Over the year I have occasionally got to hear some tails of the basketball recruiting wars. I have told this story before to some of my friends over a beer hear or there but I do not believe I have shared it on the net. It is one of my favorite. This is story I was told by an assistant coach, quite a few years ago, about the recruitment of a player most who are reading this blog would know. Names have been omitted to protect the innocent and the guilty.

Some time ago, for what ever reason this coach(s) got a late start on a recruit/player, very late in May. This assistant was very high on this player, and the recruit had great stats, and was pretty well know in California, but he was not getting a lot of recruiting attention. The recruit was very leery of moving to a northern climate, where the assistants school was, so the official visit was very important. With this recruits official visit still about week away, a new school entered the picture and offered the recruit but told him that they had offered two players for the same spot, and the first one to accept would get the scholarship. This new school was less than an hour away from the recruit’s home, but was also a conference mate of the assistant’s coach’s school. The recruit then called the first assistant and told the assistant he was most likely going accepting the scholarship, and that he did not feel he could wait until after his trip next week. The recruit simply did not feel comfortable committing the school before the visit. The first assistant got off the phone with the recruit, and knew he had to sign this kid. The assistant then called one of his friends at a major Pac-10 school, and one with-in a close drive to the recruit’s home, and told him the story. The Pac-10 assistant then called the recruit and told him that the Pac-10 school had an opening, and they were thinking of taking a chance on the recruit, and asked him if the recruit could send them a video. The recruit got all excited, and put together his tape and sent it to the Pac-10 school, in the mean time the second school signed the other recruit. This recruit eventually took his official visit to the original assistant coach’s school and loved the school. The Pac-10 assistant never called the kid back, and the kid signed with the first assistant school.

I will let you decide the moral to this story.