Hotdog & Friends

Fig Jam

News broke yesterday that the University of Washington Basketball program had received its first commit in the 2009 recruiting class.   The commit is C.J. Wilcox, a 6′5″ guard out of Pleasant Grove, Utah.  The reaction to this signing has been intriguing. 

Many UW followers seem mystified by the fact that UW had offered Mr. Wilcox a scholarship, based largely on the fact that Wilcox is somewhat of an unknown.  In today’s information age, talent is identified early, followed extensively, and covered exhaustingly until they make their choice of college known to the world.  Especially in basketball with the AAU circuit and other traveling select teams, there is hardly a Division I prospect playing in the United States that doesn’t have some ink dedicated to his name somewhere.

To be sure, Wilcox is not a complete unknown.  He is more aptly described as “under the radar” of major college basketball coverage at the moment.  Wilcox has not played a lot of AAU basketball and apparently his father has made a point of keeping out of the spotlight, preferring to have his son play and work out in a more private setting.  Wilcox has garnered some scholarship offers from Division I programs such as Utah, Florida State, Miami, etc., but again, in todays world of information saturation, he has been covered much less than some of his peers.

This seems very unsettling to those following UW basketball.  The pervading thought being that if Wilcox was worthy of a scholarship to a relatively high profile school such as Washington, that there would be pages of information compiled on him by now (he is, after all, probably 17 years old.  Who hasn’t had a book written about their extensive life experiences by the time they were 17). 

I find this interesting.  I assume that the UW coaching staff devotes a fair amount of time to talent evaluation.  UW assistant coach Jim Shaw reportedly ”discovered” Wilcox at one of the few AAU tournaments that he has played in, and UW began recruiting him heavily shortly thereafter.  They obviously like something about this kid.  15 years ago, before the age of the ”Scout” and “Rivals” recruiting sites, a signing of  a kid like Wilcox would be subjected to much less scrutiny.  In fact, because Wilcox is from Utah the signing would probably have been hailed as proof that the coaching staff can go out and find great talent outside the state.      

The UW fanbase is unsure if Wilcox, however.  This seems to be for 2 reasons.  First - they don’t know that much about Wilcox and are wary about that.  Second - they do know a lot about recruits Abdul Gaddy and Avery Bradley and are clamoring at the prospect of signing both of the Bellermine Prep players.  I wonder if these opinions are derived from having carefully studied the stats, style of play, and potential of each of the three players, or if it is because they have heard so much more about Gaddy and Bradley that it is naturally assumed they are vastly superior to Wilcox.  

I’m not sure.  They may be better.  They may also be enjoying the benefits of the extra coverage that they have garnered.  Wilcox has apparently been kept under the radar intentionally and thus has probably missed some opportunity to garner attention.  I wonder what Wilcox’s rivals and scout ranking would be if he was more involved in AAU.  The reports that are available all seem to indicate that he is an elite player.  There just aren’t that many reports.

Ultimately, what is interesting to me about this situation is the power that the recruiting services have over the fanbases of major college sports.  Recruiting classes are analyzed and re-analyzed and over-analyzed every year.  Success and failure is determined by the number of 3, 4, and 5 “star” recruits a school can rack up.  If a lowly 2 star recruit is signed, questions are asked, skepticism expressed.  Whereas any 4 or 5 star signing is immediately hailed, even if nobody has ever watched the kid play in person.  The recruiting services know best (or at least better than anyone else).  Now, I believe that the recruiting services probably do have a handle on talent evaluation to some degree, but I also think they are largely influenced by those players who put themselves in the spotlight the most. 

In any event, I’m excited about Wilcox.  He’s 6′5″, athletic, and a apparently a good shooter.  I think a kid like that has a good chance to succeed at the D1 level. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 11:39 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.