The Basketball Recruiting Forum Manifesto (Read Me!)

[TheTastyGreek]

Welcome to the North Texas basketball recruiting forum. The goal for this forum is to offer fans the same sort of comprehensive overview of recruiting targets and activity that Gangrene and OldTimer have created over the years on the Football recruiting forum.

The best example of what we hope to accomplish here is Missouri State's basketball recruiting forum. Each prospect gets a dedicated listing, easy to update with new statistics, information, photographs, videos, and any news on scheduled visits or verbal/LOI news. If we can get this forum running half as well as Missouri State, this should be a very valuable resource for our ever-growing basketball fan base.

The rules and goals of this sub-forum will probably evolve over time, but for now... We want to make sure we avoid siphoning traffic away from the main Basketball forum. Activity and interest, especially in the off-season, have grown tremendously over the past few years as our team has enjoyed sustained success. To avoid splitting activity and hurting this natural growth, we're going to treat this Recruiting forum as more of an informational resource and less of a conversational forum. Discussion and conversation should stay over on the Basketball forum. Posts in this forum should be limited to links to outside sources or first-hand observations of confirmed targets/interested prospects.

If anyone has any questions or comments about the recruiting sub-forum, this is the best place to ask them.

The first and most important DO NOT of this forum:

DO NOT CONTACT THESE (or any other) RECRUITS.

Don't send them Facebook messages telling them to sign with North Texas.

Don't go to their games and try to engage them or their families in conversation.

Don't use this forum as a resource for chatting up or trying to befriend future Mean Green players. Don't do it. Don't do any of it.

Trust our coaches to handle the recruiting process; to let potential Mean Green players know about how great our university is, how much our fans will love and appreciate them, or how perfect a fit North Texas would be for them.

Do not contact recruits. Nothing good will come of it. Don't worry about whether you're technically a "booster" according to the NCAA, don't try to figure out how you can talk up North Texas without breaking any rules... Just don't contact them at all. Don't do it. If you avoid communicating with recruits as a general life philosophy, it becomes very unlikely that you'll do anything that could cause recruiting or legal problems for you, the team, or our school.

[TheTastyGreek]

Identifying High School and JUCO recruits

Prospects will get a dedicated thread here when they are identified as having interest in or from North Texas by a recognized recruiting resource (such as Rivals or ESPN), by a published source or public statement (such as an article by Brett Vito or Tim MacMahon, or an interview the prospect gives to a local newspaper), or by a credible private source.

Prospects will NOT get a dedicated thread here because they happen to be a local recruit, a highly rated prospect, or because one or more of us thinks North Texas ought to be pursuing them. If you can't already find a thread about a recruit on this forum, and you aren't linking to a story about some documented interest or offer... Don't start a thread about them here. That belongs on the general Basketball forum.

Someone visiting this forum should be able to look around for a while and get the best, most comprehensive picture of who we've targeted and/or who wants us to offer them a scholarship, and how those processes moved forward through the recruiting season. Fan recruiting wants, wishes, and speculation are all great and we don't want to discourage anyone from starting or having those sorts of conversations... But they should be confined to the primary Basketball forum.

Identifying potential Transfers from other D-1 schools

Because transfer players generally aren't as public about the process of choosing a destination, the rules will be a little more lenient. As long as someone has formally requested or received permission to transfer, and the rationale for their transfer fits our profile (they "want to move back to Texas", "want to play closer to home in Dallas/Fort Worth", etc.), they will likely receive a listing here. If this forum works the way we hope it will, post-Class of 2012 transfers will already have archived threads here from their high school recruitment.

[TheTastyGreek]

What should I post in this forum?

1. North Texas targets or potential recruits who have expressed an interest in North Texas, but haven't already been identified and given a dedicated Recruiting Forum thread.

We have a great network of fans across the metroplex, the state, and the country that always have their eyes open for North Texas relevant news and information. If you see an article in the newspaper or somewhere on the internet that identifies a player as having interest in or from North Texas... Share it here. This has already been happening on the general Basketball forum for years, and the addition of this forum should just give us a clean and organized way of consolidating recruit information in a way that won't get lost in the flood of in-season activity.

2. Updates on recruits in their pre-existing threads.

If Rivals or ESPN updates a ranking, if you find a YouTube video highlight reel, if a listed prospect announces an official visit to North Texas or any other school... Anything that updates and informs on a confirmed prospect's recruitment is welcome here. Also, news and information from the high school or AAU season. A great example of this from the 2010-11 year would be GrandGreen's regular updates on recruit results and statistics. If a target scores 20 points (or sprains an ankle), that's something most of us would very much like to know about. Post it in the prospect's dedicated thread.

3. First hand observations and analysis

We are very fortunate to have a group of fans who follow high school basketball very closely. Cooley and NT03 (among others) collectively watched a lot of high school games, tournaments, and recruit showcases last season, and shared their observations on the Basketball forum. Other members of the forum are alums or employees of schools that recruits/commits play(ed) for, and have shared their observations from games. When some of our recruits made the state finals and had their games broadcast on television, many fans were able to see them in action and comment on their performance.

You don't have to be a basketball expert... If you watch a recruit play and see something you feel is worth mentioning, share it with the rest of the forum.

[TheTastyGreek]

What should I NOT post in this forum?

1. Generally speaking: opinions, thoughts, questions, etc.

"We need to recruit a Post/Guard/True Center/3 point specialist!" -> Basketball forum

"Jimmy Chitwood at Metroplex High scored 40 points last night! Why aren't we recruiting him?" -> Basketball forum

"I think this year's class may be the best/worst in North Texas history!" -> Basketball forum

2. Full articles, copyrighted images and material

DO NOT copy and paste full articles, whether they come from free and public sites (like ESPN.com or Brett Vito's DRC blog) or paid subscription sites (like Rivals). If you find a relevant story or piece of information, summarize briefly ("Vito says Player X is visiting next week", "ESPN says Player Y trimmed his list of schools to us and 4 others", etc.) and provide a direct link to the story so that interested readers can see it in a context that will provide page views and advertising impressions to the content originator or copyright holder. When you link to a story, use a direct link instead of a general one- Don't link to the front page of ESPN or the Denton Record-Chronicle sports section... Link to the specific story so that the information can still be found a day/week/month/year later.

If a story is behind a gate or subscription wall (like many Dallas Morning News stories or most Rivals articles), be very careful about how you summarize the information when you post the link. Definitely don't copy and paste anything from these articles, and try to keep your description of the article short and sweet. Sites that use a subscription or paid content model are usually very touchy about losing their income stream. And they've got lawyers and everything. Real, live, licensed lawyers; not just people who read about copyright law on Wikipedia or saw an interesting episode of Law and Order last week. Posting links that direct people to their site (and potentially motivate them to subscribe) is generally smiled upon. Copying and pasting those gated articles is not looked upon fondly.

Use good judgment. And if your judgment sucks, don't get upset if your posts get edited or you get scolded by Harry.

3. Personal attacks, defamatory statements/opinions about recruits, irrelevant gossip, etc.

If you think Player X "tottaly sux"... There's no need to share. If you think Player Y is cheating on his high school classes, using steroids, molesting his housepets... There's no need to share. If Whitney said that Courtney said that Ashley heard that Player Z is going to prom with Julie instead of Amber... There's no need to share.

Once again: Use good judgment. And if your judgment sucks, don't get upset if your posts get edited or you get scolded by Harry.

[All About UNT]

great job Tasty! Is this the top secret project you have been working on?