Guide to college bball recruiting in the DMV

[Anonymous]

My rising 9th grade boy wants to try to play college ball. Knows he is not D1 material but interested in D2 or junior college, etc. He practices almost every day.

He works out on his high school team at a public Moco school - that is not on the recruiting circuit. His current AAU team - though seeming to be a part of a strong program- doesn’t seem to be winning much. Last seed at a lot of tournaments and a wide range of skill level among the players.

How do we connect him with a primer or two to figure out if he has a shot, whether he should try for a different AAU team, etc.

[Anonymous]

My kid played with a lot of kids who played D1. Your kid can sign of for some recruiting sites and post video. It’s much easier to get recruited if there are college coaches at your HS games (my kids school frequently had coaches visit) and/or AAU games (you have to be in more of a top program for that), but that’s probably not as important for D2 or junior college.

[Anonymous]

OP, my son is in a similar situation but rising 8th grade. According to HS coaches we know, he has a very good chance of making his public HS team but the public HS in our area also not on the recruiting circuit but occasionally players are recruited by D2 and D3 schools.

My son played for a top team but he was a bench player. He did play a fair amount in most games but instead he switched to a less known national team (also part of a strong program) where he's been a starter playing a lot of minutes.

I think networking is the answer... still trying to figure this out. Except for the big bigs, in middle school I don't think all of the players on top teams are significantly better than my son and several of his teammates or some highly skilled players we follow in NoVA, for example. But by HS, they are likely training more with the best trainers, practicing more, and playing for top coaches... that's how they pull away from the rest, especially if they're tall, strong and athletic.

[Anonymous]

Getting playing time on an AAU team that gets coaches' eyeballs is key. If your kid is good enough to get recruited to one of the independent or Catholic high schools with good programs, that often puts them in a better position than local publics. However, some publics, like Jackson Reed, have very strong programs and play in the same summer league tournaments (with visiting college coaches) as Sidwell, Gonzaga, St. Johns, etc. Also, unless your kid is a gifted point guard or 75% 3-point shooter, they need to be at least 6'3" to get a look from coaches. It's tough out there and the DMV is one of the most competitive areas in the nation for basketball.

[Anonymous]

If you are not aiming to play D1 basketball, the vast majority of D2/D3/NAIA/Juco schools do not seriously recruit players until they are HS juniors (or rising seniors in AAU). They just don't have the resources to do more than adding your name to a database for future reference. So your best course of action until then is to focus on development, not exposure. Become the best player possible. That means finding playing time and a coach who is committed to player development over exposure. Get in the weight room. Use a private skills trainer to supplement if needed.

If all that development results in a player who is a top Varsity contributor (even at lesser known public schools!) in their junior year, then the college coaches at your appropriate level(s) will likely find you, or will be happy to come to evaluate you at HS/AAU games as a junior/rising senior. They won't care if your AAU team isn't winning a certain number of games or isn't on the "right" circuit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are not aiming to play D1 basketball, the vast majority of D2/D3/NAIA/Juco schools do not seriously recruit players until they are HS juniors (or rising seniors in AAU). They just don't have the resources to do more than adding your name to a database for future reference. So your best course of action until then is to focus on development, not exposure. Become the best player possible. That means finding playing time and a coach who is committed to player development over exposure. Get in the weight room. Use a private skills trainer to supplement if needed.

If all that development results in a player who is a top Varsity contributor (even at lesser known public schools!) in their junior year, then the college coaches at your appropriate level(s) will likely find you, or will be happy to come to evaluate you at HS/AAU games as a junior/rising senior. They won't care if your AAU team isn't winning a certain number of games or isn't on the "right" circuit.

This is good advice. My kid’s development absolutely took off his sophomore year. This was directly related to changing his focus from playing in as many games as possible (e.g. summer college camps with the HS varsity team where he just sat on the bench every day for a week) to spending as many hours as possible in the gym with a trainer and in a small training group the trainer organized.