Episode #121: Quentin Acree on Recruiting

🎧  Quentin “Coach Q” Acree: The Art of Evaluating Character in Recruiting

🏀 In this week’s Significant Recruiting Podcast, Matt Rogers sits down with Quentin “Coach Q” Acree
— Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach at Christopher Newport University
— to talk about what really matters in the recruiting process.

Coach Q, one of the brightest young minds in college basketball, pulls back the curtain on how championship programs evaluate talent, toughness, and fit. He shares why character and IQ often outweigh statistics, what coaches look for during a bad game, and how parents can either help — or hurt — their child’s recruiting journey.

You’ll also hear Coach Q explain why film doesn’t lie, why toughness and consistency are non-negotiables, and why recruits must learn to play hard before they ever learn to play “perfect.” He even offers simple, powerful advice to 16-year-olds who dream of playing college basketball: compete relentlessly and know who you are.

💡 Don’t miss this week’s blog at CoachMattRogers.com
— Matt breaks down what NIL really means and how it’s reshaping families, coaches, and universities at every level.

👉 Subscribe for free at CoachMattRogers.com
for exclusive weekly coaching and recruiting tips, early NCAA updates, and first looks at new tools, books, and school connections to guide your recruiting journey.

Transcript

0:11

Welcome to the Significant Recruiting Podcast. I'm Matt Rogers. Today I'm joined by one of the bright young superstars in college basketball coaching Quentin, coach Q Acre of Christopher Newport University. Coach Q started young and learned fast. He brought back a lot of memories when I was that age, getting into the game and learning from great coaches and trying to figure out who I wanted to be as a coach. So I love his energy and I love his passion, During this part two of our conversation, we focused on what he's looking for when he's out recruiting for CNU. I ask around, we do a lot of background homework, guidance, counselors, teachers, coaches, old coaches, if they, Trent, whatever the case may be different family members, we do a lot when it comes to that because we want. Great people, like high character individuals at this program. We unpack why toughness and IQ are his first filters, what body language in a bad game reveals and how parent messaging can quietly help or hurt a recruit's chances. He also breaks down what he looks for at every position on the basketball court and why film doesn't lie when it comes to truly competing. Quick note before we roll. Check out this week's blog@coachmattrogers.com. I'm breaking down what NIL really means and how it's impacting families, coaches, and universities at every level. If this helps you, please favorite like and leave a comment and subscribe for free@coachmattrogers.com for the weekly newsletter where I'll provide exclusive coaching and recruiting tips, early NCAA updates, and first looks at new books and school and coach connections. Let's get into it. Here's my conversation with Quentin Coach q Acre. Coach Quentin Acre. So glad I've gotten to know you. It's always exciting for me when I had an assistant coach who I just knew, had the tools and. It made my job easier because I could step away. I could walk outta the gym for a few minutes and I knew practice was gonna run at the same pace, and there was gonna be the same discipline and the same energy. And you've got all that. I'm excited about it. I wanna talk some recruiting with you, if you're cool with that. Yeah, for sure. That's my baby right there. I love that. What's really cool for you is you started at what, 20. Yeah, somewhere around there. 21. Yeah. You were already recruiting before you graduated. What are some of the big things you've learned as a recruiter over these last four or five years? The biggest the biggest one I learned is just how to quote, unquote, read through the, I don't want to, it's not bs, but it's like a. What kids tell you what they want. What you want to know or what you want to hear. That's the biggest thing on just really understanding okay, trying to look deeper into the answers that they gave. What they're actually talking about. They're, and things like that. I've gotten really good at okay, I don't really think this kid is about the right stuff when it comes to seeing you. Or, I ask around, we do a lot of background homework, guidance, counselors, teachers, coaches, old coaches, if they, Trent, whatever the case may be different family members, we do a lot when it comes to that because we want. Great people, like high character individuals at this program. And I've done a real good job of I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned is okay, I truly know that he saying, he just saying he's just talking right now. Like you, not really. Yeah. So I, I think that is the biggest one. Is there a part of that you're looking for, that you're hoping that you're gonna feel an hear an energy or hear a confidence that tells you? This kid can survive in our program. Is there anything specific that you're like, there's something I just saw on the floor, there's just something I saw. In an interaction between that kid and his coach or that kid and a teammate or even that kid and an official, is there something that's starting to click with you? You're like, God, I love that. I want more. Yeah, I, the I can break it down a little bit. Interact with Coach. We like to see him through a season. Some programs you'll see through a u that coming into your senior year and offer you immediately. We don't offer kids like that. We like to see through a season. So we wanna come to those bad games'cause Okay. You got a bad game. Like how are you moving through that? Are, is it everybody else's fault or is it, are you able to All right. High five, the teammates take coaching. Even when you get pulled out in certain situations, you walk to the end of the bench. Or am I okay, coach said this boom. I still go down and slap everybody's hand. Those small, those are big things for us because you're going to get coached here, period. Yeah. Everything will not be pretty. So if you're able to do it in that scenario, we believe that okay, like he, he's about the right things. Like he, he understands what it means to just be a good basketball player and that you're gonna have to be coached, you're gonna have to be tough. And then, truthfully, parents. How are those interacting at the basketball game when they come and talk to us? Is it about Oh yeah. Tommy's so good. I don't know why coach doesn't draw more plays up for him. He's not just about Tommy. I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't that's not a, the greatest of flags for us because it could potentially come up. In our program.'cause we can only assume that Tommy's not going to be the man from the jump. Like he just won't. We have other good players in this program, but if that's a thing that's not only coming from the parent, but if you're feeding that to him, then once adversity hits, what is he gonna do? Yeah. That's a big thing for us. I think parents struggle with the fact that you can see one game or watch one film and they don't think that. You have all the information. They feel like they have to sell you. Yeah. What they don't realize is you probably learned 90% of what you needed to know in about three minutes. Yeah, a hundred percent. And then everything else is, it's about your character. It's about your fit. It's about, can we have a relationship with you? But whether or not you can play. That, that happens before you even know I'm in the gym. That's the super easy. That's the fun. It's we know that if you can play college basketball, that's the easiest part of it all right? But we already know that you have zero, responsibility to sell us on that. We care more about who you guys are, is people. When it comes to representing Christopher Newport. This is where coaches are just bad at it.'cause we know it's instinctual. We've been doing it long enough, we played long enough, we've recruited long enough, we've made enough mistakes. We know what we're looking for in recruit, but what we're bad at is articulating what exactly that is. It's easy to say you're not big enough, you're not strong enough. Your hand your handles aren't good enough. You don't have a consistent work ethic. But there's so many parts to that. You can be a really good ball player. You could be the captain of your high school team and a 4.0 GPA and a great leader, but you might not have the killer instinct that we want and need at your position that we want you to play. Yes. Wonderful. Yes. You're averaging 17 and nine. Yes. But you're doing it against guys that are gonna be a light snack in our conference. Yes. A hundred yes. Yes. When a parent were to ask you, what does my son need? How often are you saying things like the toughness and the effort and the consistency? Where do those things come in? Toughness is one, but even when we are looking at a person, toughness is the number one. Yeah. Toughness in iq. And I think it goes to the point that you were saying like. It's not their fault that they could be in a situation where the talent isn't that great or the level of athleticism they're playing against isn't that great? It's not their fault. But when it comes to recruiting for a program that is about winning games at the end of the day, yeah. The biggest thing that we try to communicate with the parents, it's you can have 19 points, but how are you scoring those 19 points are very important to us. In what ways is he getting, is it 19 points on 28 shots? That's right. Is it 19 points? But you guys pressed the entire game, so I don't really see you in a half court setting. That's right.'Cause that's different. Everybody's not gonna be able to press you're not gonna press anybody in college. Yeah. You don't score off of that. We're not just taking the ball from people. Yeah.'cause there are other good players. So there's different ways to have that 19 where there's different ways to be like, yeah. He is a pretty good player, but he doesn't rebound it like a, you gotta be, you gotta have a different edge to you when it comes to rebound. Especially for us when we're got, when we're recruiting our forwards and stuff and have a different edge to you when it comes to rebounding. Yes, he has a lot. But like they're the ones that come to him. Yeah. Does he go out his way to rebound? That's a different skillset than, than a regular. Yeah. Numbers, I would say a lot of coaches are going to no positions. Positionless basketball, and I know you guys are like me, it's still pretty much, you have a one through five and sometimes you'll have three fours on the floor. Sometimes you might have three twos on the floor. Yeah, let's do a little breakdown, and this doesn't have to be your CNU breakdown. This can be just Coach Q and how you think. Okay, bet. Let's talk about each position. Gimme one thing that you love seeing and wanna see when you go watch a point guard. Iq. Iq, iq. It has to be break that down. What does IQ mean to you? What it means to me is do you have the understanding of when to take shots, when to get people involved and when to control the game. Can you do that? And what I mean by controlling the game, it's not necessarily the tempo or anything like that, but are you so unfathomable at your position that no matter the defense they throw at you? No matter if they throw two bodies trapping or whatever. Do you have the poise and the control to know what to do next? You don't have to always have the assist. I'm not saying that you don't have to always be the one to finish the shot. Definitely not saying that, but can you get outta that trap, get it off of it quickly because you know the next pass is going to lead to something else? Yeah. Like those little things for me. Can you get it? Fast break. Why are you dribbling all the way to the pain and then you have to make the play? Can you get it? Boom, you see somebody ahead, get off, get the ball outta your hands, get that outta your hands quickly in order to maintain that advantage and transition those little things for me as a point guard, like I'm like, okay. Like he can really translate it.'cause now, at our level D three, the point guards are not the highest scores. No, I know in division one a little bit, point guards are definitely scores right now. But like at D three level, like we still more traditional a little bit when it comes to the point guards. So you gotta be able to have that, those little things. And we have an elite point guard right now that's so good at the little things. Yeah. Yep. I love it. I love watching a point guard that just knows, okay, my big man, they can't handle it. I gotta get him a touch. My shooting guard, he just made two in a row. I gotta keep finding right? It's just understanding what's happening on the floor, understanding the room you're in and what's happening and how do I take advantage of it, love that stuff. There was this one point, sorry about that. There was this one guard that I saw I'm not gonna name any names, but what just drew me into him is like you just mentioned the shooting guard hitting two threes. Yeah. There was a play, there was down guy hit two threes, and transition whatever. They come back down next play, they gotta stop. And he pointed at his to go pin away for the guy that just hit two threes just to get him in touch. He didn't score that third time. Yeah. But two people came to him. It opened up the screener and I was like, yep. Like that there at the high school. If you have that, you are a good point guard in my opinion. Absolutely. Forget everything else. Like for you to tell your teammate to get out the way to go pin down. For a guy that just hit to that is an elite level. IQ that not many people have. Now we're playing chess, a set of checkers.'cause that kid understands we might not get him a shot, but he just hit two threes and I'm pointing at him. There's a good chance we're gonna have two, maybe three defenders go with him, go with them, but we're gonna get something easy, whether he gets attached or shot or not. I love that. All right, let's talk about your shooting guards. Let's talk about your tubes. What are you looking for that gets you giddy? Obviously they gotta be able to shoot it. Yeah, for sure. That's a premium right now in this sport. Absolutely. And then for me specifically, like my twos and threes are the same player, like they're just wings. I just call'em wings by wing player. They have to be able to obviously shoot, but what I think makes them very good is the ability to make plays when they run you off the line. Not many people can, they can shoot, they can do whatever, but once teams run'em off the line. Not many people are making the correct play, and that does not necessarily mean they have to shoot, but can you get ran off the line, draw a big man up, make the right play, whether the dude cracks back on a big, I have to spray it out to the three, or I dumped down to the big, whatever the case may be. But can I hit the paint? And make a proper play. I don't think a lot of people have that. I guess that goes back a little bit to IQ as well, but you have to have that athletic ability to even put it on the ground at an elite level in order to make a play. It's real simple. It's, if I have to create your shots for you, you're gonna have a hard time playing in my program. Yeah. Like we can't run play, like we don't do it here at, we have no. Double stagger coming. We don't, I don't know what we can't do that. You're not gonna get a shot. I don't know what that is. If you need somebody to create a shot for you, this is the wrong place. Yeah. You have to be able to make plays like, yeah. Everybody can just catch and shoot and stand there all day. Yeah. The teams are not gonna let you do that and create shots. Probably the wrong phrase, create space if you can't create space on your own. Fair. Yeah. Off of pump fakes, off of pivots, off of dribble, whatever that may be. Learning how to get into your man and create space to get a shot off or to get that space, I love that that, that's right on. And it's such a big, and that's a huge failure on the high school coach side. And not all of'em, I don't wanna throw on every bus, but there's so few kids that are coming outta high school that know how to create their own space because everybody's a is, we live in a cone generation right now. Everybody's just dribbling through cones, so it's very easy To gray space on a cone. Yeah, you gotta get some live. I think people just need to get a lot more live reps, a lot more playing like they did back in the day. I know I'm not that old, but I was between the generation of the old school and then now the new generation of what it is. So I knew what it was. I grew up on old school, we played. Yeah. So you wanna know how to create space, how to get a good pump, fake a jet. You go play against older players Yep. That are better than you and you figure it out. You do not get a cone in a chair. That's right. Yeah. And great players don't need to dribble away from a defender. Great players can pump fake and jab step and pivot and reverse pivot and front pivot to create that space. Yep. Maybe the dribble comes after it, but it's hard to find those kids. It's really hard to find those kids. Alright, let's talk about your fours. Give us some direction on, do you like a multiverse four. Do you like a four that can shoot it? Do you like a four that's got that toughness you've been talking about that's gonna bring, that I can guard a post, I can play in the post, I can play back to basket, gimme some of that. Yeah. So in a Coach Q's ideal world, my for man is very versatile. Can step out. And that's not the only thing they can do. But as are able to stretch the floor enough.'cause I'm big on spacing, we're big on spacing here in general. So are they able to be enough of a threat on the perimeter where the floor can be just more space on the floor? And then I think they still have to have the same qualities as your wings especially now. So if you can find a six six with a little bit of what they can do, I mean with a little bit of the same skillset as a wing. And can knock down a random catch and shoot three, the D three level. Are you kidding me? And I think, I mean you're, yeah, like that's a premium at where we are. Absolutely. But when it just comes to the fours in general, I do think they need to be multi-faceted. Like I think they need to be a guy that you can throw to in a pinch post or something like that. It can make a play. Or can be in a short role or anything like that, can make a play, can step out and shoot a three. I just think they have to be the most versatile player, in my opinion, on the floor. They don't have to be great. One specific thing, but if they can be very versatile and be plug and play into certain situations, I do think you have a really good four man in that sense. All right, I'll give you one. You can only pick one. Draymond Greener Al Horford. Who do you take? Draymond. Yeah, I got to, even with a lack of jumper. Yeah, because he makes up for the rest of it. Like you have a player in Draymond who can guard one through five consistently. It's not a, some people say you can guard one through five, he can guard one through five. He's an elite playmaker out of the short role as in primary ball handler. And then you have a guy who understands the off ball movements that we mentioned a little bit earlier, when to go set a screen. How to go point at people to go find Steph Curry. Yeah. How to then make the second pass, because I can read that two people workout like that in itself. That's why they're so good. Like he is very inval. Like he is invaluable to that organization. It's crazy. How good is Gold State gonna be this year with Al Horford, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, three guys that do all those things? If they stay healthy. If they stay healthy, I think they can make some noise. I think they can make some noise. That's scary, man. That's a scary, that's, they can make some noise. That's three of the highest IQs of the game. Yes, and they're all versatile. You got Jimmy Butler that can guard multiple. Yeah they switch ability on a perimeter. They're not the greatest of shooters. They can make one Alford's probably the best shooter out of them. Yeah. They can give you honest out there that's right. You got everything you need. And then obviously you got the greatest. I ever touch a basketball. So that, that always helps. It's nice. That's a nice little addition. Nice little pocket to have. Yeah. Let's talk about centers. What are you looking for in a center? Looking for Oh, you gotta be, you gotta be a rebounder. Okay. If there's one thing that you cannot teach, in my opinion, is your motor and your hands. It's hard to teach. A big to catch. Okay. I don't know how specifically the high school level teaches that unless you just keep throwing balls at'em or whatever. But if a big man, a center has an elite motor, I don't think that can be taught and can catch the basketball dump offs, whatever, LOBs. Yep. Even rebound, just be able to catch the ball. Rip it. Like you gotta, you got a big that you can work with. You can teach'em a post hook, you can teach'em a go to move. But those two things right there in a, like you gotta have a motor, you gotta have a good hands. Let's break that down a little bit.'cause we got some parents listening and going, my kid averages nine rebounds a game. And really, they're a bad rebounder. What's the difference between getting nine rebounds a game and being a great rebounder? What does that mean if the rebounds coming to you? Or can you rebound outta your space? Is what we like to say. If you can go get rebounds and create possessions, because even nine rebounds is cool, you average nine rebounds. How many other ones do you create for somebody else? For somebody else? How many do you keep alive? How many are you going from? Oh, I said a screen on a wing. He shot it off. The pick and roll. Did you just stand there? Or did you go create a tip back? Or did you go and find outta your space? Like I think those are qualities that are way more valuable versus how many you just got Yeah. As a person. And what, that's really what we look a lot for that in our post players. It's just that, and I think that goes back to the motor. Yeah, you can have nine because you're the tallest player on the court. Not many high schools have six, seven, like you're just doing. That's cool. We got it. That, that's very important. But the other qualities I just mentioned I think are value way more valuable? Can you eliminate our opponent from getting extra possessions and can you create extra possessions extra for us? Yep. A hundred percent. And can you lay the wood and get their best rebounder outta the way, and then can you go get it? And then can you eliminate them getting that second shot on the back end. It's two, two big parts of that. Thank you. So I love that coach. I've taken up a ton of your time today. Give a piece of advice to parents that are going through the recruiting process. Their son wants to play at A CNU. They wanna play, give'em a piece of advice to help'em. My biggest thing was just do your research. A lot of parents, a lot of kids they want to go, they wanna play for the best schools. I get that. What I think is even more important than just trying to play at the best schools is playing where you fit and playing where you will have the most success. Wherever you can bring the most success to a program. For example, what I mean by that, to break it down a little bit more, is you go to a program that has five centers that are juniors. You're six, seven, you're good you average 12 and nine. Do you have any value to that program? It's not necessarily that you are not good enough to play there. Probably good enough to be there. You're recruited, you're a recruitable athlete for sure. But in that class, they don't need a post player. So you reaching out and being upset, I get it a little bit, but like you also have to do your research when it comes to those. Are you, is your son a player that is a super fast point guard? Get out and transition, likes to get people involved, whatever the case may be. But you're trying to get recruited by Tony Ben's UVA team. Yeah. That just doesn't make's the ball. Yeah. They'll walk the ball up to court and run sets. That just doesn't make any sense. Necessarily and it's no disrespect to the individual or the athlete. Yes, you're good enough to play there, but you have to understand where you're trying to go, who you're reaching out to. I think it's just as important to understand that aspect of it as it is for us coaches to. Yeah. That give the time to talk to your kid, and I'm sure that goes hand in hand with culture, community. Weather, academics. Do your research, especially the academic part, especially D three, academically, you gotta understand where that stands. Like seeing you is not easy. Yeah. Like at all. So like we don't even open emails that's below a three one.'cause you have to understand the academic of three, one. We come in here a semester. What's the average? The average student comes in a 4.0 by their first semester. It drops down to a two six. Yeah. So even the quote unquote good students in high school struggle to make that transition. So if you're a kid is at a three one and you're looking at these high UAA schools or CNU or whatever. It just doesn't make that much sense. Not saying that your kid is incapable of doing that's not the what we're trying to do, but we as a staff, as a co we have to understand that it's safe to assume that we cannot, put you in a position that you'll be ineligible and don't have that experience. It's not safe for us to do that, so we won't waste our time. Yeah. You don't wanna set anybody up for failure. Correct. All right. Now give a piece of advice to that 16-year-old that wants to play college ball. What should they be working on right now to get a coach's attention that they have a skillset and an IQ and an EQ to be able to play at the next level. What's the biggest thing you wanna see more of and more development of when kids walk in the door? The biggest thing is I feel like just playing hard, especially now. I think that's the biggest thing. A lot of people have the skill, A lot of people have the fancy trainers, whatever the case may be. But when it comes down to playing the game and playing it at a elite level, like I think that's what's going to separate a lot of players, especially for us. We have two good players, A and B, but who has the motor, who has the intensity to compete? That's what I'm, like I said that earlier. To compete is totally different from just playing hard. Who just has that will to not lose the game regardless of what's going on. So if you're that 16-year-old kid, you're good at basketball. You can do a lot of good things if you want to truly separate yourself, in my opinion. Film shows that. Competing film shows it in a lot of different areas. Film don't lie. Film does not lie. Film don't lie. It shows in a lot of different areas. So if you're that 16-year-old going into your, what's that junior year or sophomore year, whatever the case may be, like, you have to turn that switch on somehow some way, and that's going to separate you from other guys that are pretty good as well. Yeah, and it goes back to our conversation in the first segment. I was always, I talked about that 18 months, if it's January, February and I'm still trying to figure out how to motivate you to work hard. Guess what? My friend, I'm already recruiting your replacement. Yep. We can't teach that if we have to spend time to teach you how to play hard and to teach you to go all out and give your best effort. Yeah. What are we spending, what are we spending time doing? We're just wasting both of our time. So yeah. Your competition is no longer that junior ahead of you. It's the freshman I'm about to bring in. And he ready to go. I can tell you that. Coach Q, you are a joy, my friend. If I could ever do anything for you, you call and don't think twice, and if you ever want to talk hoops. You call, don't think twice, but truly appreciate that. So impressed with you. You're gonna do great things, man. Appreciate that. We'll talk soon. Thank you man. What a great conversation with Coach Quentin Acry, one of the bright young superstars in college basketball coaching. You can hear the wisdom beyond his years and the clarity that comes from doing recruiting the right way, always with honesty, curiosity, and care. What stood out most to me is how Coach Q looks past the stat sheets and the sales pitches. He's watching how athletes respond to adversity, how they interact with teammates, and how their parents carry themselves in the stands. He's reminding all of us coaches, parents and athletes alike, that recruiting isn't about finding the best players, it's about building the right people and building great programs. If you enjoyed this conversation, do me a favor, favorite, like, and leave a comment wherever you're listening. It helps us reach more families, coaches, and athletes who wanna do this the right way. And don't forget to subscribe for free@coachmattrogers.com. You'll get the weekly newsletter, exclusive coaching and recruiting tips, early updates on NCAA rules and changes. And first looks at my new books and the school connections that I make to help you stay ahead in your journey. Also, make sure to read this week's blog where I break down what NIL name, image, and likeness really means, and how it's impacting families, coaches, and universities at every level. Until next time, stay focused on what you could control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.