Top rising juniors have a long night ahead as NCAA rules permit coaches to engage recruits on June 15.
From intense daily training sessions to studying game film to traveling all over the country competing in showcases and tournaments on a weekly basis, Tre Johnson's schedule doesn't allow napping.
“That’s just not something I have a lot of time for,” Johnson says. “I’m always working; especially now that school’s out.”
That said, he’s planning to take a pause today for an afternoon doze off in preparation for what will likely be a circus of an early morning once the clock strikes midnight.
NCAA rules permit college basketball coaches to make unlimited calls and texts to recruits on June 15 after their sophomore year, which means top prospects like Johnson will need to keep a full charge on their cellphones as coaches reach out in hopes of making lasting impressions.
“I’m gonna get relaxed and take a nice [little] nap to be ready,” says Johnson, a 6-foot-4 combo guard from Lake Highlands (Dallas). “I can’t wait for the experience because it’s something all of the guys in my class have known was coming for a while now. It’s pretty crazy that it’s here now.”
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It’s a sentiment shared by most of the top-tier players in the class who’ve had the date circled on their calendars for the better part of the last year. The NCAA has the rule in place to create a phased-in recruiting approach and curb early recruiting.
In 2012, as social media grew in popularity, the NCAA changed its rules to allow coaches to send unlimited text messages, direct messages on social media channels and make unlimited calls to recruits entering their junior season.
The old rule only allowed for one phone call a week and the abuse of that rule was the main reason current Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson was fired as Indiana's head coach in 2008.
“This is the day we’ve all waited for because most of us have heard about it from the older guys,” says Isaiah Elohim, a point guard at Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.). “All of them talk about how cool it is to be able to hear from the coaches directly for a change. Even though you talk through your coach, it’s like you’re finally getting the chance to start a relationship with different coaches.”
And therein lies the goal, according to Pittsburgh coach Jeff Capel.
Per NCAA rules, coaches can’t speak on prospective recruits until they’ve signed at one of the two periods during their senior year; still Capel said June 15 serves as the foundation for what coaches hope will progress into a deep bond.
“It’s exciting to be able to have a chance to build a relationship,” Capel says. “Now we can call a kid and tell him we want to get him on campus, we can text him and follow up and all of that. This is really where the relationship grows. This is where we cut out the middleman. This is always a really fun day for us too.”
As a consensus top 10 player in the class, Elohim has already built a who’s who list of college hoops heavyweights like Gonzaga, Kentucky, Baylor and Kansas, among many others; his excitement is rooted in the belief that the consistent communication will organically make his ultimate decision clearer.
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“Being able to talk to the coaches more and more will show me who I’m really clicking with,” Elohim says. “You can just get a lot from talking to someone regularly and I’ll be able to see what they’re all about. I’m just going to have fun with it and take it all in. I don’t look at it as a make-or-break kind of thing.”
Yes, even if a coach doesn’t reach out right away.
“I wouldn’t hold it against anyone,” Johnson says. “It’s a busy night; I get it.”
For Johnson, Elohim and John Paul (Plano, Texas) wing Liam McNeeley, the stint in the communication free-for-all will be short-lived; on Thursday the trio will head off to Colorado Springs to try out for USA Basketball’s U17 team, which will compete in Europe from July 2-10.
“I’m ready to see how June 15 is gonna go and all that, but I won’t be on my phone much after Thursday,” says McNeeley, who helped USA’s U16 capture gold last summer. “That’s one of the things I’ll probably let the coaches know when we talk. I’ve been told that it’s cool at first, but, after a while, it can beat you down a little. I don’t want it to get to that point, so we’re going to talk to them from the beginning about that.”
Layden Blocker “totally” cosigns McNeeley’s idea for healthy boundaries after experiencing the full-court press over the last year.
He vividly recalled being downright giddy this time last year at the thought of early morning text conversations with countless college coaches but said that just like a hardwood full-court press the cellphone pursuit can be overwhelming at times.
“It’s a stressful process and we’re all just teenagers at the end of the day,” says Blocker, a rising senior point guard at Sunrise Christian Academy (Belair, Kan.). “Right now, it’s gonna be fun because it’s new and you want to see who’s gonna offer you and what they’re gonna say and all that.
“But it can be a distraction too. You just have to remember that it was all the hard work that got you here. You have to balance it out to keep the work as your focus.”
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