Friday, August 27, 2004

Recruiting: Brilliant Marketing by Bill Self

Ok, no wonder Bill Self is attracting recruits. And guess what - he might snag CJ Miles by the end of the weekend. But check out this article. Basically Kansas is going hold an intra-squad scrimmage for fans - at no charge. CJ Miles will be there to watch.

Now here's the catch. No doubt this is a marketing tool to attract Miles and other possible recruits. But Allen Fieldhouse seats 16,300 fans. While they can attract a good crowd, they won't field up that place. Now how would that look to recruits, to have a scrimmage that is 1/3 full? You could argue that it would be an excellent turnout, but the place would still look empty.

So what does he do - he is going to hold the scrimmage at KU's volleyball arena / hoops practice gym, which only holds 1300.

Next you get the media involved - "come to our scrimmage, but you better come early, because the doors will only be open for about 30 minutes - it will fill up quick"..... Oh they put in plenty of excuses why - the humidity is too high at Allen's, blah blah.

Bottomline is Self is managing expectations and creating an image that he wants Miles to see. Smart and shrewd.

In other recruiting news, Ryan Wright has eliminated GT from consideration....... Kevin Rogers has named a top 3 of Kansas, AZ and GT (KU in the lead).......Octavious Spann has GT in his top 4 with Georgetown, UGA and Auburn.