AAU - The Bad and The Ugly

AAU - The Good and now The Bad and The Ugly

As most people know AAU gets a bad rap a lot because of the people that are in it for all the wrong reasons.  Most of those reasons involve attention and money. Due to these @tchoopsczar has created #AAUBingo, seen below

Tweets about "aaubingo"


I was fortunate enough to land on one of the first editions of aaubingo as I called a timeout to show them where to get the ball vs. 2-3 zone. Pretty embarrassing for us all.

THE BAD

There is a lot of bad basketball in AAU. Why? The system that has been created makes it borderline impossible to have as many practices as games. High school programs are usually have two practices for every game throughout the season. College programs generally have three practices to every game.  Typically, AAU teams will have will two practices a week and then have anywhere from 4-7 games in a weekend. There just isn't enough time to really get the team to where it should be (same thing happens for some HS and college programs as well).

A great example from above is that when I coached, I learned quickly that I couldn't put in a team defense because I had kids from about seven different high school programs. On top of that, I only had three practices before we played in our first tournament.  Needless to say, our first tournament didn't go very well. We did get better as the season progressed but we couldn't completely install everything I would've liked because I wanted to make sure each player got better individually as well.

One thing that is much different than high school programs is that each AAU organization doesn't have a specific style that would fit it. Each coach within each AAU organization has a specific system that they want to run. Most HS program have a specific style which include a base offense, base defense, and similar quick hitters from a the youth levels to the varsity level. I just don't see that in AAU.

I am not completely sure of numbers but a majority of AAU organizations charge anywhere between $500 to $2000 per player for the spring and summer season. Put everything together the costs go to gym time, scholarships, uniforms, and tournament entry fees. For some organizations there is quite a bit of profit headed to the director's way. That is why they add teams every year. More money in their pocket.

Last thing in the bad category goes to the organizations/coaches that will push their players to scholarship schools (even for little or no money) to make sure that their program produces nothing but scholarship level talent. I understand it's a great sell to parents to make their child's education paid for but when they could actually get more financial aid/academic scholarship from a D3 school than they could from a D2.  Please help your players fit the best fit for them academically (biggest priority) and athletically.

THE UGLY

There are tournament directors that charge $400-$600 for a tournament throughout the spring and summer. Imagine if there are 100 teams (low end at the major tourneys). That also means they are charging anywhere from $7-$10 per day for admissions for at least 1,000 people per day. That's a lot of money heading to someone's pockets. Then they will say they need to pay for insurance, gym rentals, referees, athletic trainers, and misc. workers. So, these directors say they don't make nearly as much as money as everyone thinks they do. Please read below.

We can't forget that these tournaments charge anywhere from $100-$300 for college coaches' packets.  So, instead of making sure college coaches come to their event to see players, they not only charge the kids and their parents but the college coaches to see them as well. If the tournament is during the live period there could be 200-300 coaches there. That's $20,000-$30,000 for selling paper at the low end. And that paper has a lot of mistakes.

There are deadlines that these tournaments have for AAU coaches turning in their roster to be printed. Deadline is followed by many but some don't think the rules apply to them. So...college coaches are getting information from the tournament via the AAU coaches that is wrong. Wrong uniform numbers, wrong names, wrong heights, wrong contact information, or even no roster at all. This can't happen. These kids and their families are generally paying a significant amount of money in hopes of having a college see them and then the wrong contact information is in the packet college coaches get.

After one tournament that I attended while coaching college we figured that one tournament we went to cleared at the very minimum $100,000 (it wasn't a local tourney).  I understand there is a market for this but isn't this exploiting kids more than any college coach ever has.

There are some really shady characters that tend to hover around big time AAU tourneys. Some of these characters include family members that are getting "paid," some are "handlers," and some are wannabe "handlers." People think that having that one player is a one way ticket out of the life they currently have. And the sneaker companies certainly don't help the problems.

You go to a big time tournament and you notice a 30 person entourage for certain teams. Each person has all the Nike/Adidas/Under Armour gear. Their flights are hotels are covered and that's one of the reasons why some of the kids are playing for that certain organization.

Parent: "My son will play for you, how will you take care of our family?"

Director: "What exactly do you need?"

Parent: "We are behind on our car payments."

Director: "Done."

I certainly haven't witnessed anything like that but I do know stuff like that goes on. There have been rumors recently about a significant cash payment to a player's family and a different player's family had most of their expenses taken care of. It's scary to think that things like this happen.

The last thing I will talk about is the biggest issue involving AAU at the highest levels. At the highest levels there is cash exchanged to get the players to attend certain colleges. The cash comes from a booster, the head coach, or an assistant coach. The cash is then given to a handler, an AAU coach, and/or family members. The expectation for many assistant coaches is that they will use part of their salary in order to secure commitments. It happens at the mid-major level and I couldn't imagine the amount of money thrown around to the potential high majors recruits and their families.

And here is Robert Horry's take on AAU. Very interesting http://m.thepostgame.com/blog/daily-take/201406/robert-horry-hate-aau-basketball-youth-coach