During the July live recruiting period and in the weeks since it ended, much of the discussion among college basketball coaches and other industry sources centered less around the prospects (besides Cooper Flagg and A.J. Dybantsa, at least) and more on the recruiting calendar.
A decade ago, July was the most important month on the recruiting calendar. By the end of those 31 days, if programs didn’t have their recruiting boards set and their scholarship offers out, they were behind the curve. If players didn’t have offers or were in the process of setting visits, they were falling behind.
Now, it’s just another month during which to recruit players.
“I’ve never seen less urgency from coaches,” one head coach told ESPN in July.
Because there are now two live periods in April, two live periods in June plus the NBPA Top 100 Camp at the end of June, college coaches have had a dozen chances to see prospects since the end of the high school basketball season. July no longer features two 10-day periods or three five-day periods, where coaches need to bounce around the country following targets. In fact, many high-level prospects played with their grassroots teams at shoe company events during the first live period, and then shut it down the rest of the month.
The other factor in the lack of urgency from coaches is the transfer portal. Coaches simply don’t know how many scholarships they’re going to have available or how many players they will need or what positions will be a priority a year from now. And on the flip side, missing on a target or two from the 2024 high school class just puts a greater emphasis on grabbing players from the portal in the spring.
More than anything, coaches are worn down from the nonstop recruiting once the season ends. With the transfer portal opening the day after Selection Sunday, teams now spend the next two months chasing transfers — while also going on the road watching high schoolers and trying to work with their teams for next season.
“If you asked me a year ago how long I’d coach, I’d have said [one thing],” one coach said. “If you ask me today, I’m saying [something else].”
“I don’t know many coaches that are happy right now,” another one added.
“I’m burnt out,” a third one said.
CBS Sports reported last month there could be changes coming to the calendar. There are options to move — and shorten — the portal window, while the proposed recruiting calendar the outlet obtained includes zero live periods in April, one in May, one in June and just eight evaluation days in July (as opposed to the 10 this year).
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president for basketball, told ESPN the organization is seeking feedback to ease the strain on coaches.
“We’re monitoring and aware of all the challenges of coaching staffs, from the very day the season ends to the day school starts in August,” he said. “It’s a grind right now. It’s literally every single day. I’m sure there was some head coach that didn’t attend the Academy because they haven’t had a day off in three months.”
