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A NOTE ON RECRUITING HYPE

Rob Harrington
robharrington@prepstars.com
January 22, 2010

At this relatively slow juncture of the recruiting calendar, when players are involved in their high school seasons, most seniors have signed and few are deciding at this time, it’s an opportune time to reflect on the recruiting process as a whole and some of the dynamics involved.

While many aspects of grassroots basketball have changed over the past 20 years — the emergence of the travel circuit, the early-to-the-NBA phenomenon, etc. — one thing hasn’t been altered a bit: The longer a player remains undecided, the more the hype machine has a chance to build around him.

Consider the timing of major events. In politics, the calendar is set so that candidates have ample time to familiarize themselves with the public, raise money and generate momentum as the process unfolds.

In other sports, such as boxing, fights are set at a date in the future so that the promoters and the chosen venue can advertise and generate buzz via the media and word of mouth.

And that’s what chiefly relevant in this example. Elite unsigned players are a rarity during the winter of their senior season, and the continuous dialogue among fan bases on various message boards sends the hype train barreling down the track. In addition to word of mouth on various social outlets, newspaper reporters and recruiting writers also cover the recruitments to keep those stories in the public consciousness.

By contrast, consider how little publicity even highly touted players get when they commit early. Fans may be surprised next year by how dominant Ohio State signee Jared Sullinger is in the Big Ten, because he pledged to the Buckeyes as a freshman amid essentially zero hype. Despite his obvious acclaim and top-five ranking, he’s simply never exhibited much national buzz.

Meanwhile, No. 1 senior Harrison Barnes, who announced during the November signing week, became a national sports story and held the rapt attention of several bases during his courtship period.

And that brings us to the spring. Though elite guard Brandon Knight has maintained an abnormally low profile for such a tremendous prospect, more and more stories are beginning to hit the shelves and cyberspace. Despite his best efforts, the bright lights are shining on him full-force.

Another elite prospect who will sign this spring, Oregon’s Terrence Jones, also is getting extremely frequent attention.

The story linked here is just one example and not offered as criticism or as an atypical example, but merely reflects how coverage evolves into something seemingly larger than life as a recruitment wears on: Seattle Times Jones story.

These thoughts are merely scratching the surface of recruiting coverage and how it has changed and continues to adapt to our increasingly technology-driven culture, but it’s worth keeping in mind as recruitments continue to progress the rest of this winter and into the spring.