Changing The Recruitment Game (Part 1)

Recruitment is everything in college basketball. It’s true all over the globe. Very rarely will you see a poor recruiting team finishing on top at the end of the season. This is why Ateneo has ruled the UAAP in the last five years, and San Beda has dominated the NCAA in six of the last seven seasons. If not for the 2009 defeat to San Sebastian, the Red Lions would have already set a league record seven straight titles by 2012. But the Golden Stags entered 2009 with new recruits Calvin Abueva, Ian Sanggalang and Ronald Pascual, a trio that instantly wreaked havoc across the league in their rookie season to help Baste spoil San Beda’s four-peat aspirations. So again, recruitment did the trick.

This is the reality in modern day college ball.

Almost two decades ago, a film called “Blue Chips” was made to tell the story about college recruitment in basketball in the United States. It starred no less than award-winning actor Nick Nolte, who portrayed a desperate NCAA Division 1 coach named Pete Bell. Bell agreed to cooperate with an alumni booster’s “forbidden” means of recruiting top prospects by offering ridiculous financial perks. Upon signing-up three “blue chips” (two of them portrayed by then Orlando Magic teammates Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway), his team immediately rose from the cellar and even shocked top college team Indiana University of legendary coach Bobby Knight in a featured NCAA game. But after that game, Bell had become so consumed by his guilt that he revealed in the press conference the “dirty” practice his team had engaged in to secure the prospects, and resigned as coach. The two recruits played by O’Neal and Hardaway eventually made it to the NBA. The film was based on a true story. read full story