Today is the final day of the week long fall signing period for college hoops. We've left this StoryStream up on the front of the site because Buzz has had players commit and sign late in the period before (Reggie Smith, please pick up the white courtesy phone). That kind of thing isn't surprising, given that Buzz has talked about the need to continue recruiting at all times.
In fact, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Michael Hunt caught up with Buzz in Hawaii and talked to him a bit about recruiting. I want to highlight some of the quotes from Buzz.
There is so much social media following recruiting that you don’t realize there are peoples lives at stake that goes into those relationships.
Telling websites to get off your lawn is a bad look. But it's a solid point to realize that when you talk about recruiting, you're talking about the futures of 14-18 year old kids.
As of today, we are one over. We have until August 28 to get it squared. That is an eternity in things that transpire in our industry. Not just in recruiting, but every facet of this industry.
Well, "get it squared" is kind of a callous way to go about talking about people's lives, but okay, this is your show.
This is an unforgiving industry. It’s built on trust. The only way you can build trust is through long-standing relationships.
Again, that's a fair point, but what about the trust of one of the 14 players that are going to be asked to either A) leave or B) never show up? They've entrusted you with their future, or as you put it, their lives, and now you're going to have to break that trust.
Look, I'm not saying that over-recruiting is the worst thing ever. In the same piece, Buzz said that there's only a certain number of players who can make a difference in events like the Maui Invitational, and you have to make every effort to recruit those kinds of players. And I'm not saying that this isn't all solved by a certain sophomore guard not being able to get academically eligible ever again. But you can't respond to questions about over-signing with an attitude of moral superiority over anyone who's paying attention and proclamations of needing to build trust when you are going to have to tell someone who has trusted you that they are no longer welcome at the Al McGuire Center.