How can you prepare your high school players for the pressure they face as they hope to be recruited to play college ball? What skills are most important; should they work on their defensive skills or their quickness, their shooting or their ball handling? Should they focus on their grades or on preparation for standardized college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT? A recent study conducted by Kimbrough and Copeland attempted to answer these questions. Specifically, they sought to find out what qualities were of the most and least importance to collegiate coaches as they looked at potential recruits.

Copeland and Kimbrough surveyed 197 current collegiate coaches and asked them to rank the importance of 24 characteristics grouped into 4 categories.

The participants included the following:

The general question the coaches were asked was “what characteristics are you seeking when you recruit high school basketball players for your program?”  The coaches completed an online survey that included demographic information as well as an opportunity to rank the following six groups of characteristics on a 1-4 scale, with “1” being “very important” and “4” being “least important.”  The following tables represent the results, with the percentages representing how many of the coaches ranked each characteristic on the 1-4 scale.

Technical Skills

Worth mentioning is the fact that 73% of all coaches ranked shooting as most important, while 44% of coaches ranked passing as least important of these 4 abilities.

Skill-related Fitness Abilities

Almost half of all coaches cited quickness as being most important, while half considered jumping ability to be the less important than defense, speed, and quickness.

Size and Intensity

Everyone has seen the player that is just 6’ and runs the court like his own personal playground.  Coaches agree that competitiveness is more important than height, weight, and aggressiveness, and weight is least important of these four traits.  Keep in mind that many college players gain significant amounts of weight during college due to maturity and strength training.

Intangibles

Somewhat surprising was that 61% of coaches rated performance under pressure as least important.  Interestingly, coaches were certainly not united in their opinions about the important of these four traits.

Cognitive Abilities

Many coaches are more interested in self-discipline than they are measured academic performance.  Note that while SAT/ACT scores can be a stumbling block for many individuals (athletes and non-athletes) seeking college admission, 43% of coaches indicated that those scores were of less importance that GPA, common sense, and self-discipline.

Experience and Demographics

Coaches made it clear that the level of competition faced in high school and the size of the school the player attended are more important than the race or household makeup of the athlete. 

We hope this information is helpful to coaches and players alike, and we welcome comments and questions regarding this research. 

About the Authors:

Dr. Sandy Kimbrough is the assistant department head of Health and Human Performance at Texas A&M University Commerce.  Jamon Copeland is an assistant men’s basketball coach at Texas State University and completed this project during his graduate coursework.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Dr. Sandy Kimbrough
Texas A&M University-Commerce, Department of Health and Human Performance

PO Box 3011, Commerce, TX 75429

903-886-5555, Sandy_kimbrough@tamu-commerce.edu

Jamon Copeland

Texas State University

jc73@txstate.edu