Five for the Weekend: July evaluation period tiring, educational
I'm home after nine days on the road watching basketball.
Let's see if we can get a Five for the Weekend out of that.
1. So how'd the first 10 days of the July evaluation period go?
Really well, I think. I attended events in Indianapolis, Akron, Atlanta and North Augusta, spent nine of the 10 days on the road, got to see most of the nation's elite prospects and spend time with lots of coaches I know well and many I barely knew at all. We at CBSSports.com had four writers bouncing around the country -- more than, I believe, any other media outlet. It's an expensive way to operate but necessary for us to do our jobs well. Almost every story we break over the next year, big and small, will be because of a relationship with somebody involved in the story or somebody close to somebody involved in the story, and those relationships, for the most part, are created and strengthened on the road each July. It's nice to work for bosses who understand that. Not all bosses at all places do.
2. What were the highlights and lowlights?
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| Tom Izzo and Gary Parrish spending three days together is one of the highlights of the recruiting trip. (CBSSports.com) |
3. Is 10 straight days of evaluating on the road too much?
Way too much, absolutely, and that's why the evaluation schedule should be redesigned in time for next year. Understand, all I do is watch games. Sometimes I stand. Sometimes I sit. I never run or jump or dive. And by the time I got home late Thursday after nine nights on the road I was beat, just physically and mentally worn down. Coaches and writers are generally in gyms from 9 a.m. till 11 p.m. on most days unless they're traveling from one spot to the next. Add an early breakfast and a late dinner, and a 17-hour day is pretty normal. Do that 10 days straight and you want to kill yourself, and it's similarly exhausting for the players. Nobody needs to travel and play basketball 10 straight days multiple times a day. It's just silly. As my colleague Matt Norlander detailed this week from the Nike Peach Jam, it's silly on lots of different levels.
4. Will it be changed?
Almost certainly, yes. I don't know that there's a perfect solution, but here's what I would do: I'd give the coaches some evaluation days in April while their players and children are still in school, then give them three four-day periods in July that run Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So next year, for instance, coaches could evaluate a little in April -- then July 5-8, July 12-15 and July 26-29. That would break things into manageable periods and keep everybody fresh and focused because right now, under the current system, nobody is fresh and focused.
5. But you'll be fresh and focused by the start of the second 10-day evaluation period, right?
I hope so.
I leave for more events in Las Vegas next week.
