A year out, the state’s top uncommitted prep recruits are swamped with college offers. How are they dealing with it?

Richard Isaacs, guard, Wasatch Academy

By Alex Vejar, The Salt Lake Tribune (February 23, 2021) — Isaacs might be the most high-profile prospect of the five merely because he attends Wasatch Academy, arguably the premier basketball program in Utah. He’s had so many offers from colleges that he stopped keeping track.

Among the schools he said have offered him scholarships are Kansas, Oregon, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Illinois, Arizona State, Arkansas and Florida State. His recollection June 15 of last year was when the calls started pouring in.

“Ever since that day, I just knew that the process would be stressful,” Isaacs said.

Isaacs’ first offer was from UNLV when he was in eighth grade. He got it from the school’s assistant coach when he saw Isaacs win MVP at a camp in his hometown of Las Vegas. Although, he couldn’t do anything with that first one because college coaches are prohibited from talking to athletes that young.

Isaacs — whose nickname is “Pop,” given to him by his father for the noise the basketball made as a kid when he dribbled — said he has difficulty reconciling with the idea that he will have to tell so many schools “no,” especially because “so many great schools that are recruiting me, so many good head coaches out there that I know I could play for.” He doesn’t talk to his high school coaches or friends about the recruiting process, he said, but does get plenty of help from his dad, who is well-versed in the goings-on of college recruitment.

“A lot of these kids have great parents, so their parents do a good job navigating who comes in and out of their lives, who gets their phone numbers and things like that,” Wasatch Academy coach Paul Peterson said.

Peterson is in his first year as head coach of the Tigers after two years as an assistant under Dave Evans, who now coaches at Real Salt Lake Academy High School. He’s seen many players come through the Wasatch Academy program and go on to prestigious colleges to continue their careers.

“The hardest thing is keeping them hungry because they do know that they are very good and and they’re being contacted by a lot of schools, a lot of reporters and stuff,” Peterson said. “The biggest thing is just trying to get them to always help others.”

But, Peterson said, Isaacs is not the type of player he needs to keep hungry. The junior guard does that himself.

“He kind of keeps a chip on his shoulder at all times,” Peterson said.