How much time do you put into recruiting?

Do you typically go for guys that are identified pre recruiting?

Do you wait and see what it available?

Do you generally know by the second or third recruiting session how the recruiting season fares?

What are important recruiting factors for you?

Wow. good questions.

- Too much time.  Way too much.
- I typically go for guys I have already identified, especially if I had leftover FSS money.
- I do a mix.  If i have 3 openings I like to get 1-2 guys early and then wait a little on #3.
- Usually not.  Sometimes, its all about anticipating what others are going to do.

What are important recruiting factors for you?

- #1 what my team needs to be competitive.  Never forget this.
- #2 I try to figure out what teams around me are likely to go for what players
- #3 try to find players I want that others don't...but that's the real trick.

How much time do you put into recruiting?
depends on if it matters or not. a lot of times with 1 man classes i might spend only an hour because its not very important and i can't do much anyway. but most importantly, to make me feel better about the times i put in 10 hours (which is often the case).

Do you typically go for guys that are identified pre recruiting?
yes, i basically never "go find a guy" after recruiting started. i can't necessarily say i am going to sign these 4 guys but usually its a pretty safe bet that its 4 of 6-8.

Do you wait and see what it available?
answering this for my team would be giving you bad information, so let me answer theoretically instead. if you a leader in your market, don't wait. if you are not, you need a mix of waiting and not waiting. don't wait on the medium quality guys who are good for your program that you are confident you can sign - like if there are a ton of great bigs, grab a good one early. when people miss on their first targets, having your name there will deter others from jumping on. but if you are not one of the top schools, don't go jumping on a great player who may or may not go to a big school - you are usually going to 100% waste that money. also, don't hesitate to line up cheap backup options - you cannot overestimate the importance of this for new-engine d1 recruiting, IMO.

Do you generally know by the second or third recruiting session how the recruiting season fares?
yes, except maybe half the time for the last player, its not clear if you will win or lose - or if its one of those, hey i have 40k and need 1 more player type deals, that ? could be unclear as well.

What are important recruiting factors for you?
distance, quality of player, who else may sign him. at the high end, that last part is a lot easier. i can look at maybe 10-15 schools in a circle around me and get a feel for hey, there are 2 good guards over there and 5 schools who want them, or there are 5 good guards over there and 2 school who want them, and recruit accordingly. but if you are a mid major or whatever, there are so many schools higher up on the food chain. still, its a good idea to look at your local big 6 schools and the guard/big mix and try to figure out which set will come easier and which will be harder.

How much time do you put into recruiting?
More than I should.

Do you typically go for guys that are identified pre recruiting?
Yes, typically.

Do you wait and see what it available?
I don't necessarily wait to see what's available, but I do sometimes end up pursuing players that weren't on my radar initially due to "circumstances beyond my control". Or just a really nice opportunity that presents itself.

Do you generally know by the second or third recruiting session how the recruiting season fares?
No. Sometimes you may THINK you know, but that's way too early to actually know.

What are important recruiting factors for you?
Ratings, potential, likelihood of being able to sign the player, likelihood of encountering a battle, likelihood of encountering teams in a battle I can't win, other options/depth at a given position or need in my area, tendencies of other common opponents in my area.

well, daalter is right. you really don't know how things are going to go after 2-3 cycles. but you often have a pretty damn good idea. i guess when i had d1 teams who weren't a leader in the area, it was A LOT more uncertain. a lot. but if you have an A prestige you should be fairly confident in what is going to happen after a few cycles.

As much as you try to anticipate what others are going to do, it's impossible because you have a good number of coaches who don't seem to be acting rationally/strategically/in their best interests.

I'll quite often get a team trying to go after a player who's already considering me when they quite literally have no mathematical possibility of signing the player (ahemMississippiStateinAllenlastweekahem). It's baffling, it's annoying ... and most of all, it syphons off money from your other endeavors. But it's the kind of thing that you can't possibly anticipate or plan for, and something like that seems to happen with relative frequency.

When you're evaluating probablities, you're operating under the assumption that the other coaches will behave rationally and within their best interests, and when that inevitably doesn't happen, you get things you never could've planned for that can really change recruiting.

Posted by girt25 on 12/15/2010 8:15:00 PM (view original):
As much as you try to anticipate what others are going to do, it's impossible because you have a good number of coaches who don't seem to be acting rationally/strategically/in their best interests.

I'll quite often get a team trying to go after a player who's already considering me when they quite literally have no mathematical possibility of signing the player (ahemMississippiStateinAllenlastweekahem). It's baffling, it's annoying ... and most of all, it syphons off money from your other endeavors. But it's the kind of thing that you can't possibly anticipate or plan for, and something like that seems to happen with relative frequency.

When you're evaluating probablities, you're operating under the assumption that the other coaches will behave rationally and within their best interests, and when that inevitably doesn't happen, you get things you never could've planned for that can really change recruiting.

signed, moy23's battle cry     

Dalters right, Mississippi State totally could have had that guy....if he outspent you 3:1 or so.  No rhyme or reason to it.  Wake Forest bankrupted themselves fighting me in Allen despite me holding a prestige (A- vs. B+) and distance (250 vs. 700) advantage.   I had to be getting a 2:1 vs. them but they poured $80,000 into a pair of battles.

You never know.

Another question: appropriate amount to spend on 1 recruit? What if he is top 5 overall?

Depends on who you are, what you need, what else is going on in your recruiting, etc.  

Short answer: enough to get him, but not so much that it hurts your team as a whole.

How much time do you put into recruiting?

Do you include preparing for recruiting in this question?  I don't spend a ton of time actually recruiting, but I do put in a number of hours prior to recruiting.  The time is spent figuring out who I should recruit, who the possible competitors are, how many schools of similar or higher prestige may be in the mix, how many schollies they have available, etc...  For example, in Smith this year there were two SGs I really liked.  Landing either one was good enough, didn't need both, and they were fairly similar.  So I did some groundwork to figure out which one was less likely to involve heavy competition and ended up signing one for not-a-ton of cash and avoiding a possible battle for the other.

Do you typically go for guys that are identified pre recruiting?

Yes.  "Typically" isn't even a strong enough word.  Keep in mind, though, that both of my teams are DI, in BCS conferences.  If I was in DII or especially in DIII, I would likely be waiting until the last 24 hours to see who was out there to get.

Do you wait and see what it available?

Covered in previous answer.

Do you generally know by the second or third recruiting session how the recruiting season fares?

Not always.  Sometimes teams will swoop in during the last pre-signing cycle, and what you thought was going to be an easy, solid recruiting class turns into a dogfight - and sometimes it is one that you lose.

What are important recruiting factors for you?

Distance, along with who the possible competitors are for the players and how they compare to my team in terms of budget and prestige.  (This is also different for me than if I was in DII or DIII, where a recruit's potential would play a much heavier role than it does for me at Maryland.)