seeking basketball advice

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>My son is a 6'8'' junior with a 31 ACT and 3.79 unweighted GPA. He is a starter this year for his HS team (HS is 2000 students). His stats from sophomore year HS team, where he was the 6th man, are 11pts, 8 rebounds, 2 assists. From his competitive team: 14pts, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 assists. The coach has told him that with his height and ACT score, he can play at any D3 college he wants. Of course, son wants to play D1 or D2. We think he could play D2. We’re not convinced he can play D1 – maybe the lower level? </p>

<p>Last summer, he played on a competitive team that played mostly USSSA and some AAU Division 2 tournaments. They did well, but still D2. We know we need to find a Div 1 AAU team this summer. He also went to a number of exposure camps and a few “invitation only” college camps. We learned about the All-Academic Camp but couldn’t attend due to conflicts with his competitive team schedule. We definitely want to try that next summer.</p>

<p>He has generated some interest from lower level (I guess) D1 schools and a local D2 school. One NAIA school wants him bad, but their academics are miserable.</p>

<p>Son has no idea where he wants to go to school or what he wants to major in. His strongest subject is math, but his passion is basketball. We’d prefer he attends a college with strong academics that offers a wide variety of majors and we definitely don’t want to rule out engineering. I am extremely fuzzy on athletic related careers.</p>

<p>Here are my questions:</p>

<p>He is scheduled to take 3 SAT Subject tests in January. Does he really need to take the SAT if we’re happy with his ACT score?</p>

<p>Should he retake the ACT because he might be able to increase his score by a point or two? (provided there are no arguments this time around)</p>

<p>I really, really don’t understand the National Letter of Intent and National Signing Day stuff. I just read it’s voluntary? How common is committing to a college in November? It seems early. How common is committing to a college in April? April seems way late.</p>

<p>I’ve read a book on sports scholarships, but it was not specific to basketball. Are there any college basketball specific books?</p>

<p>I have more questions, but no words for them yet…</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>National Signing Day is voluntary to a point. Some schools don’t use the NLI others require it of their athletes. Basically is a contract between your son, you and the school saying he will play for them in exchange for an athletic scholarship. Only D1 and D2 schools use this. Some NAIA schools will have something similar though. Athletes can only sign the NLI during certain times during the year, November is the first signing day. Some coaches want to get their recruiting done before the season and push for the Nov day, others want to do that after the season to see how things go. Only seniors can sign a NLI but younger kids can verbally commit, but there really isn’t any legal standing with that.</p>

<p>At 6’8" and possibly still growing, your son is going to generate some interest if he is an all around player. How are his ball handling skills? Does he only play inside or can he play from the perimeter? I would suggest that he work on his outside game, a lot, this year.</p>

<p>There is really no reason to take the SAT unless he is a National Merit Semi-Finalist. I would suggest he take the ACT one more time, mainly to see if he can get more merit aid but his 31 and GPA will get him into every school in the country as a recruited athlete if the coach wants him badly enough.</p>

<p>I would suggest he take his SAT subject tests in the spring when he is done taking the classes for those subjects. Very few schools use the SATII’s anyway so taking them really isn’t an immediate need.</p>

<p>I would suggest you start visiting schools. Pick schools near your home that are small, medium and large sizes. Get a feel for what size campus he wants. Once he knows if he wants a smaller school or a major university or whatever, it’s easier to narrow down the school. Don’t worry about a major now, just find schools with the type of stats you like. Then figure out the geography part. Does he want to stay close to home or is he ok going away?</p>

<p>Using sites like the SAT College boards site to search is nice. It has a great search engine for picking size, location, sports by division, etc.</p>

3

<p>I can’t comment about basketball recruiting, but I do want to point out that more and more schools are requiring or recommending SAT Subject tests. The ideal time to take these for most students, as Steve points out, is immediately following the completion of AP or honors level classes. For most kids this is the early June test date following junior year. Students can take up to three exams on test day. Most schools only need to see 2 scores, and aren’t particular about which subjects, but prefer core. Georgetown is the exception, requiring three exams. UCs don’t want to see the Math Level I- it needs to be Level II. </p>

<p>More information here, but do check websites of colleges of high interest for specific information about testing: [SAT</a> Subject Test - What Colleges Require the SAT Subject Test?](<a href=“http://collegeapps.about.com/od/sat/a/sat-subject-test-required.htm]SAT”>SAT Subject Tests - What Colleges Require Them?)</p>

4

<p>Use the Search function to search under basketball, prep basketball, etc. Loads of commentary on your interest over the past few years. Search it out. Good luck!!</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the information, Steve.</p>

<p>I am the academic whip in the family. I’ll have to figure out how to answer your basketball skills questions. I know he is a post player, but I don’t know what that means. <blush></blush></p>

<p>We are awaiting PSAT results. He’ll be happy not to take the SAT unless needed for NM. He is currently dual enrolled at the CC taking Biology and Trig (and Gov’t and Comp). That’s why he’s registered for the January SAT Subject tests. Maybe we’ll postpone the Lit though until after American Lit in the spring. I’ll encourage him to take the ACT one more time. I’d love all the merit aid we can get.</p>

<p>We visited a medium-sized, private, academically rigorous, D3 university last summer. Very, very impressive, but no engineering degrees. We also visited a large, public, not as academically rigorous, D1 university last summer. Not as impressive and son would likely not be able to compete for a spot on the team there. We’d all prefer he be within an 8hr drive, but we are starting to adjust to the idea of sending him off on an airplane for the best opportunity/fit.</p>

<p>I search the SAT College board site a lot. I’m unhappy that I can no longer sort by SAT scores though. That made it easier to understand the academic quality.</p>