NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Are College Coaches Gaining an Unfair Advantage through USA Basketball?

Are coaches getting a recruiting advantage through USA Basketball? It’s now becoming a real debate throughout NCAA Basketball.

Before Kansas coach Bill Self could finish enjoying his Team USA U-18’s gold medal, ESPN basketball analyst, Dick Vitale, took to Twitter:

This question reared its ugly head when Duke’s Coach Mike Krzyzewski took over the US Men’s Senior team. On the surface, that was enough of an advantage for Duke to grab ‘one and done’ recruits at a rate that, according to Jim Boeheim, made Kentucky coach, John Calipari, express some concern over the perceived advantage.

"“It’s a concern he has raised before,” Boeheim said. “That particular case he has mentioned. He’s said he thinks its an advantage. He got the No. 1 recruit in the country. It’s a little bit disingenuous of him. I like John. We get along fine. He feels Mike is getting an advantage. You could make that argument. But Duke isn’t getting any better players than they ever have.”"

There are a lot of recruiting advantages in college basketball. Recruiting is never going to be an equal playing field and, whether people like it or not, it never has been. But perception trumps reality with this U18 squad.

FIBA America’s U18 tournament MVP was Quentin Grimes who so happens to be a Jayhawk freshman. Also on the roster is Matthew Hurt. Hurt was second on the team in average minutes per game and averaged 14.0 a contest. For those who watched the tournament, you saw a very fun, up and down style with an emphasis on defense. 

The undeclared Hurt is directly in the crosshairs of Self and if he signs with Kansas, you best believe the cries will go well beyond Vitale and Calipari.

In 2016, Shaka Smart coached Team USA’s U18 team and successfully landed Mohamed Bamba. Did playing for Smart on Team USA help? Maryland Coach, Mark Turgeon, was an assistant on that team and managed to land Kevin Huerter.

But, if you look at the roster closer, you’ll see that Calipari landed three players off that team. Quade Green, Hamidou Diallo, and PJ Washington all went on to sign with Kentucky. Coaching Team USA might have helped Smart and Turgeon but it certainly didn’t hurt Calipari.

What are some common sense solutions? There are plenty of deserving high school coaches who have or would love to coach a team in a FIBA tournament. That also could cause issues if a player were to transfer to the school, whether public or private, of the head coach or any of his staff. It could make high school coaches all over the nation feel a little uneasy.

With the NBA looking like they are getting rid of the “one and done” rule, using NBA coaches would also cause some consternation.

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There isn’t a clear solution for what some view as a growing problem but this isn’t on USA Basketball. From top to bottom, you can argue, that the organization has never been in a better place. FIBA and USA Basketball are providing kids with once in a lifetime experiences. This shouldn’t be ruined by the perception of whether college recruiting is fair or unfair.