Maybe I’m showing my age with this one. But I miss when college coaches actually came to high school gyms to recruit basketball players.

Not just championship games. Not some huge showcase with 200 prospects.

I’m talking about a regular Tuesday or Friday night high school basketball game.

You would walk into the gym and hear somebody say: “Coach from Pitt is here.” Or West Virginia. Duquesne. Penn State. Somebody from the Big East. Somebody from the Atlantic 10.

And immediately the energy in that gym changed.

Because back then, your high school season was part of your résumé. You were being evaluated in real time.

Your High School Games Meant Something

When I was coming up at Penn Hills, if you wanted to get recruited, you had to perform.

Not in a 45-second highlight clip. Not in an edited mixtape. Not because somebody posted that you had “interest” from 15 schools.

You had to hoop. And college coaches wanted to see it themselves.

They wanted to see how you responded when somebody got physical with you. They wanted to see what happened when you missed four shots in a row. They wanted to see whether you defended. They watched your body language.

They watched how you interacted with your coach. They watched whether you made the right play with the game on the line. They could see how you responded to adversity. And most importantly, they could see whether your game translated when winning actually mattered.

There was nowhere to hide.

Social Media Changed Recruiting

Today, recruiting starts before a coach ever walks into your gym.

A kid can have thousands of followers. Highlights can travel across the country in a matter of hours. A big dunk can get more attention than somebody playing a complete basketball game. One clip can make a player look unbelievable.

And I understand the benefits.

Social media has given kids exposure who might never have gotten it before. A kid from a small town doesn’t necessarily have to hope a college coach happens to hear about him. You can put your game online and potentially reach coaches anywhere in the country.

That’s a positive.

But something was lost too.

The Regular Season Doesn’t Carry the Same Weight

This is probably the biggest difference I notice. A high school regular-season game doesn’t feel like it has the same bearing on a player’s future that it once did.

You can have 30 points on a Tuesday night against a rival and barely anybody outside the gym knows about it.

Then somebody can have two dunks at a showcase, the clips hit social media and suddenly everybody is talking about him.

That’s just the world we’re living in. Recruiting has become more about exposure.

AAU. Showcases. Camps. Rankings. Highlight videos. Social media. Connections. And now, with the transfer portal changing college basketball, coaches have another pool of older, proven players competing with high school prospects for roster spots.

The entire ecosystem is different.

Back Then, You Had to Build a Reputation

Before social media, your reputation traveled through basketball people.

Coaches talked. Scouts talked. Newspaper writers talked. People around Western Pennsylvania knew who could play because they actually watched you play.

If you were killing everybody in the WPIAL or City League, word traveled. And eventually coaches started showing up.

That’s what made it exciting. You earned that attention.

There was something special about looking into the stands and seeing college coaches there because they came specifically to evaluate players in that gym.

Imagine being 16 or 17 years old and knowing somebody who could potentially change your future was sitting ten rows up watching you.

That’s pressure. But that’s also basketball.

They Couldn’t Evaluate You Through a Screen

A highlight tape is supposed to make you look good. That’s literally the point.

Nobody uploads the possession where they didn’t get back on defense. Nobody posts themselves turning the ball over three straight times. Nobody makes a mixtape of bad body language.

But a college coach sitting in the gym for 32 minutes saw everything.

That’s what I miss.

You couldn’t edit the game. You couldn’t choose the possessions. You couldn’t control the narrative.

You had to play.

If you had 25, the coach saw how you got the 25. Did you take 30 shots? Did you score within the offense? Did you make your teammates better? Did those points come when the game mattered?

Those things tell you more about a basketball player than a highlight reel ever will.

I’m Not Saying Everything Was Better Back Then

I don’t want this to become another “everything was better in my generation” article.

It wasn’t.

There are advantages kids have today that I would’ve loved to have. If social media existed when I was at Penn Hills, who knows how much more exposure some of us would’ve gotten?

Players can market themselves now. Families have access to information. Coaches can watch players from across the country without buying a plane ticket every time.

Technology has opened doors. That’s progress.

But progress always changes something.

And in this case, I think it changed the importance of the high school basketball game itself.

High School Basketball Should Matter

This is really what bothers me.

The high school game should matter. Playing in front of your classmates should matter. Winning your section should matter. Beating your rival should matter. Going into somebody else’s packed gym and getting 30 should matter. Leading your school on a playoff run should matter.

Those experiences reveal something about players.

Because basketball isn’t just about talent. It’s about performing when people are depending on you.

Recruiting Used to Feel More Personal

There was also something different about a college coach physically showing up. That meant something.

A coach gave up his night. He drove to your school. He sat in that gym. He watched you warm up. He watched you play.

Maybe he talked to your coach afterward. Maybe he talked to your parents. There was a relationship being built.

Now a lot of recruiting can start with a follow, a DM, a text, a clip or somebody tagging a coach.

It’s faster.

It’s more efficient. But I don’t know if it’s always better.

I Miss That Era

I miss walking into a Western Pennsylvania gym and seeing college coaches scattered throughout the stands. I miss knowing that somebody’s performance that night could change his recruitment. I miss when putting together a great high school season could force colleges to pay attention. I miss when the gym was the résumé.

Social media has changed recruiting forever, and it’s not going backward.

There are good things about that.

But I’ll always believe there’s something a college coach can learn sitting in a high school gym for an entire game that he’ll never learn scrolling through somebody’s highlights.

Because eventually you have to stop watching clips. You have to watch the kid play basketball.

And I miss when that was one of the biggest parts of recruiting.