Men's basketball spends second-most on recruiting in MAC to land 'right' recruits
During the 2014-15 season, Central Michigan men’s basketball spent $98,621 on recruiting.
According to the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, every Division I member institution must compile financial data regarding expenses and revenues and send it in a report to the NCAA every year.
The recruiting category includes money spent on transportation, lodging and meals for prospective student-athletes and institutional personnel on official and unofficial visits, phone call charges and postage.
Men’s basketball’s 2014-15 recruiting total was the second most in the Mid-American Conference, second to the University of Buffalo at $115,178.
Buffalo spent the most money on recruiting, but was able to win 23 games and the MAC Tournament in 2015. Eastern Michigan ranked fourth in the MAC at $87,845 and Western Michigan was 11th at $62,823. Ball State finished in last.
In terms of dollars spent per win on recruiting, Ball State had the highest total with $9,706. Kent State made the most out of its budget, spending $2,931 per win.
CMU ranked in the middle of the pack in turning dollars spent recruiting into wins last season. At $4,287 per win, the Chippewas were sixth best at making their money work for them.
Davis said simply increasing a budget would not help a program land more recruits.
“A budget always plays a part in your program,” Davis said. “But I don’t think an increased recruiting budget is all of a sudden going to beat out Michigan or Michigan State for players.”
CMU’s nearly six-figure budget netted the team one recruit and a regular season conference title.
WMU did not need a large budget to be successful on the court. WMU’s staff spent $62,823 on recruiting, translating into three signed players and a 20-win season.
“I’m pretty fortunate here in that we have a pretty good sized recruiting budget,” said WMU Head Coach Steve Hawkins. “We have the freedom to recruit who need to and go where we need to go. What makes it really difficult for Keno (Davis) or someone like myself is that you’re driving in a car in a snowstorm.”
During the last 10 years, CMU’s men’s basketball recruits have traveled a combined 30,243 miles to start their careers in Mount Pleasant.
CMU’s 2015-16 roster contains players from 13 different states, three countries and two continents.
Since 2006, men’s basketball recruits have traveled an average of 560.1 miles to join the team — the largest average distance for any of Michigan’s MAC schools.
Eastern Michigan’s recruits travel the second-furthest distance at 424.4 miles while Western Michigan ranks third at 275.6 miles.
Landing top recruits
Conferences that frequently earn multiple bids into the NCAA Tournament are called multi-bid conferences. These universities tend to have larger budgets, bigger arenas and more top-ranked recruits from across the country.
MAC teams have a harder time competing for recruits and take a different approach to recruiting.
Davis gained experience recruiting in a multi-bid conference — the Big East — when he was the head coach at Providence from 2008-2011.
“It’s night and day. I think the number one thing is coming in with a higher ranking,” Davis said. “When you come in with top 50-100 players, you have so many people who are connected to that individual in the recruiting process. What I think you find at the high mid-major level is, that is pretty rare. With the top-level players, there are a lot more people involved that you have to take into account.”
While Hawkins hasn’t recruited players to come to a multi-bid program, he has been recruiting the west side of Michigan since becoming a coach at WMU in 2000.
“One of the biggest things is, they have to be a little more selective," Hawkins said. "The net we throw out in the beginning of the recruiting process is really big."
ESPN compiles a list of the 100 best collegiate prospects in the country each year called the ESPN 100. Since 2006, EMU, CMU and WMU have combined to land one recruit ranked in the ESPN 100.
Comparatively, Michigan State has four players in its 2016 class that rank within the top 100, two of whom are from Michigan.
In the 2010 class, CMU landed Mount Pleasant’s Trey Zeigler, the No. 33 prospect in the country. At the time, Trey’s father Ernie Zeigler was the head coach at CMU.
The only other time a MAC school was able to land an ESPN 100 recruit was in 2009 when Akron signed No. 61 Zeke Marshall from McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
Davis said a “real special circumstance” is needed to get the highest ranked players to come to a MAC school.
“Usually, it is that they have been under-recruited and undervalued,” Davis said. “If you look at the history of the MAC, the players who have become all-conference or NBA players weren’t known as that level of player. They were guys who were overlooked. I think that will always continue in the MAC.”
Hawkins said a MAC school would need a close connection with the athlete in order to land a top-tier recruit.
“I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but it’s really improbable. There are so many people involved,” Hawkins said. “The shoe companies are involved with the influence of a decision and there’s so much at stake. It’s not just as simple as saying, 'Come here and you’ll be a lottery pick.”
Recruiting strategies
WMU’s geographical location provides Hawkins an opportunity to recruit multiple states and regions CMU cannot.
“We would like to own the west side of the state," Hawkins said. "Then, we move out to statewide and try to take kids from within the state. After that, we really want to stay regional,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins said he likes being in Kalamazoo because he can access expressways (such as I-94) to other regions quickly, making traveling easier.
“I can be in Indiana quicker than I could Detroit," Hawkins said. "I could be in Chicago just as quick as I could be in Detroit."
Davis' strategy is to recruit all parts of the state to find players to fit his team's style.
If Davis is unable to land a recruit from the state to fit the team, he begins to look in other regions to fill in that spot.
Before spending time and resources on recruiting a player from other places, his staff reaches out to players to gauge their interest in CMU.
“If they are seriously interested, we’re going to spend time and focus on trying to recruit some of those places, even from far away,” Davis said. “Like with Braylon (Rayson), he was somebody that was OK with moving from home and wanting to play in our style of system. That’s a big reason of why we would look at different players.”
Deciding who to bring in
The NCAA permits Division I basketball programs to give 13 scholarships at a time. Because of the scholarship limit, schools have to decide what players they want to spend time and resources recruiting.
Potential student-athletes are also limited in the amount of communication they can have with coaching staffs.
Hawkins compared recruiting as a basketball coach to being the general manager of a team.
"You have to look at the current team and what pieces you are going to lose," he said. "Then (at) what pieces you want to bring in. It begins first with what the needs of the team are."
Davis said he first looks at the talents a player possesses and then decides if the player would perform well within the team’s system.
“One of the things that is so important to having a successful team is recruiting the right type of young man that will fit at your school, in your community and on the court with teammates,” Davis said.
