Keys to a Good Summer Camp

George Mason assistant men's basketball coach Chris Caputo spends each July scouting high school players at camps throughout the United States. He offers four criteria that make a good camp for college recruiting.

Proximity of practice courts:"You like to be in a place where there's not too many gyms so that you're not missing anything. Some events, there are 40 gyms, and you drive. So you go to a 2 o'clock game, and then to get to the 4 o'clock game, you gotta drive across town. . . . If you condense the event to a smaller venue where you have a bunch of courts next to each other, you can walk from one to the other."

Intermissions:"I think the breaks are good because it gives you the opportunity to get something to eat and see every game. Some people might say, you don't have to get something to eat. But sometimes it's good to get off-site for an hour to discuss what you saw, catch up with some people, and come back refreshed and not feel like you have pressure, like while you're out there eating, the other guys are watching and I'm not."

Accurate information book: "Sometimes you go to places, you watch a kid, he's on the floor, he's number 1, and you say, number 1 is pretty good. Then you look in the book, and if the book is not accurate or there are no numbers, then you don't really know what you're watching. A lot of times there is contact info, and if that's incorrect, it becomes more difficult to contact prospects."

Good players:"You don't want to go across the country and have no one there to recruit. Having recruitable athletes is the key. Obviously you don't want to put effort and time into travel and preparation, and there's not recruitable players."