Brown: For Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope, recruiting relationships still matter in NIL era

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — One of the first calls Shelton Henderson received, one that really cemented him in the recruiting game, came from Ronnie Hamilton when he was an assistant coach at LSU.

So when Hamilton left the Tigers to join the new staff at Louisville, Henderson’s recruitment came as a bonus as well.

Even in the era of name, image and likeness providing, in some cases, millions of reasons to attend a school, relationships still matter in recruiting. And for Louisville coach Pat Kelsey and Kentucky coach Mark Pope, they may be especially critical as they get established in their new positions.

Henderson, a 6-foot-6 small forward from Texas, is ranked 25th in the 247Sports Composite rankings for the Class of 2025. He could be a difference-maker as a freshman for the schools at Nike's 2024 EYBL Peach Jam basketball tournament swooning over him and the one that's lucky enough to sign him.

Duke, Houston and Texas are actively in the mix. Henderson said UK had reached out to him when John Calipari was still coach, and Pope continued to do so after he took over.

Louisville was not on Henderson’s radar until Hamilton was hired. Now Kelsey has also picked up the mantle and has been actively trying to woo Henderson to the Cardinals.

“Him and coach Hamilton, those are two guys that I hear from the most,” Henderson said. “I really like talking to him. He’s a really cool guy, funny guy. I like building that relationship with him.”

So far, Henderson has scheduled official visits to Louisville, Texas and Duke. He said he’d like to make a decision by November but will push it back if he doesn’t feel ready by then.

There will be situations where schools and their collectives swoop in to offer recruits life-changing NIL money too deniable to resist signing elsewhere. Illinois transfer Coleman Hawkins reportedly received such an offer with a $2 million deal to sign with Kansas State.

All the talk in the world won’t make up for that amount. But for the deals that are relatively equal, players will revert to old-fashioned reasons of things such as fit, playing time, the track record of NBA players a coach produced and good old relationships.

Right now, Kelsey and Pope can only sell their vision of their programs. As Pope has tried to make inroads on developing a new relationship with Henderson, he’s really leaned into the future.

“Just talking to him and see what he’s trying to build and really listening to how he sees how I can fit into their system really means a lot to me,” Henderson said.

Trinity High School’s Jayden Johnson was fielding recruiting calls from both staffs under Calipari and former U of L coach Kenny Payne before they reunited at Arkansas.

When Pope and Kelsey took over in their respective new spots, both continued the conversation with the 6-5 shooting guard who is ranked 50th in the 247Sports Composite in the Class of 2026.

Neither staff has made a scholarship offer, but as Johnson pointed out, it’s good to have connections even if he ends up at a different school.

Having a good relationship isn’t just to get a recruit signed out of high school, either. Playing the long game knowing that the transfer portal is open for business means these coaches want to leave a good impression for the future. Who knows how many players they offered out of high school will look to transfer to a new program in a year or two.

“I could play for the same coach all four years in college, or I don’t know, something could happen,” Johnson said. “So (being) able to just have connections with all the coaches is pretty good.”

Having big budgets for NIL collectives is good, but building a relationship during recruiting is still priceless.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter atprofile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.