Girls Travel Basketball

[trottercoach]

AAU in Tennessee is considering some changes that may bring more games to participants. I know there are several travel teams that play in Tennessee but do not play AAU. If your team is not participating in AAU now, what would help influence you to participate in AAU?

 

 

I applaud TN AAU for wanting to do more within TN. More SRT's would be nice and I like the idea of allowing more teams from sub-state to advance to state. However, we must be careful not to allow the state tourney to be lessened or de-valued by allowing less than qualified teams into tourney. Some sub-states in some age groups may have another few teams that can compete but some sub-states are not even full or have a big drop off in competition after the first two teams.

 

Also, some teams will not register for AAU regardless, choosing to play just locally while others like to just trophy hunt and complain about no competition. Some of the younger teams have many kids from the same school playing and this is fine too. In summary, no matter what TN AAU does some teams will still not participate for their own reasons. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

 

I agree to an extent about the devaluing part but a good reason for say a 16 team state is for instance this year in 13u substate east 7 teams/ n middle 3 teams/ s middle 2 teams/ west 0 teams 12 teams total in substate with 7 in one sectional and 0 in another the remaining 5 were playing for seating at state because one of them had won state the previous year....in this case the math is all wrong.

[fan1997]

Maybe......

 

Drop sub-state(these seem like just like any other wkend tournament).

Allow any and all AAU teams to go to State Tournament. Have 1 for D1 and 1 for D2. Make the Tournament a big event that the girls and teams could feel good about, especially if Nationals is not in the cards. Could model like Nationals, opening ceremony, swap pins, guarantee #of games etc.

 

This might get smaller groups that can't travel to Florida or Minnesota, to join AAU.

 

Maybe.....

 

Have team and individual camps for AAU members only. I think they're alot of quality AAU coaches in the state that would love to help do a camp in their area.

These could be done on weekends during offseason (if there is an offseason!)LOL

[volntn]

Some random thoughts.

 

Make it illegal to be shoe team.

 

A team and PLAYERS based in a city/county, all have to be from that city or county ,to register with that club and play, till after the State tournament. Unless your County/City has no AAU Club Team,then you may play with the next closest adjoining club.

 

Who ever said 6 substates, that is a good idea,

 

1. Two in the east,One Knoxville Area,One Chattanooga/Cleveland area.

 

2. Two in middle as you have now

 

3. Two in the west

Break that down into regions..If your team is in that region you have to play in that sub-state. i.e. a Knoxville region team has to play in that areas sub-state.

 

Do away with Super regionals, If you want to go to nationals, Finish 1st or 2nd in your age group at the State Tournament. SRT's have destroyed the State Tournament.

 

Do these ideas and you get back to what AAU is supposed to be about.

 

I know some of you will turn purple reading that, But I am just one guy with my opinion..right or wrong.

[davish]

I have 2 girls teams that will be 15U for 2010 and we would play if we could get more games in a sub state tournament than 1. that is a waste of a weekend. AAU should have sub state be one big tournament and top 8 teams advance to state or d2 state. I plan on looking seriously at playing in sub state and state this year. We play and use most of our money for exposure tournaments.

I hope AAU will seriously look at changing the way they do state to attrack more teams.

[gomerpyle]

I'm speaking from the boy's perspective, so I don't fully know how the girl's tournaments are run, but here are some thoughts:

 

1. Many teams are not playing AAU because they are simply afraid of the competition. Bottom line.

 

2. You cannot make it illegal to be a shoe company team. That is ridiculous. There is no way that would stand up legally, and it isn't fair to the teams who have earned that distinction.

 

3. AAU is really a good deal - reasonable entry fee that can be used for 2 tournaments if you qualify for the D1 state. And the $12 per player registration fee is well worth the insurance, etc. On the boy's side, we try to make sure every team plays 3 in a substate, but we won't hold it unless they play at least 2.

 

4. Peanut does a great job here in East Tennessee.

 

5. Exposure is certainly important, and it may not be the best use of money for some of the really elite teams (older ages) to play in the substates, but it is by far the best route to go for most of the older teams, and I think it's the best choice for almost every team up to 15-u or so.

[volntn]

Some of the large shoe clubs are about money and have ruined AAU. Why do you think the shoe companies are involved with it? The goodness of their heart?

 

It's not about being afraid.. A local club has zero chance of beating a state recruited team unless they are talented beyond belief. So it comes down to spending thousands of dollars per parent in motels,gas and food only to get blown out by 40. This didnt used to be much of a problem in the younger age groups but they are doing it with them now starting in the 9 and 10's and allot of these idiot AAU coaches think its great to beat some little local team by 60 if possible.

 

There are so many tournaments now that dont have AAU affiliation for a reason..So if you can play 25 to 30 games and not have to pay AAU fee's, its more money the Parents save and your playing on your teams level.

[gomerpyle]

How have shoe companies ruined AAU? Specific example?

 

I've been involved in AAU for over 20 years as a coach and tournament director - all on the boy's side, so some of this might not apply, but basically what I see is that some teams just do not want to play the competition. The myth, though, is that every team in an AAU event is stacked and the local teams can't compete. Truthfully, in some substates, there isn't a powerhouse team at all. In others, there may be one dominant team but it's pretty competitive after that. Many local teams would probably do just fine if they actually came to play - at least be competitive.

 

Before the shoe companies came along, you had blowouts as well. Nothing has changed. Never will. You will always have blowouts and always have close games. Shoe company teams are also attending other events as well - maybe not the the little local weekend tournaments, but they are not limited to AAU events only. There were plenty of powerhouses before the shoe companies became involved. The Travelers and the Y were the dominant teams in the state from the early 90's on, years before Nike picked them up.

 

Plus, a lot of teams say they are "sponsored" but really aren't. It is a deceptive recruiting tool. I don't know about the girl's side, but on the boy's side there were only two legitimate shoe-company sponsored teams in the state last year - the Travelers and Memphis Y. The Travelers youngest team was an 8th grade team, and I think the same was true of the Y as well, so at ages below that the shoe company argument doesn't hold water.

[volntn]

Since you to think highly of peanut, Like I do, ask him what he thinks of the Shoe teams and some of the things that has went on the last 2 or 3 years. Mainly with SRT's and nationals and trying to control the board.

 

As you said there are just a few sponsored teams but they have set the agenda for Tn Girls AAU and the national AAU has bent the rules specifically for them. The small clubs with 2 or fewer teams have been the ones to suffer because of it.

 

Is this about getting better or the club director(s) making a ton of cash off of it? For allot,but not all, they do it to make money. If you know anything about it you know who they are and names dont need to be brought up.

[Not-so HeavyD]

I'm speaking from the boy's perspective, so I don't fully know how the girl's tournaments are run, but here are some thoughts:

 

1. Many teams are not playing AAU because they are simply afraid of the competition. Bottom line.

 

2. You cannot make it illegal to be a shoe company team. That is ridiculous. There is no way that would stand up legally, and it isn't fair to the teams who have earned that distinction.

 

3. AAU is really a good deal - reasonable entry fee that can be used for 2 tournaments if you qualify for the D1 state. And the $12 per player registration fee is well worth the insurance, etc. On the boy's side, we try to make sure every team plays 3 in a substate, but we won't hold it unless they play at least 2.

 

4. Peanut does a great job here in East Tennessee.

 

5. Exposure is certainly important, and it may not be the best use of money for some of the really elite teams (older ages) to play in the substates, but it is by far the best route to go for most of the older teams, and I think it's the best choice for almost every team up to 15-u or so.

 

Two things........

 

1. Not a single "shoe" team I know has "earned" that distinction.........it has come by pure politics, the origin being Shelbyville years ago. The reason that the shoe teams have gotten to be so far reaching..(Wash DC, NY, etc.) is because more and more parents are seeing through the BS that these guys shovel. Look at what Memphis Elite have done in the last few years in AAU, they have won back to back National Championships without a shoe deal and with almost entirely TN kids.

 

2. Money is what is ruining AAU pure and simple........the folks in the AAU National office are doing their best to ruin AAU period. Bobby (the Swoosh) Dodd, Eddie (the Boo Williams whippin boy) Clinton and folks don't give a flip nickel about the kids anymore, all they want to do is cater to these folks who think they are the only ones that need to be fielding teams. They are in it for a paycheck. I wintessed that first hand this summer.

 

Peanut is one of the best in the business and hopefully he will be able to make some changes to enhance Tennessee AAU in the future.

[gomerpyle]

I don't know the other person you were referring to, but I've been dealing with Bobby Dodd for many years, and to say he doesn't care about kids or is all about money is ridiculous. Bobby is a very good man and has worked very hard for AAU in all sports.

 

Again, I was speaking from the boy's perspective. But I can assure you those Nike sponsorships were very well-earned. I don't really know much about the girl's side, but the organization of AAU is a very strong one and provides many benefits and safeguards the other competing organizations do not.

 

Perhaps the Super Regional concept needs to be looked at or amended a little bit, but all in all, AAU is an excellent organization. But AAU can't be all things to all people.