Basketball Recruit--3.95 GPA 23 Current ACT. D1 D2 or D3 . Ideas?

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>I was contacted by a friend today who has a son who has played competitive basketball and baseball on highly-ranked traveling teams and has been approached by several Top 5 (academic) Nat'l Universities and LACs. He has been told that they are very interested in him as a player, but that he needs to raise his ACT to a 26-28 for them to take him. He will retake the ACT in October, and may raise his score, but the parents are wanting to find some realistic options for him academically where he might be recruited to play, or even walk on, as well. (He will be full-pay without an athletic scholarship, and he is not FA/URM/First Gen.)</p>

<p>I know absolutely nothing about athletic recruiting. I can help find schools that are a safety, match and reach academically, but I have no idea how recruiting works. I have advised the parents that, at this point, I'd be looking out for their son's academic future, first, and looking for playing opportunities second. However, their son REALLY wants to play ball in college and is evidently a fine recruitable player were it not for his low ACT.</p>

<p>Parents and son are completely uninformed about colleges outside of our state. Son has been approached by a top LAC and, until I told them differently, they had no idea that the school was more than a step above a CC. Son's first choice would be to stay somewhere in the West--CA, CO, AZ, OR. He is very open to East Coast schools, though, and probably Mid-West, as well. (He was also contacted by Michigan schools and told his ACT was a determining factor for them, as well).</p>

<p>How do I best help this student? I don't know anything about deadlines for recruitment, or whether it's too late to be recruited, or what. Currently, I want to help him find 5 D1 schools and 5 D2 or D3 schools to contact coaches that are more likely to take him in case his ACT does not improve significantly. He is a smart guy with two college-educated parents. He is a Student Body officer, Eagle Scout, played three varsity sports (including QB as a junior) before narrowing to Basketball and Baseball for senior year.) He just isn't getting good guidance from either his GC or his coaches.</p>

<p>Any words of advice from someone who actually understands this process?</p>

2

<p>Basketball is a headcount sport for D1, which means he either gets a full everything scholarship or nothing - no splitting scholarships. (except Ivy league, which doesn’t give athletic scholarships). There are a few walk on spot on each team, but not that many. No scholarships in D3, so that leaves the only negotiating to be done in D2.</p>

<p>As far as NCAA rules go, an ACT 24 is fine and he can play. Each school can, of course, set its own rules. The Ivies and NESCAC schools do that.</p>

<p>He can make a list of schools he’d like to play for (asking coaches and others for input) and you can create a list of schools you think are a match, and then see if any are on both lists. It’s really not possible for us to say ‘Hey, check out Gonzaga’ when we have no idea what kind of basketball player he is or if Colorado State is looking for a right shooting guard. If he’s interested in a school that hasn’t contacted him yet, there is usually a recruiting application on the athletic department website, and he can send an email expressing interest. His coaches might be the best place for him to start to get groups of schools that match his talent.</p>

3

<p>The majority of basketball recruiting takes place during NCAA viewing periods–one weekend in April, the month of July, and one weekend in September. If he wants to play for a school that haven’t contacted him yet, then the only option at this point is to fill out the school’s recruit questionnaire and to email the coach, like the poster above said. And he’d need to do that ASAP so they have the option of watching him play with his HS team in the winter.</p>

<p>What level (D1, D2, D3) are the schools who have contacted him? LACs are usually D3 and D3 only gives academic scholarships.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much! This is really helpful to me. The schools that have contacted him thus far are D3, but with higher ACT thresholds than NCAA.</p>

5

<p>It’s not impossible to play D1 if he has a stellar senior season, but from what I’ve found with my D is that the schools that seek a player out are pretty much the level they can play at. She is a junior and has attention (both unsolicited and in reciprocation to her reaching out the schools) from low-level D1, mid-level D2 and high-level D3. By level, I mean athletic level. The D1s she’s heard from are low-level D1s, while the D3s are national championship caliber. The D2s are somewhere in between.</p>

<p>Another option to look at are NAIA schools.</p>

<p>I live in the West, so feel free to PM me if you want and I might have some more insight for you. My D opened up her recruitment to include the entire country and that helped matters a lot, so I’m glad to hear your friend’s S is of the same mindset. And his parents are on the right track with the academic fit focus. </p>

6

<p>PMing you, sanmin. Thanks!</p>

7

<p>Hi
Very generous of you to take and interest in helping this young man. It is late, but if he is talented, there are still opportunities. The key is in selecting the profile of schools the young man is interested in, contacting the coaches with a profile and expressing interest, and getting the coaches to come see him play. The initial interest must have come from coaches that saw him on the AAU circuit. I’d recommend this book,
The Essential Guide to Ivy League Athletic Recruiting [Kindle Edition]
Tier One Athletic Resources (Author) - found on Amazon. It has a focus on the Ivies, but also offers some detail on high level D3 recruiting (Williams, Bowdoin, Amherst, etc.). I would also reccmmend you use the search function on this forum. Much as been asked and answered over the years on this topic - search basketball, high academic, recruiting, Ivies, and any other pertinent terms that come to mind.</p>

<p>You can also PM me if you’d like. Good luck.</p>

8

<p>What level player are we talking about here? Are we talking McDonalds all American GPA 2.2/ACT 14 or SAT 600, or dude on the team GPA 4.16/ACT 35, SAT 2350…that is a wide range of both admission pedigree and basketball prowlness…there are opportunities for both either at a high academic d1 or d3, were your talent will still have to be up to par. The scores will always give you a good first step, but your talent has to be able to allow you to finish(if you understand that basketball analogy) As the father of a D1 athlete at a school with 100 million sports budget/tv network and chance of winning a national championship every year it’s really not that big of a deal. The difference between D1 and D3 is the number of varsity sports your school offers…either +26 or less than 14, outside of that you have D1’s with enrollments of 50,000 and as few as 2,500 and you have some large D3’s that have 15,000 attending the school. The real question is do you wanna play and do you have the skills to be on the floor…</p>