Episode #87: Chris Bunch on Recruiting

🎧 Significant Recruiting Podcast | Featuring Coach Chris Bunch, Webster University 

In this episode of Significant Recruiting, Matt Rogers sits down with Coach Chris Bunch, longtime Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Webster University, to break down what really matters in the recruiting process. 

Coach Bunch shares: 

• What catches his attention when evaluating a recruit
• Why character, communication, and toughness go further than talent alone
• Common mistakes athletes and families make when contacting D3 programs
• What makes Division III basketball unique—and often misunderstood

Whether you're a student-athlete, parent, or coach, this episode is packed with insights from one of the most trusted and experienced voices in small college basketball.
 
📚 Looking for tools to guide your journey?
 Visit CoachMattRogers.com to grab the book Significant Recruiting, explore The Softball Recruit’s Journal, sign up for the Significant Recruiting Launchpad course , or schedule a free recruiting strategy session with Coach Matt today.

Transcript

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And sometimes you're playing that guy and a parent or a fan. Doesn't understand why you're playing that guy. When my son can beat him in a game of one-on-one, and I'm like, that's great. If we break out and have a one-on-one tournament here, I'll put your son out there. Hey, welcome back to Significant Recruiting. I'm Coach Matt Rogers, and today I'm joined by a longtime friend and one of the most respected voices in small college basketball coach Chris Bunch, head men's basketball coach at Webster University. Chris has been building a strong competitive and character driven program at Webster for over two decades. In this episode, we talk about what he looks for in a recruit, how families can stand out in all the noise and the biggest misconceptions. Athletes have about Division three basketball. Whether you're just starting the recruiting journey or trying to close out the process with purpose, this conversation is packed with wisdom from a coach who truly gets it. And don't forget, if you're looking for guidance, tools, or coaching to help navigate the college recruiting process, please visit coach matt rogers.com. You'll find both of my books Significant Recruiting and the Softball Recruits Journal. You'll find details about the significant. Recruiting Launchpad course series and you can even schedule a free one-on-one recruiting or coaching strategy session with me. All right, let's jump into it. Here's the second part of my conversation with Coach Chris Bunch. Coach, I want to jump right into kind of what you're teaching your staff on what to look for, what to say to recruits. Absolutely. I had two new guys this year and they wanted, we, when we first high school seasons rolling around, we're gonna start recruiting. I said, I want you to understand one thing. if you go watch a kid. He gets teed up if he, show you know all over the refs and gets teed up or thrown outta the game if he's yelling back at his coach. In a timeout or walking off the floor, the coach says something to him and he yells at his coach, or he's yelling, he's calling his teammates idiots out there on the floor or whatever. If a guy yanks his jersey off and throws it up in the crowd and flips the crowd off, walking outta the gym as he's going out, I said, if you hear him yelling at somebody up in the crowd, you know any of these things. If you see any of those things, I don't care how good he is. I said, get up and walk away. Because we can find somebody else that will be maybe as good as him that won't do those things that we won't have to deal with. And I said, I've done it before when I've had visits. Somebody's mother would try and ask me a question and the kid would go, oh, mom, shut up. And I'm just like, man, if you'll, it's like I start thinking about my exit strategy as soon as that happens because I'm like, if you'll say that to your mother, you'll say that to anybody, and it's and so it's the kids don't understand my assistant. My he's big, he's always talked about it. Body language, mannerisms speak volumes. They say that what, 90%, 80 to 90% of communication is nonverbal communication. I. Yeah. If I have to deal with somebody that's rolling their eyes every time I say something that when I say, Hey, let's going, we're gonna try this today. And then two guys go, and it's it erodes everything for everyone. And I said, look for body language Communication is huge. Are they communicating not just with their coach, with their teammates, with the officials? People in the stands. I watched a kid this year when their team was finished, he walked through the bleachers and was picking up the trash, not the trash that his team had left, the trash that everybody had left and was throwing it away as they left. And I said, that's, you don't see people do that all the time. that says something right there about a kid, so that's the first thing we're looking at, and the other thing that I think, is how do you handle E? Everybody's great when everything's going man, I'm the happiest, nicest guy in the world. When everything's going well, how are you when things aren't going well? Because newsflash, it's been my experience over 37 years of coaching that things go wrong more than things go right in a basketball game. Yes. you make all these plans, and then two minutes in the game, you're down 10 to nothing and it's, you've made four turnovers and it's going south. That's right. how are you going to respond to that? Because, there are 38 more minutes to go. Are we gonna say, Let's regroup. Let's get going. Okay, we're down. here we go. or are we just gonna lose our minds? I think that is a huge thing, and I think it's a thing that even as much as I hear people talk about it all the time, I still think it is something that parents and recruits need to hear because that is such a huge turnoff that body language. Communication piece to it. It doesn't matter if you can dunk, it doesn't matter if you can shoot the three. It doesn't matter if you're a great ball handling whiz. This other piece to it is so important to the everyday aspect of what you're doing. I tell my guys all the time, the reason I do this, I love people I'm in it for the kids, and I am in it for the kids, but why do I do it? Part of why I do it is this last year especially, but for the last several years it's been this way. I get up, I walk out the door, I go in there, and that's two hours that day that I get to enjoy some guys and us all together doing what we do. and so I'm looking for people that can come into that realm and be and keep that the way I like it to be. Everybody always talks about culture, but it's like, how are people going to fit in? Because if you're not going to fit in, you're going to upset every single thing. That we're trying to do here. And so we're looking for people that we think will be great fits for how we like to do things. we're gonna play hard, we're gonna practice hard, we're gonna compete. You get some guys in a rebound drill every now and then. it gets a little spicy, and it's and that's okay because in a game it's gonna get spicy sometimes. Yeah. At the end of the day, everybody's on the same team. We're all pulling in the same direction. We're all working for the same goal. I'm looking for guys that will fit into that. Yeah, more than maybe anything else that I'm looking for. Obviously you're looking for skills, right? I need shooter. I'm gonna go look at a shooter. I need a guy rebound. I'm gonna go guy. Look at guys that can rebound. But beyond that's what I'm looking for. I wanna put some context to this because I think what makes you such a great leader is your ability to take the diversity of what you've had on your roster. Where maybe the average person doesn't see how those parts. Fit together. I think of your 2005 team. The difference in personalities. You had some kids that were so shy and so soft spoken and Yeah. And you had some, just some big personalities. Yeah. And get me the ball. There's two seconds left, but the way they all fit together and the way they cared about each other. Yeah. So the context part of this is I want parents to understand this about you is, and about all coaches. When we're recruiting, we're also thinking about the stages of that young man or that young woman's development. How long is it gonna take me to get them to where they can be a contributor? Then contributor, how do we get them to be a major role player? Does that kid have the ability to be a kid that can carry us for seven or eight minutes in a game? Yes. And those are all stages that we go through. And if we're watching a kid in the first two minutes, we're going, I. They're fighting their teammates. They're fighting their coach. They're lazy. They're not working hard. I'm already seeing a lack of effort. All of a sudden, that growth that we're envisioning in our mind, we're seeing that growth happen slower and slower as we look out for years, right? Yes, absolutely. And go, why would I do that to myself? Yes. We're not recruiting what we see, we're not recruiting black and white. We're recruiting the potential of what we're, of what that kid is showing us in their character, their attitude, their effort, their energy, right? And all of that unseen stuff. I think people that are not in the team sport realm, they just go get the five best players. That's right. you look at the USA Olympic team, the five most talented, most decorated, most lauded players were not on the floor together a lot of the time. you look out there in the games that were tough, leBron's out there, or Kevin during whatever, and. Not that Derrick White's not a great player because he is, but Derrick White or Drew Holidays out there with him and I'm like, Hey, wait a minute. You know where's, wait a minute. Where's, and it's because I had to learn that a long time ago, is your five most talented players is rarely your best combination. my dad used to tell me when I was younger, he'd say, brother, you got too many cooks in the kitchen. and I used to laugh and say, there's a lot of truth to that. There's one basketball, and so everybody's, you've got to make, it's got to work where everybody works together. and so I've learned over time that it takes a lot of different pieces. And sometimes you're playing that guy and a parent or a fan. Doesn't understand why you're playing that guy. When my son can beat him in a game of one-on-one, and I'm like, that's great. If we break out and have a one-on-one tournament here, I'll put your son out there. And it's but that's not what we're doing here, Yes. and I've said that to our guys a lot in our skilled, we talk at the end of the year and I've said. If you're going, you need to go, you wanna be better next year, go play basketball. Find some games out there, find some old guys playing, find some college guys playing. Go play basketball because you can do the, you can put the basketballs in the trash bags and dribble and do all the stuff on social media and all that stuff. You can get in a gym and shoot four hours on the gun a day, which is not wrong, which is not terrible, If you wanna be good at playing basketball, when they throw the ball up, there's gonna be five dudes out there on each team and you have to be able to manipulate playing basketball. And so all the skill work in the world doesn't help you if you don't play basketball. And so I think sometimes that's the aspect that goes unnoticed is how did those pieces. Fit together. That's right. And sometimes I think,'cause you're just in there every day with them and you see how it starts shaping up and how things start, you know how it's going. rarely are your five best players your best combination. I told this to a parent the other day. they asked me a similar question. I said, when's the last time you drove down the road and you saw an outdoor basketball hoop and you saw a game being played? You saw a pickup game, people just there to play basketball. I can't remember the last time I saw a pickup game or just a kid in the garage, on the driveway shooting a basket. That's how I grew up. I know that's how you grew up, right? Wherever there was a game, man, I was there blacktop, rough, no rough rain. It didn't matter. A hundred degrees. We played and that's how we got better. So it's great. Absolutely great advice. let's say perfect world. You've done your recruitment for the next year's class and you've narrowed it down, you've found all those kids that have that character, the work ethic you like. Let's say it's all there. You need a point guard. What are one or two of those things about a point guard that you're gonna offer that just gets you giggly, gets you happy, makes you feel like that's a kid we gotta have that makes my program better. I'm old school. Okay. I still watch, if you ask me what kind of basketball, I watch YouTube. My wife says YouTube has been the bane of my existence'cause I can get on there and find anything, she comes in and she'll go, really? I'll be watching the 1974 NBA All-Star game. Those were the guys that I idolized. Kareem and Dave Cowans and jojo White. And you know who? George? George Gervin. George Gervin, yeah. Dr. Jay. Like Dr. Jay. I watch that stuff. I watch a 82 Lakers, 76 ERs championship game, and I think everybody should do that because they just think, oh, these guys in the last 20 years that's the only people that never saw Larry Bird play have no concept of how hard that guy was I see podcasts of guys sitting around talking about that. Guys say, yeah, we all, we thought Larry couldn't play either. It's and it's but, so I watch those kinds of things. And so I grew up in a world where the point guard was the facilitator, the quarterback on the floor, the coach on the floor, all of that. The game has changed and you have to be able to score some, but I'm, I still look for that guy that can, and I've talked to our guys about this a lot. Hey, be able to get, when we give up six points in a row. Get us in and me or coach Brad Fish yells some set from the sideline or some action. Can you get us, do you know which side of the floor to go to get us the guy that needs to be shooting this next shot? Because man, we just gave up six or eight in a row and we need our best player taking a good shot this next trip. Are you going to hey look, we're gonna run this play, but man, the shooter is over there. It's don't run this play. And we get the worst shooter on the team, open for a shot, run it to the other side where we get the best shooter on the team coming off the screen for that shot. That's right. And so when I tell our talk to our point guards and our practices, it's like you have to be able to see that. If you can't see that we're, it's gonna hold us back, we're not gonna be as good. As we could be. Ryan Turk was one of the best guards I ever had at that, and he wasn't quick, he wasn't explosive. but I said, I always said you could put cones and things out there. That dude might have to back you up and cross over and go back and forth, and he might have to take 10 dribbles, but he'd get to where he needed to go. For you to run what you needed to run. When we had him and Darren Haggett, for example. Yep. He could get over to Darren Haggett side of the floor, even if you were trying to keep him from getting over to that side of the floor. And I said, you have to be able to see the bigger picture and see what we're trying to do. Yep. those kinds of things, I think, the whole setting and times, and I've told, I had a, so my sophomore point guard this year, I'd say, look Joe. You're gonna be out there and you're gonna be the youngest guy on the floor. I don't care about that. If somebody's in the wrong spot, you got to tell'em they're in the wrong spot. That's, and get'em in the right spot in two seconds. And you can't be like, I really don't feel like that'cause he's older than me. No. You've got to take that kind of leadership. That's right. and so I look for those things probably more in a point guard. Than anything else. Because if you're not doing this, if you're not doing this, you ain't the point guard. Because if you're not directing, if you're afraid to lead older guys, absolutely. You are not the point guard. Absolutely. You are just a guard handling the ball. I went to watch a high school game this year and I wasn't even watching this team. I'm watching the other team, and they had a freshman point guard. A whole team full of juniors and seniors and man, he was running that show and I was like, that is impressive. That kid is 14 or 15 years old. Yep. And he is the guy in charge and they all know it. And they're, they're not, he's not the only one that thinks that. Yeah. They understand that. And I said, that's impressive, especially in high school, that you can have that kind of situation because it's very difficult for a young person to have that kind of, I. Be willing to take charge like that. And I would assume that Freshman Point Guard is on a list somewhere in your office. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. See, and again, you didn't hear Coach Bunch talk about how many points he scored, if the team won or lost, what? How the game played itself out. He was looking for a skillset and an environment of control and the ability to diagnose and make the team better and think big picture. So love it. All right. Shooting guard, and. I know the world has changed with shooting guards. I know we have seven footers for the Knicks that are shooting guards now. Oh yeah. Yeah. That are 260 pounds and shooting 11 threes a game. But I'm talking about that kid that can run off of screens, that can guard a two. What are you looking for in that shooter? They have to have confidence and I've probably, I've had assistance Tell me. That I probably kill confidence sometimes because it's I, before this past year, the three previous years, we were one of the worst 25 3 point shooting teams in the country. And I would put the guy in that is a shooter. And the first shot he took would hit the side of the backboard. And I'm like, that does not instill confidence in me when I, hey, you don't have to make it, but man, I need you to do something besides hit the side of the backboard with the first shot you take. And it's and so they'll say, coach, it's hard. I'm like, Hey look, I ain't saying I can yelling at him'cause he missed, I'm yelling at him because he wasn't even in the same zip code. It's and so it's, it's a very difficult skill and I've told our guys that before. I say, Hey, look guys, I was a shooter in college. The only time I played in college, I played with two guys that were superior basketball players. And when somebody played us a zone when I was a sophomore, he'd yell down the bench, Chris, get in there. It was like. I was supposed to go in there and put up shots and make shots, there's pressure in that. I understand that, now I don't want you to go in there. The first touch you shoot a 27 footer and you ain't even ran down the floor yet, but after a trip or two, you know what you're in there for. Yeah. there has to be a confidence level. I missed two or three shots in a row and I still think I can make the next one. And sometimes that gets you in trouble. That got me in trouble. I remember one guy laughed one time in college. I shot us clean out of a game. We were down nine and he said, Chris, get in there. And I went, oh, for five with two air balls. And we were down 19 When I came out, he was like you didn't have it today. but the next game I didn't go, oh gosh, I'm not gonna shoot because I'm afraid I'm going to fail. That's the difference. you have to feel like. He's got me in here because I'm giving him a good chance to make shots and help us win this game. my job's to shoot the ball if I stop shooting the ball, why is he keeping me on the floor? Exactly. And I've even talked to some of my kids in the program that are good shooters. I'm like, you wanna play more and you better be better. Branch out. And be able to do some other stuff. if you are just a shooter when I put you in the game, then if you're not making shots, then I have to take you outta the game because somebody else does the other stuff better. So you better be able to do some other stuff along with that. But confidence is such a thing and the confidence is built in the gym on your own. Josh Johnson, who played for me and was a senior in 2020, he was conference player of the year. Probably the best shooter I ever had. And he scored 31 night on somebody. and I came in the next day and the baseball coach is sitting in my office and he goes, I stayed here'cause I wanted to see you come in. And I said, why? He goes,'cause I wanna show you the Facebook post I just posted. Now our baseball team is like top topnotch. They're like in the top 20 every year. He sent it to his guys a picture of Josh at six 30 that morning with the gun set up, shooting on the gun the next morning, the night after he scored 30 or 32. And he goes, boys, let me tell you something. This is what commitment looks like right here. And he goes, you wanna, he goes, you wanna know what, you don't wanna know what commitment looks like. This is it right here, and he goes, he, I sent that to my whole team. And it, you have to, if you've done the work. You will have the confidence that, yes, I'll make this shot. Love it, but shooter's gotta have confidence. Remind me when we're done. I've got a 2027 to, now that you're saying all this, I've got a 27 shooting guard I need you to look at. Okay. All right. Yeah. talk about confidence. It's through the roof with this kid. All right. let's talk about your wings. What are you looking for? For me, it was always the athlete. I had got my shooter, I got my point guard. I want a kid that can maybe do a little bit of everything, but it's gotta be an athlete. Is that what you're looking for in a wing? Are you looking for something else? Yes. I think, it's been so hard in this league. To get good big people. Yeah. Carl, the guy I just mentioned that was the leading shop blocker in rebut in school history. He was barely six four. Yeah. He was strong as a bull, but he was in a good leaper and all that. But he wasn't tall, and he is we were always the biggest team in the league When you were coaching. I always had a bunch of big guys, right? Some point it turned on me and a coach one time said to me, Chris, I really like how you switched your philosophy. And went from big to being that quick and athletic. And I said, Hey, I didn't make that choice. That choice got made for me. I'd go back to being big tomorrow if I could. so I've always gotten a lot of mileage in the last. 10, 15 years out of 6, 3, 6 4 guys that could guard smaller than them if they had to, that could guard bigger than them if they had to. And whether you're playing man, or whether we're playing two, three zone, I say this to kids all the time too. If you want the best chance to play, don't be a one trick pony. Don't be a guy that can, oh, I just play the wing on the zone. Because maybe in a game I might need somebody to play the top or God forbid the base of the zone. Can you do that I might leave you out there and put somebody else in and just say, Hey, go play the base two trips till we can get to the two minute mark or whatever. And so I look for guys that are versatile defensively, especially, can they rebound? Are they, do they have some versatility to'em That makes every, that makes you so much more well-rounded. We play, four out, one in motion and I tell our guys all the time, don't know the one, don't know the five, know what it is that we're doing. If we're running an action, if we're running a special set or something, coach, I only know the spot from the four you probably aren't gonna get to play if I don't need a four, and so it's hey coach, I can run the five if you need me to. It is like good run at this time, and just those kids play more those because in a game, I don't always go, okay, let me see now I wanna run this play, and who do I have in there? I've got five seconds to, some guy gets his four foul, I've got five seconds to grab somebody and sling'em out there. And then you go to run a set and go, oh God, we need a format or we need a two, or whatever. Can you go, Hey coach. No, I got it. And just jump in that spot if you can. You're gonna play more. That's right. and so especially with the wings, we're looking for that. We're looking for versatility. can you play smaller? Can you play bigger? Can you rebound, can you handle the ball a little bit if you have to, if somebody's pressing this Greenville University, can you make a shot? Can you drive a little bit? the more of that stuff those guys can do. The better chance they have of playing, the better chance we have of being good. Yeah. And don't think for a second coach is talking from just a D three perspective. This is everywhere. If you're a wing and you're versatile and you can rebound and you can guard and you can shoot a little bit and you can put the ball on the floor. There's a place for you everywhere. Yep. Alright, coach Bigs. And I know that's a, that is a really tough thing to throw at you.'cause there's all sorts of different types of bigs, especially now'cause there's a lot of fours that are shooters that, a lot of bigs don't play the back to the basket anymore. What are you looking for? What gets you excited about a four or five? I tell our, I tell any post player that we're recruiting because even the ones that can't shoot a lick. Think they're a stretch four. They'll tell you, coach, I'm a three. You're a stretch four. It's no, you're not, but okay I'll work with that for now. But there are guys that can shoot it, it's like, and so I tell every big guy I'm recruiting, I don't care what you do offensively. And they look at me and sometimes their parents look at me funny. And I'll say, I need guys that can rebound. I need guys that can defend other big guys. I need guys that are mobile. I need guys that will run the floor. Can you do all that? If you're a 40% three point shooter, we'll put you out there somewhere in a position where you can shoot some threes if you can't, and all you can do is shoot layups, you'll be, you might be in the dunker spot on the baseline or on in the post but it's a, it's, I make all our big guys in practice do post moves. Sometimes I have wings, I'll have my guards. I've got a guard. My, my returning all conference player is six, one or two, and he's just been the second lean rebounder on our team for all three years he's played. And I've seen coaches, a couple of coaches have left their, Scouting reports or somebody left a scouting report laying around in the locker room and they call him the power Forward and he's like our two guard, but he gets more rebounds than anybody and he's the best offensive rebounder on the team and all of that stuff. I sometimes send Jamar down with the posts to work on post moves because I'm like, you're gonna be the guy getting the ball around a basket. You gotta be able to up and under some guy and finish with the left hand. That's right. More so than some of these bigger guys. And so we do a lot of that. Sometimes we'll go through a practice and I'll have everybody, I'll have the guards do all the post moves. We're gonna shoot jump hooks, we're gonna shoot dribble hooks, we're gonna shoot, drop steps and I have everybody do that. Because I think it is a lost art a little bit. Agree. I agree. And I tell all of our big guys, I have to be able, when we go play bigger teams and bigger teams non-conference, I have to have guys that can rebound and get us out of possessions defensively. I have to have guys that can guard. If somebody has a 6, 7, 6, 8, 6, 9 guy inside that can score. You have to be able to turn him away from the way he wants to turn. And make him finish with some other move besides what he wants to do. And can you do that? Don't worry about the offensive part. we'll figure it out. If you shoot three, you can shoot threes. If you can't, you'll do something else. You'll set ball screens, whatever. I don't care what you do offensively. I care what you do defensively in that regard. Love it. and if I always tell guys, can you shoot it? I'll figure it out in practice. I'll see it every day. If you can shoot 40 from three, I'll let you shoot some threes. If you shoot 15 from three, newsflash, you ain't gonna be shooting any threes. So obviously the gun's out at six 30 in the morning, so if you want to get that percentage up. Exactly. there's a time and a place for you. Yeah. Yep. One piece of advice for families going through the recruiting process. They want to play for Coach Bunch. They wanna play at Webster. They wanna play D three. how do they get your attention coach? How do they get you to look at'em? Two pieces of advice. And one of those is not an attention thing. I think no matter who you are, talk to every coach.'cause you never know how that's gonna come back around to you. You think you're a division two player and you go to a division two and they red shirt and you don't play and you want, at some point you go I want to just play. Maybe you gotta, maybe you end up circling back around to that guy and if you told him, no, coach, I'm not a D three guy, I'm not interested in you, then you know, you may be going back to that guy at some point and saying, Hey coach, can I come play for you? And so don't ever. Don't ever dismiss anybody. Some of the best conversations I've ever had have been going to an A U tournament. And I don't know where kids are going and I'm just there seeing is any kid that I can see. Most of'em, it's not like a division one coach that goes there to see one guy and then leaves. I'm going there just to see anybody that I can maybe see I had a guy one time go, Hey Coach Munch, I really appreciate, thanks, but I've already early signed with Indiana. He's he wasn't the most explosive athletically, but he was like six five. He could shoot, he could handle the ball. He's he kinda looks like a D three guy. let me call him and just see what he's got. He's coach, I early sign with Indiana and I'm like, I felt like an idiot, but he was as nice as he could be. And he's coach, He asked me a little bit where you guys at? and talked a little bit. I said, Hey, good luck to you. And I was like, I told somebody the next day, I said I wanted to just, if I could have recorded that call, I wouldn't have said That's how you interact with a college basketball coach that's interested in you, whether you are or not. That's right. So don't so listen to everybody. Consider everybody. but then call everybody back that calls you, call everybody back. Respond. Respond immediately. And I get it in this day and age kids, because everybody's been raised on their phones, especially since COVID, it's like everybody got to the COVID society, the social media society, and texting and emailing and whatever. I say this all the time to recruits and they still don't do it because I realize it's uncomfortable for them. It's uncomfortable for me, as a 58-year-old. It's really uncomfortable for an 18-year-old, but just tell me you're not interested. Thank you, coach, but I'm looking for something else or thank you, coach, but I actually am looking at these two schools. I appreciate your interest. In fact, I'm gonna think more of you if you do that Exactly than if you just ghost me for, and contact you for a month before I just go, okay. He's not interested, I just did it the other day. I was, I hadn't heard from a kid in a month. I was writing him off and he sent me a text, Hey coach, I was like wait a minute. He's back in flight. Because just respond quickly. That's right. and either way, yes or no. I think communication is key there. Just respond to coaches. But if you're interested, I think you have to do the work. I hear so many people say this my high school coach didn't get me a scholarship, or My high school coach didn't help me get recruited. That may be true, that may not be true. Don't rely on your high school coach to get you recruited. Get out there, send videos, contact coaches, be proactive in your recruiting. Because you don't know the number of times that I've just went, for example, I had a guy here graduate two years ago, win Brown Junior, we called him jr. He was from Memphis, sent me an email in June. Coach, I'm just looking for a place to play. I'm a five nine point guard. the only reason I looked at it's'cause being from Tennessee, I knew the high school that he played for and they were really good. I clicked on the link and I was like, yeah, that kid's skilled. Now he's small, but he's skilled. He came here, played as a, that 2020 team. I won two years in a row. We went 31 and five in the conference in 2019 and 2020. When 2020 he was a freshman. He ended up starting and being the fifth man on that team and averaged. 10 a game in conference as a freshman. The next 5 7, 5 7, 5 7 and like 120 pounds. Now, the next three years, he was our best player. He ended up being the fifth, all time leading score in school history. Amazing. The only reason I ever looked at that dude is'cause he sent me an email and I went, I know that school. Let me look and see. And there's times I don't.'cause you just get inundated with them and no, every coach is human. Nobody's going to check'em all out. But I looked at that one email and got one of the best players I ever had in 23 years here, and so it's, you be proactive and send emails to places. I had a guy one time I heard, and he did, he gave a good piece of advice. He said, send a couple of stretch contacts. if you think you're a division two player, maybe send a. Something out to a couple of division one schools that you lower level division one schools that you might be a stretch that you could ever play there, but send a couple of emails to the D three schools that you might be interested in because you might not get what you think you're going to get and you might need to go play there and then send emails to the level that you think you're at Don't, I think you have to be proactive in your recruiting. and don't just rely on your high school coach. Don't rely on your service or whatever. Those are all good things and those are all good avenues and those can all be very helpful. But don't rely on that. You take the initiative, be the owner, be the CEO of owner recruitment, be the boss. And the other thing I might say is be realistic. Be realistic. There, there are so many things out there where, guys contact me or I contact a guy and he's no coach. I'm going, I want a D one or d or I have guys contact me and it's a five eight point guard and he goes, coach I'm I I just wanna go there to start with. Talk with your high school coach, talk with your a u coaches, whoever, and get a feel for where you could possibly end up maybe you catch lightning in a bottle and you get to where you think you want to get to because guys do that. but take ownership in that. Love it. Coach, we may have to do an annual Crisp bunch episode because I just I feel like we talk and I'm like, oh my God, I told I promised you an hour and we're an hour 40 in. It's like we can go another two hours. It's alright. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Please give my best to Christine. We miss you guys a ton. I appreciate it. If anybody out there is looking for advice from recruiting, coach Bunch wrote the chapter eight coach's perspective in my book, significant Recruiting, and it's fantastic. All these golden nuggets he's thrown at you today, what he wrote in the book is equally fantastic and I'm so thankful that you did that for me. Brother, I love you. I'm so thankful to have you in my life, so thankful that these boys have you in their life, and, whatever you need, you got me. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate you, man. I love you too. I enjoy this. it's fun just to get and talk about basketball. I don't get enough opportunity to do this, so I appreciate it. It's just gold. Good luck this season. hope you get some rest this summer and, we'll look forward to next conversation. All right, thank you, Matt. What a great conversation with Coach Chris Bunch. His honesty, experience, and perspective are a gift to any family going through the recruiting journey, and a reminder that character consistency and communication still matter to great college coaches. If you found this episode helpful, take a moment to subscribe, leave a review. And share it with another family or coach who's walking this same road. And remember, if you need help with your recruiting journey, I've got resources built just for you@coachmattrogers.com. You can pick up a copy of my book, significant Recruiting, grab the softball Recruits journal, Or check out the Significant Launchpad course designed to help families take control of the process. You can also schedule a free recruiting or coaching strategy session with me right on the site. I'd love to connect with you. Thanks again for listening, and as always, don't just chase success, live, lead, and recruit with significance.