This time of year, as Frank Martin and his staff are wrapping up the season or planning for postseason play, they’re also gearing up for one of the biggest three-month stretches of their year with the AAU season started.
That, for the time being, is taking a hiatus.
Due to the Coronavirus, the SEC halted all off-campus recruiting for all sports and the National Association of Basketball Coaches, of which Martin is on the board of directors for, expressed support of stopping any in-person recruiting events as the live period starts.
“I know we’re not going to make definite ultimatums but for the near future we have to make sure we don’t expose coaches to get on planes and hotels and get around people,” Martin said. “We don’t know right now. It’s the same thing with student athletes and their families. We can’t expect them to travel and get on airplanes. It doesn’t make any sense right now.”
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The AAU live period start April 9 and goes off and on throughout the entire summer. If coaches aren't allowed to go on the road recruiting at all this summer, it severely impacts how much they can evaluate talent for any available spots in the 2020 class and beyond.
Coaches can still make contact with recruits over the phone and through direct message, but there won’t be any on or off campus contact with recruits for the foreseeable future as they wait things out with the virus.
The plan for South Carolina, who had been out recruiting as early as last week, is to do their recruiting like everyone else via phone conversations.
“I know that’s a stance all us coaches are on board: (John) Calipari, (Bob) Huggins, Mike Brey, all of us. It was unanimous. It’s not just the athletes we’re trying to recruit,” Martin said. “We’re husbands and fathers. Some of us still have our parents. For us traveling around in difficult times?”
South Carolina, who has a full 2020 class currently, will obviously get impacted as they try to build the 2021 and 2022 classes, but it won’t be as impacted as coaches who obviously have to get out and round out their classes this summer.
Because of that, Martin said the idea of allowing seniors to opt into another year of eligibility to stabilize scholarship numbers wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Men’s basketball programs are allowed 13 scholarships right now and, if every non-senior comes back along with Seventh Woods and the two signees Patrick Iriel and Ja’Von Benson, the Gamecocks would be at 14 scholarship players.
“If we have to shut down recruiting the whole spring, it’s going to be hard to do our jobs to evaluate and get the right people. Why not give the seniors another year?” Martin said. “Why not tell Micaiah Henry or Maik Kotsar, if you want it you have the ability to play a fifth year? That way we can keep our rosters at 13 and keep consistency with who we bring in.”
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The brief reduction of recruiting time gives Martin and his staff a chance to go and spend time with their families and make sure they’re all right before focusing on recruiting or putting their teams back together once the recruiting hiatus is over.
The Gamecocks will arrive back from Nashville Thursday afternoon and will await their next steps if they’ll have any postseason to look forward to.
“I have a 12-year-old son right now that’s like, ‘Dad, what’s going on?” Martin said. “I have a teenage daughter that’s like, ‘Dad, I don’t want to go to school. It’s a big responsibility of mine not just to lead the kids in the locker room but lead the kids at my home. My wife’s mom is in New York. She’s physically not what she used to be after fighting cancer. My mom is in Miami. New York and Miami have a lot of internationals and a lot of people in that place. My mom has respiratory issues and is in her 70s. We need to take care of our people too. We’re always running around taking care of everyone else’s families. As coaches we have to take care of ourselves and our families too.”
