How recruiting has changed over the years

[Moyeneeded]

On 12/3/2019 at 6:21 PM, Mike said:

Bob Knight was all in on Jeff lamp who ended up going to Virginia so we had to take our second choice a boy named Randy Wittman

Because Lamp was a package deal with Raker.

[BGleas]

On 12/3/2019 at 4:35 PM, DWB said:

Been listening to some of the older generations stories on how they were recruited. Compare those to today, and it seems like recruiting 20-40 years ago was so much easier, or maybe I should say less "involved" than it is today.

Dane Fife said he had Knight, Coach K, Fisher from UM, Izzo, Dean Smith all in his living room at various times, and made an official visit to most of those schools. Didn't talk about getting phone calls every day, much less texts (didn't have them then) every 15 minutes.

Brian Evans said he sat in a chair in AH and Knight offered him a scholly the first time they met. Took 10 minutes total.

I can't even imagine all the crap a coach has to go thru these days to recruit a kid at all, much less get him. The amount of time CAM spent on Garcia was probably more than Knight spent on an entire class of recruits. I know Knight was a legend, but so was Dean Smith, Coach K was coming into his own, the UK crook, etc.

Garcia might be a great kid, but I'm skeptical that he hadn't made up his mind until after Archie chartered a plane to go see him right before the announcement for Marquette. And if he had made up his mind before CAM's visit, then that's pretty dis-respectful in my book. But then again...I'm old school (and proud of it).

What's really changed recruiting is television, AAU, social media and the internet. That's really what it boils down too. There's so much access now. 

As far as Dane Fife, did he say he didn't get many phone calls or did he just not mention it? I'm around Fife's age, and while I was certainly not the player he was, I was recruited by low major D1 schools, D2 schools and D3, I ultimately played D2. But, I can tell you the phone calls were annoying. I believe they could call you once a week or something like that. With Sunday being the first day of the week, I'd get a ton of calls on Sunday evenings. Almost every Sunday I'd go over to my girlfriend's house because I didn't feel like talking to 3-4 different coaches on the phone. I gotta imagine it was way worse for someone like Fife. 

[DWB]

1 minute ago, BGleas said:

As far as Dane Fife, did he say he didn't get many phone calls or did he just not mention it?

He didn't mention it. But based on his forth-right, and outspoken opinions on everything else, I would assume (maybe incorrectly) that if he got inundated with calls, and it pissed him off, he'd say so. Since Knight was at, or near, the pinnacle of his tenure, I wouldn't think Knight would have to make near as much contact with a recruit than other coaches.

Based on your comment about the phone calls on Sunday evening, it almost sounds like it was the genesis of "Robo Calls".