Two hundred and fifteen of the nation’s best high school basketball players spent four days last month scrimmaging at the Adidas ABCD camp in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. All were aware of the throng of major-college coaches that lined one side of the gym, but few players realized that the opinions of a gangly man standing alone on the other side might be just as important. “These are probably the most difficult evaluation days of the year for me,” says 6’6″ Tom Konchalski, a renowned talent scout. “In a high school game it’s two or three players I need to watch; here it’s everybody on the court.”

Camps such as ABCD and Five-Star in Honesdale, Pa., are the only opportunities each year for the 56-year-old Konchalski, who has been evaluating players for more than 25 years, to see, in person, a whole crop of players from outside the Northeast. His usual focus is from Maine to West Virginia, where his keen eye has earned him the respect of college coaches. “When Tom starts talking about a player, it’s like those E.F. Hutton commercials–I listen,” says North Carolina coach Roy Williams. Says Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun, “The difference with Tom is that you know he’s spent a great deal of time thinking about a player’s basketball, academic and social skills.”

How did Konchalski become the sage of college hoops recruiting? The answer starts with the HSBI Report (the acronym stands for High School Basketball Illustrated), the recruiting newsletter that Konchalski has produced full time since 1980. Sixteen times a year Konchalski hunches over his Swintech 1146 electric typewriter in his Queens, N.Y., apartment, punching out the scouting report that rates the top players in the Northeast. The newsletter, which costs $375 a year and has a circulation of just 225, is sold only to college coaches. Konchalski personally addresses each envelope before mailing the reports. He gives his phone number to coaches, though in July, six months after getting his first answering machine, he pulled the plug. “I was spending my life returning calls,” he says.

Konchalski, who attends as many as 300 games a season, writes almost exclusively about players he sees in person, and he makes a point of introducing himself to every kid he evaluates. If the player has college potential, Konchalski rates him from 1 (Division II or III talent) to 5+ (future major-college superstar). Of this year’s incoming freshmen from Eastern schools, only Duke-bound 6’7″, 220-pound forward Luol Deng got a 5+.

Konchalski’s love for basketball dates to 1959, when he and his brother, Steve, followed Brooklyn high school star Connie Hawkins from playground to playground as the high-flying Hawk wowed crowds. After graduating from Fordham with majors in political science and philosophy, Konchalski started teaching grammar school and coaching CYO basketball while spending summers helping at the Five-Star camps. Noticing that Konchalski showed a remarkable knack for remembering the names and abilities of campers, Howard Garfinkel, Five-Star’s impresario, hired him in ’77 to help him with his HSBI Report; seven years later Konchalski bought him out. Now a subscription to the newsletter is considered a must for major-college coaches. “Tom wants to help kids and help programs get good kids,” says Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. “He has no agenda.”

Says Konchalski, “I’ve always been just a basketball junkie. Fortunately, I’ve figured out a way to make a living from it.”

COLOR PHOTO: DAVID BERGMAN EYEWITNESS Konchalski attends some 300 games a year for a firsthand look at the players included in his newsletter.

COLOR PHOTO: DAMIAN STROHMEYER McGee

Five from ’05

Here are Tom Konchalski’s top prospects among players who will be high school juniors this season.

NAME POS. HEIGHT WEIGHT
SCHOOL

Andre McGee PG 5’11” 175
Canyon Springs High (Moreno Valley, Calif.)
Laser-quick, with almost intergalactic range on his three

Greg Paulus PG 6’2″ 185
Christian Brothers Academy (Albany, N.Y.)
Bobby Hurley revisited; scrappy and aggressive

Louis Williams PG-SG 6’2″ 170
South Gwinnett High (Snellville, Ga.)
Combo guard for whom scoring is like breathing

Tasmin Mitchell PF 6’7″ 235
Denham Springs (La.)
High Co-MVP of underclassmen All-Star game at ABCD camp

Tyler Hansbrough PF 6’8″ 215
Poplar Bluff (Mo.)
High Mr. Second Effort; extremely athletic; skilled around basket