Example #9,284 of Why You Should Coach-Up Your Team to Host Recruits the Right Way
I only showcase this because they were such high profile college athletes, at high profile schools, but it goes on everywhere. And it's ruining recruiting classes
To be fair, the following account is disputed and unverified - except by the former top recruit who says it happened.
But truthfully, even if it didn’t happen, it could have. And, it does…every single day, somewhere on a college campus, during a recruiting visit: Someone on a current team who is asked to play some sort of roll in hosting a recruit either a) does a really poor job of it because they just aren’t interested in helping the program, b) has never been told how to host a recruit, or c) feels threatened by another incoming recruit and does everything possible to ignore him or her during the visit.
Which brings us to a disputed recruiting visit story that has been getting some play recently, involving University of North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough and the top basketball recruit in the country John Hall, who lived in nearby Raleigh (and who didn’t want to go too far away to play basketball because he had a sick mother, but who also didn’t want to go to nearby North Carolina State because it was ‘too close’ to home). Here’s what ruined the visit, according to John Hall:
"I wanted to go to Carolina. I went on a visit (to UNC), and Ty Lawson was there. Tyler Hansbrough got his own section. They were like homeboys. I'm the little recruit. I walked up to them, say whatever. (Hansbrough) said, 'I don't talk to recruits.' I was like, 'F--- you, I ain't coming here.' That was it right there. Dead serious. I really went up to shake his hand. He was National Player of the Year and just won a national championship. I wanted to talk to Tyler Hansbrough… This is a dream come true for me. This was the school I loved growing up. He did that, and I was like, 'I got something for him.'"
"That was my dream school. They f----- it up. "They were the only ones who could have gotten me not to go play for Coach Cal at Kentucky. Because my mom had gotten sick and had an aneurysm, had to shave half of her head bald. I'm like, 'Man, I can't leave home. I have gotta stay close because she's my best friend.' It was like NC State then, because Carolina already f----- up, so I was going to go to NC State. But then I said, 'Nah, I can't go to school from here to the fridge. I'm never going to be on campus. I'm going to be at home with my guys.”
Hansbrough and the rest of his former Tar Heels teammates dispute the story, just for the record.
But, it happens all over the country. Why? Because most current college student-athletes are never trained how to recruit their potential future teammates. And, because coaches don’t usually employ some smart tactics and strategies to make sure visits go as smoothly as possible. Here are four that I’d recommend:
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