Whenever you look into attending a college, I'm sure that the majority of you traveled to the college and looked at it. Well, that isn't the case for many of the men's basketball players who have played for Slippery Rock under head coach Kevin Reynolds over the past several years.
"It's not a conventional approach that we take," Reynolds said. "In the past, we've had situations where we bring in 10 guys and have only had one of them actually see the campus before coming."
Why would a team recruit in a manner like that?
For Reynolds and the men's basketball program, it's the most successful way that they are able to get players.
With one of the lowest budgets of scholarship money in the conference, SRU has to come up with alternate ways of recruiting other than focusing on giving high school kids big scholarships to come to school.
"With high school kids, you need to visit them three or four times in a year to get them to play for you," Reynolds said. "We don't have the money to do that here. Our process is to get junior college players because that is the best route for us to take with the money we have."
In the PSAC, Mercyhurst and Gannon receive the most scholarship money, both bringing in over $300,000 for men's basketball scholarships. California University of Pa. and Indiana University of Pa. (IUP) bring in $193,540 and $160,513, respectively.
Edinboro University comes in $40,000 behind IUP with $120,532. Just ahead of SRU is Clarion University of Pa. with $89,159.
The Rock brings in $87,431 which is well below the conference average of $170,087. Those numbers are slightly skewed because of the extremely low amount that Lock Haven University of Pa. receives at $4,500.
Without Lock Haven included, the conference average is $193,742. Over $100,000 more than the Rock receives in scholarship funds.
With this low amount of funding, the Green and White has to look at other options to stay competitive in the conference.
Due to this, the Rock looks to finding junior college players who have played a few years at a smaller university and can transfer to SRU with limited years of eligibility.
"I have to recruit who I can," Reynolds said. "It's who we can afford. It's like when you want to buy a high-end car but you don't have the money to afford it. You have to buy something you can afford. Now, that doesn't mean the car you get won't get you where you need it to. You just have to go about reaching your goals differently."
Reynolds analogy about finding a car that gets you where you need to go is something that he has been able to do with the junior college recruits he has picked up over the past few years.
Under Reynolds, the Rock has been able to get some top-quality players who were non-traditional athletes, and he has put together a 61-33 record in his first four years as coach.
Maron Brown and Jabril Bailey, who were seniors on last year's team, both came to Slippery Rock without seeing the campus and were extremely successful in their time here. Both players earned conference honors last season and Brown also received regional honors.
In Reynolds' tenure, he has been satisfied with the recruits he has brought in and gives credit to his assistants for bringing in recruits without them seeing the campus first.
"When you run an unconventional recruiting system like we do, you need to have good assistants who are able to talk a player into coming to our university without them seeing the campus," Reynolds said.
Along with using his assistants to help recruit players, Reynolds relies on past connections that he has had as a coach to find junior college players who are looking to move up into the Division II level.
"We have to focus on getting guys off of connections," Reynolds said. "I have to look at coaches and acquaintances I have from the past who can help us to find players because we don't have the money that other programs have."
Reynolds admits that this system isn't the most optimal for success, but that he can't make an excuse out of it. He says it really comes down to how hard the players work to get the job done.
"It's not the ideal situation for us to have, but we are effective with it," Reynolds said. "Our players are unselfish and committed to having good chemistry. We have recruited potential student-athletes here by unconventional means, but this has been the best avenue to be successful due to our financial situation."
Even though the financial situation for SRU is not the best, Reynolds said that it doesn't matter how much money you end up getting and you can't make that an excuse because ultimately, it comes down to the performance of the players at the university.
"Good players are the key to any program," Reynolds said. "The players deserve all the credit for our success here at SRU. They are the ones on the court winning the games for us and we have been fortunate that we have recruited the right players the past four years."
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