Published May 5, 2020
1-on-1 with Mike Rohn: CU's in-state and overall recruiting philosophy
Justin Guerriero  •  CUSportsReport
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In part two of CUSportsNation's exclusive interview with Colorado associate head coach Mike Rohn, we asked him about how the Buffs recruit in general as well as strive to keep the state's best players home.

Rohn also shared his thoughts about one-time transfers and how a new NCAA rule granting immediate eligibility might change recruiting for teams across the country, as well as McKinley Wright IV and his NBA prospects.

Part one of our interview with Rohn can be found here.

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Q: Coach Boyle said something last fall that stuck with me with respect to how you guys recruit. He said that a lot of the time, you aren't necessarily looking to "out-recruit" guys as you are working to "out-evaluate" guys. What's your take on that? Do you share that as a philosophy when it comes to recruiting?

Rohn: “Coach (Boyle) hit the nail on the head there. A lot of recruiting is finding out and evaluating who’s a good player. Some guys just go off of ‘who’s the Top 50, who’s in the Top 100? We’re in the Pac-12 — those are the only guys that we can recruit.’ We’ve had a lot of success here, and coach was probably referring to, maybe really evaluating well and finding guys that are a little under the radar. Maybe not a Top 50 or Top 100 guy, but a Pac-12-level player. I think he was going with that a little bit. Sometimes understanding where you’re at: the University of Colorado and what that looks like in terms of recruiting and who can you get is probably where (Boyle) was going (with his remark)."

"The one thing you don’t want to do is waste time and money in recruiting. It’s easy for us to run around and say ‘hey, we’re recruiting Nico Mannion,’ or ‘I went and say Nico Mannion.’ We weren’t going to get Nico Mannion. We can say we’re recruiting but we’re wasting time and wasting money. There’s a certain blueprint of players that fit what coach Boyle is looking for, first and foremost, but then (we have to ask) ‘can we get that particular guy?’ (We don’t want to be) chasing somebody because he has five stars next to his name. That’s not the easiest thing to do on the men’s basketball side for lots of reasons."

"Top 50 guys, historically, things happen a little differently, if you know what I mean, in terms of the recruiting process. Coach Boyle has made it pretty obvious how he’s going to recruit: with integrity and doing things the right way. You get into a certain level of player and with the stakes, it’s just a different game...I firmly believe you have to out-evaluate people no matter where you’re at — it’s the most important part of recruiting and especially now, with how guys transfer, you have to find the right fit i a kid and his talent and what you can do with that in your program. You have to have talent. You can’t recruit two-star players and expect to win in the Pac-12."

Q: How much does "protecting the borders of the state," another quote I'll steal from Boyle that has stuck with me, factor into you guys being able to "out-evaluate" other teams? How important is recruiting well in-state?

Rohn: "I think as you look at guys like Dominique Clifford and Luke O’Brien, two kids that, if they live anywhere else in the country, the stars by their name or their rankings are going to look a lot different than what they do. If you evaluate them, they’re really, really good players. That’s what you’ve got to find.No matter where you’re at, you definitely have to start with your region and state. Those are the kids that grow up most of the time wanting to be at the flagship university. That’s what they grow up seeing, and so if there is a kid that’s good enough, those are the ones we can evaluate better because they’re closer and you can see them more while other people may not. That doesn’t mean that just because they are from Colorado we should take them. Coach (Boyle) has been really good at finding the right guys that have upside and that can keep getting better. He’s a Colorado guy, so he wants that type of player. Those guys, putting the jersey on, play with a little more pride."

"UCLA (for example) is probably the same way. If there’s a kid in their backyard, they don’t ant to lose them but the difference is that they’ve got so many of them, they’ve got to pick and choose who fits being there because there’s 30 guys who are good enough to play in the Pac-12 all in Southern California. They can’t take them all. We don’t have that luxury but we’ve also got to take the right ones.”

I certainly don't want to ask questions you'd rather not answer, so feel free to pass on this one, but with the NBA moving back its Draft Lottery and thus giving college underclassmen more time to consider their options, what has communication between you, coach Boyle and McKinley been like and what might his time frame look like in terms of making a decision?

Rohn: “I think the things that coach and McKinley could control in putting his name in and getting feedback — that’s already happened. I think (McKinley) has a good understanding, no matter where the process goes for the NBA now, he has a very clear feel for where (teams) see him fitting in. That’s a good thing and the most important thing, knowing that. The rest is to be determined. There’s a lot of underclassmen that still have their names in, but I still think the June 3rd take-your-name-out (deadline) isn’t going to change. It might, but to this point it hasn’t. I think McKinley has a good feel for where he’s at and has probably been fortunate to do some NBA virtual meetings this month, which would be good for feedback."

Click here to read part one of our interview with Mike Rohn

Join the conversation on Rohn at Buff Nation, the premiere message board community serving countless Colorado fanatics.

"But in terms of him being able to go workout, (COVID-19) didn’t help his situation. A guy like him, getting a chance to be in a workout and use the opportunity that’s been provided to underclassmen, that would have probably helped him, getting in some workouts where guys could get to know him and see him. This is a very strong and deep draft, especially for point guards, and he’s well aware of that...I can’t speak for him but I think he’s already gotten a lot of what he was expecting to get out of it. We'll see. We sure hope he comes back."

Rohn on one-time transfers, an impending NCAA rule change and what that might do in terms of impacting recruiting:

"Quite frankly, the transfer portal is going to be huge part of recruiting when the rule changes. Everybody in the industry thinks it was going to go into place right now, but with the pandemic, it may be tabled a little longer until January. We’ll know that a little later in May. But if guys can transfer and play immediately, that’s going to open up a whole different set of recruiting than it has been in the past because now you’ll be able to go into the portal and recruit a guy anywhere in the country."

"You’re going to know what kind of player he is and he’ll have produced in whatever league he was playing in...everybody’s looking at that pool of players more so than they are guys in the Class of 2021 to be honest with you. I don’t like it and that’s not to say that we won’t take high school guys, but that rule, when it changes, is going to really change everybody’s recruiting without a doubt. I don’t think people will sign as many guys in the fall period as they used to."