Final Four trip has changed recruiting for South Carolina
South Carolina’s first trip to the men’s NCAA basketball Final Four has resulted in a different world on the recruiting front for coach Frank Martin.
“Any time you have an opportunity to play on that platform, it opens up doors,” Martin said Monday on a conference call of Southeastern Conference basketball coaches. “It has more people speaking about you and validates that you can win at South Carolina, but it doesn’t necessarily make recruiting easier. What I’ve tried to explain to people is that our recruiting pool got bigger, but we still have to do our due diligence and find the right guys.”
The Gamecocks have five signees in their 2017 class, with four of those five having inked late last year. Their class has been ranked No. 69 nationally by 247Sports.com.
South Carolina does not have any commitments for 2018, so the magical run through March Madness as the seventh seed in the East Region has yet to translate on the dotted line, but Martin believes things already are very different.
“We don’t want to take players because of our success this past year if they’re talented but don’t fit here,” he said. “It’s not going to work, but the pool that we’re recruiting from just got bigger. We have more opportunities to meet with more people and get in deeper conversations with more young men.”
The SEC had four players selected in last week’s NBA draft, with De’Aaron Fox (No. 5 to Sacramento), Malik Monk (No. 11 to Charlotte) and Bam Adebayo (No. 14 to Miami) adding to Kentucky’s lottery haul under coach John Calipari. The only other league player chosen was South Carolina guard Sindarius Thornwell, who went No. 48 to the Los Angeles Clippers.
It was not the most balanced display of draft picks from one league, but Vanderbilt second-year coach Bryce Drew believes the SEC can capitalize on Kentucky’s influence.
“We have the second-most draft picks of any BCS league out there over the last five years,” Drew said. “Obviously Kentucky has done a great job of getting guys into the NBA, but if you’re a player and you’re deciding where to go to school, why would you not want to go where you could play against three top-14 picks two or three times during that season?”
The Atlantic Coast Conference is moving to a 20-game league schedule in 2019, and Michigan State coach Tom Izzo told ESPN earlier this month that he could see the Big Ten doing the same.
Would the SEC, which went from 16 league games to 18 in 2013, consider another jump?
“I don’t want to speak out of place, but I believe the reason for those conferences doing what they’re doing is because of their networks and a certain commitment to make them work,” Martin said. “I know ours is in place, and it’s good the way it is. I’m not a fan of 20 league games.
“If we’re going to separate Power Five schools from the NCAA tournament and have our own tournament, then that’s fine, but if we’re going to be against the way everyone else around the country does it, we’re just going to beat each other up and not give ourselves opportunities that other people are giving themselves.”
Kentucky coattails
Content with 18
SEC quotable
Florida coach Mike White on what the raise and extension he received earlier this month means to him: “It means that I can continue sending my kids to the school I’m sending them to.” … Georgia’s Mark Fox on Yante Maten’s return for his senior season after testing the NBA waters: “Quite honestly, he wasn’t healthy enough to work out until mid-May, and that probably prohibited him from staying in the draft. He’s a great kid who looked at the whole thing maturely, and having him come back gives us a centerpiece to build around and plan around.” … New LSU and former UTC and VCU coach Will Wade on how the new regime has been received in Louisiana: “We haven’t lost any games yet, so it’s been positive.”