Recruiting season begins long before its start date.(basketball)(Brief Article)

According to the official NCAA calendar, recruiting season begins July 8--which, these days, is a little like claiming the Christmas shopping season commences December 24.

Not until the second week of July may college coaches hit the road for the first of two weeks of summer evaluations, but schools just getting started at that point will be several laps behind the competition.

A month before the scouting period opened, roughly 30 recruits had committed to major-conference programs, including eight of TSN's top 20 prospects for the 2002 class. North Carolina landed two top-10 prospects in guards Raymond Felton of Latta (S.C.) High and Rashad McCants of New Hampton (N.H.) School. Duke has three top 60 commitments: wings J.J. Redick of Roanoke, Va., and Lee Melchionni of Fort Washington, Pa., and center Michael Thompson of New Lenox, Ill. Georgetown already has two players for the class of 2003.

These commitments are not binding until the players sign letters of intent as seniors (the early signing period is in November), but in practice they often hold true.

As the NBA drafts an increasing number of younger prospects, so are the colleges locking up commitments at earlier ages. It may be that the first shot in this revolution was fired way back when Ricky Davis and Dean Oliver committed to Iowa before their sophomore seasons in high school--Oliver just finished his fourth season with the Hawkeyes--but this sort of thing is becoming routine.

"Right now, your smart high-majors are already planning their summers around players from the class from 2003, because the curve has been sped up so much," says recruiting analyst Dave Telep of BlueChipHoops.com, who writes a weekly online report for TSN. "It leads to a situation where we have 30-plus kids committed to Division I schools, and all of them have one thing in common: They've never made an official visit to their school."

Felton is among the many prospects who frequently have made unofficial trips to the school of his choice. Prospects can't make official visits until they are seniors, but the NCAA is working toward allowing junior-year trips to strengthen the bond between athletes and colleges.