This is uncharted territory for the country in general, but especially for sports with leagues on hiatus and coaches and players quarantined at home, but one thing about it reminds him about earlier days of coaching.

With the Coronavirus pandemic putting sports on a standstill, in-person recruiting is been halted with coaches having to go back to watching a lot of film and phone calls to recruits.

“This is the way we used to recruit where we spend time on the phone and watch a lot of film at this time of year,” Frank Martin said. “Then when we could go out, we’d see them at their high school. We were limited there but this is how we used to do it. From that standpoint, just go old fashioned. I’m really happy with the guys we’re recruiting. We spend a lot of time doing a lot of background work and making sure they’re the kind of guys we want to bring around here.”

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The Gamecocks obviously can’t go out and visit players now, but that hasn’t slowed down recruiting efforts.

The staff is still meeting on a regular basis virtually and still reaching out to potential 2020 players but working on building now relationships with their 2021 and 2022 classes.

They are in a better place right now since they’re at their scholarship limit for the 2020 class, which means they’re able to focus a little bit more on future classes as well.

“That’s why you recruit a class or two ahead by knowing your roster and owing what you do. You have a good pulse and good feel for what you have in the 2021 class,” assistant Bruce Shingler said. “Most of the guys that we are recruiting in that class, we know pretty well. We feel comfortable. Then going out to see them gives you an extra evaluation of how he compares to other guys across the country. If you trust your eye, which I trust my eye, and I know coach martin trusts his gut and his eye, we know what fits us.”

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The Gamecocks aren’t doing much different currently in terms of reaching out to prospects: calling and texting the ones they can, sending informational materials and different graphics or edits they make as recruiting tools.

That and the social media recruiting tools they’re using haven’t really changed, but what will change is how the coaches are spending their time in a few weeks.

In a typical year the live AAU period would be starting and coaches would be hitting the road to try and finish up their 2020 class and continuing their evaluations for 2021 and 2022 classes.

The live period is suspended until further notice, which means the Gamecock coaches won’t get the option to see how players are developing over the next few months.

“I think were it impacts things is seeing how much a kid’s improved or not improved. If you saw a kid a month ago, you’re excited to see him in April on the EYBL circuit or the Adidas circuit or Under Armour circuit and you’re not going to have that opportunity,” assistant Chuck Martin said. “Did he get taller? Did he get stronger? Did his decision making get better? You’re not going to be able to walk away and make any evaluation in terms of how much better he’s gotten then continue that into July and say he’s improved from December to April and then in August say, ‘Man, he really improved from April to July,’ that kind of goes out the window. He may be improving and may be getting better, but we won’t see it.”

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The Gamecocks have two committed players in the 2020 class—Patrick Iriel and Ja’Von Benson—and two scholarships to fill for the 2021 group.

They don’t know when they’ll be able to go out and recruit again, but when they do it’s going to put a lot of stress on the coaches and the players who have waited all summer to get their recruitment going in the fall if that’s a live period.

“It puts an enormous amount of pressure on us. Then you’re at the beginning of your season, so you’re with your team. Now every day off or weekend you’re allowed to go out, you have to make a decision: do I stay in Columbia or do I go to Sumter, Charleston, New York, Boston?” Chuck Martin said. “Now there’s too much ground to cover. Now those rising senior in the 2021 class, those kids may think, ‘If I don’t get what I want, I may go to prep school.’ I could see this affecting two classes with the current class of kids that haven’t signed and then the 2021 class.”