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COLLEGE PREP
I am a development coach, not a recruiting service
Nobody can sell you a college roster spot. What can be built is a player good enough that a college coach has a reason to keep watching. Sessions are $200, outdoors, in Bellevue, Newport and Swope, and the odds below are the real ones.
01 / STRAIGHT ANSWER
What are the real odds of playing college basketball?
For the 2024-25 year the NCAA reports 3.6 percent of high school boys basketball players reach NCAA basketball at any division, and 4.7 percent of girls. Division I alone is 1.1 percent for boys and 1.4 percent for girls. Those are the numbers to plan around.
Break the boys number down and it is 1.1 percent Division I, 1.1 percent Division II and 1.5 percent Division III, out of 540,704 high school participants and 19,617 NCAA players. For girls it is 1.4 percent Division I, 1.9 percent Division II and 1.9 percent Division III, out of 356,240 high school participants and 16,823 NCAA players.
Read those splits again, because they contain the most useful thing on this page. For both boys and girls, Division II and Division III together account for more college roster spots than Division I does. A family that says Division I or nothing has voluntarily thrown away most of the available opportunities, and usually the ones with the best odds of actual playing time.
Division I also got tighter in a way worth knowing. Effective 1 July 2025, following the House settlement, Division I moved from scholarship limits to roster limits: men's basketball went from a 13 scholarship limit to a 15 player roster limit, women's from 15 scholarships to a 15 player roster limit, and opt-in Division I schools may fully fund up to that roster limit. Whatever else that does, it is not a signal to bank everything on one division.
Northern Kentucky is not short on college basketball to look at either. Northern Kentucky University, Thomas More, Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati State, Xavier and the University of Cincinnati are all close enough to watch a game, see what those rosters look like in person, and get an honest read on where a player actually fits.
02 / THE WORK
What college prep sessions focus on
The gap between a good high school player and a college roster is usually not athleticism.
- 01
Skill that holds up at speed and against size
College defenders are longer and closer. Every rep is run against pressure, because uncontested skill does not transfer.
- 02
Decision making with the first option taken away
Basketball is a game of split-second decisions. College defenses remove the first read, so the second and third reads get trained on a clock.
- 03
A real position, not a wish
Plans are built from your position, your body and how you already play. Being trained as the player you actually are beats being trained as the one you hoped to be.
- 04
Work you can keep doing without me
You will leave with drills you can run on your own. A college roster is earned in the hours nobody is charging you for.
04 / THE ODDS
NCAA participation numbers, 2024-25
Of 540,704 high school boys basketball players, 19,617 play NCAA basketball. Division I is 1.1 percent, Division II 1.1 percent, Division III 1.5 percent.
Of 356,240 high school girls basketball players, 16,823 play NCAA basketball. Division I is 1.4 percent, Division II 1.9 percent, Division III 1.9 percent.
Effective 1 July 2025 after the House settlement, Division I men's basketball moved from a 13 scholarship limit to a 15 player roster limit and women's from 15 scholarships to a 15 player roster limit.
Opt-in Division I schools may fully fund up to the roster limit. None of these numbers are a reason to quit. They are a reason to be honest about which doors you are knocking on.
05 / Questions
What people ask about this
Can you get my kid recruited?
No, and neither can anyone else who promises it. I am a development coach. What I do is make a player better at the things a college coach evaluates, so that when someone does watch, there is something to see. Recruiting itself is contact, film, grades, camps and fit, and that work belongs to your family and your school coach.
Is Division II or Division III worth considering?
Yes, and the NCAA numbers make the case. For boys, Division II is 1.1 percent and Division III is 1.5 percent against Division I at 1.1 percent. For girls, Division II and Division III are each 1.9 percent against Division I at 1.4 percent. That means more roster spots outside Division I than in it, often with better odds of real minutes.
When should a player start college prep work?
Earlier than most families start. Skill is built over months and years of repetition, so a freshman or sophomore has room to change something structural. A junior can still make real ground in an offseason. A senior can improve, but the honest version is that we are sharpening what is already there rather than building something new.
Does playing in Kentucky help or hurt college exposure?
Kentucky has no class system, so every school plays into one single-elimination Sweet 16 and small schools face large ones. Northern Kentucky splits across the 9th and 10th Regions. It is a hard road, but it also means the level of play a player is measured against is not softened by enrollment. Nearby colleges include Northern Kentucky University, Thomas More, Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati State, Xavier and the University of Cincinnati.