The world of college sports has screeched to a halt over the past week or two due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, and it isn’t limited to actual games and events. The NCAA has instituted a dead period for in-person recruiting through at least April 15. That dead period went into effect Friday, March 13.
The NCAA also advised schools to suspend any official and unofficial on-campus visits to campus from prospective student-athletes. Contact between coaches and prospective student-athletes is still allowed through phone calls, text messages and written correspondence. These recruiting restrictions are in effect for all of Division I across every sport.
Basketball is already in a “dead period” that was slated to end on April, when its postseason one-day “quiet period” was scheduled to start. It was then scheduled to go back into the “dead period” for a week before the normal recruiting period cranked up on April 9.
This affects all schools, including Liberty and head basketball coach Ritchie McKay who is looking to fill at least one scholarship vacancy for the 2020-21 season as the Flames look to three-peat as ASUN Champions.
“It’s significant,” McKay said of the recruiting changes. “It’s easy to (watch film) and say ok that guy’s good enough. What’s hard, is the kind of people that we invite to be part of our family and a part of our campus, that’s really important to me. That’s hard to do over the phone, not being able to go and evaluate the person as well as the player and not being able to invite them to campus. It’s a deterrent, but everyone is faced with the same thing. We just have to deal with the unknown until things get back to a sense of normalcy.”
With the loss of four departing seniors and Keegan McDowell who elected to transfer just prior to the start of the 2019-20 season, Liberty has five vacancies on its roster entering next season, a number that could increase if anyone else elects to move on. Four of those spots have already been filled with the signing of Drake Dobbs, Isiah Warfield, Jonathan Jackson, and Micaiah Abii.
It would make sense for the Flames to dip into the transfer portal and look to add a grad transfer to help offset the loss of the four seniors and balance out the recruiting classes moving forward.
