Why the nonstop basketball recruiting calendar ‘is a nightmare’ for college

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Dan Hurley might’ve been the happiest man in the gym last week at Nike’s Peach Jam, the premier basketball recruiting event of the year, as he basked in the afterglow of a national championship. And why not? Five-star prospects perk up a bit more these days when the Connecticut coach slides into a courtside seat at their games.

But even Hurley felt an enormous sense of relief that the spring and summer evaluation season was finally winding down.

“With the propensity for players to look for greener pastures, it’s disconcerting to be on the road recruiting as much as we are,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re coming back to. We’re all paranoid, and I’d be a lot happier on campus, on the court — less recruiting days, more time on the court with my team.”

Alabama coach Nate Oats just signed his fourth consecutive top-15 recruiting class and cleaned up in the transfer portal, putting the Crimson Tide in position to win the SEC for a third time in four years. But he looked and sounded weary standing outside the Riverview Park Activities Center between games. Building a roster these days, or more often rebuilding a roster, is an exhausting, neverending endeavor.

“We had an official visit going on July 4,” Oats said. “The transfer portal has changed stuff. Since the season ended, I kind of made myself take Easter Sunday off to spend with the family, but that’s it. I don’t think I’ve had another day off since the season ended, really. It’s bad. I’m not going to sit here and complain — there are a lot of people who would trade jobs with me — but it definitely makes this harder.”

Not everyone hates it, but every coach The Athletic spoke to last week at Peach Jam at least acknowledged it: The Calendar, as college staffs refer to their schedules from March to August, never has been fuller. The day after this year’s Selection Sunday, a 60-day transfer-portal window opened. There’s a proliferation of recruiting obligations both on and off campus throughout the spring and summer, as well as the looming possibility that a player who has graduated (or does so by August) might still bounce for another program without penalty, just before the new season starts.

“The schedule is just crazy,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. “July used to be a crazy month; now every month seems to be kind of crazy. And you’re away from your family a lot, so it puts a lot of pressure on them.”

Kansas State coach Jerome Tang, whose stated objective is to have more “dudes” than the opponent — a philosophy that got the Wildcats within one bucket of the Final Four last season — still has two available scholarships and is trying to finalize his roster in the middle of July.

“I mean, it’s incredible,” he said. “Thank God we’ve got a wonderful staff and I’ve got an understanding wife. It used to be that June was a time we got to stay on campus and have time with our…