What It Takes To Make It To The College Level (Podcast Episode 63)

Foreign welcome to the Visionary Baseline Training Podcast. Appreciate you guys tuned in today. Shout out to everybody who's listening right now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and of course everybody who's watching right now on YouTube. If you are on YouTube, make sure you drop a, like subscribe, drop a comment down below. Let me know what other topics you want to hear about on the show. And if you guys are on Apple Pockets right now, do me a favor, scroll down to the bottom of the page and leave me a review. Let me know what you think. You guys who listen know that before every show, if I have any new reviews, I read them. So I've got one new one this week. This is helpful. This has helped me so much as a player to learn more about the game and how I can improve. I found this podcast in the last couple days and I see a difference and it is really helpful. So I appreciate the review. Very happy to hear that the, the podcast has helped you. That's the goal. And again, the, the more that you know, the more reviews, the more traction that the show gets, the more people it's able to reach. And then, you know, I'm exposed to different questions, so I have different people ask me different things. So it gives me ideas of what other episodes I can bring to the show. And overall it's gonna help everybody out, help everybody get better. So again, do me a small favor, scroll down the bottom of the page, leave me a review, let me know what you think. Very much appreciate that. So we'll hop into it. You know, I think the biggest thing, and I was thinking about this a little bit because you know, it's about to be July very, very soon and you know that's a big AAU recruiting month. It's one of those, the live periods where it's a bunch of big tournaments, a bunch of tournaments where, you know you're going to have college coaches there. And so, you know, the, the question I get a ton is, you know, coach, how do I get recruited? Coach, how do I get to play at the college level? And you know, today I wanted to kind of dive into that a little bit. I think I'm gonna make this a two part episode where I'll have Today's gonna be more, more. So what it actually takes to be able to play at that level to get there. And then probably in a future episode I'll go into more of like the details on how you actually go about recruiting and different stuff like that. But today I wanted to go into what exactly it takes to get to the college level. Because I think that this is an area where a lot of players just aren't very educated on what it actually means. So a little background on me. I didn't play college basketball. I had a few opportunities, too, at the juco level and the division three level. You know, none of them at, like, great schools. But, you know, as we'll talk about today, you know, being able to get any opportunity is. It's, It's. It's impressive because there's not a lot of spots. There's a lot of. There's a lot of demand and not a lot of supply when it comes to the spots that are available. So. But that's just a little bit of background on me. But, you know, now being a coach and a trainer, you know, I work with. With players who are at the college level who are transitioning from high school to college, who are in high school right now trying to get to the college level. So I kind of got a front row seat to see and to work with these guys. And there's certainly some big differences between guys who, you know, make it to that college level and guys who maybe say they want to make it to that level, but who really don't. And the crazy thing is a lot of it isn't really the talent part of it. That obviously is a huge part. Right. The biggest thing is you have to be good enough to do it. But when it comes down to it, a lot of it is actually just, you know, the approach that guys have. And some have a good approach, and some have the right mentality, the right. The right work ethic to accompany their goals, and some don't. And because of how competitive it is, typically the guys who don't have that either don't make it there, or they get there and then they. They quit, get kicked off, like, pretty quickly. Okay. Because again, there's a lot of, you know. Oh, college basketball. But you have to actually know what that means. Right. So we're gonna. We're gonna hop into that a little bit right here. So the first thing I want to talk about is that players think, you know, hey, if I just work hard and I just, you know, I go to workouts and then I just. I get better, then some college coach will find me and I'll get recruited. And that's sometimes the case, but you also have to think about what. What the numbers are, right? So we have to have an idea of what the actual numbers are behind playing at the college level. Okay? So if you think about it. There are about 450 million basketball players in the world. Okay? 450 million people who play basketball, some in some form of, of competition around the world. Now, that's every level. That's, you know, youth level, middle school, high school, college, professional, adult leagues, like, that's, that's everybody out there. So that's obviously not the number we really need to look at. But if you look at, in The United States, 137,000 high school seniors who play basketball, and then we can basically double that number to estimate around the world. Probably what we have, maybe we could even triple that number. But let's just say for now, let's just double it. So we'll double that number and then we gotta look at the amount of colleges, right? So there's about 1750 colleges in the United States that offer college basketball. About. And again, I'm rounding with these numbers, so they're not going to be exact. And obviously you have some colleges and like Canada and different places around the world, but I'm, I'm strictly talking about North America or United States for now. And so all those 1750 spots, there's about 31,000 roster spots available. Again, if you just do the math with that, about 31,000 roster spots. But you take about a quarter of those because you have four years. Now you have five because the extra year the NCAA gave out. But let's just say for, for our purposes now, we're going to divide that in four. So every year, about 7,750 spots open at the college level total. Okay? So let's compare that to the number that we started with, right? We took that 137,000 high school seniors who play basketball in America. We doubled it. So now we're at 273,000 high school players around the world who are gunning for 7,750 spots, which would give you a 2.8% chance of actually moving on from the high school level to the college level. Now, something to keep in mind is that, you know, not every single player who plays basketball is serious enough, good enough, wants to play at that level. So let's say for our purposes, let's cut that number. Let's say that only 25% of those 273,000 actually want to play at the college level, actually have the ability to. And so that would give us about 68,000 players left gunning for those 7,750 spots, which gives about an 11% chance of making it. So even if we cut those Numbers down. We just take the players who are serious. The odds of making it are still. You have about a 90% chance of not doing it. Okay, so just so we have an idea of what the numbers are, so we get an idea of what the actual competition level is for those spots. Right? And that's why I said earlier, like, no matter where you end up at the college level, it's impressive because that's 90% of other players who didn't get a spot there. And again, I'm taking into account every single level that's Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, NAIA, JUCO, all those combined, there's an 11% chance you have of actually getting one of those spots. So let's keep that in mind. We talk about how, you know, getting recruited, and I'm not going to go too far into that, but we talk about actually wanting to be a college basketball player. You have to understand that you really have to separate yourself because of the high demand for those spots from players and the very limited supply of roster spots that's out there. So essentially what that's going to mean is you have to be in the top 10% of your class to be a college basketball player. So, you know, we can break that down even more. Like, we can look at that even further and even more of a, of an actual, like, we can look at it in context here. So, you know, let's say that, you know, you think about the teams you play in your conference or in your area, maybe, you know, in your league, whatever the, the, you know, the team that you play. So think about, you know, nine of the teams you, that you play consistently, right? If you're in high school, to think about nine teams in your league or in your conference or that's on your schedule. And then take your team, okay, so 10 total teams right there. And, you know, let's assume that 10 players get minutes on each team, right? So we're going to take 100 players from 10 teams. 10 of them get, get actual minutes per game. Probably a little bit high for some teams. Let's just say 10 players get minutes. So that means that of those 100 players who play, you have to be in the top 10 of those 100 players to statistically be a college basketball player. Now, obviously it's going to vary depending on where you play. Some areas are going to have a higher concentration of players because it's just more competitive. In some areas are going to, it's going to be lower. But again, I'm just going by averages, right Here, on average, you're going to take the top 10 of those 100, and those are going to be the ones who end up playing at the next level. Okay? So basically what I'm getting at is that playing at the next level, there's no guarantee. And it really, you know, I'm always big on, like, hard work. Like, hard work isn't. What does hard work matter if there's no results that come with it, right? If that's ultimately what matters is the results, it's not the work. And I'm not saying hard work isn't something that, that, that applies to that, but I'm saying that we have to look at it deeper than just, oh, who works the hardest? Okay? Because you take those 68,000 players around the world, they all are going to work hard, right? They're all out there trying to make it to that level. But not all of them are going to, right? Only, only 10, 11% of them are actually going to be able to do that. And for some players, you know, this year, that number was drastically cut because the NCAA gave the free year. So a lot of colleges didn't lose any players. So they didn't have any more scholarship opportunities. They didn't have any roster spots opening up. So a lot of players who are high school seniors just didn't get opportunities that they probably would have gotten on a normal year. And I don't know for. I don't know what exactly the number is in terms of, you know, who, who, you know, what that 11% goes to, but I wouldn't be shocked that 11% went down to, you know, 6, 7, 8% this year because of the extra year. And that's going to be the case for probably the next couple of years because of that extra year that the NCAA gave out. Again, unless teams are deciding to expand the, you know, the rosters or the scholarship opportunities, and I know a lot of schools aren't going to do that. So. So that's, again, something to keep in mind is that the numbers are just not in your favor at all, right? So that has to be the approach that you have, is you have to understand that it takes you going above and beyond to actually get to that level. So the first thing to understand guys is that, you know, working hard is great, but ultimately you have to be better than 90% of other players. If you're not better than 90% of other players, then you're not statistically a college basketball player. So off the bat, the first thing before we get to recruiting, before we get to anything else, you have to actually be good enough to play at that level. Those of you guys who are shooting to play at the Division 1 level, that's gonna, that's where that number dwindles down to less than 2%. Less than 2% of high school players are gonna move on to that, to that, to that Division 1 level. When we talk about like the actual getting a scholarship, right, that number's probably even lower than that. Okay, Now, a big thing that I want to, you know, keep in mind, I probably won't talk about this too much, this episode, but you know, there's a big mindset of D1 or bust, D1 or bus, and everyone wants to go D1. People don't understand, like there's so much more that those other levels have to offer. And the basketball a lot of times isn't necessarily that much worse. And sometimes it's not worse. Right. There are some low level D1s that get beat by Division 3 schools right there. There are Division 3 schools that will beat some low major division ones, and There are Division 3 schools that have way better academics. They might have a better campus life, and it might just be a better experience in general. They may have just as good, if not better facilities. In fact, I can, There are Division 3 schools I can think of right now that have facilities that are better than some division ones and Division twos. Like, and especially like, I'm thinking of two schools right now. I'm thinking of one Division three school in Michigan and I'm thinking of a Division two in Ohio. And that Division three in Michigan is so much better with facilities and just the amenities you get as an athlete compared to that Division 2. Yet people look at the Division 2, say, oh, scholarship, scholarships, not actually realizing like, what is the actual experience you get right when you walk into your locker room or your, your arena at the Division 3 level and you have like MBA level amenities there, right? Like, that's pretty nice compared to a Division 2 school that probably doesn't, doesn't have as much money. And you're not going to be getting though. You're basically having like high school level amenities right there. Okay, again, I'm not trying to, you know, getting to any level is great, but I'm just saying don't be D1 or bust. There's so much that Division 2, Division 3, NAIA, like all those levels have stuff to offer, so you have to ultimately find the best fit. Again, I'll go more into that in a later episode, but I want to make sure that I made that point before we. Before we kept going. So there's a few ways to measure whether or not you are actually at that level where you can be recruited, where you can know that you're actually a recruitable player, where you can know, okay, I'm a player who college coaches are going to want to. They might potentially want me. And, you know, there's a few ways that we can look at this, but the first thing to understand is you gotta look at age and grade level first. You know, for the most part, recruiting's not gonna start until probably after your junior season in the winter. Now, for some players, it'll start earlier, especially players who are getting recruited at the Division 1 level. Like, they're gonna a lot of times recruit a little bit earlier than that. But for, you know, again, for probably 80, 85% of players is going to be junior year and after. Okay, so you guys who are listening right now, who are in eighth, ninth grade, worrying about recruiting, probably not the best use of your time right now. You should be focused on making an impact of the varsity level, which we'll talk about, and ultimately becoming that top 10% player. Those are the most important focuses for you right now. So that's one thing to understand. And again, that means that for those of you guys who are sophomores and younger, like, you have to be 100% dedicated to that. Okay? Don't put the cart before the horse. Make sure that you take care of actually being good enough first before you worry about that. So there's some preliminary questions you can ask yourself to let you know, like whether or not you're on the right track or you're moving in the right direction right now? So you can ask yourself, do I have the measurables to play at the college level? Do I have the ideal measurable to play the college level? Do I play against good competition? Right. Do I have a lot of other college basketball players or guys who are going to be at that level? Do I play against those guys frequently on my schedule? And number three, do I have good film against good competition? So, you know, when you talk about being on the right track to have a coach recruit you, have you performed at the varsity level? Right? Have you been a guy? Have you been a guy who has, you know, maybe not even if you're a younger player, maybe you haven't started, but you've actually gone and made an impact at the varsity level. And if you're, you know, sophomore, junior, have you started and made an impact at that Varsity level? Are you in the top 10% of the level that you play? Are you a top 10% player in your conference or in your league or in your district or wherever you play? Okay, you should be able to answer yes to that question. If you can, then you're probably on the right track to be that, that sort of player. So typically, you've got to be fantastic in at least one area to move on to that next level. And. Or if you're not fantastic in one area, you've got to be pretty good to great in at least, at least a few. So are you a great shooter at your level? Right? Are you a knockdown shooter? Well, that's a skill that can, if you're good at it, can take you to that next level. You know, are you a great ball handler? Like, do you run the offense? Do you run the show? Are you the point guard who has things under control? You can handle pressure, you can set up an offense, you can get guys in spots, you make your teammates better. Well, that's a great skill to have as well. You know, are you a great defender? Are you tall? Are you athletic? Can you play above the rim? All these things are things to think about when you talk about what do I have that translates and actually helps the team to the next level. Because you have to understand that, you know, coaches are looking for guys who are going to help them keep their jobs, right? Especially as the level gets higher and higher. Like, coaches feed their kids based on how their players perform. So they're going to bring in guys who are actually going to help their program. So you have to be able to ask yourself and be realistic and say, can I help this coach's program? Right? Because that's what is going to get you recruited at the end of the day. The other thing to keep in mind when we talk about just knowing whether or not you're on track is, you know, the stats and awards that you've gotten so far. So especially you guys who have, who have, you know, are a little bit older who have gotten that experience, right? You know, a very large amount, a very large majority of guys at every college level, Division one, division two, Division three, naia, juco, any level of college basketball, the majority of those guys were all conference players, all state players, right? They were the best of the best. And they, they typically get the awards to back that up again. That's not 100% of the time, especially if you maybe play in a place that's really, really competitive and you're playing, you know, a bunch of other players there who are going on to play at high levels, guys who are going to be, you know, future high major players, future pros. Like, obviously then that's a little bit different. But you know, for the most part, these guys who are at this level were. They won the awards, right? They had the accolades at that level too. That's another way to know whether or not you're in that top 10% of players. So again, there are exceptions, right? If you're the third or fourth player on a really good team, you might just not have the volume of shots or offense needed to make, you know, all conference list or an all state list. So that's one thing that's understandable right there. Or, you know, you played on a bad team in maybe a bad conference and so maybe, you know, you, you had a great season, but you don't get a ton of looks because your team didn't play well. You didn't play great competition. That's one thing to understand. Or your system that you played in wasn't conducive to big numbers, right? So that's, those are things to understand as well. But one thing you can look at is how do you match up against the best players in your area, in your class, right? So when you look at guys around you who are being recruited, guys who are going on to play at the next level, how did you play against them? How did your numbers compare to their numbers right there, right? That's another way to know, like, okay, that's, you know, this is, this is like, I'm going to be able to move. Like, I know if I, if I can play against this guy and I played as well or outperform this guy and he's getting recruited, well, that probably lets me know that I'm probably at that level as well. So that's one thing again to keep in mind. And that's why it's important to evaluate the guys that you know who have either gone on to play in college or, you know, are going to go on to play or at least going to have opportunities to go on and play as well. And so ultimately step one to get him recruited guys is understanding whether or not you're actually good enough to get to that level. You can think about it like this. If you aren't doing at least one of these three things, which is getting solid minutes for your varsity team, playing AAU for a good or great team, or one of the better players in your area, then there's not many coaches who are going to want to recruit you. And there's not going to be any who are going to be giving you any scholarship money, okay? And that's what you have to understand. Like I said before, guys, a coach is going to feed his family based on how his team performs. So he's looking to bring in guys who are going to help him win. And if you haven't proven at the high school level, at the AAU level, that you can make an impact and help your team win, then what incentives does that coach have for recruiting you to his team to help him win? Right. You have to think about it that way as well. So that's the harsh reality of playing at that level. You have to have the talent for it. It can't just be, I work hard, I really want to do it. It has to be, I'm also good enough to do it. And I combine that with the hard work that I have, okay? And ultimately, you gotta have the talent first. And again, if you're not there, right, well, then you have to really double down on what you're doing. Right? So double down on getting better, on getting yourself to that level. Before we even start talking about getting to the point where you're sending out emails or you're going to camp, so you're trying to worry about all this recruiting stuff. Take care, we need to take care of first. So ultimately, the point I want to get at is that if you want this, if this is your goal, if you want to get to the point where you can play college basketball, that your actions need to back that up as well. It's not good enough to just say, oh, you know, I want to get to this point because I want to have a signing day because I want to go and say, oh, I played college basketball. You have to actually, like, if you want to get there and you want to last there, that you've got to actually put in the work to get yourself to that point again, understanding that there's, you know, at least 68,000 players out there who are working just the same way I'm working, trying to get one of the 7,000 spots available, right? So that college coach can look and he has one spot to fill. He's got 68,000 options, right? Think about it that way. You obviously don't have that many options. You've got about 1750 in the United States. Those are your options, right? And he's got 68,000 of them at least, right? Maybe more, depending on. In fact, this year, definitely more. Because the transfer portal guys getting Extra years. That coach has well over a hundred thousand viable options that he can take, right? So you have to understand that if you're trying to get one of those spots right there, then the training that you go through, your commitment, your discipline to doing what you need to do, to getting better, that's where it all stems from. That's where it all starts from. So don't have, you know, don't have a goal, but you don't match that with your actions. Okay? Look yourself in the mirror and say, listen, do I actually want to do this? And if I do, am I making sure that my actions back up what I'm saying? And if you do that, guys, and you commit to getting better, you're going to put yourself in a position where, you know, you. You may be able to reach that goal again, and the numbers aren't for you. But that shouldn't be something that discourages you. That should be something that just propels you to work even harder. All right? Ultimately, that's my goal. So like I said, guys wanted to kind of break down what it actually takes to get to that level and give you some steps on how to actually do that and why it's so important that you're so focused and committed to your training and the discipline and the habits that you form right now. Now, eventually I'll go into some detail on the actual, you know, how to get recruited and what you need to do and all those. The steps you can take, tangible things you can do. But I thought this is an important way to start. So if you guys learned something from this video, make sure you guys drop a. Like, drop a comment down below. Let me know what you think. If you have any other comments podcast you want to hear about. And of course, like I said, guys, anybody on podcast right now, Apple podcast, scroll down. Leave a review for me. Let me know what you think. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.