Allocating recruiting resources: random thoughts

[Norm Peterson]

Portal recruit: you get the kid typically 1-3 years; recruitment is typically active on a high-intensity basis for roughly a month from the time the kid enters until he probably commits; you find out pretty quickly if you're in the running or not; you'll be able to evaluate his body of work both from HS (for freshmen transfers) and college; time investment in recruitment from a coaching perspective is minimal; player comes in older and more advanced from a skills/physical ability perspective; established transfers command much more NIL$$$ but you can probably find some bargains.

 

HS recruit: you get the kid typically 1-3 years (more is rare); recruitment is active on a low- to medium-intensity basis for a year-and-a-half; it might be awhile before you find out if you're really in the running or not and even if they commit, there's still a chance the kid will decommit; you'll have a lot of hudl highlights to digest but it's still some guesswork as to whether his skills will translate; time investment in recruitment from a coaching perspective is substantial; player comes in younger and less mature from a skills/physical ability perspective; not as high of an NIL price tag unless they're blue chip recruits.

 

I was thinking about this recently when I was perusing the Rivals 150 and not seeing our school name listed among the commit choices of the top 150 HS basketball players in the country for 2025. And it hit me like, yeah, so? How long will most of these kids stick with the program they start with? How soon before Cameron Boozer either jumps to the NBA or falls to the portal?

 

It's nice to have some stability and have a 4-year player like Sam Hoiberg out there hustling and making plays. On the other hand, we seem to be OK primarily focusing our recruiting attention on roughly the last week of March, all of April, and the first couple of weeks of May every year.

[Huskerpapa]

I would add the recruitment of foreign players to the equation.   The Huskers seem to have two or three foreign born players on our roster each year.  We are not going to know about them until they commit.  JUCOS may soon be back in vogue as well.

Interesting time we live in.

[Vinny]

I was wondering about the top teams  roster composition the other day and looked at Tennessee’s roster. They start two seniors they recruited out of high school, the rest of their rotation includes three mid major transfers (I think all seniors), a B1G transfer and a sophomore they recruited out high school.  A couple building blocks you mold yourself and shop for what you need around them seems to be working for them. 
 

Also, our last three high school recruits have been top 150 on 247. Janowski in 2024, Rhymes in 2025 and Frager was for 2025 before reclassifying to 2024. So the guys we want to be building blocks have been rated pretty high.

[hskr4life]

11 hours ago, Vinny said:

I was wondering about the top teams  roster composition the other day and looked at Tennessee’s roster. They start two seniors they recruited out of high school, the rest of their rotation includes three mid major transfers (I think all seniors), a B1G transfer and a sophomore they recruited out high school.  A couple building blocks you mold yourself and shop for what you need around them seems to be working for them. 
 

Also, our last three high school recruits have been top 150 on 247. Janowski in 2024, Rhymes in 2025 and Frager was for 2025 before reclassifying to 2024. So the guys we want to be building blocks have been rated pretty high.

Seems the formula is to find a few guys who are willing to put PT aside early out of HS in order to maximize PT later on. Hopefully Jan and Frager will be that guy. Sam and Cale are both that guy currently.

 

Then you build around that with portal additions. A 2+ year portal player is the best possibility.

[hhcmatt]

At our best we're a team with a solid core of 4-5 players returning every year + additions from the portal with 0-2 HS recruits.

Next year hopefully we have Mast, Berke, Sam, and Essegian back, that'd be a core of 4.  Hopefully between Cale, Gavin, Janowski, and Frager we have at least 1 rotation player if not better.  At that point you're looking at 3-5 portal guys and 1-2 HS recruits in addition to Rhymes.  It's proving to be a good formula for us.
 

[Navin R. Johnson]

50 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

At our best we're a team with a solid core of 4-5 players returning every year + additions from the portal with 0-2 HS recruits.

Next year hopefully we have Mast, Berke, Sam, and Essegian back, that'd be a core of 4.  Hopefully between Cale, Gavin, Janowski, and Frager we have at least 1 rotation player if not better.  At that point you're looking at 3-5 portal guys and 1-2 HS recruits in addition to Rhymes.  It's proving to be a good formula for us.
 

 

Just got to find another Brice and Juwan.