King of the Hill: Playing The Summer Recruiting Game
Words. Jason Jordan
To the casual observer the month of April is bittersweet: The end of college basketball season and the beginning of a six-month countdown to start it all over again. But from attending AAU tournaments from coast-to-coast to showing up at gyms for private workouts to 20-hour shifts, for college coaches the work is just beginning.
We caught up with one of the best, Kansas State Associate Head Coach Dalonte Hill, widely regarded as one of the most gifted recruiters in the business, to chat about what a typical offseason is like for a top college assistant.
HighSchoolHoop: What’s your typical day like when you’re attending an AAU event?
Dalonte Hill: Well, it depends on the event. Like Peach Jam is more of a one venue type of thing that’s why we really like it. The Vegas and L.A. stuff is all over and you spend a lot of time driving trying to get over there to chase these kids. The night before you sit down and put together a schedule and load the addresses up in your GPS so you can cut your time down going from place to place.
You watch the morning session then the afternoon session then the night session. In between that you have the 16-and-under’s going on and they have the hospitality room set up for you. It’s not too bad depending on the tournament you’re at. It can be exhausting because the days are really long. Sometimes the last game is at 11:30 p.m. Now you want to grab some dinner, and then you’ve got to map out the next day for you and your boss as well. It can be crazy.
HSH: Is you being there more for the kid to see you than for you to see the kid?
DH: Oh definitely. If you’re in Vegas or L.A. or one of the big tournaments, you’ve already identified the kid. Usually you’ve identified them by then. So yeah, it’s more for the kid to see you in the stands.
HSH: I know that it’s against NCAA rules for coaches to interact with players or family members, but I’ve also seen it happen by accident. Has that ever happened to you?
DH: Well, they do a good job of separating us. They even have specific doors for us to come through. The only time that could really happen is if you’re running into a game and they’re walking up at the same time. But that’s even rare. The NCAA has done a great job of not allowing those illegal bumps to happen.
HSH: Let’s say it did happen are you allowed to give a head nod?
DH: Well, not really. It can be an accidental acknowledgement but sometimes the kids don’t understand. Sometimes they’ll say, “Hey coach,” and you might give him a headshake just letting them know that you see them, but due to the rules you can’t speak to them. I go ahead and tell the kids, but you’ve really got to tell the parents because once you start to have a relationship with them they want to sit down and have a talk and you’ve got to be like, “Nah, I can’t do that.”
HSH: How often do you go to a camp and discover a new talent?
DH: Well, that’s why I love the bigger camps because that really allows you to locate some younger talent. You can get word from someone to come look at this kid or go see that kid and that’s usually how it works. It definitely happens a lot.
HSH: You’re known as a great recruiter, so do you like this part of your job better than helping to develop the kid once he’s there?
DH: It’s all about the season. April and July you put in your mind that it’s me against them. In September we’ve just got to go in and sell, and in October it’s all about the team. That’s why we have closed periods and dead periods because it’s all about developing and getting your team better and making players better. It’s kind of a mindset that’s created depending on the time of the year. So that’s a little hard to answer because I’ve got my mind programmed to what mode I need to be on.
So K-State never got involved in recruiting John Wall. Was that because he didn’t fit the system or does DH know something that KS, Memphis, KY, UM, NCSU, Duke, NCCU, Baylor, etc don’t?
WOW! this jordan dude hit it on the head I had no IDEA! it worked like this. Like I always wondered how it went down. (the recruiting) and why this school who’s not well known can get top talent sometimes…..now I see the light! Thanks Man
Can we Read your blogs every day? or Do we have to subscribe to the Magazine to read all your stuff??