Brave new world: on Friday, coaches can start driving kids crazy with unlimited calls and texts.
Somewhere, Kelvin Sampson is beating his head against a wall.
The real question is how coaches will deal with this. You may remember that when he was at USC, Henry Bibby had a favorite recruiting trick: he'd send 100-150 letters a day to a favored recruit.
That'll get old incredibly fast with phone calls and probably texts too.
This also makes a couple of things certain. First, kids have more control, which is fine. And second, it forces a new level of communication. Calling once a week would put most people on a script of sorts, with a list of things to check off. Did we ask about mom? Did we talk about opportunities here? Did we remember to ask about the girlfriend?
In the new environment, coaches and players will have a more natural relationship and will be able to take each other's measure more effectively.
This is good for the college game, but also good in that it may tend to undercut some of the scummier elements of AAU ball, who have become advisers and confidants, but who all too often put their own interests first.
We're not saying that some college coaches don't do that, but in general, the quality of character is better, and of course some coaches truly are extraordinary people.
It's still an imperfect world: the definition of amateur is antiquated and all but dead. But this is an improvement. Getting to know coaches, and separating the jerks from the good guys, is great for the players.
| DBR Auctions! |
| New T-Shirts! |
 |
| DBR Is On Twitter!(DBRTweetz) |