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Recruiting Trail Puts Basketball’s Changes on Display

Young prospects in men’s basketball have numerous ways to impress college coaches (and options to bypass them). But the way coaches are looking for new talent has changed, too.

Symeon Efstathiou at the Hun School of Princeton, N.J., on Wednesday.Credit...Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times

BLAIRSTOWN, N.J. — Three days after traveling from his family’s vacation home in Porto Heli, Greece, Symeon Efstathiou found himself in a basketball gym at a remote boarding school tucked away in the northwest corner of New Jersey.

Along with his 6-foot-8, 200-pound frame, he brought with him a trick bag of tools: a silky shooting stroke, crafty moves in the low post, the ability to finish with either hand and a proclivity for dishing out decisive passes and high-fives to his new teammates.