Baseline Truths: The Recruiting Separation Nobody Wants to Admit

Most families aren't lacking effort.

They're lacking clarity.

In this episode of Baseline Truths, we tackle some of the toughest conversations in recruiting:

🏀 Parents: When helping becomes hindering

🏀 The separation nobody wants to admit

🏀 Why most players are copying recruiting strategies that produce little to no results

🏀 If you truly understood what college coaches value, would you be doing things differently?

🏀 TABC is approaching fast — what families should be doing right now

🏀 The recruiting mistakes that continue to cost players opportunities

The recruiting process has become crowded, confusing, and expensive. The truth is that many families are working hard but working on the wrong things.

Tonight we're focused on clarity, accountability, and the habits that actually move the needle.

If you're serious about understanding where you stand and what comes next, this episode is for you.

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 X: @KevinOneEye

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#BasketballRecruiting #RecruitingTruth #TheOneEyedScout #BaselineTruths #TABC #CollegeBasketballRecruiting #BasketballParents #PlayerDevelopment #HighSchoolBasketball #RecruitingClarity

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https://youtu.be/SjLU5pWokes

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome in. Welcome in. Yeah. Mr. Phil Townsend. Phil, go out and come back in, man. And did that thing again? Yeah. I'm going to put it right back in though. Hey everyone. Thanks for joining us on this Wednesday night. Uh Phil's going to jump right back in. And uh, you know, tonight we're talking about uh separation and and separation, uh not not so much talent separation, but not ranking separation, not star separation. We're talking about things that separate players who get recruited from the players who don't. You know, Phil, because the the simple truth is this most families think they're one conversation, one tournament, one camp, or one highlight tape away from getting noticed. And the reality is recruiting rewards different behavior than most families are practicing. So, you know, that's gonna be kind of our our thing for tonight, man, because you know, we see it week in, week out. The the repercussions of some bad decisions at the beginning of the when they picked the teams, when they chose what team they were going to. They uh I don't know, they got bamboozled, you know. Um, and it's just it's not right, man. But uh, but yeah, man, I'm excited. You know, we were talking, you know, we were talking a bit earlier about different things in the city, different things across the state. You know, let's uh give a quick shout out to the Spurs who are up seven at halftime. But uh oh, yeah, whatever you do, don't tell me the score. All right, you know, I'm a superstitious lot, so we've kept doing the shows during the during the during the playoffs, so we're gonna keep on doing them. But uh, you know, Phil, how many times have you seen parents in the stands? Parents get involved, and they think they're helping out, but they're really just being busy.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Well, they're being busy if they aren't sometimes being a nuisance, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Well, that's just you know, that's that's kind of saying, you know, you're being productive, yeah, or you're being busy, but not productive.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

You know, they just they just want to feel involved and good intentions, good intentions, good intentions, but they don't, you know, every college coach wants to recruit the player, you know, because that's gonna be who's in the locker room and who's you know in the dorms, who's in the classroom. And and this is very hard for some parents to understand, but the older that your player gets, the more that coach watches the independence. Yes, still I cringe on the inside when I see a parent run a Gatorade bottle across the court. When a kid comes across at halftime to get a bottle of water, come on, man.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

And then the parents got the towel to wipe the forehead.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Oh, be ho.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Man, it's crazy, bro. You know, and and they you your parent, you can't want it more than your player.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah. You know, and I think, um Well, but Kev, you know, that might not even be the point at some time, right? But because that parent interjects themselves so much, um, even as far as answering questions that are asked, it looks like they want it more than, you know, the basketball player themselves. And um, so yeah, but you know, it's just something that they gotta see that people are watching that.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yeah, I wonder, I wonder uh, you know, how many how many parents are really uh, you know, not just answering questions, but how many parents are one that are sending the emails or or the text messages or or who's really taking ownership, you know, because that coach is not recruiting the parent, and I promise you, uh that kid does not talk the same way that that parent does.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

You know, but uh you know, right, but think about it, especially when you're writing an email or something of that nature, yeah, and then then when you know that's what that's one of the identifiers, you know, of course, okay, doing a lot of uh writing courses and things, you you actually learn or know. I heard instructors say, I there's no name on this paper, but this is your paper, you know, to someone, you know, because like you said, right, you know, there's a certain writing style uh that goes with some things. So um, yeah, it's just interesting.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

You know, but but here's the simple truth, and and the line that we're gonna end this uh segment on is that if your child is old enough to play college basketball, they're old enough to start owning portions of their recruiting journey. Yeah, because they have to, they have to, they have to, they have to. You know, but I'm uh the separation that nobody wants to admit, Phil. What if the gap isn't talent? The gap isn't talent, then you know, everybody wants to talk about vertical, you want to talk about handles, shooting drills, right? Exposure, but who wants to talk about conditioning, consistency, reliability, and accountability? You know, I see guys all the time, you know, uh, you can really tell who's in the gym consistently because their shots are a little different, their shot doesn't fluctuate from weekend to weekend, you know. Um, and that that's part of that daily habit. Go ahead, Phil.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah, but Kev, you know, it's part of that daily habit, but uh, you know, all those things that you leave tie into one thing. If you got this daily habit of doing this particular thing, and if when you're talking about the consistency or inconsistency of something of a player putting in, you know as well as I do. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Oh that's an old saying. So conditioning, put it up right up there, people. It's right up there. If you don't have the conditioning, it's going to expose you. I don't care if you're a great shooter, if you aren't in condition, it's going to show.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Oh, yeah. You know, it's uh as we've moved into uh two-day workouts with the uh with these guys, you can see it immediately. Um you know, they've already had their first workout, and maybe they didn't get enough fruits, maybe they didn't get enough protein, maybe they get enough whatever. And man, that second workout, man, was uh was difficult to get through on the first day, you know, and so but we gotta be consistent. And you know, I was thinking about this uh earlier tonight, you know, when we're talking about consistency and and and skill work and those types of things, you know, when you're choosing a doctor, are you gonna choose a doctor that only shows up 50% of the time? You know, I don't know, it ain't gonna be there when you need them. That's the same way that your shot's not gonna be there when you need it.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Does 50% of the work on you in your surgery?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Oh yeah. Hey, you you got a doctor like that with a big ass toe, man. But uh you know, the the but and when we're really talking about with consistency and and all that, it's really discipline, man. Yeah, this separation it usually isn't skill, it's rarely skill. It's usually the the separation being being a discipline, you know, and I you know I'm hesitant to say this, man, because somebody's gonna take it the wrong way, and maybe somebody needs to take it the wrong way, you know, because I promise you, if you knew what college coaches are really looking for, you would be spending your time differently. You know, uh parents spend thousands on travel, thousands on tournaments, thousands on camps, but many still don't know what coaches really value. You know, you don't have to spend thousands to know that you need to know how to play defense. You don't need thousands to know that you can go run the track, you know, run around the track, run the park. Like there's things to be done that don't have to cost a gajillion dollars. You know, you know, and uh something that I heard uh coach Drew say from Baylor, and uh he said most of these guys are gonna be recruited within 200 miles of their hometown unless they're that four or five star, four or five-star athlete, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Uh talking to quite a few parents that are kids are going off, you know, most division ones, their guys reported today or this week, you know, for the for the summer school semester. And man, quite a few are saying that if they knew now, if they knew then what they knew now, they wouldn't have been running all over the country in middle school. They wouldn't have been running all over the country in ninth grade. They would have spent their time what we're talking about preaching from the pulpit, development, development, development, you know, and uh that's what you know. I it's not families that are lacking effort to do right by their child, it's they're lacking the clarity to do right by their child because they see everyone else doing this or doing that or traveling or talking about the travels, but yet what results are those people getting? And they just keep feeding the AAU treadmill, and this is why I was talking about someone that earlier this week, man. Do you even remember what AAU stands for?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Um the amateur amateur athletic union union, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Okay, you used to have to have your roster submitted a week ahead of time. You you know, it was a central uh uh centrally located governing body, and now man, you can't even get a uh a roster for some of these big time shoe circuits because they're changing rosters. You have to go back damn near and look at who played in the game to know who's on on what's roster, like I'm being serious to you. Like the first week of EYBL, you had to wait till after the game to look at who played to know, like for 90 for 100 sure, right? Like, you mean you knew who the four stars and the five stars were, but if you were looking at at somebody that you just oh, I don't know who that kid is, you gotta wait to end the damn ballgame. Ain't that something, man? You know, and so I just I I hate it because I think that um people are falling into that that really definition of insanity, man. You know, they're they're copying people who aren't getting results, and then they're getting frustrated because they're not getting results, you know? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Um, but Kev, you know, there's this thing, you know, and sometimes parents can be a little grandiose about it. Um and you know, maybe in looking or maybe hearing or taking somebody's advice on uh their their their kids' um playing level, right? College level. Um you know, how can they really uh is there a way to get the parent really open-minded enough to where they say, this look, I know you think Johnny's this, but no, this is what Johnny needs to be to benefit them best, and possibly Johnny might you know move up somewhere else, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yeah. Well, I think for one, you know, we have uh recruiting clarity calls, and we'll put that up towards we'll go ahead and put it up now, but we have the recruiting clarity calls.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Before you get to that recruiting clarity call, Kev, I gotta tell you, you are coming in loud and clear with your messaging. Is there a reason that that's happening?

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Well, you know, we've taught with um maximum uh performance development, and now we have our athletics division with that, and so we've been we've partnered up with with uh MPD Athletics and really to not just in San Antonio but in Houston and and expand expanding uh because there's a lot of confusion out there. And you know, when when you're sitting there saying, is there a place for people to find? Yes, but they have to be open to it. So we're we're we're we're creating um rubrics, we're we're having these one-on-one conversations, uh, sometimes you know, four or five families at a time, because you know, people are spending a lot of money and not getting a lot of results. And in a day and age where you know money's tight, especially with gas prices, you know, um, you have to be open-minded. And if you're not, and really in truth, we feel this is probably uh where I want to go with this right now. You know, you find people that have been successful in the business, you know, you find people, you find good doctors, you find this the people that are the loudest and the most braggados are not always the people that are getting the best results. And in doing so, I'm gonna tell you right now that if we have one conversation, two conversations, three conversations, and you still doing the same thing, I'm done with you. I'm moving on because I've only got, I figure, about 25 years left on this God's green earth, and I'm not wasting it with a fool, you know. And um the families that that lock in and buy in, you know, they're they're young men, young girls, they're they're being successful. And I'm not saying we're the only ones, I'm just saying I'm the only one that I care about because it's my time, right? You know, and um, you know, and and that's been one of the reasons that we really kind of started branching out further than just the 210, because there's a limit to how open people are. You know, I remember uh going into this year uh this summer, uh AAU um teams or rosters were getting made, and and people asking me, hey, how come we can't get kids to stay here? How come they feel like they have to leave and go to Dallas? They're have to go to the we're putting them in these tournaments, we're putting them in well, a lot of these are second-tier, third year circuits. A B, you can't coach worth a damn, and so you're not developing them. And so why would you know why would they stay here? You know, there's there's several guys that are doing a great job, you know. Future does a really good job. Yeah. Uh Cody Calgill and and Devin Gibson, those guys. Um I'm talking about on the guy side, you know. Uh SA Kings with Coach Um Coach Willie out there, they do a good job. Um BTS, they do a solid job, you know, and Texas hard work, you know, they they those guys play really hard, you know. Um, I'm trying, my mind's going blank, but you know, and on the girls' side, you got uh SA finest who really held the standard for a very long time. You got players first, you've got um uh man, SA Finance, no, no, no, no, no. Oh my gosh, my mind man, I'm sorry, I'm gonna I'm gonna cut a tweet out later on. Um, because they've been a standalone program for so long, and they've been more known for girls, but I really know them through the guy side. Um my mind's went blank. And then you know, Anwar over at Quality Academy Prep, you know, they're doing and and we talked we talked about the roster that Strength Emotion is putting together, and that is a roster. Oh man, and I'm gonna I'm gonna let wait and let that play out, and then those kids can announce what they gonna announce and in the school. So, but no man, there's there's good things happening in the city, but there's so many people that are lost, and I I just get frustrated whenever we're having the same conversations, and you know, I I I I reached out to probably 15 coaches over the week and just asked, you know, what are what are some of the things that you wished developmentally that uh players knew or are really understood, grasped, implemented, you know, and and three three common ones. They wish they played harder, more physical, more mental fortitude harder. They wish that they played uh defense with more more intensity, more physicality. And the third thing is they wish they played with a higher IQ. Well, guess how you get the higher IQ? Not by playing cone drills, you know, and so then I'm like, okay, man, you know, we're getting, and there's there's some good places that have good run. I just feel like that while we're in a learning development phase, then it should be more structured. Um and that's my own thing, and people don't like it. Cool, I don't care, you know, because we're not all trying to, we're all we all talk about trying to get to the same place, you know, division one. Two three junior college, but we're not all doing the same actions to get there because I can walk in some gyms and and they're playing, but ain't one of them got an idea where they're gonna go next year. But hey, you're in the gym playing, you know, but that's that's for another day, another dollar. Um you got me off on a tangent, Phil Townsend.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah, but you don't care. Look, you know, and we've seen um, you know, some talent and all, but still, you know, it's it gets into projection. And maybe where someone has somebody projected, uh or a parent has their child projected, you know, you still don't want to expose them until the development is there. And and quite sadly, sometimes that's what happens, right? The rush to get the person out there so people can see and say, Oh yeah, uh, looks like that person has something. But but guess what? It's it's way too soon for where you put 'em, right? You know, it it it can, you know, one of the first things they need to do is, you know, know your lane, right? Uh and that goes for knowing your lane as far as your uh injection uh in in into the you know the recruiting team for your child. And and um uh just just you know knowing your lane and so the the that child, that student, that player can have a chance to not only develop their game, but also develop as a person, right? Able to take on responsibility and see that they're involved in their recruiting more so, right? And getting something done. So sometimes, you know, you've got to uh as they say, let that uh you know child grow up, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Yeah, and I think something you asked earlier, and I forgot to to say this, uh, asking about you know parents and and and how how open they were. And I I really think that what the parents that have a difficult time, especially parents uh that were former athletes, sure, uh that have been there, they they they believe they're looking through an evaluation lens when they're really looking through a parent lens. And anytime that you're making an excuse, or we'll call it nicely a reason, you're looking through a parent lens. Because at the end of the day, it's not why you didn't make it, it's did you make it or not? You know, it doesn't matter that you weren't feeling well or you had a hundred and somni fever, and if you're on the court, you are expected to make that play. And if you didn't, and you come up with, oh, he felt sick, then then we got a reason, you know. And um, I think that's the biggest piece of advice that if if parents can get out of their own way, I'm I'm I'm I'm guilty of it as well, you know. I mean, uh with Austin when he played baseball, when he played football, you know, I I'd always want to, you know, interject, but at the end of it all, he made the player he didn't. And if you don't make enough of them, you're on the bench, you know. Um, but yeah, that would be it, man. Get out of the parent lens because that's gonna really um set your kid back, right? You know, and um man, it's funny because um the 26th class was like the first class, you know, that was Red's class, that was telling those guys, and and that was the first class that I really uh started watching, moving and grooving with um the Brennan kids, and then so these guys that are coming in now that are seniors in the class of 27. Man, I can't tell you how many times um I I came across parents within the community or parents. I would I'll I I would go to gyms to watch this specific kid and say, Hey, um, you know, I would like to help in this. I don't we don't charge, we just blood, sweat, and tears. No, we got it, no, we got it, no, we got it. Well, guess what? You two and a half years later, man, that kid ain't got any better, got all the hype in the world, jumps out of the gym, but he don't have diddly when it comes to offense, or diddly when it comes to basketball IQ. That's where I do fault parents because you were in the way of that, because you had him working with this person or that person, cool, but you made a bad decision, yeah. And and so who pays the price for that, and so that's where I think it's funny because uh, you know, I I have great, I have quite a few really strong, great relationships in the city, but I have more um outside the city, and I and I think it's funny because you know, just after what's today, Wednesday, yeah, Monday, you know, I had guys call I mean, I had three or four phone calls from Dallas, three or four from Austin, Houston, um just calling, checking in, people that that we do uh clarity calls with, you know, I tell them, hey, the kid has uh every every kid I talk with, the family, they have my number. And I'm not afraid to give it out. Yeah, I'd rather the kid reach out and say, hey, what do you think about this? Or like uh, you know, St. Mary's has their shooting camp tomorrow. And a couple, two or three of the guys, well, three of them that are coming up out of Houston, you know, and asking me, hey, what what are some things that I can do? How do I prepare? You know, we talk about hey, get plenty of sleep, be hydrated when you get there, and leave it all out there. But no, what what what what can I do? What can I say to a coach? What can what are some things specifically and and we talk about those things because I'd rather us talk about them now than you be driving home from St. Mary's thing, man, I wish I would have asked that, you know, and so I just it it yeah, oh yeah, well, I mean, we're on this now.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

I don't want people to think we're we're uh uh on a uh a parent rant because you know I'm not gonna call any names, but you know, the last run I was at, Kev, there was this one player who was really open and open to listening to what I had to say. But when I pointed out some things to him and told him, you know, something I thought he should do and stuff, and he was each time he was like, All right, yeah, I hear you. I'm you know, yeah, I'm gonna do it. And then to actually see him go and do it was, you know, well, okay, this this young man is receptive. Now, um then to talk to him uh and in the presence of his mom, and she was as realistic as could be in what we you know talked about, and and she could fully see you know what was being said and and then saying her own thing. So no false illusions anywhere. So again, you know, you you have parents uh that are wide open to where you know their child is or the level is or things that maybe they need to work on. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

You know, and that's one thing that uh I want to talk about T ABC, you know, uh is coming up in a few weeks. Um that's another live period, and it's fast approaching. And uh, you know, coaches are gonna come in from all over the country, you know, be there in Dallas, and they'll be watching, networking, evaluating, and gathering information. And I want families to start getting prepared now so that they can talk through some of the things that that are gonna come up, you know. Um and and it and it's easy, you know, it's it's kind of like is your player profile ready, you know? That you know, do you have your NCAA ID, you know, for coaches? You know, have you gone over the the news you can news you can use that we that we use here on on the one-eye network? And uh, you know, so people can get their get their film ready, you know, um, get their their Twitter profiles ready, you know, and so there it is, you know, um is your your contact information, you know, making sure that it's accurate. You know, it we've we've gone through and we've shared different types of of messaging for people, you know, first time um messages, you know, and then it's coming fast, you know. We're gonna have uh pre-TABC right now, you know, Rice has their team camp this weekend. I think Texas State is right around the corner. UTSA has an evaluation camp coming up, you know, evaluation periods, relationship building. But what we got to remember is TABC is not where the preparation starts, it's where the preparation is exposed.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

I just I really want people to prepare so that um so that they are not caught off guard, you know. And um, you know, as we kind of wind this down, man. The question we go out of here with is what if your biggest recruiting problem isn't exposure? What if it's that nobody's honestly told you where you stand? And that's where I want you to reach out and get a recruiting clarity call set up because exposure without direction is just expensive confusion, and so Phil, everybody wants to offer.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

But but Ken, could you talk a little bit more about that clarity call before uh we sign off?

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Yeah, um, so with the clarity call, we we have um um 30 minutes, $25 for 30 minutes, and we I have you go ahead and send me two game films. So we go ahead and we and I send you a uh a download of the of the ebook so that we're talking the same language. Um I'll go ahead and like I said earlier, we'll have where uh your child will have my number um to reach out anytime they have questions, and we can kind of move through. Um and really we we review film, we talk about how we put a plan together on on the recruitment, making sure that um you know they're reaching out to the right schools. Um and so, but I really want everybody to go over and and check out the oneey scout.com because we've done some some work refining and the website is a lot more informative, a lot more refined, and a lot more beneficial. And um, as always, uh enjoy my time with my friend Phillip Townsend. And everybody wants the offer, but very few want the truth that creates the offer, right? And that's the baseline truth. For sure.