Breaking down the basketball recruiting calendar changes

Among the changes for basketball recruits are the times when coaches are allowed to see potential players. In addition, the number of official college recruiting visits also has changed.

"This is really important," said LRT founder Keirsten Sires. "The first thing, student athletes now get a chance to go on 15 recruiting visits, which is staggering ... before it was only five. We tripled the amount of official visits."

The other change involves when coaches are allowed to see recruits during July.

"Typically, there were three recruiting weekends allowed by coaches in July and it's narrowed down to two," Sires said, adding that a two weekends in June have been added and the calendar for April remained the same."

The most important detail for potential college basketball players to know is the difference between sanctioned and non-sanctioned, scholastic and non-scholastic events.

LRT founder and president Keirsten Sires breaks down these events and so much more in this MaxPreps "Making the Jump" podcast with host Chris Stonebraker.

Sires attempt to educate athletes on the college recruiting process through firsthand information and experiences. LRT Sports is a rating and review site for college coaches as well as an informational site, which attempts to help hundreds of thousands of high school athletes best prepare for one of the most critical decisions in their life.

In the complete 23-minute podcast, Sires breaks down all the changes and ramifications of the new basketball calendar and recruiting guidelines.

Sires talks about the re-connection of the college and high school coach, the tripling of official visits for top recruits from five to 15, and how in-home visits have been pushed back to August, just before a recruit's senior year.

As much as website is there to help, Sires warns, most of the hard work comes down to the recruits themselves.