and if you are allowed to do it then it just comes down to your own personal judgment of whether you want to do it or not. But it's all just people trying to be creative."

Asked whether he agrees that college coaches seem to be among the most creative men in the world, Donovan smiled before answering, "I think we have to be."

Now I know what you're thinking: How exactly is this legal?

Answer: It's legal because the NCAA does not regulate who universities hire to work summer camps, meaning Oklahoma State's Travis Ford could hire my uncle or John Wall's AAU coach to work his camp, and there's no NCAA guideline preventing him from doing it.

Furthermore, the NCAA can't regulate how much AAU coaches can be paid for working a camp any more than it can regulate how much Louisville pays Rick Pitino for doing a radio show or how much Washington spends on pregame meals. Everything is OK as long as the pay is consistent -- meaning Oklahoma State is in the clear provided it pays every AAU coach who works a camp roughly the same amount, regardless of whether the pay is $500, $2,500 or $5,000.

(It's also worth noting there is nothing preventing a school from hiring the same AAU coach to work five different camps in one summer. In that case, a $5,000 payday for one afternoon of talking could turn into a $25,000 windfall for five afternoons of talking, and do you see how this is a slippery slope?)

"Five thousand dollars? I haven't hit that number yet," said Omar Carter, the coach of the MBA Hoops team featuring Class of 2011 star LaQuinton Ross. "I haven't hit those numbers you're saying. But LaQuinton is only a sophomore. So maybe my day is coming."

Trust me, Omar, your day is indeed coming.

And when it does, whatever you do with the money is none of the NCAA's business. You can take your $5,000 and buy a suit or a watch or a vacation (or perhaps all three!), or you can use it to offset the expense it took to fly your best player across the country to attend the Elite Camp. Either way, the NCAA can't do anything because the NCAA can't do anything about an AAU coach providing for his players.

So what we have is a -- here comes that word Donovan used again -- creative (and legal) way for coaches to get money into the hands of the people with influence over the top prospects in the country, which is why the fans constantly accusing college programs of "cheating" are the ones who don't understand how the sport really works.

Sure, people still cheat.

You'd be naive to think it doesn't happen.

But hardcore cheating like cash delivered in a shoebox is almost unnecessary these days given all the "legal" ways to get money into the right hands. You hire an AAU coach to work camps or to be a video coordinator, or you subscribe to his ridiculous scouting service and easily put thousands of dollars into his pocket.

Consequently, the actual breaking of major NCAA rules is now mostly reserved for the stupid coaches. The smart coaches can basically get the same things accomplished just by being, you know, a little creative.

www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10911734/2

[Class of '83]

Prosser's death hasn't changed coaches on the recruiting grind
By Dana O'Neil
July 29, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- Before NCAA rules required coaches to come off the road during the July recruiting period, Billy Gillispie would pack his bags and go.

Not just a little carry-on. He'd pack up every last stitch of clothing in his closet, every personal memento or trinket. All of it.

"I'd get an 11-month lease and pack everything up [for storage], forward my mail to my office and not come back 'til August," Gillispie said. "I loved it."

A year ago, college basketball paused in shock and grief to bury former Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser. Many college basketball coaches had flown on the same red-eye that Prosser took -- in the endless search for new talent from the Las Vegas tournaments to the Orlando AAU event a day earlier -- and were sitting in the stands of Disney's Milk House when the news of Prosser's death began to spread.

Even miles away in Vegas, the mood shift was palpable. Coaches who still remained in town that Thursday looked haggard and worn, some still asking if the news was really true.

Sudden, shocking deaths often lead to promises of change and restructure. After Lyle Alzado's death, athletes vowed to avoid steroids; and Len Bias' untimely passing was supposed to scare people off cocaine.

Prosser's passing was no different. In the days immediately following his July 26, 2007, death from a heart attack, coaches nodded their heads and agreed that the recruiting cycle had become too demanding, that coaches were wearing themselves out with crazy travel calendars and unhealthy eating habits.

Yet last week, planes stuffed with coaches trying to see the last game in the desert and the first one in Orlando still left Las Vegas in the wee hours. The P.F. Chang's near the Strip remained jammed with coaches at 11 p.m., just then grabbing their dinners, and In-N-Out Burger drive-throughs saw a steady stream of rental cars, their drivers too busy to stop and actually get out of the car to eat.

Nothing has changed at all, and it's not just because the rules dictate it.

It's because coaches' hard wiring would be short-circuited if things ever really changed.

"We all secretly love it," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "Most of us have been doing this all of our lives. We don't know what a July vacation is and to be honest, I've never packed my bags with regret. I look forward to it, most of us do."

Spend the recruiting week in Vegas and you're bound to hear laments about the travel grind and faulty GPS systems to navigate from one gym to the next. Coaches will stuff themselves with hot dogs at gym concession stands and then wonder how in the world they came to Vegas, a town filled with top restaurants, and managed never to eat anything good.

They will bemoan the nasty case of bleacher butt and wander aimlessly in parking lots, pointing their remotes in the hopes that their car will click back its location.

But they will also sit in the stands and tell war stories as they laugh and smile like kids reuniting at the annual summer camp jamboree.

This is as comfortable to them as putting together a game plan or drawing up an inbounds play.

"I think like all jobs, there are pluses and minuses," College of Charleston coach Bobby Cremins said. "But we love to be in the gyms. We love to be around good players and watch good games. I don't think this had anything to do with Skip's death. I really don't."

Competitive by nature, coaches view recruiting as just another season they have to win. They spend hours folded into the bleacher seats because they want to make sure they don't miss anything and (perhaps even more so) that the other guy doesn't find anything.

Just listen to the language: schools "lose out" on a prospect or get "beat out." The implication is obvious -- someone worked harder, went to more games, opted for more hoops over dinner.

You may not win a recruit, but you surely can lose one.

So they will spend hours in the gym babysitting kids from whom they already have commitments, lest it looks as if they've lost interest and thereby have opened the door for a competitor to swoop in and undo a verbal commitment.

They'll search for that undiscovered talent (Bob McKillop discovered Stephen Curry here and Beilein spied Joe Alexander) and salivate over unsigned kids who dangle like carrots (the star coach power quotient ratcheted up a few notches every time 2009 top talents Kenny Boynton and Renardo Sidney played in Vegas).

"Sometimes I think this is the most important thing we do, more important than coaching games," new South Carolina coach Darrin Horn said.

Back in the day, camps were smaller. Cremins remembered attending the old Nike camp in Princeton, where afternoons without games allowed for a tennis match against former Princeton coach Pete Carril.

No more. Most camps feature rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. Pair that with a condensed NCAA recruiting calendar, and there's no choice but to pack a day with dawn-to-dusk hoops. At the Reebok All-American camp in Philadelphia, officials had to eliminate what was supposed to be a two-hour break between sessions because the camp drew more players than expected.

In Las Vegas, games tip off between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., sometimes in gyms as far apart as 45 minutes.

"There are days where I walk into a gym and think, 'Do I eat or do I go to the bathroom?'" Beilein said. "Three hours will go by, and I realize I've done neither."

Coaches wear their dietary blunders like badges of courage. Gillispie ate at a McDonald's. Beilein showed off his crunchy peanut butter protein bar before putting it back in his pocket. It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and he still hadn't had lunch.

Like a creepy subspecies of hoops zombies, they all have survival tricks and proudly share them like insider tips on stocks. Villanova associate head coach Brett Gunning found an all-you-can eat sushi spot that fills you up fast and is conveniently located near a couple gyms. Texas coach Rick Barnes' scout pre-scouted a yoga place for him. Beilein never leaves his room, not even to fill an ice bucket, without his ID.

"You'll have your key but the problem is you don't remember what room number it's for," he said. "Is it 306 or 406 or 506? They all run together, so you have to bring your ID. That way you can go down to the front desk and tell them, 'I have my room key, I just don't know where to go.'"

Without fail, the conversation will turn to where have you been and where are you going as coaches discuss itineraries made by sociopathic travel agents. Las Vegas isn't exactly close to Orlando, yet the two mega tourneys bump right into one another, turning late-week red-eyes into coaches' express jets.

It is only then, when they crisscross the country, that they give pause to think about Prosser. It is a momentary reflection at best.

"You can't dwell on it," McKillop said. "You just can't because you can't change it."

At the beginning of July, West Virginia assistant Billy Hahn drove to Bethany Beach, Del., for a two-day vacation. On July 4, a Friday, he drove from Delaware to the Philadelphia airport and boarded a flight to Akron, Ohio, for the LeBron James Skills Academy. Three days later, on Monday morning, he drove from Akron back to Morgantown to "pass the baton" (NCAA rules allow only three coaches on the road at one time, so one coach literally has to come off the road so another can go out).

That night, July 7, Hahn drove from Morgantown to the Pittsburgh airport and flew back to Philadelphia. He fetched his car that had been sitting in long-term parking since he got back from Bethany Beach. The next morning, he checked in at the Reebok All-American Camp. Technically he stayed in Philly three days, but one day he watched the morning sessions in Philly, drove to Ewing, N.J., for the Eastern Invitational team camp in the afternoon and drove back to Philadelphia for the night games. When the Philly camp ended, he headed to Lawrenceville, N.J., for the Summer Classic.

On July 13, the following Sunday, Hahn then drove back to Morgantown for the last two days of Jamfest in West Virginia. NCAA rules took him off the road for a week, but on July 21, he drove to Pittsburgh where he boarded a flight to Las Vegas. On the morning of July 24, he flew out of Vegas so he could pass the baton in Morgantown again. That night, he went back to the Pittsburgh airport so he could fly to Orlando. Hahn was back on duty through the weekend there. On Monday, he flew back into Pittsburgh and drove back to Morgantown. But on Tuesday, he headed back to New Jersey.

That's 8,490 miles, seven states, a handful of five-hour car rides and two cross-country flights.

And West Virginia already had its incoming class for 2009 completed.

Yet you never met a man giddier than Hahn.

"This is the best thing in the world," he said as he sat in the stands alongside his son, Matt, an assistant at Vermont who clearly has the hoops gene in his blood. "This is not tough. Sitting in a gym all day and watching games is not tough. This is the lifeline of your program. It's not the X's and O's. It's the Jimmys and Joes."

Certainly not everyone is quite as ebullient as Hahn and Gillispie. McKillop admitted he is more "immune" to the schedule than in love with it, and Saint Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli believes in the need for balance. He'll send his assistant coaches home every third or fourth day so they can reconnect with their families.

But as the anniversary of Prosser's death passed, the coaches were still out there. The recruiting season ends on July 31, and there are still gyms to visit.

Frankly, there is nowhere these guys would rather be.

"If this is work, then life is pretty good," Texas' Barnes said. "I'm sitting in a gym, talking with my friends, watching games. How awful can it be?"

sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=3507613

[Bomber]

Hiring assistant Clifton could pave way for Baylor to land Wall
July 31, 2008
By Gary Parrish

It appears Baylor will land the No. 1 basketball recruit in the country.

D-One Sports coach Brian Clifton told CBSSports.com on Thursday that Baylor has hired his brother and assistant, Dwon Clifton, as its director of player development. On the surface, it's a meaningless transaction. But given that the Cliftons coach elite point guard John Wall, sources have indicated this transaction will almost definitely lead to Baylor gaining a commitment from the Class of 2009's top prospect, and sooner rather than later.

"After receiving offers from several schools in the Big 12 and many other conferences, Dwon has decided to accept a coaching position at Baylor University," Brian Clifton said via text message. "Dwon will rejoin his former collegiate coach Matt Driscoll as a member of the Bears staff."

Driscoll was an assistant for Larry Shyatt at Clemson when Dwon Clifton played there earlier this decade, but that's barely crucial to the equation. The key to this development is Clifton's relationship with Wall, a quick, fast and dominant point guard who was spectacular in the Reebok Summer Championships last week in Las Vegas while leading D-One Sports to a runner-up finish.

Officially, Wall is still considering Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis, Oklahoma State, Oregon, North Carolina State, Southern California and Texas in addition to Baylor. But that list should be dwindled to one in the coming weeks as the Clifton hiring precipitates Wall's imminent commitment to the Bears.

www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10915244

[Bomber]

Doyel's Dribbles
And so it comes full circle
July 31, 2008

About 10 years ago when I covered ACC basketball for the Charlotte Observer, I wrote about a big-time college basketball recruit who had a circus around him, including his ambitious brother. His recruitment was getting strange. Manipulated. Coaches were constantly trying to figure out who was in charge of the recruitment, but they knew one thing: It wasn't the player himself. He was a pawn. Whose pawn? I never quite figured that out.

The player's name? Dwon Clifton.

Yes, the same Dwon Clifton who just got hired on the staff at Baylor and whose arrival could spur the country's No. 1 recruit from the class of 2009, John Wall, to go to Baylor as well. Wall plays for Clifton and Clifton's still-ambitious brother, Brian, for D-One Sports.

I'm not calling any of this illegal. I'm not even calling it unethical. I happen to like Baylor coach Scott Drew very much. I'm just saying it's difficult to watch the circle of life without suppressing a giggle.

www.sportsline.com/mcc/blogs/entry/5881996/9663838

[Bomber]

AAU Tournament Schedule
Columbus Riverfest Columbus, Ga. March 21-22
Boo Williams Invitational Hampton, Va. April 11-13
Kingwood Classic Houston, Texas April 18-20
Real Deal on the Hill Fayetteville, Ark. April 18-20
Spring Showcase Las Vegas, Nev. April 25-27
Double Pump Spring Classic Las Vegas, Nev. April 25-27
King James Classic Akron, Ohio April 25-27
Cactus Classic Tucson, Ariz. May 9-11
Wallace Prather Memorial Atlanta, Ga. May 9-11
Tournament of Champions Chapel Hill, N.C. May 23-25
NIKE Memorial Day Classic Nashville, Tenn. May 24-26
Pangos All-American Camp Los Angeles, Calif. May 30-June 1
NIKE Hoop Jamboree St. Louis, Mo. June 12-15
Rumble in the Bronx Bronx, N.Y. June 13-15
NBPA Camp Charlottesville, Va. June 18-21
GBOA South Atlanta, Ga. June 28
USA Basketball Washington, D.C. July 1-3
LeBron James US Skills Academy Akron, Ohio July 5-9
adidas It Takes 5IVE Classic Cincinnati, Ohio July 6-8
Kentucky HoopFest Louisville, Ky. July 10
Peach State Summer Showcase Aiken, S.C. July 11
Nike Peach Jam North Augusta, S.C. July 12-15
Battle at the Bluff Memphis, Tenn. July 13-15
Super Showcase Orlando, Fla. July 23-27
Reebok Summer Championships Las Vegas, Nev. July 22-26
Main Event Las Vegas, Nev. July 22-26
adidas Super 64 Las Vegas, Nev. July 22-26
AAU Nationals Orlando, Fla. July 28-31
Nike Global Challenge Portland, Ore. August 8-10

rivalshoops.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=779265

[Sixth Man]

Behind the NCAA's new fight against package deals
August 26, 2008
Seth Davis

During a time of year when college basketball usually doesn't generate much interesting news, Baylor coach Scott Drew caused a few ripples last month when he hired a man named Dwon Clifton to be his director of player development (whatever that is). The reason this hire was noteworthy is that Clifton had been coaching a summer team called D-One that features John Wall, a 6-foot-4 point guard from Raleigh, N.C., whom many people (including myself) consider to be the best high school senior in America.

No doubt Drew can credibly claim Clifton is qualified for the job. He played at Clemson and UNC-Greensboro before competing professionally for one season in Portugal. Drew can also credibly claim he didn't get an explicit guarantee from Clifton that Wall will sign with Baylor.

Yet, I can also credibly claim two things: First, Clifton would not have been hired had he not had been Wall's summer coach. And second, as surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning, John Wall will be a Baylor Bear.

Contrary to what I've seen written elsewhere, the act of hiring a coach for the purpose of signing a player is explicitly against NCAA rules. But the practice has become so commonplace, it's understandable why people would assume it was kosher. Consider, just to take one example, the hero of last season's NCAA championship game, Mario Chalmers. His father, Ronnie, was an assistant who was hired by Kansas coach Bill Self right before Mario's freshman season. Indeed, it's ironic that the hero of Kansas' 1988 national championship team, Danny Manning, also led the Jayhawks to the title with his father, Ed, sitting on the KU bench as a member of the coaching staff.

As I've written before, this practice has been so prevalent for so long that on some level it's understandable why a coach like Baylor's Scott Drew, who is trying to build a winning program at a school that has never had one, would subject himself to charges of unethical conduct. Because if he didn't hire Clifton in an effort to sign Wall, surely someone else would have. That's why you haven't heard too many coaches complaining about Clifton's hiring, privately or publicly. To paraphrase Hyman Roth in The Godfather: Part II, this is the business they've chosen.

Even so, coaches across America should be forewarned: Some people who oversee college basketball do not like how they've been conducting business. And they're fixing to change it.

The change has begun in the NCAA's enforcement office. This spring, the NCAA created a three-person group that will be devoted to monitoring and enforcing compliance in men's basketball. This is an unprecedented move that reflects a growing concern inside the NCAA that the sport is not being conducted ethically. A prime area of concern for the group is the practice of hiring coaches to get players in blatant violation of NCAA rules.

"We recognize there's a definite issue here, and it's been growing and developing for years," says LuAnn Humphrey, the NCAA's associate director of enforcement and a member of the newly formed group. "It's very difficult at times to prove that these [hires] are being done for the specific intent to secure the recruitment of a prospect, but that doesn't mean the enforcement staff is going to turn a blind eye. We don't want to publicize how we're going to go about it, but I will say to you we're going to be a lot more aggressive in our inquiries."

Humphrey adds that coaches "are getting a little too comfortable" with the fact that intent is hard to prove, but that is the reality her staff is facing. That's why no school has faced major sanctions for violating the rule since New Mexico State was hammered in 1996.

The other way the NCAA can crack down is by passing tougher legislation. That was one of the ideas suggested by the initial working group that was assembled to address the problems facing youth basketball. You may remember the big press conference the group put on at the Final Four last year headlined by NBA commissioner David Stern and NCAA president Myles Brand. The main purpose of that event was to announce a new initiative aimed at reining in abuses in summer basketball, but buried among the set of recommendations was some pretty stark language about how a new rule addressing connect-the-dots hires might read.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/seth_davis/08/26/hoop.thoughts/index.html?eref=T1

[Class of '83]

Mid-level recruiting: Plan for the best, hope for the worst
Sep. 12, 2008
By Gary Parrish

Craig Robinson stood in the corner of the Las Vegas gym, his eyes focused on Roberto Nelson as the Class of 2009 prospect limped off the court in pain. It was late in the July recruiting period, and UCLA's Ben Howland was a few feet away. But the player many high-level coaches had come to evaluate was now hurt and thus no longer on display. So everybody moved along and pointed their attention elsewhere, and this could be perceived as a key moment in the future of Oregon State basketball.

VCU's Eric Maynor is one who didn't get away. (US Presswire)
Honestly, it might've been a blessing for OSU basketball.

Why?

Because it gave Nelson one less chance to show off in front of the coaches of the most powerful programs in the country and, by extension, possibly prevented him from becoming their top priority. Oh sure, the 6-foot-3 guard still reportedly garnered scholarship offers from UCLA, Southern California, Ohio State, Florida and Tennessee. He's good, after all. But Nelson was never the main target of those programs like he was for Robinson and Oregon State, and that fact ultimately helped the Beavers earn a commitment from Nelson this week.

Now did the Las Vegas injury play a role?

It's impossible to know for sure.

But I'd be willing to bet Robinson was privately pleased when Nelson went down, not because he wished ill on the California native but because this is the way coaches trying to recruit outside of their normal reach tend to think. Don't believe me? Just ask Jeff Capel, who has fought this battle from both sides of the fence, first as the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth and now as the head coach at Oklahoma.

"I hate to say it but when we were at VCU and went out in April and July to watch players going into their senior years, we kind of hoped they didn't play well," Capel said. "We didn't want them to get a serious injury, but if they tweaked an ankle or did something where they couldn't play we were actually kind of happy. And if they did play, we just hoped that they missed every shot.

"It's terrible to think that way," Capel added. "But that's how we felt at VCU and how a lot of coaches at the mid-major level feel."

Among them, Donnie Jones.

"You identify kids who are good enough and then you spend the summer worrying about what team they're playing with, where they're going to play and who they're going to play against," said Jones, whose recruiting strategy has changed drastically since abandoning a position on Billy Donovan's staff at Florida to become the head coach at Marshall.

"At this level you have to be able to find a guy that the bigger schools might be wavering on a little bit, go full speed at him and hope the bigger schools don't get too interested."

Capel has countless stories about this fingers-crossed approach.

One involves Eric Maynor, who was a lightly regarded two-star recruit (according to Scout.com) during his prep days. He was competing in an AAU tournament in Orlando the summer before his senior year, but because he wasn't on a heralded team he spent the early rounds of the event playing off-site (aka, somewhere other than The Milk House at Disney's Wide World of Sports, where most of the elite prospects' games are scheduled).

Anyway, Maynor played and played well. He was so good, in fact, that he eventually led his team to a win that pushed them to The Milk House.

"So now we're sweating," Capel said. "We had already done our work and knew he was somebody we wanted. But now he's going to The Milk House, and if he gets there and plays well and keeps winning the other schools will get intrigued. Every year in July there's a guy who comes out of nowhere, and we felt Eric could be one of those guys. That's why we were really, really worried."

Naturally, Capel followed Maynor to The Milk House.

"And the whole time we're watching him we're looking around trying to see if there are any high-major coaches there," Capel said. "Then he lost his first game in The Milk House, and I think that ended his tournament. We could not have been happier."

Crisis avoided.

About a month later, Maynor committed to VCU without a single high-major offer. As a sophomore, he led the Rams to the Colonial Athletic Association title and second round of the NCAA tournament, when he hit a game-winning jumper to beat Duke. Maynor averaged 17.9 points per game last season and is generally regarded as one of the best point guards in the country heading into his senior season.

On the other side of the coin is Capel's recruitment of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

When Mbah a Moute moved from Cameroon to the United States he enrolled at Montverde Academy in Florida, which just so happened to be coached by one of Capel's good friends, Kevin Sutton. He immediately told Capel about his latest import. Capel boarded a plane, visited and was feeling confident about his chances.

"But then Luc got invited to the Nike All-America Camp," Capel said. "I remember watching him in a game -- I'm almost certain he was playing against Josh McRoberts because I remember sitting with Coach K -- and he was playing really well, and there was a play where McRoberts went up for a dunk and Luc made a big-time block. I think I texted my assistants right at that moment and said, 'Were out. We can't get him now.'

"Sometimes at that level all it takes is a kid having one big-time play to attract the attention of the high-major programs," Capel added. "So when he made that play in front of all those coaches, it meant we had no chance."

Mbah a Moute eventually signed with UCLA.

He helped the Bruins to three straight Final Fours.

Which brings me back to Oregon State and Roberto Nelson.

Nelson was good all summer and is now a consensus Top 100 prospect. But he never made that play or had that game or did anything otherworldly to shoot him up the national rankings like, say, Class of 2010 standout Harrison Barnes did first in April, then at the LeBron James Skills Academy in July and then again at the Nike Global Challenge in August. In a span of four months, Barnes went from a relative unknown outside of his hometown of Ames, Iowa, to arguably the best prospect in his class, proof being how Mike Krzyzewski spent part of this week watching him scrimmage.

You know who needed Barnes to have an average (or injury-plagued) spring and summer?

Iowa State.

But he didn't, and now Duke, Florida, Kansas and every major program in America are involved. That's bad news for ISU, which will now likely play the role of VCU in the scenario previously laid out about Mbah a Moute, which is to say it'll be a surprise if the mid-level Big 12 member can remain seriously involved.

Meanwhile, Oregon State is set to sign Nelson in November.

It's the kind of development that could make the Beavers relevant again.

And if it does you can point back to the time in Las Vegas in the summer of 2008 when Nelson limped off the court on a Thursday afternoon and deprived several high-major coaches of the opportunity to see him on that particular day.

Many of them were still interested in the end, of course, primarily because Nelson helped his AAU team make the finals of the Adidas Super 64 just 48 hours later. But those coaches weren't as interested as they might've been had he gone for 39 points that day instead of suffering a minor injury, and that's why that limp could ultimately be viewed as an aid to Oregon State's recruiting coup.

www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10974111

[Fastbreak]

Unfortunately, that column is sad, but true. You have to think that our coaches were ecstatic to learn that Tyler Koch decided to spend the summer at his high school focusing on his individual workouts rather than play AAU ball. If he would have blown up at one of those tournaments, we probably would have lost him.