Apologies for posting this entire article but it would have required each individual going to the original site and answering a handful of questions for access. A tip o' the hat to Brent Briggeman for his excellent work here.
Evaluation period: Air Force men's basketball coach Dave Pilopovich keeps eye out for future cadets
Brent Briggeman
The Gazette
May 30, 2015
Players with unreal vertical leaps were throwing down dunks, lobbing alley-oops to each other off the backboard and generally treating an AAU tournament like it was a Harlem Globetrotters performance.
Dave Pilipovich expressed no interest. He scarcely glanced that direction.
The Air Force coach's attention was monopolized by a player on another court who was new to his radar. Recruited by some Ivy League schools and available, this 6-foot-4 guard could drive, shoot, defend and play above the rim. That he had been vetted academically by some of the top schools was an obvious bonus, and Pilipovich was excited.
Evaluation periods in college basketball set when NCAA coaches can scour the country to watch high school-age players. Contact with players at these events is forbidden, but plenty can be learned from watching a teenager on the court and in his interactions with teammates, officials, coaches and, sometimes most telling, his parents. There's also a chance to see players against a variety of competition.
Pilipovich allowed The Gazette's Brent Briggeman to join him for a weekend of observation at the Pangos Sports Spectacular in mid-April. Plenty of conditions were attached, as Pilipovich couldn't break NCAA rules regarding discussion of particular athletes. This isn't about that, but the process, pace, strategy and emotions of a weekend spent evaluating potential recruits.
It became apparent quickly that above-the-rim flash wasn't what Pilipovich was after. He wanted to use his time on players who could be future cadets.
Dave Pilipovich remembers the first time he saw future Air Force players on the court
***
The first game the Air Force coach watched was played in an auxiliary gym at Bishop Gorman High School.
The school, made famous by the ESPN-produced documentary about Snoop Dogg's football-playing son, is a breathtaking ode to Vegas' excess. The sprawling campus and its $96 million facilities put most colleges to shame.
Randall Cunningham's son went there. Gary Payton's son is there now. In fact, Julian Payton played in this tournament, showing up in a red BMW convertible.
Despite the impressive surroundings, the quiet auxiliary gym served as a reminder this weekend was going to be spent watching amateurs in mostly empty venues.
Pilipovich pulled out his list of about a dozen players to watch and pointed out the ones playing in this first game. This sheet proved to be like a grocery list in that it was only a starting point. By the end of the weekend his cart contained many new names, while many others were left on the shelf.
One player, who Pilipovich had learned about through a tip and had seen only in an online video, was removed from the list almost immediately in the first game. Overly skinny and displaying no outstanding skills, "he's two years away from being two years away," Pilipovich noted.
Then came the second game, featuring a team Pilipovich had seen many times over the years and that has provided a steady pipeline for recruits.
This is where Pilipovich began picking up on the details.
Two players left him far from excited. One had altered his shooting form, starting down around the waist. The other showed little in the way of an outside shot.
Neither played his way off the list, but the weekend wasn't off to a resounding start.
In the next game, a red flag arose. The player on Air Force's list showed no touch around the basket, but his height alone made him worth tracking. Pilipoivich saw that the player's eyes moved not to his coach but to his dad at every stoppage and each time he sat on the bench. The dad was keeping stats, monitoring the clock, tracking each movement closer than the pit bosses a few miles away.
Was this a kid and family Pilipovich wanted to invite onto his team? Was this a kid who was going to fit as a cadet?
Again, not an electrifying start. But the outlook quickly changed.
***
The first game Pilipovich saw the 5-foot-11 point guard play, he took note. There was nothing special about him athletically, but there was something about his feel for the game that the coach liked.
The excitement came on a second viewing, after some research.
The kid was the son of a high-level basketball coach, which explained his poise and court savvy. Pilipovich's sources told him this player was sharp academically and available.
Pilipovich does nothing to hide his emotions, and he was bouncing at this point.
Still, he had to exhibit some restraint. He wasn't going to be able to talk to anyone directly about this player for a few days. And even in his euphoria, he's fine with the need for a little patience. After all, he knows what these evaluation periods used to be like.
Before the no-contact rule was implemented, games were followed by a receiving line like a wedding. Pilipovich recalled waiting for at least 15 minutes to talk to a player. Often he would have to skip the next game, particularly if it was at another venue.
And it didn't stop there. Coaches would learn where the players were staying and send notes and faxes to the hotel. Letters were slipped under doors.
Pilipovich didn't talk to any players or AAU coaches at this event, but made a point to make his presence known. One 20-minute trek across town to see half a game was made for the sole purpose of being seen. The game included no one on the recruiting list, but it was a program with a strong relationship with Air Force that Pilipovich values, so he wanted to make sure the coach saw him there.
These efforts were noticed. In a staff meeting two days after the coaches returned from the evaluation weekend, one of Pilipovich's assistants said a parent of a player reached out via email to say he had noticed the Air Force coach at a game and wanted him to know his son was extremely interested. The coach had already made positive notes about the player, so he jumped up the priority list.
***
Most schools are working just as diligently as Air Force, just focusing their attention in other areas. The Falcons don't need to check the waiver wire that is the transfer community, they waste no time looking into junior colleges and exert little effort on players younger than juniors.
Coaches at AAU basketball tournaments stick out via their shirts
Major programs closely track freshmen and sophomores, catching them early in the process. Air Force has the luxury of waiting and seeing which players develop into those who might fit their profile.
Pilipovich watched just one game of players full of in-state sophomores, and if anything he came away disappointed. The team looked good, to the point where they would play themselves right out of Air Force's range.
It's not waving a white flag when Air Force backs off a talent beyond its reach, it's just reality. If this were car shopping, Pilipovich wants no part of wandering onto a lot beyond his price range. Why become attached to something you can't have?
And if you're begging someone to come to the academy, what happens when the road grows truly difficult? No one benefits from a player who can't or won't stick it out.
When Pilipovich says, "We can't get him," on multiple occasions, it is without a trace of defeat in his voice.
Assistant Kurt Kanaskie spent nine years as an assistant at Penn State in the Big Ten and two years in the same capacity with Virginia Tech in the ACC before arriving at Air Force last year. The difference he has seen is that the Falcons' initial pool of recruits shrinks faster than others because of the qualifications and interest, but while a Virginia Tech might spend its attention on just a handful of players after it whittles down the list, the number Air Force seriously pursues is much larger.
"We're trying to get guys who can compete academically, that can compete in the Mountain West Conference and are willing to serve their country for at least five years," Kanaskie said. "That's a tough task."
Also, Air Force must find enough recruits to not only account for a few direct-enter players each year, but also another 12 to fill the prep school roster.
And the crop has to be deep enough for attrition.
Pilipovich wishes he could trust all that is told him by recruits, their families and even their high school and AAU coaches, but that's not the case. All are trying to sell something. Besides that, even if the intentions are pure, unforeseen variables can change everything.
That's why observing can be so valuable. You can project a lot about a player just by how he carries himself. A Texas recruit lost his spot on Air Force's list in Las Vegas not just because he barely played in the game that Pilipovich witnessed, but as a result of his lethargic body language. Passive isn't going to cut it at Air Force, and Pilipovich would rather see that firsthand than have a coach falsely sing the players' praises.
In listening to what is discussed at the staff meeting, where coaches share notes, basketball talent is far from the only topic. One potential recruit has a stepfather who is a former Marine and would love to send the player to an academy. Another kid already has his pilot's license, offering Air Force an obvious advantage.
Height, quickness and shooting touch are considered, but other factors - particularly mutual interest - are just as important.
***
"We just fell into something," Pilipovich said. "This is big."
Pilipovich, days before the event, learned that the son of a well-known pro basketball executive was still available as his senior year was coming to a close. Pilipovich had watched film and came away impressed, but he didn't realize that player was here until he noticed the famous father in the gym.
So, the day's schedule was amended on the fly.
Pilipovich was impressed with his size and, particularly, his shot. From a talent perspective, there was no doubt he would be good enough for Air Force.
The list grew by one and Pilipovich was again giddy. Air Force may spend much of its time shopping in the bargain bin, but that just makes the quality finds that much more exhilarating.
Days after the tournament, the executive's son was removed from Air Force's list after failing to return six phone calls. But all was not lost. In the process of watching him, Pilipovich had been given an extra chance to see another potential recruit who had started the weekend on the list but hadn't dazzled in a previous viewing. In this game, the players even frequently guarded each other.
Pilipovich became more and more intrigued by this other player, so even as the executive's son was removed as quickly as he was added to the list this new player improved his status.
This was how the list continued to evolve. Another player was added after a chance conversation when Pilipovich and a coach he trusts from another school crossed paths on the way to a gym (Pilipovich, by the way, knows everyone. Even the facilities manager at Bishop Gorman is a longtime acquaintance with whom Pilipovich worked at Eastern Michigan). That coach told Pilipovich of a recruit his team no longer had a spot for, but who met every qualification for Air Force. Pilipovich was pressed for time, as the deadline to get seniors started on the application process hung just days away, but this was something he was going to explore.
"How about that," he said. "We spend all this time watching games and then we might get someone because of a conversation in a parking lot."
***
Pilipovich's list, by the time he presented his notes to his assistants two days after returning, was vastly different than when it began.
Those names were combined with those gathered from his assistants after their weekend observing in different cities. In all, about 65 potential recruits were discussed.
Checking in with Pilipovich a month later, many of the players he watched in Las Vegas remain in consideration. He knows some will drop off over time. Others may arrive at the prep school and drop off after that. Fewer will actually be welcomed into the cadet wing. And how many will one day graduate as officers? Who knows? Only one, Chase Kammerer, did after the 2014 season. Six more threw up their hat in Falcon Stadium on Thursday.
That process has to start somewhere. And for some it started when they caught the coach's eye at a tournament in Las Vegas. In almost every case, it didn't happen because of high-flying theatrics, but because of a display of intangibles that provided reason for hope that they could fit at Air Force and see this long journey to its completion.
That's what Pilipovich wants to see most of all.
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