Dallas, TX - Wilkes-Barre, PA - Smiltene, Latvia - Glen Cove, NY - Fond du Lac, WI - Madrid, Spain - Livonia, MI - Medford, MA - Arlington Heights, IL - Huntington Beach, CA - Columbus, OH - Columbia, SC - Georgetown, IN - Ann Arbor, MI

This is a list of where scholarship men's basketball players hail from. Notice anything? Not a single player from in state. 11 different states, 2 foreign countries, and no Virginia. I'm all for getting William & Mary men from no matter where they come from. It just seems odd that we aren't locking down kids in our own backyard.
I think much of this is due to where our assistants come from and the contacts that they have. Not much in the way of VA roots on the staff.

You are correct about the coaches and their roots. I think if you dig even deeper we recruit a lot out of private schools or academies (especially the Euro kids). You are going to find kids with a chance to do okay in the classroom. In my mind it isn't that easy to recruit a kid and the first thing you need to tell them is that the academics are brutal. On the flip side, we've probably put out more doctors and lawyers than most colleges.

I would love to get kids from Tidewater and Richmond. NOVA doesn't get you as much talent per person as you want to think, but DC and PG county do.

UR has 3 players from Virginia, including some kid named Nick Sherod.

JMU has 7. Wow.

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I chatted with an area baseball coach the other day, and they are baffled that they can't get W&M interested in their best players. It's very strange.

According to the RTD, W&M signed all of two players, combined, by all our teams, out of the Richmond area, on National Signing Day. You would think that would be easy work to keep an eye on the Richmond Metro area.

(11-14-2020 09:42 PM)billymac Wrote:  According to the RTD, W&M signed all of two players, combined, by all our teams, out of the Richmond area, on National Signing Day. You would think that would be easy work to keep an eye on the Richmond Metro area.

This is baffling. Top flight education 45 minutes from home seems like a fantastic opportunity. We need to do better.

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Women's basketball just signed an all-state player from Hampton.

(11-14-2020 11:43 PM)Tribal Wrote:  

(11-14-2020 09:42 PM)billymac Wrote:  According to the RTD, W&M signed all of two players, combined, by all our teams, out of the Richmond area, on National Signing Day. You would think that would be easy work to keep an eye on the Richmond Metro area.

This is baffling. Top flight education 45 minutes from home seems like a fantastic opportunity. We need to do better.

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Signing lots of out of state kids is not a bad thing. It promotes understanding of the value of W&M's unique education to areas of the country that might not be familiar with us.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Just from a logistics and budgeting point of view, it is a lot more demanding. Recruiting in state is less expensive & convenient for the coaches and the actual scholarship would cost the school less.

(11-16-2020 11:14 AM)TribeFan1983 Wrote:  

(11-14-2020 11:43 PM)Tribal Wrote:  

(11-14-2020 09:42 PM)billymac Wrote:  According to the RTD, W&M signed all of two players, combined, by all our teams, out of the Richmond area, on National Signing Day. You would think that would be easy work to keep an eye on the Richmond Metro area.

This is baffling. Top flight education 45 minutes from home seems like a fantastic opportunity. We need to do better.

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Signing lots of out of state kids is not a bad thing. It promotes understanding of the value of W&M's unique education to areas of the country that might not be familiar with us.

I agree with that, but I would also like to see families and friends at our sporting events. If you've ever seen the tailgating from the football families you will get what I mean. These are mostly players within a three hour drive. If we could get more Tidewater and Richmond kids for hoops I think we could start building a fan base that would drive to our games to see good basketball with ties to their local communities.

Out of state recruits can be great. In-state recruits can be great, and practical as well. Balance is wonderful thing.

Current roster 54 VA FB athletes