Recruiting a daily task for KWC coaches

Jun. 18—When Kentucky Wesleyan College men's basketball coach Drew Cooper searches for potential recruits, he tries to keep the Panthers' approach simple.

"There are two things that have been told to me by mentors that resonated with me," said Cooper, who's preparing for his fourth season in Owensboro. "One is donkeys don't win the Derby. That's something coaches talk quite a bit about — every team watches film, every coach knows how to run plays, but the great equalizer is how good your players are.

"The second thing is the acronym 'RDOP.' Recruit daily or perish. You can be on vacation, and it's not like you're going to shut your phone off and not take phone calls from the young men you want to hear from. It's truly a daily task."

And, vigilance is key.

"I bet I get close to 100 emails a day from kids that might have signed up for a recruiting service," Cooper said. "The advice I give prospects trying to get recruited is show up at a coach's door, don't send an email. You could make it a full-time job for a coach that gets emails and watches every 15-minute highlight film.

"It's a balance of listening to people that you trust. Every coach has a network of folks that they hear from about players, and we have to do our due diligence in following up on them. For every email or lead that I get, I ask myself, 'Is this person trying to help the kid or is he trying to help my program?' If it's the latter, it's easier to listen and follow up."

Another resource that coaches have had to master recently is the transfer portal, which surpassed 1,000 entrants for the first time in 2020.

"That is something that is really going to change the college basketball experience, in my opinion, not for the better," Cooper said. "My romantic vision of college basketball is you come in as a freshman, get better every year, and then by the time you're a senior, it's your program. The transfer portal, as many times as it's a noble cause, there are situations where a kid did not have immediate gratification, so he puts his name in the portal and gets re-recruited.

"If coaches do not adjust to it, though, they'll find themselves out of a job."

Typically, KWC's coaches don't have the luxury of recruiting years into the future like many high-Division I programs. With ever-changing rosters in Division II, Cooper and his staff often focus on the next year ahead.

"We're really becoming acclimated from 'A' to 'Z' with the Class of 2022 right now," he said. "I always get a chuckle when I get an email from a kid in the Class of '24. You never know what's going to happen with your roster. With the transfer portal and evolution of how college basketball rosters are going, it's not realistic for a place like Kentucky Wesleyan to really be worried about high school freshmen and sophomores."

It's not uncommon to send texts daily to prospective student-athletes once recruiting season picks up, Cooper noted, and he feels good about his program's chances to land targets once they get on campus.

"We're very comfortable with the package we have, with the community and the selling points we have," he continued. "I've been fortunate because I think we have a team full of players that very much appreciate things about Kentucky Wesleyan. Once we get to know the kid and get to know his brothers and sisters, talk to his parents, the college campus really sells itself."

The grind never ends, either. Cooper and assistant coach Tyler Hochstetler will spend the next few days traveling to central Kentucky, Indianapolis and Cincinnati to look at potential recruits. Generally, he added, the response he gets from players is positive.

"The first thing we talk about is the history of Kentucky Wesleyan," he said. "Not just the history, but the fact that it's been decade after decade, and you know we're a fully-funded program. Our cycle is coming back.

"When I recruited prospects three years ago, we needed dudes. Now, we're at a point where we're recruiting kids who meet specific needs. Our foundation and culture is very much in place and very strong. We're comfortable in our ability to make a run nationally.

"Even when I was (an assistant) at Bellarmine, I fancied Kentucky Wesleyan as a place where players go to perfect their craft. It's not a place you go if you want to go to the beach or to the bars until 4 a.m. It's a place you go to develop your craft and win championships. It's an advantage for me, because I know when a player comes here, they're choosing our college for the right reasons, and they're taking pride in being part of that tradition."