NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Nate Hodge has been working in basketball for more than a decade — at the Division I level, at the Division II level and, these days, as Team Final’s coach on the Nike EYBL circuit.
He’s seen the sport from multiple angles.
So, in between games here at Nike’s signature grassroots event, Peach Jam, I asked Hodge if he’d noticed whether transfer waivers, NIL deals and revenue sharing have combined to change how power-conference coaches are recruiting high school prospects this summer.
“Yeah, they’re not,” he said succinctly. “They’re not.”
On a related note, only 11 prospects ranked in the top 115 in the Class of 2026, according to 247Sports, have publicly committed to a program, as of Wednesday morning. Moreover, one power-conference coach recently told me he doubts he’d accept a commitment from any Class of 2026 prospect right now for reasons I’ll explain later. In response to both of these facts, and others, Hodge said his message to his players this year has been a little different than previous messages in previous years.
“I told our kids, from the beginning of the year, in April, when we first started, that with the way the college-recruiting landscape is now for high school kids, you may have to go to a level lower than what you really [could’ve played] at a couple of years ago just so that you can play right away,” Hodge said. “And that’s what all of them are kinda looking at right now.”
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