In college basketball, legacies are made in March and championships are won in April, but the foundations for both are built in July.
July is the most important month of the year in basketball recruiting. Sure, there’s an early signing period in the fall and a late signing period in the spring when pen is put to paper and commitments become official. But the groundwork for most of those signings is laid in July, when a trio of live evaluation periods (July 10-14, July 17-21 and July 24-28 for 2013) and dozens of elite events have prospects and college coaches criss-crossing the country in a crazy month of hoops.
With that in mind, here are the top 10 things you need know this July on the basketball recruiting trail.
1. July is here -- and why you should care
July is a weird month. For those involved in the fraternity that is college basketball recruiting, the players, coaches and media kiss their families goodbye and set forth to all corners of the country to either demonstrate their talents or search for the next wave of college prospects. Think of July like you would the first three days of a golf major. It’s the time when teams and players alike position themselves for a stretch run in the fall that culminates with official visits and official signings.
Simply put, July sets the table for seasons to come in college hoops. Recruiters will lock in on the priority targets for their teams, the players who will become future favorites of their fan bases. In some cases, the head coach will watch every single game of a handful of the most important prospects on his wish list. Simultaneously, those same players will scan the gym, intently looking to see which coaches are watching them. It’s a delicate dance orchestrated with a basketball game in the backdrop.
It sounds fun, but the reality is that the futures of programs and individual players are tied to the rigors of July. Prospects don’t arrive on campuses without hard work by coaching staffs, and coaching staffs don’t get the best players unless they can set their final priorities.
2. Package deal under the microscope
Most package deals never pan out. But the big rumored 2014 package deal includes as many as three All-Americans and could have legs. Top-ranked overall prospect Jahlil Okafor, No. 1 point guard Tyus Jones and top-20 wing player Justise Winslow, who forged their relationship through USA Basketball, have expressed great interest in playing together in college. Okafor and Jones are the most likely to pair up, with Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, Baylor, Kentucky and Ohio State as stalwarts for the duo. A lot can happen, but this is possibly the biggest recruiting story of the past few years.
3. The three most important places to play well in July
1. LeBron James Skills Academy (July 6-8): The reigning best player on the planet hosts 80 of the finest high school prospects in the country, most of them handpicked from Nike-based travel teams. At an event of this nature, you are treated to elite positional matchups. Whether you’re a top-10 or top-100 recruit, a good showing here can make you part of summer lore. Last year, Wes Clark (who eventually signed with Missouri) went from likely mid-level signee to coveted national-level point guard in just a few days.
2. Nike Peach Jam (July 10-14): The Peach Jam, held in North Augusta, S.C., doubles as the Nike EYBL finals, the culmination of the EYBL’s powerful, four-session regular season gauntlet. This one is special because teams earned their way here, and 17 of the nation’s top 25 rising seniors ran with Nike clubs in the spring. Ask anyone who’s been there and they’ll tell you this is the most hotly contested event of the summer. This is July’s most coveted event.
3. Las Vegas events (July 24-28): Sin City is part of grassroots basketball lore, and the stories this place has generated over the years are bottomless. There was the domination of Carmelo Anthony, the undefeated run of Kevin Love and Brandon Jennings, Marvin Williams taking on Dwight Howard and the powerful Atlanta Celtics, O.J. Mayo vs. Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon -- and that’s just a sampling. There are three tournaments -- adidas Super 64, Las Vegas Fab 48 and the Las Vegas Classic -- running concurrently and spread out over the landscape of Nevada’s desert.
4. There are three kinds of prospects in July
1. The top target: This is the player (or players) a program simply must have. Frankly, the college coach doesn’t care one bit how the prospect plays in July because he’s done the homework and this is the recruit he desperately wants.
2. The backup: Most of the time, the backup target has no idea he’s not the primary target. He may take it for granted that the school wants him and doesn’t realize he’s still being evaluated and is capable of fluctuating up and down a program’s hit list.
3. The guy who eliminates himself: Most of these players were at one time on the backup list, but for whatever reason they just aren’t good enough to move on. All it takes is the head coach, who is in evaluation mode, to see you have an off night or a subpar event and you’re toast. These are the players being watched those few final times before they are removed from scholarship consideration. Players in this category usually figure it out by mid-August when their phone doesn’t ring from their top choices.
5. July is the ultimate month for risers
The cool part about July is that a player can go on a one- or two-game tear and all of a sudden his stock is white hot. In some cases, it’s warranted; in others, it can be fool’s gold. Whether it lasts a week or a lifetime, there’s nothing more exciting than a player catching fire this month. Believe me, news spreads quickly and the most plugged-in assistants are ready to pounce. Some players experience the bump because their spring work stands out, or maybe it’s a recruit in a back gym in Las Vegas who strokes eight 3-pointers. Whatever the case, things can escalate quickly with a couple good showings in July.
6. The evolution of Myles Turner
In the summer of 2010, we had the blink-of-the-eye rise of Anthony Davis to the No. 1 spot in the 2011 class. Though Myles Turner isn’t rising that fast, nor has he entered the sacred sphere of Davis’ blowup, he is without question mowing down elite prospects one by one. His ascension from outside the ESPN 100 into the top 10 was incredible, and now he’s closing in on the top five with a flurry of top-notch outings. The 6-foot-11 late bloomer could draw the biggest crowds on the first day of the evaluation period. Most of the head coaches who offered in May have not even seen him in person yet. They offered a ghost based on word of mouth and now need to see for themselves what he’s all about.
7. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with
What we know about the Class of 2014 is that it’s rock solid through the top 25 and contains a smattering of very good point guards. However, when it comes to power forwards, things aren’t so rosy. Everybody on the circuit will scan rosters in search of that gem hiding on a roster waiting to be found. The reality is that we’re not likely to uncover more than a handful of those guys in the coming weeks. Yes, a select few will emerge. But the smart recruiting play is to accept the warts of the guy you’re recruiting right now and figure out a way to coach him to get better over time.
8. Keep an eye on underclassman tussles at the top
As much as we love the seniors, July is also a time for the young bucks of high school basketball to prove their points and try to steal the spotlight from the older guys. Last year, for example, Class of 2015 stars Ivan Rabb and Diamond Stone stole the show at the LeBron camp, while 2014 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay used July to make his push into the top handful of players in his class. In my opinion, the best prospect in high school basketball is 2016 forward Harry Giles, but he’s injured and will miss the summer. The leaves the window cracked for another underclassman to step up. Maybe it’ll be 2015 guard Malik Newman or possibly even Rabb again. Two other names to watch include a pair of top-10 prospects in 2015 who were born outside the United States: Skal Labissiere from Haiti and Ben Simmons from Australia.
9. What will Kentucky do?
One of the biggest spectacles of July is tracking where John Calipari is and who he’s watching. His Kentucky Wildcats are the shark that sits atop the recruiting food chain. UK intends to eat in July, and it’s just a matter of time before the Wildcats begin their annual gobbling up of big-time talent. Currently, North Carolina is renting UK's space at the top of the class rankings for 2014. Can Kentucky retake its spot as college basketball's No. 1 tenant in the recruiting rankings? July will go a long way to determining that.
10. Big names are very much available
We’ll end on this. A scan of the nation’s top 25 rising seniors in the ESPN 100 reveals that 15 of them are uncommitted, including seven of the top 10. Translation: There’s a slew of talent still on the board that will go a long way toward shaping the landscape of college basketball for the coming seasons. Why is July important, you ask? Because it plays a huge role in setting the table for March.