Geography Of Summit League Recruiting

By and large, recruiting in the Summit League is done on the local level. Though some schools occasionally nab a recruit from some faraway state, an overwhelming majority come from a given school's state or region. To see just where various players come from in the conference, we used Google Maps to track the distance between every player's hometown and his school. Below are some of the neat things we came across after going through this process.

(EDIT: After posting this piece, Twitter user and SDSU fan @jackrabbitden made an amazing map that charts the hometowns of the various players in the Summit League. Neat stuff! Check out the map below and our original facts after!)

View 2011 Summit Men's Basketball in a larger map - Made by @jackrabbitden

Average Distance Between Hometown and School
For this category we simply calculated the average distance between hometown and school for each player on a given team. We did not count international players or players from outside the continental U.S.

Team	Avg. Distance (miles)
IUPUI	82
Oakland	207
South Dakota State	226
South Dakota	284
IPFW	320
North Dakota State	425
Oral Roberts	481
UMKC	559
Southern Utah	618
Western Illinois	661

One could certainly make the argument that IUPUI has the most fertile recruiting ground of any team in the Summit League. Not only do they land a lot of hometown talent, but that talent is usually pretty strong, as evidenced by IUPUI's consistency year-after-year.

Number of International Players
Seven of the ten programs in the conference will feature at least one international player this season.

Team	Number
South Dakota	4
South Dakota State	2
Southern Utah	2
UMKC	2
IPFW	1
Oakland	1
Oral Roberts	1

The South Dakota roster features players from Ontario, Brazil, France, and England. Current redshirting-by-way-of-transfer Juevol Myles is also an Ontario native. He was not counted.

Border Wars
Some schools in the Summit League rely heavily on bordering states for their recruiting. As measured by percentage of the roster from a border state, here are the schools with the most players from a nearby state.

North Dakota State: 50% of players from Minnesota
IUPUI: 33% of players from Kentucky
Oral Roberts: 33% of players from Missouri
South Dakota: 21% of players from Wisconsin
South Dakota State: 20% of players from Iowa

It's safe to say that North Dakota State has benefited greatly from neighboring Minnesota. The Land of 10,000 Lakes has just one Division I basketball program. Needless to say, it's been ripe for the picking, and picking is what Coach Saul Phillips and his staff have done.

Most Miles Traveled To School
A number of players have traveled over 1,000 miles to play Division I basketball in the Summit League. Here are the ten players who have traveled the farthest from their hometown to their current school.

Name	Miles
Jeremy McDonald (WIU)	2,061
David Gebru (WIU)	2,034
Ramell Taylor (SUU)	1,845
Jordan Payton (UMKC)	1,679
Taylor Braun (NDSU)	1,519
Kyle Sikora (Oakland)	1,470
Trevor Franklin (UMKC)	1,436
Tyrone Nance (ORU)	1,434
Ray Jones Jr (SUU)	1,425
Herbert Graham (IPFW)	1,266

Hometown Players
On the other side of the spectrum, these are players who didn't have to travel at all to play Division I basketball. These guys play for Summit League programs in their own hometowns.

Fort Wayne, IN: Justin Jordan (IPFW)
Indianapolis: Stephen Thomas, Alex Young, Greg Rice, Sean Esposito, Nick Kitcoff (IUPUI)
Tulsa, OK: Robert Aery, Ken Holdman, Korey Billbury (ORU)
Vermillion, SD: Jordan Boots (USD)
Brookings, SD: Brayden Carlson (SDSU)
Kansas City, MO: Reggie Chamberlain (UMKC)

Most Popular Cities
There are some cities that have produced multiple Summit League products. Below is a listing of those cities.

Kansas City, MO: 7 -- (five play for ORU) Indianapolis: 6 -- (five play for IUPUI) Chicago: 3 Louisville: 3 Tulsa, OK: 3

Cincinnati: 2 Cleveland: 2 Delta, UT: 2 Houston: 2 Lansing, MI: 2 Madison, SD: 2 Peoria, IL: 2 Rock Valley, IA: 2 St. Paul, MN: 2 White River, SD: 2

California and Florida Oddities
For a league largely based in the upper-midwest, it's odd how many current players hail from California and Florida.

Californians
Jeremy McDonald (WIU): Santa Maria, CA
Tyrone Nance (ORU): Los Angeles, CA
Jordan Payton (UMKC): San Diego, CA
Julian Scott (SUU): Marysville, CA

Floridians
Trevor Franklin (UMKC): Overland Park, FL
Frank Gaines (IPFW): Fort Lauderdale, FL
Herbert Graham (IPFW): North Miami Beach, FL
Steven Roundtree (ORU): Jacksonville, FL
Kyle Sikora (Oakland): Key Largo, FL

And Don't Forget About Our Alaskan Friends...
There are currently two players in the league from Alaska.

Damen Bell-Holter (ORU): Hydaburg, AK
John Renfro (SUU): Fairbanks, AK