The Right “Fit”
Featured image of someone putting on gloves is courtesy of Getty Images via the AARP.org website.
When people reference things that feel comfortable, they say they “fit like a glove”. Well, at times the same can be said about recruiting. Whether you see a Tweet or hear a college coach mention a “fit” for their program, finding the best place for YOU as a student-athlete is equally important. In this article, I wanted to take the time to expand upon that idea and offer up some thoughts and suggestions as to how to approach looking for the perfect school for you. Believe it or not, there are more than 1,500 schools in the country that offer women’s basketball, not to mention 42 in this state alone, so there are definitely a variety of options for you to consider. All of the major associations, like the NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, and USCAA offer lists of their member schools on their main websites. So what should be considered when looking for the right ‘fit’?
Dream Big AND Have A Plan
I’m not one to crush someone’s dreams and tell them they can’t or won’t make it to the WNBA, Europe, or whatever. But I am an analytics guy and a realist, and the facts are that the percentages of high school players who make it to professional basketball are simply fractions of a percent. Please, have professional basketball as a goal for yourself if that’s something you truly want, but also have a plan in place if that doesn’t end up being an option available to you. At some point we’re all told we can no longer play the game we love…some of us at 18, some of us at 22, and some of us at 30…but we’re all told. What will come next for you?
Too many prospects today are hung up on going to the “biggest” school possible, or being Division-I players, or even being professional basketball players, when I feel like they should be more focused on which school can help them be the most successful both on and off the court. Once you get to college, your basketball career has four, six, maybe ten years left if you’re extremely lucky, while life has 50-70 years remaining. Also, once you get to college, you’ll primarily be worried about your grades, your coaches, your teammates, and winning the next game against whoever you play. What “level” you are playing (i.e. D1, D2, D3, etc.) will escape your thoughts completely. College needs to be a life choice, not just a basketball decision. Basketball is a tool to pay for the education to help you succeed in life, so always have a plan for life after basketball.
Prioritize What Is Important To You
When selecting a college, do it for the right reasons. YOU have to be happy, because YOU are the one who will be attending there, not your family, friends, or high school/grassroots coaches. No one knows what is most important to you more than you. As an exercise, please grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down the following items: (a) program success, (b) Head Coach success, (c) playing time, (d) academics, (e) distance from home, (f) size of the city/town, and (g) finances. Next, take those seven items and arrange them in order from most important to least important. This list can be fluid, and you can move things around as you learn more about yourself, but please be honest with yourself during this process.
One thing I do with any prospect who asks for my advice about these topics is to help them make a spreadsheet of what’s important. Everything is considered, and immediately below is a look at how we break down each of the categories from the previous paragraph.
(a) Program Success – This topic is pretty simple to research. Just go onto a school’s athletics website and find out the team’s record over the past five to ten seasons, how they performed in any postseason play, plus who did they schedule and beat in their non-conference portion of the season. Are they playing good teams or are they beating up on lesser teams to enhance their record? For Division-I schools, you can do a quick Google search for the end-of-season RPI for all teams in recent seasons, and that will provide you with a numeric ranking as to where they land in terms of strength of schedule and competitiveness when compared to every other Division-I program in the country.
(b) Head Coach Success – Similarly to topic (a), you can find this information pretty easily online. If a Head Coach has been at the current school for five or more years, then you know their success from researching (a). If they are newer to the school, their bio should tell you what they have accomplished at previous coaching stops. Another item that has less to do about success but definitely to do with the Head Coach, is their contract status. You can possibly Google search that information, or you can even ask them that directly. Do they have one year left? …four years left? …ten years left? Basically, are they going to be there when you arrive? Does the administration have confidence in them? Do they have aspirations of looking for something “bigger” themselves? These are all important questions, and once you get deeper into the recruiting process and more comfortable with a specific coach, you should consider asking them these things before you make your decision.
(c) Playing Time – This can be summarized by answering two questions. Can you sit on the bench and not play while your team is successful and still be happy? Can you play a lot of minutes and put up statistics, but watch your team struggle to win all season? Which of those sounds more like you? Are you somewhere in between? You MUST be honest with yourself on this. Players who don’t see many minutes still have to practice as hard and as often as the stars. Have a conversation with the Head Coach and ask how they see you fitting into their program. Discuss role definition, what opportunity is there for you immediately versus maybe your Junior year, and be candid and honest about your desires; don’t hide your feelings. This is not a time to demand anything or talk with them about what another school might have promised you, but it is okay to discuss where they see you fitting in.
(d) Academics – If you have your heart set on a specific major, like, say, being a neurosurgeon, then this needs to be #1 on your list. If that’s the case, then everything needs to be considered…classroom sizes, professor to student ratios, academic facilities and resources, how they rate nationally among schools that carry your specific major, types of internships, and job placement after college. Even for those of you who don’t think academics is a priority, don’t choose a major that doesn’t interest you just to play basketball. Find a discipline that will make you happy and comfortable for the rest of your adult life. What’s more important: athletic happiness from 18-22, or professional fulfillment from 23-65?
(e) Distance From Home – Like playing time, this is a topic in which you need to be completely honest with yourself. Homesickness is real, and many prospects are gung-ho about going away for college, only to return after a year or two because they need their family and friends nearby. Some kids are okay going away, some just aren’t, and either is fine, just make sure you know what your capabilities are. Make sure if you are going to look at schools of significant distance, you consider whether you’ll need to drive or fly there, and consider both the amount of time and miles you are away. If money is no object, and you like flying, then maybe a 3-hour flight is better than a 5-hour drive, even though the school you have to fly to is much farther in terms of mileage.
(f) Size Of The City/Town – If you like where you are and what you are used to, look for something similar. If you want to live somewhere bigger or smaller, that’s fine as well. Just make sure you research the size of the location you’re headed to, along with the social life, activities, and amenities they have available. If you go to Google and type in “population of ” and enter any city/town name, you can at least get an approximation of the size of that city/town. Compare that to what you know. For example, here are some population approximations: Indianapolis (876,862), Fort Wayne (267,633), Evansville (117,963), Bloomington (84,981), Muncie (68,555), Kokomo (57,869), Seymour (19,731), Tipton (5,104), Lake County (485,493), Clark County (118,302), Floyd County (78,522), and Chicago (2.706 million).
(g) Finances – If you plan on attending a non-Division-I school, then this is certainly going to come up. Parents need to have real conversations with college coaches about what is manageable. There are too many verbal commitments given before finances are discussed, only to have a player/family have to back out of the commitment because they can’t afford to attend a specific college based on the financial package that is presented to them. You can discuss stipends, scholarship money, financial aid packages, and grant money. Make sure both parties are very clear about how expenses will be taken care of and what specifically you are going to need to come out of pocket with monetarily. It is absolutely fine to discuss finances, especially if that’s going to help you make a decision. But it isn’t a time to demand money or compare with another school. I would discuss what you can afford out of pocket instead of stating what you need from their end. There are many academic discounts, grants, and scholarships available to athletes that aren’t necessarily available to the general student population. I know of Division-III situations who have minority scholarships, where if the student-athlete is high-academic, the school will cover the player’s tuition, room & board, and their books just like a Division-I school would. You don’t know what’s available if you don’t ask, and college coaches, at least those on top of their game, will know the best ways to make it work financially to help both the program and the prospect.
The Pursuit Of Happiness
Another piece of advice is to try to get to know some of the current and past players from each school you are considering, ask them what they like and dislike most about the school, the town, the coaches, and the program, and make sure what they are saying about their experiences match up with what you are interested in for your four years of college. You might run into one or two who will say exactly what the coaches want them to, but I think you’ll be surprised at how the majority of them are blatantly honest about their experiences and situations.
Also, are you a priority to the school you like the most? No, it doesn’t matter if you were their first choice or their last choice; if they offer you a scholarship, then they at least like you and you have school paid for. However, do they like you or do they love you? Are you a priority recruit for them? Go where you are wanted, because that coaching staff will give you the benefit of the doubt and be apologists for you more often than not when you are struggling on the court, when you are sick, when you are injured, or even sometimes when you are struggling in the classroom. Trust me, no matter how “fair” you think everyone should be treated, there IS a pecking order on teams, especially once you get to college. Go where you are wanted and they love your game, because if you are a “roster-filler”, you are expendable, and they will recruit over you year after year after year. Scholarships are 1-year “promise rings”, not 4-year “marriages”. They are renewed at the end of each season.
But I’m A Division-I Player
Listen, I like confidence, and yes, there are over 350 Division-I schools right now. There are ultracompetitive situations like Notre Dame and UConn, and there are some really bad situations where teams win three to five games annually. You need to do what is in your own best interests, and if you are determined to play at the Division-I level, there are certainly many different avenues to do so. But, let me play Devil’s advocate here and offer up a real-life situation I dealt with as a grassroots coach a few years ago.
I have a former player of mine who was a talented guard. He could run, jump, handle the ball, and was tall for his position, but he couldn’t shoot it very well at all. He had offers from two Division-I schools who had both won five or fewer games each of the past few seasons, and he had offers from two Division-II schools who were regularly in the Top-10 in the country and whose coaches had connections to professional players, coaches, and agents.
When it came down to him selecting a school, this prospect told me that he was a Division-I player, and I suggested he was correct because he did possess two Division-I offers…no argument there. But what I proposed to him was to consider this: if you attend School-X who each season is 4-26, doesn’t compete for a conference title (might not even make the conference tournament), isn’t playing in any national tournaments, whose coaches don’t have any/many professional connections, and who draws no professional scouts (NBA, Europe, or otherwise) to games, will you be okay with it if your basketball career ends at 22-years old?
Then I asked him how he would feel if he attended School-Y, played for a conference and possibly a national title each year, had scouts at his games who the head coach knew because they were successful, and then had an opportunity to play into his late 20s or early 30s and earn a paycheck playing basketball professionally, how would that feel. He said he liked the sound of that a lot better…but School-Y was one of the Division-II options.
Long story short, he ended up attending School-Y, was in the national tournament all four years, and ended up playing professionally for a paycheck in Europe for five years while seeing the sights of Italy, Greece, Spain, etc., and has never regretted that decision since. Now, I recognize this is a perfect scenario and was best for him, but it’s also one that has worked out for many players who have gotten beyond the “I’m D1” opinion and considered other options. If he would have still chosen School-X (Division-I option), I would have fully supported him because that’s the decision he thought was best for him at that time. You should always do what you feel is best for yourself, but please genuinely consider all angles of all options first.