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Recruiting Younger Players Becoming the Norm

As the competition for the best prep athletes increases, more and more big-time college coaches are starting to recruit juniors and sophomores to their programs.

Posted — Updated
By
Ken Medlin

In times past, a player as young as Raleigh Word of God sophomore CJ Leslie would barely be on an ACC team's recruiting radar now. But that was in times past.

The game of basketball recruiting has changed dramatically over the past decade, so much so that highly regarded prospects like Leslie are making verbal commitments as sophomores.

"An early commitment used to mean you committed in August before your senior year, maybe without taking an official visit," Scout.com recruiting expert Dave Telep says. "But right now, the way the calendar and the way the game [have] changed, you are behind if you're not ahead."

CJ Leslie committed to N.C. State early during his sophomore season, joining high school seniors C.J. WIlliams out of Jack Britt in Fayetteville and Julius Mays from Marion, Ind., in their pledges to the Pack.

Leslie is one of a growing number of high school prospects who are making their decisions earlier and earlier.

"I never knew it would be this way, but it's very similar to the NBA when you draft a guy," N.C. State head basketball coach Sidney Lowe said. "You take a guy early coming out of school, and really you're ... projecting down the road."

North Carolina currently has nine prospects either signed or committed – a group that includes three high school seniors, Tyler Zeller of Washington, Ind., Ed Davis of Richmond, Va., and Larry Drew of Woodland Hills, Calif.

The Heels also have verbal committments from four juniors, including David and Travis Wear out of Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei, John Henson of Round Rock, Texas, and Dexter Strickland from Elizabeth, (N.J.) St. Patrick.

Sophomore guards Kendall Marshall of Northern Virginia and Kinston's Reggie Bullock round out the list of future Tar Heels

"Kids want to make decisions so early now," admited UNC head men's basketball coach Roy Williams. "If you keep holding kids off, then they're going to make a decision because they think you're not going to ask them to the prom to start with, much less get a dance with them."

In taking commitments so early, however, teams do run a much greater risk that those players won't pan out.

"Now you're taking out the whole variable of being able to watch them grow from sophomore to junior to senior year," Telep warns, "which is going to increase your chances of missing on a player."

Another side effect of early recruiting is that coaches cannot talk about potential players until they are signed.

Just last week, Lowe described CJ Leslie without actually using his name, which is considered a secondary violation by the NCAA.

According to an N.C. State spokesperson, no sanctions are expected to be imposed on Lowe, however.

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