BleacherCoaches.com

shocker,

Without AAU basketball our area would have has ZERO teams in state finals last 10 years. AAU is what makes HS players and makes HS teams competitive. Take away the AAU players and you are left with a typical HS team. HS basketball give NO exposure to colleges that give scholarship money. Those college coaches are not wasting their time coming to central PA to watch a summer league or HS game because most are not competitive. So don't bad moth AAU ball because it is the only reason HS hoops for girls has been competitive around these parts the last 10 years. With the level of play falling so dramatically last season, those AAU teams better step it up if D6 girls hoops is to remain competitive statewide --- outside of BG of course.

In this area AAU may be run by the right people. Pierce from the Summit is a good example. He runs a clean program. Go to the bigger cities and you will see what I mean. As for coaches coming to central pa to see talent...if a girl or boy is good enough, coaches will travel to see them in the summer. They may not get as much exposure if they do not play AAU but they will get seen.

Clean? What's clean have to do with it? It's about getting fundamental instruction, real competition and exposure to college coaches who can pay for your education --- 3 things kids from our area do not get from high school basketball --- OK fundamentals are taught in some programs but competition is so bad that it's hard to get anything out of it.

How do you get basketball talent? You have to work at it in a competitive environment and be challenged to develop skills. Doesn't happen in high school. Coaches with money do not come to central PA high school summer league or regular season games -- doesn't happen. They can't judge a kids "talent" when there is no competition. D3 is an exception but they give no money.

Every girl on my team that wanted to play in college, did. D1 D2 and D3 level. Never would have happened had we only played high school ball.

Lady Hoopster,

What are you smoking? I've had D1,D2 and D3 coaches tell me that they won't go to AAU any more, because they don't see kids play defense, or fundamental basketball. They ONLY go to the high schools. AAU is just more of the me, me, me, that is too prevalent in all high school sports.

A college coach uses several sources and both high school and AAU is a key tool. In most cases you certainly can not ell how even the best kids really are in playing HS games. There is certainly less pressure and less opportunity to evaluate a player against good competition. AAU games offer this and if a coach is undecided or wants a better evaluation they know they will see it here.

There is a pretty good post player for the Rockwood girls team. She had no offers but how many coaches are going to find a girl playing a average schedule with a bad team. She may have some now because I know that several other coaches talked about her. Here is a case in point since the girls didn't have the opportunity to play at a AAU event that draws coaches she was lost in the sea of everyday HS players.

So granted if the girls is making news in the paper and coaches talk about her she will draw interest from college coaches. They may make a trip to a HS game and they do. I even saw a player in her SR year that was well known in the area but unknown to a college coach who happened to be at a game to look at another player. The coach took the time to inquire about the player.

What AAU will do is help make the player better by making them play a faster more open style of basketball that highlights some skills not shown during the average HS style of game.

I do know that most of the players who play AAU are also the top players on their school team. I know that most of them that play AAU ball are also starters on their varsity team. Is there a connection? I don't know if there is or not but you can't argue that the players who put in the most work end up going somewhere after high school.

I don't see how playing around 60 additional very competitive games during the summer in AAU can hurt a player. I do know that if the player can handle the pressure usually seen in AAU tournaments playing HS is like a walk in the park to these players.

I will end on the story told to me by a D1 girls coach. This coach went to an AAU game to see a girl that was well known and talked about. That coach had also seen the girl play in several HS games and he was ready to make an offer. After the AAU tournament weekend that girl was passed over based on her performance against stronger competition. That coach said he couldn't see her weakness playing in HS games however they stood out very strongly at that tournament.

Personally I don't know of too many coaches who frown on their players doing extra work playing AAU during the summer. In fact I have seen more than a few of them making a few tournaments to watch their players.

Good analysis spin. What you have to realize is that there are different levels of AAU competition. you need to show you can play to get to the higher levels and play against the "A"teams of the variious national programs -- Boo Williams Black Widows, NYC Exodus, Georgia Metros, and the Adidas and Nike elite teams. We did and that's the only reason all our girls were offered. Tons of D1 and D2 coaches at most games in April and July. The last game I played was in front of Geno, Muffett, McGraw, Rene Portland, and most other Big East, Big 10, and ACC coaches along with every mid major coach in the East. It was unbelievable. We played a team with U Conn point guard Rene Montgomery and several other D1 girls. And they weren't even the best team we faced.

The 4 years I played in HS, we had Jody Gualt come to a couple of our games -- that's it.

My AAU coaches followed up with the college coaches, scheduled school visits for us and put film together when there was interest. High school did nothing.

I learned my fundamentals in grade school and developed them in AAU. If we did not play defense, our coach would not play us. That's the only way we could compete and it really evened things up cause, yes, alot of the great talented teams we played were all about offense and me me me. So you are right wee wee wee. When we defended them they didn't know what to do. I guess thgey weren't used to it.