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There's not really much to do with recruiting for players until after their Sophomore year. Prior to this time, players should not think about recruiting at all and should instead focus on working their butts off every day to get better. If the player does everything the coach asks in terms of working out, that is not nearly enough! The player has to do much more on his own outside of practice to get better. After all, the 12th guy at the end of the bench is doing everything the coach asks the team to do. Recruiting usually starts the summer before the Junior year. That's when mail from college basketball programs might start showing up at the school or the house. Most of these letters will be form letters that untold other kids are receiving, so don't put a tremendous amount of value in them. You will know that a school has legitimate interest when the assistant coach starts sending the player handwritten notes and personally calling or texting the player when the rules allow. When the Head Coach starts calling, then and only then will you know for sure that you are a serious target of their program and you might expect a scholarship offer soon. Head Coaches don't waste time chasing down recruiting leads. That's what assistant coaches are for. So, how do you get recruited for basketball? Here are some things to think about: First, and maybe more importantly than anything else, the player and his family must make a brutally honest assessment of the player's ability. This is really hard for many players and their families to honestly do, but it is a necessary step for a successful recruitment. Not everyone is going to play at a D1 school. In many, if not most, regions in the state, you can be the best player in the region and still not be good enough to play D1. My guess is that, on average, if you are not clearly one of the Top 10 to 15 players in the entire state, you are not going to play D1. Kentucky generally just doesn't produce more talent than that. However, there are many opportunities to get a free college education playing D2 or NAIA basketball, so don't overlook them. Everyone has to know their level, which is why you have to make an honest assessment of your ability. Don't miss out on an opportunity because you think you are better than you really are. Second, clean up (if necessary) any negative issues on social media and get your academics in order. Before the first phone call comes from the assistant coach, he will look at your posts on social media to find out what type of person you are. Players have lost free college educations for stupid things put on social media referencing drug use, etc. Also, many schools will ask for your high school transcript early in the recruiting process to make sure you can succeed academically in college and that you are on track to meet the NCAA eligibility requirements. Coaches don't want players who are going to be a problem in the future, either socially or academically. Also, always play hard (you never know when a coach is watching) and be a good teammate. After all, unless you are going to be really good at the next level, there is a good chance that your role on a college team (at least for the first couple of years) will be to play hard in limited minutes and be a good college teammate. Third, make sure as much of your play as possible is captured on video and you have someone who knows how to create a hi-lite video and post it on the internet. You want to make things easy for the college coaches and it's much easier for them to check you out on the internet than to have to see you in person. Also, if coaches are really interested in you, be prepared to give them a full-game tape of at least one of your games so they can really see how good you are, whether you play defense and rebound, whether turn the ball over too much, whether you take plays off occasionally, etc. This is necessary because everyone is an all-star on a hi-lite video! Fourth, get on an AAU team that plays a schedule where you will have the opportunity to be seen by coaches. This will involve a significant investment of time, travel and expense, so it can be a sacrifice for the player and his family. If your AAU schedule doesn't allow you to play in front of coaches, you will still get the benefit of becoming a better player by playing against the better competition in AAU. Unfortunately, however, it may not help your recruiting very much because the other AAU coaches and players are not going to mention how good you are to anyone. The whole goal is to be seen by as many coaches as possible and to play well while they are watching. Fifth (and I think this one is really underrated or unknown), reach out to the college and their coaching staff, especially at college programs below the D1 level. Once you have honestly evaluated your ability (see #1 above), you should look for a college at your level that you would like to attend. Then reach out to those schools by calling them (or having the Head Coach of your high school team make the call) and expressing interest in their program (call an assistant, not the Head Coach), letting them know where they can find your hi-lite video on the internet, going to their basketball camps in the summer, arranging an "unofficial" visit, etc. An unofficial visit simply means that you visit them on their campus at your expense. You can take as many unofficial visits as you want. All it takes from the college is an hour or so of an assistant coach's time to meet with you. If you are capable of playing at their level (which is why you have to honestly evaluate your ability), then the school would love for you to come visit. It's just common sense that college coaches are going to spend most of their recruiting efforts on players that they think that they can get--so let them know you are interested. If you reach out to the school and show interest in them, then they are much more likely to recruit you for their program. However, don't repeatedly call or pester a college coach. If you've called once or twice and not gotten a return call, then you have received all the information you need about what they think your potential to play for them is. Sorry for the long post. Good luck in the process!

Samford is a Division I school that competes in the Southern Conference along with Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Furman, Mercer, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, VMI, Western Carolina and Wofford. Yes, Martin Newton is the AD.

Congratulations to Matt Rose who officially signed with Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, today on the first day of the Spring signing period. He is a great person and player and he should do very well there. Here is a link to an article about the signing: Samford University Athletics - Bulldogs Add Kentucky Standout Matt Rose

Lexington Christian Academy

I don't understand either why Matt Rose is not at least "in the conversation" more often as a potential Mr. Basketball candidate in the posts I read on BluegrassPreps. Is it because not many people from across the state have seen him play (his team, LCA, has never played in the Sweet 16 in Rupp Arena)? Is it because he has no one really aggressively publicly pushing his reputation and ability? Is it because he doesn't play for a traditional basketball "power" school? Is it because he is young for his grade and coming on strong later in high school? I don't know. What I do know is that he should at least be in the discussion for Mr. Basketball in 2015. What is the criterion for selecting Mr. Basketball anyway? Is it purely based on stats? Is it how valuable the player is for his high school team's success? Is it who projects as having the most talent at the next level (whether it is realized yet or not)? Is it something else? The Stats Here are Matt Rose's stats compiled by the KHSAA compared to some of the other players that seem to be mentioned most often as a Mr. Basketball candidate for 2015: Camron Justice 24.3 ppg 3.9 rpg Dwayne Sutton 23.9 ppg 11.5 rpg Matt Rose 22.8 ppg 8.2 rpg Jalen Perry 21.7 ppg 6.4 rpg Beetle Bolden 20.2 ppg 4.8 rpg David Simmons 18.0 ppg 5.1 rpg Aric Holman 16.3 ppg 10.3 rpg Ray Spalding 13.3 ppg 8.7 rpg Matt Rose is also currently #11 in the state in scoring and #7 in the state in free throw percentage. I know stats aren't everything as they can often be inflated by playing weak competition. However, Lexington Christian played a difficult schedule this year. In addition to being in the 43rd District and playing Lexington Catholic, Lafayette, Dunbar and Tates Creek twice each, they also played several really good teams from Louisville and Northern Kentucky. Rose's stats were not put up against weak competition at all. Teams fall in and out of the rankings from time to time, but here is his production in the eight games LCA played this year against teams ranked in the BluegrassPreps Top 20 at the time the game was played: #1 Louisville Trinity (25 & 7) #6 Louisville Doss (23 & 10) #8 Newport Central Catholic (14 & 10) #8 Lexington Catholic (11 & 16) #9 DuPont Manual (21 & 8) #11 Lexington Catholic (19 & 7) #15 Lincoln County (34 & 9) #18 Scott County (33 & 11) Value to LCA How good would LCA be without Matt Rose? The answer can only be opinion, but I think he is certainly as much or more valuable to his team than the other Mr. Basketball candidates are to theirs. In addition to leading his team in scoring and rebounding, Rose is also leading Lexington Christian to some "firsts" this year as well. As a school, LCA has only been in existence for 25 years. LCA has never been higher than a #4 seed in the 5-team 43rd District Tournament and LCA has never in its history even made it to the 11th Region Tournament. This is the best team LCA has ever had and Rose is the most valuable part of that team. This year LCA has been ranked in the Top 25 for most of the season. For the first time, LCA won the tough 43rd District outright during the regular season and earned its first #1 seed in the 43rd District Tournament where they will have to beat #4 seed Lafayette to advance to the region. By the way, for those who don't know, the five teams in the 43rd District are #9 Lexington Catholic, #17 Dunbar and #18 Lafayette (according to the BluegrassPreps ranking) and outright district winner but unranked LCA and unranked Tates Creek. The Next Level Rose had 7 Division I scholarship offers before he ended his recruitment early by committing to Scott Padgett and Samford University last September. (Rose has a sister that attends Samford). As this was well before the start of his senior year of high school, I think it is safe to say that there would have been plenty of other offers come in based on his play this season. Rose has a big upside as he will be starting college at Samford while still 17 years old. Rose was also recently announced as the KABC 11th Region Player of the Year. As tough as the 11th Region is year in and year out, that honor alone in any year should put the recipient "in the conversation" for Mr. Basketball. On a personal level, I know Matt and his family and I can say that you will not find a nicer young man of the highest character who excels both in the classroom and on the court. A lot of posters on BluegrassPreps give opinions (which is exactly what the site is for) often without backing them up with facts. For those who wish to call me a "homer", I will accept that label (as pretty much everyone on BluegrassPreps is a homer for some team or some player), but I do ask that you consider that most of this post was based on fact and not solely opinion.

The 43rd District is absolutely brutal this year with Lexington Christian, Lexington Catholic, Lafayette and Dunbar (plus Tates Creek). When it's all said and done, it is guaranteed that two teams that are currently in the Top 25 in the state won't even make it to the 11th Region tournament because they won't make it out of the 43rd District.

Lexington Catholic had no answer for LCA's size as LCA out-rebounded Catholic 43-19. Neither team was particularly good on offense tonight. The game was won by LCA's defense and rebounding. Matt Rose 11 points and 16 rebounds. Drew Trimble 11 points and 9 rebounds.

Counting this season and last season, these teams have played three times with Lexington Catholic holding a 2-1 edge over Lexington Christian. All of these games have been decided by 5 points or less and, surprisingly, all have been won by the visiting team. I'm guessing there will be another close one tonight.

I disagree that the seed is left to chance initially. The three-way tie-breaking mechanism in the 43rd District is as follows, and I quote: "(1) Head to Head with tied teams, (2) Pull out of 2 hats: 1 school name pulled out of a hat and then pull a seed spot out of another hat to match with school name pulled out." So, if there were to be a three-way tie, the first tie-breaker is based on performance, not chance. In the hypothetical we have been discussing, LCA would be the #2 seed with a 3-1 record, Lafayette would be the #3 seed with a 2-2 record and Dunbar would be the #4 seed with a 1-3 record in the games played among the three teams tied. The tie would thus have been broken and there is no need to go any further. Only if all three of the teams tied were 2-2 against each other would you get to the second step of the three-way tie-breaking mechanism of drawing names out of a hat. Again, there is no mention of a "coin flip" in the three-way tie-breaking mechanism.

In this hypothetical, there would be three teams tied at 4-4. In the District Tournament Seeding Plan there is no mention whatsoever of a "coin flip" in the three-way tie-breaking mechanism.

Lexington Christian often plays a lineup that goes 6'4" (Nighbert), 6'5" (Rode), 6'6" (King), 6'7" (Rose) and 6'8" (Trimble).

The three-way tiebreaker will only come into play if LCA were to lose both of their last two games and finish 4-4 in the district. In that event, LCA would still be the #2 seed in the district tourney, with Lafayette #3 and Dunbar #4. The reason why is that in head-to-head games played among the three teams tied, the records would be: LCA 3-1 (wins over Lafayette and Dunbar twice; loss to Lafayette) Lafayette 2-2 (wins over LCA and Dunbar; losses to LCA and Dunbar) Dunbar 1-3 (win over Lafayette; losses to Lafayette and LCA twice) So, regardless of the outcome of the remaining games, LCA cannot be worse than a #2 seed in the 43rd district tournament, and Lafayette and Dunbar cannot be better than a #3 seed. The 43rd is going to end up with LexCath and LCA as the top two seeds (the order still to be determined by remaining games) with Lafayette and Dunbar in a coin flip for the #3 and #4 spots (unless LCA loses both remaining games, then Lafayette gets the #3 seed automatically based on its better head-to-head record than Dunbar).

7 - West Jessamine 5 - LCA 3 - Doss 2 - Wayne Co. 1 - Whitley Co. TB -- West Jessamine

43rd

Stats for three games in All "A" State Tournament: Matt Rose 23 & 8 vs. Shawnee 22 & 13 vs. Buckhorn 14 & 10 vs. Newport Central Catholic Drew Trimble 14 & 5 vs. Shawnee 14 & 11 vs. Buckhorn 14 & 4 vs. Newport Central Catholic Kyle Rode (8th Grade) 6 & 6 vs. Shawnee 6 & ? vs. Buckhorn 11 & 4 vs. Newport Central Catholic