UNC Basketball Recruiting: No Need to Rush Any Offers
By Matt Hamm
I have to admit this column is a bit hypocritical. I have grown impatient on several occasions either waiting on a prospect to just make up his mind. Or waiting for the Tar Heels to make an offer I have deemed in my head as necessary. The more I study recruiting, the more I look at historical trends, my mind has completely flipped. For the time being at least.
The off season has given me a lot of time to assess the recruiting style the Tar Heels employ. Roy Williams and his coaching staff are keeping the prestige alive. An offer from the North Carolina Tar Heels means something. That doesn’t always mean your a top ten player or even a potential superstar. It means you fit the Carolina way and one of the best coaching staffs in the world believe you will fit in well in Chapel Hill.
Almost without fail, each recruiting season, something happens that sets off the fan base. This happens at a few other places, but almost always with Carolina. This year that something is the Troy Williams/UNCs lack of a perimeter commitment in the 2013 class saga. In case you were in hibernation, Williams, a five star prospect, had an announcement date. He was down to two schools, Kentucky and Carolina, and now all that has changed. He’s adding schools and will let the world know sometime after AAU season.
Fellow perimeter prospects Nick King and Keith Frazier have received some attention for the UNC coaching staff. But still have no offer on the table. Some in Tar Heel Nation are to the point that they want the Heels to move on from even pursuing Williams and offer King, Frazier or both.
I agree that both Frazier and King would be excellent fits in Carolina. I also believe Roy is doing exactly the right thing by holding onto some offers, especially to perimeter players. Aside from keeping a UNC offer prestigious by avoiding just handing them out like candy on Halloween. Many other benefits come from this strategy.
The prospects with current offers from UNC feel more exclusive. Don’t discount how much emotion and feelings go into the recruiting process. Players want to feel loved. Julius Randle, Jabari Parker, Noah Vonleh and others may not all end up choosing Carolina, how many players have you heard say they chose a particular school because of the commitment the coaching staff showed to them. If you want a commitment, zero in on the ones you need and the superstars you know you have to push hard for early.
It keeps players “on the hook”. Think about Chris Pauls recent comments about his recruiting process. A lifetime UNC fan, Paul was hurt he wasn’t given an offer until his senior year. He waited until he did, he wanted one all along after all. But after he received it, he committed to Wake Forest the same day. That may seem like a counterpoint to my whole argument. Judging by Roy’s track record, I’d say there are many more players who waited for, and took UNCs offer than there are cases like Chris Paul.
Bad apples don’t get a chance to spoil the Tar Heel bunch. Roy takes his time, he gets to know prospects before he makes them an offer. Recruiting is a chess match, a marathon, not a race, year in and year out, Roy has UNC amongst the elite recruiting classes in the nation. He is concerned about building a team that will work well with one another and represent the Carolina way on and off the court. All good things in life are worth the wait, even if it does make us crazy waiting around sometimes.