Just saw this on LSUSports.net BATON ROUGE -- LSU men's basketball coach John Brady will be one of the guests Sunday morning on ESPN's weekly program, "Outside the Lines." The show airs on ESPN (Channel 35 on Cox Cable in Baton Rouge) at 8:30 a.m. CDT. http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=507543
So, just watched it. The topic was "is it a good thing to start evaluating and recruiting kids as early as sixth grade?" Unfortunately, it's the state of college recruiting today. So, Brady was on along with a talent scout and an ESPN college writer. Brady answered a couple of questions, tried to inject humor in his first answer, and basically made the point that he wouldn't at LSU ever recruit a without more detailed analysis and seeing a player, but that he did have these lists and used them to get the names. He also mentioned that Tas', Glen and local guys may be on LSU's radar that early, but that LSU does not send letters out to anyone that early (unlike some other schools). He also made the point that evaluation at that early of an age does lead to detrimental affects (e.g., kids getting an overinflated opinion of themselves). Brady wore a purple LSU logoed polo, and seemed to do all right with the questions. You get to the final four, and you get to be on ESPN. Perhaps the media is fair... :geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. PACK THE PMAC!
I think he did a really good job. Though, I think all coaches are recruiting really young players. If one is doing it the others almost have to.
I have seen scouts talk to 12 yr old kids at Baseball All Star tournaments. I umpired for years, and there were times when a scout would talk to me about a kid after a game. I was amazed the first time it happened. But the guy told me that by age 12 you can usually already tell if a kid has a chance or not. They are very discreet about their affiliations though. None of the wore logo shirts or anything like that.
