Basketball · Issue No. 19
The Recruiting Path Most Families Never Hear About
Week of September 14, 2026
QUICK TAKE - The major shoe circuits (EYBL, 3SSB, UAA) aren't the only route to college basketball. - Regional showcases like Hoop Group connect players directly to D2, D3, and NAIA programs. - A strong student with solid skills but no circuit connections has a real, underused door available.
Ask most basketball families about recruiting pathways, and the conversation goes straight to the major shoe circuits — EYBL, 3SSB, UAA. According to a longtime Tampa-area travel coach, there's a genuinely useful alternate route that barely comes up in most conversations, largely because it operates out of a different region entirely.
It's called Hoop Group, based in the Northeast, and it functions as a real pipeline — just not to the high-major programs most families are picturing. Division II, Division III, and NAIA programs, many of them with limited recruiting budgets that don't stretch to travel south for evaluation, rely on events like these specifically because it's economical for them to find talent there rather than fly scouts around the country.
For a player with strong grades who isn't circuit-bound — someone who might be a great fit at a smaller program but doesn't have access to (or interest in) the shoe-circuit system — this kind of platform can be a legitimately efficient way to get seen by programs actually looking to fill a roster spot, rather than chasing programs that have hundreds of prospects to sort through. Some coaches have started running similar showcase events regionally, flying in coaches who used to work with organizations like this directly, specifically to bridge that same gap for families who don't have an obvious "in" to the major circuits.
None of this is a knock on the major circuits, which remain the most direct path for players who are already producing results at that level. It's a reminder that the recruiting industry is bigger and more varied than the handful of names that dominate the conversation — and that a legitimate, underused path exists for a lot of players who assume the shoe-circuit system is the only door into college basketball. It usually isn't, once a family knows to look for the other doors.
From an interview with a Tampa-area youth and travel basketball coach.
This piece ran in PPA Pro Issue No. 19, alongside a camp spotlight and trainer pick for every sport. Subscribe free.