It is a sweltering July weekend in the Bay Area's east suburbs.
In a brick building on a plot of land in Pleasant Hills that was once home to the Costanoan Native American tribe and among the endless acreage of Rancho Las Juntas, a community college assistant basketball coach provides the day's entertainment for about 50 NCAA Division I basketball coaches.
Watching one of his players walk back on defense after committing a turnover, the coach boils over in the steamy gymnasium. He yanks the offending player from the exhibition at the Diablo Valley College Shootout -- a summer event officially unconnected with California community college basketball, but unofficially a meat market in which recruiters from about 100 four-year programs from across the country will observe potential recruits from 36 teams from California, Oregon and Washington.
"You're only hurting yourself!" the coach roars as the pouting player arrives at the bench. "Look at all these college coaches. Those eyes are on you. You think they all came here to see that? How stupid are you?"
The player throws his lean 6-foot-6 body into a fiberglass seat on the bench. While the coach's words are brutal, they are also honest.
If the player's main goal is to continue his career at a four-year school, he has crippled his chances with this bunch. Although he will play in the rest of team's four games over the weekend, he does not get another chance before this particular group of coaches.
While coaching staffs differ on recruiting strategies as much as they differ on styles of play, they seem unanimous on one school of thought -- potential recruits from community and junior colleges are narrowed down on playing ability, but picked on character.
"We're out here looking for character kids," said Brad Source, in his first year as the recruiting coordinator for New Mexico. "We want guys who have a feel for the game, but are concerned with the team first. That's why we look for kids in winning programs."
The University of San Francisco recruits California as heavily as anyone now that its head coach is Phil Mathews, the former Ventura College head coach.
"I'm looking for a kid who is focused," said Mathews, "that plays hard all the time, that has been coached pretty good. Most JC coaches in California are very good coaches, that's why we recruit the California JCs so heavy."
These thoughts are hammered into every JC player with a chance to move on to the four-year level.
"When I talk to the D-I, D-II coaches, the first question they always ask is, 'What type of kid is he?' " said Rich Hughes, an assistant for Hancock College. "We have that stigma of JC players being thugs. There's a lot of kids at this level who are good kids. They just screwed up along the way and had to go this route."
Stigmas don't affect most four-year coaches who recruit the JC ranks.
"The stereotypes are unfair," said Oklahoma head coach Kelvin Sampson. "Sometimes the best advice a young man can get is to go to a junior college, especially if he's a late bloomer. He can go from being a low Division I recruit to a high Division I recruit."
And a few well-chosen JC additions can make the difference in a season. The play of former Moorpark College guard Devin Montgomery and former L.A. City forward Jimmy Miggins at Pepperdine University last season carried the Waves into the NCAA tournament.
"Those two kids had a lot to do with our success last year," said Pepperdine assistant Wyking Jones, who was at Diablo Valley to see if he could unearth a few more transfers to take their place next season. "Everyone could see that."
Yet he wasn't having too much success at the tournament.
"Jimmy Miggins is an unbelievable player," said Jones. "I don't see any people like that around here, but you don't see guys like that come along very often at the Division I level, period."
At Diablo Valley, the coaches sit, hunched over onto clipboards and notebooks, on two rows of folding chairs dividing two courts that field 12 miniature games from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days. It is a basketball buffet. Their heads snap forward and back between the action as cheers and catcalls draw their attention.
"What the hell was that?" scowls one Big West Conference coach to another, apparently unhappy with the decision-making of one of his targets.
"That line could have been uttered about 5,000 times today," mutters a coach facing in the opposite direction, studying a whole different set of players.
While coaches look for high school stars with skill and potential, they are also searching for a particular malleability. The player might not fit into the program's structure at 18, but he might be able to be molded into a seamless part by his junior season.
Conversely, there is little flexibility in JC recruiting. When Division I coaches are scouring the JC level, they are not only searching for players with a particular level of ability and maturity, but those with skills that should suit the school's particular needs.
"He should be a finished product who can fit right into your system," said Jones. "Primarily, we'll recruit a guy who can come in and start for us right away. There's no need having a guy who's a junior if he can't play right away and make an immediate impact."
JC transfers can be the plaster that fill holes in previous recruiting classes.
"It comes down to need," said Sampson. "Sometimes you get put in position where you need to get immediate help. JC kids can give you the best solution to the problem."
"There have been so many schools that have used the junior college system to gain an advantage," said ESPN commentator Dick Vitale, a former head coach at the University of Detroit. "It has been such a positive force on the scene over the years, providing a great feeder program. Certainly, Oklahoma had major junior college influences in their run to the Final Four last year."
The Sooners have four former JC athletes on their roster this season. Senior Ebi Ere, a 6-foot-5 guard from Barton County (Kan.) C.C., is averaging 16.1 points per game, just under star Hollis Price for the team lead.
"Unless you're in a place like a Duke or Kentucky, it's silly not to recruit the junior college athlete," Vitale said.
Or UCLA, which had to play against Dutch 7-footer Francisco Elson of Kilgore (Tex.) Community College when the eventual Denver Nuggets' draft pick became a UC Berkeley player after being denied admission at UCLA.
"Yeah, figure that one out," said UCLA assistant Jim Saia. "Really, it's difficult for us to get a junior college kid into school if they're not a qualifier out of high school."
Outside the programs from upper echelon academic institutions, California community college players are a viable option.
Of those who finished their high school education, many had poor high school academic careers. Two years of community college give them the opportunity to survive at a four-year school.
"Focused on basketball, so many of these kids can grow up so one-dimensional," said Vitale. "They don't realize they also need to do the job in the classroom. Many kids need a little something extra academically; the junior college route gives them that avenue, that chance."
During the most recent NCAA early signing period, western Division I programs such as Washington State, San Jose State, San Francisco, Cal State Fullerton, UNLV, Utah State, San Diego, Pacific and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo signed players from California community colleges. From outside the region, programs such as Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Texas-El Paso, Louisiana Tech, Georgia Southern, and Drake signed at least one California product.
The last three seasons have produced a bountiful transfer crop, locally. Former Ventura College stars Desmond Penigar (Utah State), Alhaji Mohammed (Louisville), Jonathan Oliver (USC), Keith West (San Jose State) and Eric Walton (San Jose State) have all transferred to Division I schools.
Former Oxnard center Chris Massie plays for Memphis and current star Jeremiah Massey, who leads California in scoring, signed for Kansas State in the early signing period.
But most JC players sign late in the process, usually after their sophomore seasons are done and their academic work is almost complete, when the top high school recruits have made their decisions and the gaping holes in programs become readily apparent.
"They've been so important to us over the years, that we always have to keep our eye out," said Sampson. "The last three months of the (recruiting) season is so volatile that you have to be in a good position to get the best junior college recruits in case a high school kid you've been tracking falls through."
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