Hopefully college coaches across the country are enjoying their Fourth of July weekend -- because the rest of the month is a sprint filled with long flights, crowded gyms, rental cars and very little sleep.
July is the most important month on the college basketball calendar for recruiting, with teams looking to fine-tune their 2018 target board and getting a jump-start on the 2019, 2020 and even 2021 classes in some cases. There are three live periods over the next few weeks: July 12-16, July 19-23 and July 26-30. While the three major shoe companies have events that will draw the longest list of coaches, there are dozens of independent events around the country.