Basketball recruiting has become a spring game again.

Are you old enough to remember when there was no early signing date in basketball? It was back in the day when recruiting wasn’t the off-season sport, when there was no Poop Sheet, predecessor to all the rumor blogs of today, when coaches could keep who they were recruiting pretty secret.

Here is how it worked. Coaches started scouting most of the high school stars in their junior years. Sure, there was a Lew Alcindor or Tom McMillen who literally stood out before then, but recruiting in earnest did not begin as early as today.

Why? Because prep stars could not sign a national letter of intent until after their senior seasons. Some made verbal commitments before then, but usually to take the pressure off recruiting and let them enjoy their last year in high school.

Michael Jordan and most top-rated recruits of his day didn’t commit until after their last high school games and shortly thereafter signed with the schools of their choice. It all sped up with the early signing date in the late 1980s. Coaches got the jump on recruiting kids earlier, and their selling pitch was often to sign in November and we’ll still watch you every game as a senior.

Have you noticed that fewer players are now signing in the fall? They are waiting because college basketball has become so fluid with one and dones, whose goal is to get to the NBA as fast as possible and want the guarantee of playing time in their only college season for experience and exposure. To date only a handful of top 100 rising senior recruits have made commitments, and some of them will wait until the spring – the old signing date.

Roy Williams seems to be offering a lot of scholarships to five-stars, perhaps to get in the queue early. Big men might wait to see how Armando Bacot does since UNC already has 6-10 power forward Day’Ron Sharpe committed for the 2020-21 season.

The perimeter is more open. Brandon Robinson is a senior and there are two one-year graduate transfers. Carolina will likely be looking for a point guard again if Cole Anthony turns out to be another Coby White. The next in line wants to make sure he gets his turn. But they won’t know that for certain until spring.

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