Recruiting proves to be a game in itself

It’s one of the most important aspects of collegiate sports on all levels: recruiting. Teams can have the best coaches, training staffs and playbooks, but let’s face it, you need (at least) decent talent to work with. Even Dean Smith would be hard pressed to win a game with the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (they finished an NBA-record worst 9-73 that year). Thus, bringing in solid players year after year is a must, unless you don’t care about winning.

I’ll admit it, I follow recruiting for Division I men’s basketball (and to a lesser degree football) pretty religiously. A bad season can turn around in a second if you’re school lands a couple highly-ranked prospects. Suddenly, as a fan, there is reason for hope. Because I have an Insider account on ESPN.com, I can follow D-I recruiting on a daily basis in their recruiting section. ESPN ranks the top 150 prospects and gives detailed scouting reports on them, as well as following each D-I team’s individual progress.

Sad to say that there is not something like that for Division III athletics. The closest I could find is (not surprisingly) on d3hoops.com’s Daily Dose. I suppose it shouldn’t come as a total surprise that there isn’t coverage like D-I sports because there is one enormous difference: Division I gives has binding commitments and scholarships, while Division III is prohibited from having them. Still, the recruiting goes on just the same as it does at the higher levels. Maybe one day we will see a site dedicated to Division III recruiting. It would have a permanent place on my internet bookmarks.

A quick bracket update

I’m three for six collectively through Thursday night in the men’s and women’s tournaments. I correctly tabbed Keene State and John Carroll to win on the men’s side, and Chapman on the women’s side. I incorrectly pegged Loras, Augustana and King’s as winners in my men’s bracket. The one that really got me was the Augustana game. They were ranked seventh in the nation, but still lost to 16-8 Carroll. Props to the underdog Vikings for the victory. Props to me for having them lose to St. Thomas in the second round anway, therefore keeping my bracket somewhat intact.