If the Triangle is the hotbed of collegiate basketball, then Wake Forest might be the epicenter for collegiate basketball recruiting.
Dave Telep has helped make it so.
Telep, 35, is the national recruiting director for Scout.com, an online network of high school, college and pro team sites that closely follow college recruiting. He also owns Dave Telep Scouting Services, which evaluates basketball talent. Not bad for a high school basketball player whose career was cut short by injury after his freshman year.
"As a high school kid I was an average Joe,"
says Telep, "but when I looked in the mirror I saw Magic Johnson. I was more Johnson than Magic."
His home office is spartan and efficient. Photos he took of basketball stars Greg Oden, LeBron James and Chris Paul (and a wedding picture) line the top of one wall. A 4-foot by 9-foot magnetic board dominates one wall with the rankings of 2009, 2010 and 2011 high school players stacked vertically and color-coded. His tools are a laptop, a BlackBerry and a backpack. He's on the road about 75 nights a year, feeding hoops fans' thirst for information about upcoming talent.
This year's Next Big Thing is John Wall, and though Telep's job is to strip through the hype and rate the talent, he acknowledges Wall's gifts.
"I've never seen anyone like his story in 13 years,"
he says of Wall's recruitment.
Telep's duties at Scout.com include managing the basketball recruiting database, writing stories and covering events. His job as a contract analyst is to supply objective evaluations on players to 230 collegiate clients and about six professional teams.
Honest opinion valued
"I don't recruit guys to schools,"
he says as his BlackBerry buzzes on his desk. "I identify the talented guys, anyone who is a recruitable Division One player. My opinion is not always the popular one, and in no way am I always 100 percent right."
But he's honest, his clients say, and he's right often enough to be on the speed dial of elite college coaches.
"I think he does a heck of a job,"
says University of Florida head coach Billy Donovan. "Besides the evaluation part of it, and how hard he works, the biggest thing with Dave is he's a good guy. He's got integrity and character."
Davidson College coach Bob McKillop concurs.
"The integrity and his work ethic at the events give you a sense of trust,"
McKillop says. "You don't take his opinions as gospel. You take them as affirmations of your observations."
Telep came to the Triangle in 1997. "I was having a beer with my buddy Steve Glenn [in Delaware] and he said, 'My brother owns a sports magazine in North Carolina,'"
Telep recalls. "I was like 'We've been boys for five years and NOW you tell me this?'"
Telep quit his job as a delinquent credit card bill collector and headed south.
Telep lived with David Glenn of the ACC Sports Journal and credited Glenn with helping him get a job as an agate clerk at the Durham Herald-Sun. Telep later worked for the startup Prepstars.com with Glenn.
Family dynamics
Telep's wife, Paige, is the business manager for his recruiting service and instrumental in its success.
"My wife knows more about recruiting than some of the guys in my profession,"
he says with a hint of pride. "She's plugged in."
Telep, the father of two boys -- Michael, 3, and Jason, 8 months -- said he struggles with the balance of family and business, a struggle personified when his first child was premature and weighed 3.5 pounds.
"You stand over your son and realize that's the single most important thing you'll ever do,"
says Telep, who used basketball to remember the birth date. "We had a C-section the day Spencer Hawes committed to Washington. She [Paige Telep] wanted to know."
Paige Telep graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, which was pushing hard for Hawes' services. Her parents graduated from UNC-CH, but her brother is a Duke grad.
"They have some nasty phone messages during the season,"
Telep says. "It's a fun dynamic."
Basketball recruiting has grown into a year-round business, which isn't always savory. Telep seems to have kept his head above the fray.
"I've seen some who were not professional, who weren't class acts,"
said Charlie Adams, executive director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association. "I think he's really considered one of the top experts in the country. He's one of the good guys."
Adams says that he doesn't see how high school recruiting can get much bigger and that it makes prima donnas out of some of the players. But he doesn't fault Telep. "He's an entrepreneur who saw a need and seized the opportunity,"
says Adams.
