welcome to the secrets of college planning i'm your host anthony and today we're going to get some insight into basketball my guest today is greg smith and he's the managing principal for best talent management strategies and welcome to the ok when did the college recruiting start for you was their freshman year senior year when did it all start to begin probably between freshman sophomore year you know i tended to play for high school my freshman year and then i transferred to seton hall prep as a sophomore and i played basketball ran track and then from there you know start to get some interest in the track actually first and then but i like basketball and being right on the campus which is where the prep school was located at the time i had access to a lot of college coaches not just the ones i've seen all but the ones who would come through when there were university games where they were recruiting other players so probably between those two years ok and how many schools were recruiting is you getting recruited by a lot of schools or just seen that it was probably about fifteen twenty you know division one two and three actually chose seton hall because i like the business that education that i was able to get there was quite honestly familiar with the university  being that i'm born and raised in jersey you know my day i had worked at the university actually for a while when i retired from the police force in the army and it was a good environment so that brings me to my next question which is naaman dead were they involved was  it wasn't there a lot of support there there was always a lot of support but they gave me the flexibility to make my own decision and one of the things that they want to make sure is it that i would be happy where i was and you know wanted to major business wanted to have an opportunity to play you know i was a walk on but more importantly was the academic component and at that time seton hall was one of the few business schools that was fully accredited and based on my major as a marketing professional worked well for me fantastic so now you're at c hall university how's the practices what's the what's the whole concept of basketball it all university well it's challenging you know because you have to balance your time so i would say the most important thing would be time management you know you have independent what your major is that can be more challenging i was a business major so we had classes that sometimes would run right up to practice you know we have other projects that would be do you know when one or two days so you know you come from a practice week of working out you're tired you eat you falsely you still have to study so the biggest challenge there is is to manage it and still do well in school and perform at the same time i almost always prioritized education and i actually decided after my first year not to continue playing because you know i was a double major i was a marketing finance major in a double pole still no school business and the work was taking eighteen credits and it was a bit much so at that point i decided to focus on the happy academics fantastic so now tell me a little bit about the university what is seen all universally all about you know a jesuit school you know very strict at some point  have a long history there going there being no one can that's why i was in high school so i knew a lot of the faculty a new life administration it was a great experience you know people really care about the students since i've graduated which is a while back  the universities drop grown tremendously based on some of the kids contributions made not only back corporations but the the success of the affleck's particularly baseball basketball track now  you said that you stop basketball at the a freshman year right what was the decision making process and well it was tough you know because i wasn't able to perform in either one the way i would like to you know and i didn't think i was going to the n b a at the time although i did have a tryout once i graduated but i decided to focus on the studies you know i had some interest from several corporations i b m xerox a t n t would it primary ones at the time and actually when i graduated i was working for xerox a week later so they kind of had their eye on me and i had my eye on them based on the fact that i wanted to get into sales and marketing you know xerox sales and marketing programs world renowned and opportunity to go down to leesburg virginia be an instructor and i took advantage of that wow so now how do you go from college to where you are today how do you become the managing principal well i you know i worked a lot of different corporations  had some really good training work for some good people work for some not so good people so that kind of you know led me to want to have my own business i always want to do that and you know that's something that i've had as a goal as since i was a kid and fortunately based on some of the training some of the relationships of consummate over time it's allowed me to get into an arena that i'm able to help a lot of people so when i founded this organization i had come from a similar group there was a lot larger that we did some of the same types of services you know leadership development outplacement management consulting and sales training so i was able to develop additional new relationships while benefiting from some of the ones i had worked with so some of the clients that had worked with for the past twenty thirty years had some of the same needs but they wanted to work with people that they knew so it for me the opportunity to step out and do what i do now so give us a little background on the business that you do how does best talent management strategies work what's the actual description of what you're doing sure so we have about fifteen people that work with us they're working consult as a capacities in different areas so the primary revenue streams that we do now come from leadership development executive coaching and outplacement sales training although while it's fairly cyclical is also very lucrative business but depending on how the economy is and what the needs are of specific businesses that can fluctuate and typically what happens is we you know we go out we make sales calls you have done the e mail telemarketing link then sells visits again leveraging the relationships that we've had over time and securing business where there are specific needs interesting they're interesting so give me a sense of the type of people that come to you what what are the type small companies but i would say probably ninety percent of the revenue that we have comes from midsize organizations you know because in many cases we're not able to compete globally with the very large firms that do what we do but adversely there are some people at the sea level that we have relationships with that are able to identify what we do and what we do well and then we are able to secure those opportunities so do you do you still deal with  basketball players do you have any basketball adventures that you had out there we didn't certainly do i guess on a more informal one you know i actually coached a basketball for about fifteen years you know my son played and it was it was a blast i mean we are able to help young men and women you know realize what their dreams are whether it's to you know play in college play in high school at a high level and you know we had one gentleman that actually went to the n b a last year first round draft pick so you know it's rewarding to see the development not only athletically but academically spiritually socially excedrin so as part of that you know it's kind of like an offshoot of my corporation you know we give back so we've worked with a lot of individuals that have played at different levels that are also willing to give their time and expertise in order to help these young men and women you know cheat their goals so the you delve into the basketball entity of   we came up with a model we came up with an icon actually we call sungai because the sun rises every day so we figure that something that people can relate to in you know we basic aim up with different components you know sign guy respects everyone helps others maintains  discipline keeps an open mind practices peace enjoys life and gives light hope also we use that monster as our foundation and if we focus on the skills of the game but we teach life through the game by using the the monster that i just described to you and that's well for us because you know the demographics are very diverse that we work with you know work with a lot of urban kids work a lot of suburban kids all different socioeconomic backgrounds all different lifestyles for family single mom single sometimes no dad no mom so you know but we basically put everybody together try to make everybody a good person and we do that through teaching the game you know we've done the global community service with the student athletes we've been down to the bahamas three times done service down there played torrance been to bermuda twice along with coach bob hurley former coach of st anthony's and we've been to canada a couple times doing the same thing so the experience is that these young athletes have achieved together has only made them successful on the court but made them successful in life because they're learning various life skills that have been helpful for them so if there's a student out there looking for something like that where when they go to find something like that or  a relationship that way but the main thing is to get them doing productive things get him out of the streets get him in the classroom get him in the gym and start to work with them and then based on the experience and success that we've had you know a lot of people have also come to us so you know we've been blessed to have a lot of corporate sponsors we've been blessed to have people in the community have taken interest in what we're doing and be able to help these people right now now the type of kids a year you're developing one where they usually come from it's just the urban areas they come in from there they come from are everywhere actually you know they come as far north as the bronx in this far south as philadelphia you know but most of the kids of jersey kids but we have kids from  some of somerset county union county essex county warren county hunting county those are primary ones you know we focus on central jersey just mainly for logistics however we play you know all over move over country and  but they have an add on for chill out the resources at home but we've been able to take some students that are struggling and actually turns them into turn them into dean's list students at their respective prep schools high schools universities you know and another case we've taken kids that are in a public school that may be the academics one is strong so we've had good relationships with some of the prep schools in new jersey rector for seton hall prep gil st bringing back a lot of and we've got these kids provided they could do the work we help them with that into the schools where they will receive a good education and at the same time have an opportunity to excel on the court or the feel you know a lot of the athletes we have play other sports so right now we've got  over the years twenty three division one players about another two or three hundred division two and three players some of them play baseball football and of course basketball and we've actually have two soccer players now so now how early do you start with these kids a day in sixth grade seven cratering you get everybody in the high school level now some of them actually we had since the very beginning and we've had some of them since you know first and second grade we've had others join us as late as their junior year so it kind of varies but typically the goal was always to try to keep good players together not only to play but to learn and to grow and it's nice because you know a lot of these young men have graduated but they still stay in touch i mean there's people on the other side of the country but these guys are still skiver than playing x box one on the phones and things like that so it's a lot of fun to watch but you know we're confident that they'll develop the same type of network that we have and that support so that they can in turn give back in the next generation and now the n b a guys that they get drafted that they get involved and come back and help as well they have it's a little early because i want to be one year but the from a mentoring perspective absolutely but what's also good to see is the work that they're doing for the n b a through the n b a cares program you know if you go online you can see the work that they're doing there and it's pretty much analogous to what we've done really that that's fantastic now the college thing they had the colleges themselves what what what do you see in basketball at the college level what's the take from when you want to call to what you see now well i think now everybody starts a lot earlier and it's a lot more than nice you know a lot of times recruiting back in the day was done from the playground you know new york was rucker playground in philly it was the baker league in jersey was the jersey shore and while those venues still exist the a you venue has pretty much dominated the recruiting playing field for all all level coaches it's very well organized i mean a lot of people again say you think it's a great opportunity provided they're with the right program and what do you see in a what's what's the what's the concept behind a and why do a lot of college coaches go on a lot of games that's the main thing but i think the reason from a recruiting pressure perspective that college coaches flock toward a use because they can maximize your time investment meaning you know time to be the best or worst enemy of recruiter so if you go to a fairly large a you tournament you're going to see a lot of really good talent good competition and you all at once so as opposed to going to a high school game two or three days a week you can go to one a you torment one day and see several hundred kids at the highest levels and they're all over the country or  minutes just in one particular part of the country they're all over the country you know the bigger tournaments are you know there's a lot down in florida there's some in pittsburgh vegas milwaukee jersey new york and philadelphia those are prime and in los angeles those are primary markets for these bigger tournaments but there's a lot of a you what they call the a circuit runs the whole country and and the type of kids that are going to the a few teams that they start as early as seventh and eighth grade or they've been really in a c s i might even earlier than that some kids you know again depending on what their background is don't start playing until later but the kids that really do well have been playing a long time they've been well coached they've been taught the skills they behave well and and they're playing with good programs that have good teams good exposure and that bring scholarships and move from teen to teen where they stay on the same a a team all the way through an icicle his move around which which i don't think is a bad thing because you know sometimes they'll have a good experience and they go somewhere else and have a better experience you know just like they do in the n b a i mean because in a you a lot of the success is predicated on winning so if you go to these big tournaments and you lose the first game so now you're playing a different court different bracket you could be playing out literally like the wood someplace as opposed to playing on the main court at the big gym at the big university where most of the scouts are going to be so a lot of the kids no matter how good they are they want to be on a winning team and a lot of things are stacked but that's ok because again the ultimate goal is to help the kids if you help the student athletes secure a scholarship or some type of placement and be well educated and they find is there a high percentage in scholarships that you get from from an eighteen you know i wouldn't say that necessarily comes from an a you team i think it's a collective experience be tween a you high school i mean i think one of the things that could be improved is that the a you coach is working more collaboratively with the high school coaches you know a lot of the high school coaches are against a you and most of the coaches are really just trying to win and try to help the kids to the extent that though they can have a more collaborative relationship it helps the athlete you know some of the players in the n b a now that are doing very well have had good high school coaches who they coaches they've worked  dig the players gotten better and it's benefited everyone and you do you see with a lot of the parents out there that once a kid get into a new or high school basketball it's all about basketball they f about the studies well that happens sometimes but i think the parents nowadays due to their credit are a lot more savvy because they realize that there's more to life than just basketball and i think more importantly they realize the odds of going to the n thousand kids and not to mention what can happen in terms of injuries and things like that so most of the parents nowadays while they have dreams of being having their their children play in the n b a they're more realistic so therefore they also understand they have to be better prepared the other thing is with the n c a a guidelines to certain criteria that are necessary for student athletes to participate so the parents have to be aware of what they are they have to be well educated which is actually one of the things that we do that's one of the services that we offer  not only the the a you with self but the education of what the process is like and what's required in what type of work has to be done over time you know it starts with the great i mean and we've always had a strong work ethic in terms of you know making sure that our student athletes are good students you know and that basic comes from the way i was raised i mean you know if i if i want a good student i would be doing anything you know and my kids are the same way so so what happens if you're an athlete you go to college you didn't one year he left what happens to the scholarship money the money that you're playing for basketball does that all go away and then you have to find a way to just continue school well in my case at an academic scholarship so it didn't go away and that was a good thing and that in some cases yeah that could go away so again what we profess is that if if a student athlete is a good student first and they can get athletic i'm sorry money for their academics and then basketball or whatever other sport they're playing a secondary then that helps them a lot more the other thing is that the division to a three levels they don't offer full scholarships so therefore you know they can have a full scholarship combine between academics athletics for the service you know which is another component that a lot of people miss and mean there's many schools and universities have you know a different organization that will give money based on the community service participation so that's something that we have always been strong advocates are because it a it's a right thing to do be you're making a good productive citizen is another way to get more money so now how about the students that they're just c average type students do you do you tell them to go to more community college type before they go to a big four year college no i'd rather see them improve academically you know there's help out there so whether it comes their parents whether the you know joint like a tutoring service they get help from their teachers at school to get help from a sibling other student athletes you know we were proponents on going inside as you can't and for someone who just can't do it and you know the secondary options are always good that's better than nothing but the first thing is because most people can't do the work i mean unfortunately you know a lot of the educational systems are doing what they're supposed to do so as opposed to penalizing that student who really wants to do well but perhaps doesn't have of the pitfalls that you see in basketball you know you always hear about kids you know going one year and then getting out you hear about people getting cars at the high school level of those some of the pitfalls that you've seen but yeah i mean i think i think one of the pitfalls and it's not mentioned the enough it said actually some of the back coaches you know i mean there's a lot of really good coaches and there's a lot of not so good coaches will say and i realize that that's it's some extent subjective but there's a lot of really talented people that if they don't have the right coach they don't have the right opportunity so for example let's say you have a kid who's six three six four and six great ok and he's the biggest kid on the team while a lot of coaches will have to play was back to the basket because now he's the biggest kid on the team you spec to get a rebound but in essence if that kid doesn't grow anymore he goes to the next level he's a guard but he has the ball having skills because he wasn't coached properly so one of the things that we try to do is we try to teach all the skills to all the kids because you never know how it's going to end up plus that's the way the game is played now the other another big pitfall is some of the political aspects that happen in all  know even as low as middle school you know people who get involved with the program sometimes are not his experience or don't have the foundation or there or even a work ethic to make the programs or the athletes successful so when you get good players around bad people it's not a good combination i would say those are the catalysts of probably seventy eighty percent of your problems of course there's you know people who have behavior problems and things like that but but that's like anything in life but i find that for a lot of these kids the sports are a good outlet and if they have good guides they have good mentorship and they're taught a good work ethic they can use they do very well even if they're not the best person out there they learn again the learning life they learn how to respect other people how to treat people and they have opportunities and people that are that are looking to find new they find you online how do they find yeah i mean most of us through networking i mean and all a lot of people some of us online sometimes you'll be at a tournament you know i've got a lot of players over the years where we've actually play against a team and then the coach will come up to me and say hey good game of the net parent is they see you you know after the game say hey you can have your business card or where you guys based out of i like the way you coach and i've had some you go the other way too so i mean it's you know it's one of basketball and want to go to the next level and i would say that the first thing is make sure that they enjoy the game they should be playing the game because they join because they are their passion about it the next thing obviously is the emphasis on academics  being savvy with the way there are in terms of just being good people you know now with social media gets a little tricky you know a lot of times people make mistakes they don't think when you're communicating so that's something that we for size because you know sometimes you make those mistakes and you can't erase them so you know that's something we have to be cognizant of but the main thing is to enjoy the game do well in school because you know how you communicate how you treat other people and work hard you know nothing is going to be given to you and you get it's difficult to be a professional athlete in any sport i don't care how good you are it's just it's very challenging very rewarding but if you can put those other things together regardless of what happen successful in whatever you do well thank you very much for coming thanks for having me appreciate the time no problem ok so you've been watching the secrets of college planning on your host anthony over until next time