drillmindhoops

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Many players today think that if they are good enough “college coaches will find them,” which is true to some extent. However there are definitely hundreds of players who could be good enough to play college basketball but they simply just won’t. Whether it be playing for the wrong team, lack of effort or simply 0 initiative, there are many reasons talented players don’t end up on a college basketball roster. So read through this page to understand the best ways to get recruited as a basketball player.

Putting Yourself Out There: In order to play college basketball you need college coaches to see you, so how do you do this? First things first, you need to be playing on the right team, there are plenty of players who are the best player on their AAU teams but the issue is that their team doesn’t play in any big enough tournaments for coaches to be present. This leads to talented players wasting away at lower levels than they need to be and even more importantly, they don’t get much better skill wise. Now you can think of the other end of this spectrum, a player who is pretty good, but plays on a stacked AAU team full of other great players, so he/she struggles to get minutes or meaningful ones at that which leads to little exposure (see page on how to get more minutes.) The best thing a player can do for themselves in this situation is find some sort of middle ground, a team where they maybe aren’t the best player but are still playing in some bigger tournaments, and I mean actually PLAYING. So when a player has found the right team how do they get out to college coaches outside of just in person? We live in an age of the internet and scrolling and all these social media apps, players need to be using these to their advantage, they should have an X and Instagram account especially where they post highlight tapes, practice clips, etc. Other social media apps can be used as well, but collegiate coaches tend to be most active on those two apps. Make sure you have a bio that includes important things coaches need to know, like your height, weight, position, class of graduation, school, club team and some means of contacting you like an email or phone number both is best. Finally make sure you are ACTIVE on these accounts, follow coaches, post game tape, practice clips, workout clips, the more quality things you post the more likely it is for a coach to see you. Also follow accounts that assist with recruiting like people who post “players drop your game tapes below” and comment on these posts, because coaches DO follow these people. Last little tip is participate in the DRILLMINDHOOPS CHALLENGES to get your name in front of coaches with all your important info.

Playing the right way to get recruited in an actual game: In order to play college basketball you have to be able to score the ball in most cases, but unless your a top level recruit, scoring alone won’t get you there. You need to do the little things that truly aren’t little in the eyes of coaches, especially the things that don’t take any skill, like your effort. Go 100 percent in everything you do on that court, nobody should be playing harder than you. Second thing is your attitude, especially after mistakes, no coach wants to see you with your head down or saying something bad to yourself after a shot. The best players have a next play mentality and don’t forget their mistakes, but they don’t dwell on them. The next thing is talking on defense, which you can always control, if you’re in help, yell out you got help. If you’re guarding the ball or closing out yell that out to your teammates, a lot of players don’t talk on defense and a college coach would much rather have a team full of talkers than have to teach it. Next you have to do the other little things that do take skill, like taking charges, making the right cuts, playing better on ball defense, getting steals, swatting shots, getting a ton of rebounds, whatever it may be at your position. Now you can’t just DO these things they are a SKILL just like anything else, many people say that defense is entirely effort which is just false, all the best defenders in the world work on defensive specific drills, and the same thing applies for rebounding, steals, blocks and all the other things. Another thing: Play YOUR position, don’t try and do something you can’t or aren’t comfortable doing, and don’t do too much in hopes of impressing someone, if you’re a point guard be more pass first which is not the same as passive, if you’re a shooting guard knock down shots, find a mold and fit into it, unless you’re a top level recruit again, you need to be good at everything but elite at one thing. Finally don’t argue with refs and be coachable, arguing with a referee is one of the most illogical things you can do in a basketball game, there are no challenges, and they aren’t changing their call, never have, never will. Then there’s being coachable, if your high school coach has a hard time coaching you because either you’re unfocused or don’t listen, what makes you think a collegiate one will put up with it?

Taking Care of Business Training/In The Classroom: If you really want to play in college, you have to improve your craft every single day, there are no off days, recovery days yes, off days no. The best way to get better training is the same formula for each skill, if you’re struggling shooting off the dribble, take shots off the dribble until you can consistently hit a certain percentage, then make the drill/workout more difficult. Similar to progressive overload in weight lifting. Then you have ball handling, warmup with things you can do, and then for the meat of your workout switch to a drill where you lose the ball OFTEN until it becomes second nature, this is how you can see visual improvement in your skills. Don’t know what drills to do? You’re in the right place go check out any of the other sections on this site with shooting, dribbling, finishing, defense, rebounding, and partner drills. Next part of this is taking care of business in the classroom, not only do higher grades and a higher GPA increase your likelihood of going to different colleges, they show that you are able to work hard and handle difficult things. If you cannot handle highschool and earn higher than Bs in all of your classes why would a college coach trust you to be able to handle a full practice, lift, film, and game schedule, ALONG with your classes in college? So truly apply yourself in the classroom and acquire the best GPA that you are physically capable of to show that you can handle hard work. I promise it will help you in the end.

Got more basketball questions about improving that aren’t on these pages? Email drillmindhoops@gmail.com your question and I will personally get that page out AS SOON as I can.