Orlando Magic Daily Podcast Episode 11: Discussing inRecruit with Malik Allen

On this episode of the Orlando Magic Daily Podcast, we take a look at an exciting new project from former Magic center Malik Allen.

Since retiring after his 2010-11 season stint with the Magic, Allen has worked on an exciting and interesting new project — inRecruit.com. It is tagged as the LinkedIn for basketball players and coaches, helping narrow the focus of coaches and help high school players market themselves as they seek to play collegiately. It certainly fills a major gap in the recruiting trail as it should help college coaches in their search for undiscovered players.

The site is in its infancy and growing, but has gained a lot of endorsements from the basketball community. Former Florida center and current Warriors center Marreese Speights, Raptors guard Kyle Lowry and Bulls guard Marquis Teague all see the value in it as a recruiting tool for colleges and a promotional tool for high school athletes. The coaching staff from Allen’s alma mater, Villanova, has signed up as well.

This will be a great way for potential college athletes to consolidate their basketball resumes and approach college coaches with their pitch to join their team. It should also, as NBC Sports describes it, help bring recruiting out of the dark.

Go ahead and listen to the podcast (and click after the jump for a brief text synopsis of the interview) as Malik Allen explains how he got involved in the project and what inRecruit can provide to coaches, players and fans.

Philip Rossman-Reich, Orlando Magic Daily: Tell me what you have been up to since leaving the Magic and retiring from the NBA. inRecruit has been a big project of yours. It has gotten some good press from NBA players and from NBC and all around.

Malik Allen, inRecruit: I would say that is the biggest thing I have been into. Once I got done with the Magic, and actually going into that lockout year, I knew I had a pretty good inkling that I was going to be done and that was my last year. I thought about what I was going to do before that, but that time between, me and my co-founder got into this concept. It started to pick up steam and I really fell in love with it. I obviously developed a passion for it and following through on it. inRecruit has been my day to day and we have been going full bore with it.

OMD: How did you get involved with this idea of inRecruit. For those who don’t know, explain a little bit about what inRecruit is. How did you get involved with this idea and what spurred you to dive head first into it like you have?

Allen: At the end of the day, what inRecruit is, it’s a platform really built on parents, high school kids, giving them an opportunity to come on and build a profile and start to build a brand built around obviously photos and videos. On the other side is, we give the opportunity for coaches to come on and join and from there make authentic connections.

When people hear about it, they think of the concept of Linkedin for athletes and coaches. How we started was I had an idea in my head of how different it is now from when I was in high school in terms of how recruiting is done and technology and you roll those up and also with the idea of where things are headed. If you can provide an environment that is for coaches and for athletes that is catered to continuing to play and be a part of team and follow certain teams, that was the genesis of it.

It is built a lot on feedback from parents, the kids and coaches, and they really like the idea of a platform that is built and catered just for them. You have your Facebook, that is for everything. You have Twitter, that is built around quick consumption of news and that is where the kids are. If you have something that is in that network and that network is built just for them, that’s what we set out to do.

OMD: It seems like what inRecruit is trying to do is put a more narrowed focus on how coaches communicate with recruits. It seems like kids are always kind of “on.” You’re asking 16-, 17-year-old kids to be always in job hunt mode and not kids. Is this kind of focused attention what you are looking to do with this?

Allen: I think you are spot on. The reality with it is too, as adults a lot of us are on LinkedIn. What we hopefully get is that feel of that type of environment. But it is in what you like. You get the feeling of building your brand, filling out a small athletic resume and your information with the idea that you have fun with it, but there is also that serious part of it. It is just a small step of where you want to go. That is what we wanted to build. For a lot of kids out there, that is what they are going to have to get used to. We tried to put a focus on building something they can identify with and get closer to them.

OMD: My thanks to Malik for sharing a little bit more about inRecruit. Be sure to check out that Web site and share the news about this really great service. Also, be sure to listen to the rest of the interview (linked again below).