I know in the Lexington area this summer there are a couple of well known camps: 1) Blue Chip Camp at Georgetown Coll.; and 2) 5 Star Camp at Asbury (this is new to the area I believe). Do/will these camps truly attract good competition or do these camps attract a poor mix of those with talent and those without (but were willing to pay the high price for the camp)? Does the cost of these camps eliminate most good players? Is there value in having a player attend these camps?

The 5 star camp is in the middle of the AAU certified period for D1 coaches, so any good high school players will be on the road playing at big events.

 

Blue Chip is always a solid event. I've seen most of the top kids in Ky play there at some point in the past few years. Granted, it is open to anyone willing to pay, but I've seen lots of talent there. I coached 2 teams there last year and one had kids from Iowa, Atlanta, New Mexico, England, Netherlands, Florida, and Tennessee. Wide range of kids there.

We’ve sent two boys thru high school and travel basketball and on to college ball. I still don’t know a darn thing about basketball, but I’ve become an expert on camps and motel rates.

 

The 5 Star camps use different coaches at each location, and the experience will be as good as the coaching team. A friend of ours does these camps all over, but he didn’t do the Louisville camp my son went to in 2012. That camp was below average, not worth the high cost. See who the coaches will be now that it moves to Wilmore. As you say, the Ky 5 star has been in conflict with the NCAA active periods, and yes that impacts attendance by the better players. We had to pick our son up at noon the final day to make a certified-tournament game that night. I would not do the Ky 5 Star camp again unless I heard some success stories.

 

The Georgetown camps attract a lot of good players from all over, as you say, and the kids like the camps. However, they sell these as exposure camps and claim scouts will flock to the kids they rate highly. Read their scouting report on their website, they overrate something awful, I doubt many coaches take their reports seriously. Many kids they rated as sure bets never get a look from any college, and I haven’t met anyone who said they got recruited because of a Rick Bolus rating. Buy it for the right reason if you buy it.

 

For value in this area, the best value we ever got was the Rondo camp in Louisville, Doug Bibby of Central was running it at the time and my son got coached by a Harlem Globetrotter. Rondo showed up and autographed each kids’ shirt and played around some. It went a day longer than most camps and full days instead of half days, but cost less money, and they fed the kids each day. Mostly Louisville and southern Indiana kids, so a good level of competition and my son made friends he played against for several years. Check Rondo’s website to see if they still have it. I think it’s just a day camp, we have Louisville relatives so it was easy to keep our son up there all week.

 

The Transylvania camps have a good reputation, and several sessions to fit your schedule. Day camp and sleepover available.

 

If your kid isn’t too advanced, JP Blevins (ex-UK captain) comes back to Lexington for his Get the Edge camp in July. The kids love him, it’s at LCA, and he’ll give them a practice plan DVD to take home with them. It’s a good bang for the buck, but doesn’t get the high-level players. The coaches are mostly college players, or for the young kids even high-school players as coaches.

 

EKU puts on camps, too, but I have no experience with them.

 

Mike Scott works kids out at the ice center, imho your kid will get more out of 4-5 sessions with him than a week at most camps, for less money. Hope this info helps.

Great analysis and very accurate! The key takeaway should be that you shouldn't send your kid to these camps if you are looking to get exposure from them. Yeah, the kids may get listed on their sites or blogs, perhaps even in their player rankings by class, but those in the know aren't relying on those ratings anyway. If your child doesn't play AAU ball, these type camps could serve as a means to gauge your child's ability.

 

As stated, if the goal is to learn drills in order to improve skills, your money is better spent paying for lessons/training as opposed to attending a camp.

I'd be interested in team camps in Northern Ohio. Any suggestions???

I used to go to the camps at Transy and felt like they were beneficial however the last time I sent a kid to camp at Transy one of the "coaches" told me that one of his friends had asked him that morning if he wanted to work the camp and since he didn't have any plans he did it . He admitted that he didn't even play high school ball. I agree that you would get more bang for your buck getting someone like Mike Scott to work with your kid either individually or in a small group.