How To Get Recruited For College Basketball

With the first NCAA live period for men’s and women’s basketball recruiting this weekend, it’s a critical time for high school student athletes who are hoping to play at the collegiate level.

NCAA Live Periods are NCAA sanctioned periods on the calendar for the Spring and Summer when Division 1 and Division 2 coaches can see you play in person. They are some of the best times to be evaluated, recruited, and offered a scholarship outside of the high school season. Division 3 schools can see you play throughout the spring and summer at non-sanctioned events.

Whether you’re a freshman just starting to explore your options, or a senior who’s been actively recruiting for months, there are certain best practices that can help you stand out to college coaches and increase your chances of being recruited.

1. Keep your grades up.

• College coaches are looking for student athletes who are academically prepared and can handle the rigors of college coursework. Keep your grades up and take challenging classes. The better you do in the classroom, the more schools that can potentially recruit you.

2. Speak to a trusted adult, usually your AAU or HS coach about what level you are currently at regarding college recruitment and create a list of college programs.

• It is important to have a targeted focus. Take that list of programs that fit your current profile and gather the email addresses of all the coaches associated with each program.
• You want to create as big a group as possible to give yourself the best chance to be recruited.
• You will send an individual email to each program introducing yourself and you will include what we will talk about below. Expect about 10% response rate if you are not currently on any schools radar.

3. Make sure your AAU program is competing at an NCAA sanctioned event during live weekend.

• Speak to your coach and make sure your AAU team is competing at an NCAA sanctioned event for each LIVE period. If you are not registering with the NCAA prior to competing that weekend and the event is not listed on the NCAA’s website, it is not a LIVE event.
• When registering for an NCAA event, the contact information for whom to contact regarding an athlete’s recruitment is what college coaches will use when reaching out. This can be a parent, trusted adult, or AAU coach usually.

4. Manage your social media presence.

• Your social media is like your business card when it comes to recruiting. It is the first thing that coaches see and when recruiting starts they will start following you. Your social media accounts can be a reflection of who you are as a person and as an athlete.
• Make sure to keep your accounts professional and appropriate. Avoid posting controversial or offensive content, and be mindful of how your posts could be perceived by college coaches.
• Use this to post your highlights and stats from recent events, as well as your schedule for upcoming events so college coaches know where they can watch you.
• Clippers guard Jason Preston famously had 0 scholarship offers or interest and was about to quit basketball until he posted a highlight reel on Twitter that earned him 2 scholarship offers.

4. Send College Coaches your AAU and Camp Schedule.

• College coaches can not evaluate you if they have never seen you play. Send coaches your AAU schedule season and your game schedule over the LIVE weekend. If you are participating in an event that is being live-streamed, provide coaches with links for your team and each of your respective games. So even if they did not see the game in person, they can watch the game replays at their convenience.

5. Create a BallerTV athlete profile.

• Thousands of coaches use BallerTV to track and recruit athletes. By creating a BallerTV athlete profile, you can have all your games and highlights in one place for coaches to watch.
• You can also upload footage from games not live-streamed on BallerTV so all your games are in one place.

6. Lay it all on the court.

• Make sure on the court you play with a high energy on both sides of the ball and have great body language especially when things are not going your way. Apart from your production, coaches care greatly about how you handle corrections from your coaches and interact with your teammates. Be very mindful, someone is always watching.
• Be respectful following games. Many of the people who will first put an athlete on a college coach’s radar are scouts or supporters of programs. They will come and speak to you following games. Whether you win, lose, thought you played well, or horribly, be respectful and commutative with speaking to them. You never know who they will be talking to about you.

7. Create a recruiting highlight reel to send to college coaches.

• A recruiting highlight reel can be a great tool to showcase your skills and abilities to college coaches. Keep it short and highlight your best plays.
• You can create a recruiting highlight reel yourself. Download your best games, (BallerTV is offering a download bundle discount for LIVE weekends) identify your 3 best offensive strengths by clipping a string of highlights for each trait, and then do the same thing for your top 2 strengths on defense.
• If you prefer to not have to make your own, you can have one created by us here at BallerTV if competing at a BallerTV affiliated event.

8. Send College Coaches your best complete game.

• Your highlight reel is a teaser, it reels them in, but a complete game gives them an unbiased assessment of what you do on the basketball court.
• Choose your best game against strong competition. It does not help to have a great game against competition whose players could not compete at the level you want to be recruited at.
• BallerTV is offering a special on game downloads only for LIVE weekend at BallerTV affiliated events.

9. Include the following in your email to college coaches apart from above

• Be proactive: Don’t wait for college coaches to contact you. Reach out to them via email or social media, and express your interest in their program.
• Introduce yourself. Include your name, address, cell phone number, AAU program, AAU jersey number, High-school, High-school jersey number, position, height, weight, strengths on the court, interest in the school, and grades/standardized test scorers. Talk about your interest in the school and what you can bring to the program. Make sure to include your recruiting video.
• If you have an adult who will be helping you with your recruiting process, introduce them and talk about your relationship. They should be CC’d in each email. This can be a parent, coach, or trusted adult.
• List your social media handles like Twitter and Instagram. A lot of communication with coaches when they are actively recruiting you will happen through messenger on social media, so regularly check it.
• Make sure you reply promptly and show appreciation when college coaches reach out regardless of the level of the coach. Coaching is a small fraternity and coaches all talk. That Division 3 coach that you never responded to might be sitting on a Division 1 bench that next season so make sure coaches have positive experiences communicating with you.

10. Be patient and enjoy the process.

• The recruiting process can be long and unpredictable. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t hear back from colleges right away. Keep working hard, improving your skills, and reaching out to coaches.
• The recruiting process can be stressful, but it’s also an exciting time. Enjoy the opportunity to play the sport you love and pursue your dreams of playing in college.

Boys Basketball Live Periods

April 21- 23
April 28–30
June 16–18 scholastic
June 23–25 scholastic
July 6–9
July 15–16
July 25–30 NCAA College Basketball Academy

Girls Basketball Live Periods

April 21–23
May 19–21
June 15–17 scholastic
July 7–10
July 21–24