The ONE Question Every Basketball Recruit will be Asked (and how to Answer)
-Submitted by NCSA, Official Recruiting Partner of Five-Star Basketball

There is one question that every serious basketball prospect will hear from college coaches at some point during the recruiting process:

Which other college coaches are recruiting you?

How should you respond? Be Honest!

Here are a few specific questions that college coaches will ask and the appropriate way to respond:

- What other colleges are recruiting you?

How you should respond: Be honest and list the colleges that are comparable to, rivals with, or better than the colleges that are visiting you.

- What colleges will you visit?

How you should respond: Be honest and name any colleges you have visited officially or unofficially. If this is the first college you have visited, state that you are in the process of scheduling the rest of your visits.

- Has anyone offered you a scholarship?

How you should respond: If you have been offered a scholarship you should tell the coach about it. If you have visits scheduled but have yet to receive a scholarship offer, state that you are in the process of taking your visits and you plan to discuss scholarships with those coaches when you meet with them. If no official visits are set, tell the coach you are in the process of setting up your official visits and name the colleges you are talking to.

Here is the secret: You want to have as many options as possible when a college coach asks you these questions. Why? Leverage!

Leverage is defined as positional advantage; power to act effectively

Let’s analyze the following conversation between a college coach and two different recruits of similar athletic and academic ability to fully understand why leverage can help you find the right college fit:

College Coach: “How many other college coaches are recruiting you?”

Recruit A: “I have gotten a few letters, but you are the first coach I have spoken to personally.”

Recruit B: “I have heard from more than 50 college coaches. Aside from hand written letters, I have talked to about 10 of those coaches on the phone, visited 5 and several have indicated a strong possibility of a scholarship. In fact, two of the schools that have expressed serious interest are in your conference.”

Which recruit has a better positional advantage and the power to act effectively (leverage)? Which recruit might have more ability to negotiate a better financial situation? Obviously the answer is Recruit B.

Recruit B simply has more options than Recruit A. When a recruit lacks options, the college coach has all the leverage in the process because they do not feel any pressure to increase or expedite their pursuit of that athlete. They have no competition to do so.

On the flip side, when a recruit has involved dozens of college basketball coaches in their process, their name immediately has more value and competition. Taking it a step further, what if the schools contending for an athlete’s commitment are rivals? If the coach at Duke heard that a recruit they had been pursuing recently received an offer from UNC, what do think might happen next? Most likely they will step up their efforts to land the recruit…and probably offer a scholarship.

Recruits who start the process early, put in the recruiting work by connecting with 50-100 schools and leverage those efforts will have a better chance of finding the right school…as opposed to settling for the only school willing to offer.

Which recruit do you relate to more, A or B? If the answer is A, you have a lot of work to do.

In order to start connecting with college coaches and build your free recruiting profile, visit www.ncsasports.org or call 866-579-6272