The Recruitment Pitch: Why Players Choose Overtime Elite
When you walk into the Overtime Elite facility in Atlanta, it’s unlike any other structure that’s available to a group of teenage basketball players. With amenities that rival any college in the country, a staff with a plethora of professional experience, an in-house school, and every tool needed to reach your ceiling, it’s no surprise that OTE has been able to consistently bring in the best players in the country.
“Honestly, if you're serious about basketball and you're a high school player right now, what would stop you from wanting to be at Overtime Elite? I say that without bias — I’ve done it,” said Overtime Elite GM Damien Wilkins in an interview with Draft Digest. “I wish this was something I could have done.”
With what Overtime Elite has been able to achieve as a program in just over two years, the concept essentially sells itself. With that in mind, one of the best talent evaluators and recruiters in the industry is in charge of ensuring the right players walk through the door each season.
Aki Collins currently serves as Director of Recruiting and Retention, which is a crucial role for the success of OTE. He has tremendous experience at every level with over 20 years as a coach, recruiter and scout. He has spent time at the college level with teams like Colorado, Harvard, Marshall, Memphis, Marquette, Penn State. He also spent five seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Collins attended Clark Atlanta University — less than four miles from the OTE facility — and also lived in Atlanta when he was a scout for the Thunder. As such, accepting the position at Overtime Elite in an area he’s familiar with was the perfect opportunity for him.
For Collins, bringing in and retaining the right players that fit the OTE mold is his primary role. Luckily for him, he represents a world class program that has many selling points which makes it a little bit easier.
For starters, Overtime Elite provides exposure that athletes of this age can’t get anywhere else. Whether the next step in these athletes’ respective careers is college, the G League, the NBA or even professionally overseas, there will always be eyes on the players at OTE.
“You’re going to have all the eyes on you. We had 29 of the 30 NBA teams here for our pro day. If you come here, people are going to see you,” Collins told Draft Digest.
While many basketball fans and followers of Overtime in general have seen the flashy on-court style of play and eye-catching arena the players compete in on Friday and Saturday nights at Overtime Elite, that’s not something Collins leans on when recruiting players. To him, what truly makes OTE special is what happens in preparation for the games, leveraging that world class facility and developing as athletes.
“I don’t even talk about the playing here,” said Collins. “That’s a byproduct. It’s a great show upstairs, but you’re coming here for the development and getting better long-term. We play Friday and Saturday night, but what are you doing Monday through Thursday? That’s really what’s going to help you long-term.”
To be considered by Overtime Elite, it takes more than just being a skilled player. The intangibles are equally as important, as this is a program that values high character individuals that play with toughness. It takes a special type of player to go through a professional-level regimen every day as a teenager.
“When I took over the job, there was a lot of noise in the public about what exactly we were and what our kids were,” Collins said. “The first thing I wanted to focus on was character. I don’t care how good you are — we’ll get to the good part — but let’s dissect it by starting with the character. A lot of it is toughness. There’s a level of toughness that I admire. You can win with character and toughness.”
The reality is that recruiting a player to Overtime Elite is only half of the equation. The second and equally as important part is the actual development of the athlete. This requires countless hours of preparation, work and dedication every single week.
Again, this is really what sets OTE apart. These athletes are opting to go this route rather than high school, or even college in some situations. As such, ensuring they have a world class developmental experience and track is the key to success.
“It’s the development piece,” said Collins. “I don’t care where you go to school. If you’re thinking about going to prep school or getting out of your local high school or whatever, there’s no place on this landscape that matches us. That’s not being arrogant, that’s just what it is. We have the flexibility to do what nobody else can do. We're catered to elite basketball players. Their entire schedule is about developing the basketball player. They are in great academic situations too, so you can’t knock that.”
This is where people like Corey Frazier come into play.
Frazier serves as Overtime Elite’s Head of Player Development, playing a key role in ensuring the players that sign with the program are set up to reach their ceilings before moving on to the next step in their basketball careers. Before joining OTE, he spent time as a coach as well as trainer, working with some of the premier athletes in the world, most notably Jayson Tatum.
Collins and Frazier work very closely together to ensure a smooth handoff from recruitment to development. Every athlete has a unique backstory and pre-evaluated set of skills that need to be focused on.
“I like intel on guys when I get them,” said Frazier when discussing the handoff from a player being recruited to actually walking through the door. “It helps me with the process. Before I even get them on the court, I like to ask a lot of questions. Who did he train with? Who was his high school coach? Who is his influence? All those little things matter when it comes to training because it all comes down to trust. They have to trust you and you have to be able to get your message across where it's not negative to anybody. That's why I like being a part of that recruiting process. I know who I'm getting, and I know how we can go about it.”
It’s important for Frazier to really understand each player’s skillset, strengths and weaknesses on the court. It’s also incredibly valuable for him to spend time getting to know them as people so he can build trust and tap into what makes each of them tick. Not only is Collins providing a lot of that information up front to him, but Frazier is also digging deeper once the players arrive at OTE.
One of the biggest challenges for Frazier is breaking bad habits. Each player comes in with different styles of coaching and training prior, with varying good and bad habits. This is one of the first things he looks to understand so he can begin breaking the bad and building good ones — which Frazier pins as one of the biggest challenges of player development.
“Trying to break habits is one thing, but teaching new habits takes a while. We start with feet first then work our way up,” Frazier told Draft Digest. “Once you get the feet right, and the balance right then we can work our way up. Footwork is the hardest thing to teach. And then shooting is a longer progression thing you have to be patient with. A lot of film goes into that. A lot of hand placement, ball movement, feet, hips and that’s why the technology we have is important.”
Luckily for Frazier, Overtime Elite has cutting edge technology that assists in developing these players at the most detailed level. Between movement trackers worn by players, shot trackers that capture each and every shot they take and shooting mechanics models that can break down the most miniscule flaws in an athlete's jumper, OTE has it all.
“We track their movement and stuff on the court — in games, practice and in workouts,” Frazier explained. “Our biggest thing right now is Noah. We count the shots, makes and misses, left or right. We just met with biomechanics guys that recorded all of their shots. We’re looking at all of that stuff to see their movement, balance and all of that as we’re building players. It’s hard to see with the eye, but once they come in with these machines, you can see a skeleton and you can really see things.”
Not only does Overtime Elite have one of the best development programs in the country led by one of the best staffs, but each player also gets a custom development plan. These plans are based on player deficiencies and what they need to specifically improve on. For example, Amen and Ausar Thompson were on a track that really focused on shooting mechanics, while someone like Jazian Gortman had a plan that was tailored to becoming more situationally disciplined and making better decisions as a guard.
“It’s customized to the player, but it's also not based on their trajectory,” Damien Wilkins added when asked about OTE player development. “It's more about how we can help them become the best basketball person that they can become.”
Speaking of the staff that actually aids in player development, it’s truly remarkable just how many humans are involved with each player. Upwards of 12 different individuals — coaches, trainers, development staff, health and performance staff and more — are working with these athletes during the development process. Each aspect of the players’ developmental journey has an expert in that field that helps them along the way. These resources ultimately pay off, and it shows both on the court during the season and at the next level when the player moves on from OTE.
“When you get on the training, nutrition, all the things that we do here, just purely the basketball side of it, there’s nobody in the country that touches us,” said Collins of the development program at OTE.
Not only are these players getting a custom, hands-on experience, but they also have more time to actually focus on basketball than the average player their age. The gym is open from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm every single day, with open access to players. In the mornings, all of the athletes practice together without being broken up by team. In the afternoon, team-specific practices are held. Outside of those sessions, players have individual training routines, workouts in the weight room, film study, recovery sessions, and much more.
Furthermore, they also go to school during the week. Given the low student-to-teacher ratio and intimate classroom setting that OTE has the luxury of leveraging within the facility, athletes are able to get a full, quality education with less than four hours of formal instruction each day. This gives them more time to focus on the game.
“We don't take academics or class for granted,” said Wilkins. “We have that. It's just only three and a half hours. Whereas other guys are spending the whole day in class and now you got to share your gym with the wrestling team or whoever. Our building is our players’ building.”
This is such a unique situation. While college athletes experience a similar schedule, this is unlike anything else the average high schooler gets to go through. Furthermore, it prepares these high school players for what life will be like at the college level.
“The schedule for these guys is so unique,” said Frazier. “I don’t think there’s a school out there that offers the resources we have with our development and other teams. What you see is the finished product upstairs on Friday and Saturday night, but you don’t get to see the preparation that goes into it. It makes our environment unique.”
Being around the best of the best also helps these players develop individually. When you’re around an entire group of players that are at the same level as you, or better, you have to stay sharp at all times. At most high schools, the players of the caliber that OTE brings in would be the best on their team by far, which creates an opportunity to not get pushed as hard.
“You're standing next to a guy every day in practice that's even better than you or just as good,” said Wilkins of the culture at OTE. “Now, if you were at another high school, you’re the guy setting the bar. Nobody is pushing you. You can take a practice off. No iron is sharpening you. We don’t have that — you have to bring it every day. That is the thing.”
Furthermore, the staff at Overtime Elite gets creative in motivating the players and generating a competitive environment through shooting competitions and unique film study activities throughout the week.
Players are held accountable at OTE, by both the staff and their teammates. It’s a grind every single day, but athletes know that going in. It’s about putting yourself in the best position to achieve your dreams and make it to the NBA, which takes an incredible amount of hard work and focus.
“This is not for everybody,” Collins admitted. “That’s the other thing I tell people. I don’t want guys that come here and don’t want to work. When guys come and think they’ve arrived, they’re not going to get the true benefit of what we’re doing. We have a group of guys that wanna work.”
Even outside of the on-court development, these athletes at OTE are getting off the court experience that prepares them for the next level. There are not many other high schools in the country that have media availability after games, a camera in the locker room following players around during certain games, as well as live broadcasted interviews between quarters and at the end of contests. These are the little things that add up when setting players up for success. It’s more than just the on-court product that NBA teams look at when evaluating players. Whether it’s preparing for the NBA Draft — or even college visits and conversations with coaches and recruiters — OTE staffers help put these players in a position to execute on those in a positive way.
Across the board, the OTE experience is unlike any other. This is why the top recruits in the country continue to become part of the family and ultimately have success as they move on to the next step of their journey after spending time in the system.
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