SD's Most Recruited

[mitchell2006]

Even Old Sid has caught on to the Iverson Fever. From today's column in the star:

GopherIllustrated.com reports that the Gophers have offered a basketball scholarship to Scottie Haralson, a 6-3 shooting guard from Jackson, Miss., who is being recruited heavily, as well as to 6-9 Colton Iverson of Yankton, S.D., who as a member of the South Dakota Heat was recently named the MVP in the Hoosier Shootout.

So reading this I thought a good topic discussion would be, Who are the top 5 most recruited BBall players in SD history? Side Question: What SDSU player was the most recruited coming out of high school

I would assume Mike Miller would be number 1, does anybody remember if Eric Piatkowski was heavily recruited?
Joe Krabbenhoft would probably make the list as well.

[Jacks-D1]

Re: SD's Most Recruited

Mike Miller by far #1. I remember when Roy Williams was at Kansas he was convinced he had him and when Miller went to Florida Williams wanted Florida and Billy Donavan investigated by the NCAA.

[collegewatcher]

Re: SD's Most Recruited

Miller is by far number one. The number of high profile coaches in the Corn Palace in 97-98 was fun to watch!

Joe would have to be second, but he made his decision early so that cut down on a lot of the high profile coaches showing up at Roosevelt games. Coaches knew who he was early and he was heavily scouted during the summer. Cadsev would have more details, but as I recall Miller kind of surprised people across the country with his play during the summer, and coaches started watching the Schoolers a lot closer. I am sure that Jared Reiner benefited from that exposure as well.

Pike was not that heavily recruited, although times have certainly changed just in the years since his high school days. Although there were not a lot of DI's involved, the battle for Josh Mueller was pretty intense. I am not sure how many schools offered Steve Smith, but going to Creighton certainly shows that there was interest.

I think the most recruited Jack was probably Steve Lingenfelter.

[Cadsev]

Re: SD's Most Recruited

Recruitment is a term that can be interpreted many different ways. Local athletes who attend state schools can be heavily recruited. Athletes who attend nationally known schools can also be heavily recruited. I'll try to break it down into recent terms as it's changed a great deal in the past 20 years.

When Mike Miller was being recruited the college coaches could approach summer coaches during the events. They could send faxes to the athletes and communicate with the athletes during the events via phone conversations. Today that has changed drastically. Coaches can not have contact with athletes during certified events (if the athlete is participating). They also can not contact the high school coach or the summer coach during the event. Back in the 90's the coaches would line up to speak with the summer coaches after each game it could take hours before the team and coaches would leave the gym.

Today coaches use text messages (which is going to be regulated in September), email, phone calls and mass mailings to communicate with the athlete. Emailing has replaced standard mailing as the preferred method of mailing. In the 90's the coaches could overnight information to prospective athletes but the NCAA has put a stipulation on that form of mailing as well.

When Mike Miller was being recruited his recruitment took off during his Junior year of high school. He received many junk mailings from schools including 21 letters in one day from Tennessee. Underclassmen (prior to end of soph year of HS) can only receive one questionaire from schools. Schools are not permitted to contact an underclassmen other than that one contact letter until the summer between the athletes soph and junior year. To say that recruiting has changed is an understatement. Coaches are far more aggressive than 10 years ago. There are currently 12 (maybe more) athletes in the 2010 class that have verbally committed to high major schools. These kids are incoming Sophomores. That is way different from 10 years ago.

When coaches start showing up at the athletes HS then you know the recruitment is serious. Letters, text messages, phone calls are all nice and massage the ego but personal visits and offers are the true judge of recruitment and if the school are truly interested.

Based on athletes recruited at the DI Level in the past 10 years .... here is how I would break it down as the most heavily recruited athletes in SD (put more weight on offers than letters):

1.) Mike Miller -- Left it wide open until September of his Senior Year. Narrowed it down to 3 schools in September (Kentucky, Kansas & Florida). Could have gone anywhere except for Duke, he was that good and everyone wanted him.
2.) Joe Krabbenhoft -- More heavily recruited than Jared Reiner for a longer period of time. Had many options to chose from and would have had many more had he not be injured. He verballed earlier to a High Major than any SD athlete in recent history (Feb of his Junior year). Final five schools included Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Kansas, Creighton and Minnesota.
3.) Cody Larson -- Has had more contact from high major schools than any athlete his age in SD. He has received some offers to date (won't mention) and his recruitment will only get larger the more he is seen. Two High Major schools came to observe open gym during his freshman year.
4.) Jared Reiner -- Didn't take off until the summer between his junior year and senior year but was heavily recruited in a short period of time. Had many options at the end.
5.) Colton Iverson -- His recruitment has taken off the past three weeks but is still limited to schools in the midwest due to exposure. His offers pale in comparison to the first three mentioned but still his list of schools is impressive. He could receive more offers depending on how soon he narrows down his list and how many schools see him in Vegas.
6.) Michael Tveidt -- Heavily recruited at the mid-major level. Had many offers to choose from.
7.) Sam Willard -- Like Tveidt had many mid-major offers.
7.) Derek Paulsen -- Had interest from some high major schools NC State, Northwestern, Michigan State. He benefited from playing along side of Jared Reiner for two summers. Not sure where he would have ended up in the end and it's a shame that his life was tragically cut short.

Other noteables:

Aaron Rich -- Some small DI interest
Paige Paulsen -- Small DI interest
Steven Smith -- Limited to midwest schools
Matt Martin -- A few offers
Adam Templeton
Josh Mueller -- Some DI offers



Recruiting sucks for most athletes. They are constantly on the phone in the weeks following the open evaluation period and often times emails, text messages and mailings go unopened or unanswered. It's a fun process at the beginning but it can become a drag. That may explain why some are verballing earlier than before or why some narrow down their list of schools at the early stages of the process.

We are fortunate to have these high major athletes in our state and hopeful that many more follow in their footsteps.