Mike Hatch: New Director of Recruiting for Jank

[ponyboy]

DALLAS (SMU) -- Mike Hatch was named Director of Recruiting for SMU Men's Basketball, Head Coach Tim Jankovich announced today.

Hatch comes to the Hilltop with more than three decades of experience as a coach at the collegiate and high school levels, and immediately after leading Justin Northwest High School to two straight UIL 5A State final fours including the 2018 championship game. In 32 seasons as a high school head coach he has an overall record of 614-361 with 16 playoff appearances and 11 Coach of the Year awards. He also had two stints as a college assistant. First as an assistant to Jankovich at Hutchinson Community College during the 1997-1998 season and later as an assistant at Oklahoma State from 2006-2008.

"I have known Mike for more than 25 years," said Jankovich. "He is one of the best people and coaches that I know. He has had an incredible run as a high school and collegiate coach, and I am very excited to have him with us."

Hatch spent the previous decade as the head coach at Justin Northwest High School. He coached the program to its first two trips to the UIL State Tournament in Austin, reaching the 5A semifinals in 2017 and 5A title game in 2018. He was also the head coach there from 1983 to 1997.

Hatch was the Boys' Athletic Coordinator and basketball head coach at Ft. Worth's R.L. Paschal High School from 2000 to 2006 and head coach at McKinney High School from 1998 to 2000.

His collegiate basketball career began as a player at Ranger College. He later transferred to Pan American University, now UTRGV, to play for Lon Kruger where he graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Secondary Education in 1983.

[smupony94]

His job is to call recruits since Jank is afraid of phones

[PonyTime]

His job is to call recruits since Jank is afraid of phones

That's a little harsh.

Due to ongoing NCAA restrictions we are probably only allowed to make 4 phone calls a year. And they are probably limited to 2 minutes a call and must be made from a pay phone at a gas station at the corner of Inwood and Irving Blvd.

[ponyboy]

Which coincidentally is where I spent the night last night.

[Rebel10]

I wish the new recruiting director well. Don’t want Coach Jank to end up like June when the majority of the Bennett recruits graduated and things started going downhill.

[sadderbudweiser]

Which coincidentally is where I spent the night last night.

Which did you notice first?

The out of order sign or the KSU athletic directors’s digits scratched into the glass?

[Rebel10]

How does our current recruiting class compare to the other AAC teams classes?

[Charleston Pony]

How does our current recruiting class compare to the other AAC teams classes?

too early to say but not as strong as the upper tier AAC teams:

https://247sports.com/Season/2019-Baske ... erence=AAC

We have at least offered some highly rated guys but it would appear that SMU is going to have to rely on 3 star guys and hope they can really develop into the kind of guys who can get us into the post season and actually win some games in the tourney.

[RI Stang]

Gordon is a 4 star. Obviously need to figure out how to finally close one though...

[Charleston Pony]

Would be nice to get another Chicago kid...that Sterling Brown guy turned out pretty well. Would be nice to see DaJuan commit/sign early and even better if we can find some skilled bigs for next year's class.

[Rebel10]

Are any of our current commits top 150 or top 100 guys?

[Charleston Pony]

Meanwhile, given the popularity of transferring these days (over 800 Division I players last year), just keeping up with that "market" for players should keep a guy in this position pretty busy. As we continue to miss on top H.S. talent, this would appear to have become a very important part of SMU's recruiting...going back to Nic Moore, Whitt, Mike, etc...

[JasonB]

Meanwhile, given the popularity of transferring these days (over 800 Division I players last year), just keeping up with that "market" for players should keep a guy in this position pretty busy. As we continue to miss on top H.S. talent, this would appear to have become a very important part of SMU's recruiting...going back to Nic Moore, Whitt, Mike, etc...

It is an important part of every mid-major or clean program. The 4-5 star recruits for the most part are "dirty". The only way you get them clean is as a transfer. So, to upgrade talent, you have to absolutely rely on transfer.

The play of Mike and attention he garners as we beat up a soft schedule is going to attract media attention as well as the attention of more transfers to fill in this class.

[Rebel10]

Let’s not stereotype most 4 and 5 star players. TCU is getting their fair share and I don’t think Dixon is cheating. Transfers are okay but at some point you shouldn’t rely on that to have a sustainable program. If you can get Top 150 and Top 100 players whether they are 3, 4 or 5 stars players doesn’t matter as much. Just get the Top 150 and Top 150 players.

[JasonB]

Didn't mean to make it seem like I am blaming the players - to be clear, I don't. Many of them are in financial situations where they are just trying to help out their families.

Transfers are a big part of the game in both football and basketball, you know that. But you are right - you need a solid base of recruits and then you build on top of that with transfers.

I think we all know this goes one way or another... right now Jank is on those top lists, but he isn't closing. He is either going to close a couple of these and rebuild his recruiting momentum, or SMU will stop popping up in the consideration lists.

I'm interested to see if he has the confidence to let this season play out and attract higher level recruits in the late period, or if he grabs a couple more lesser recruits early.