Hoopmania

Yeah I believe that's where we will be as well. Only 16 Adidas teams are invited to Atlanta per age group? Where will the rest of the Adidas teams going?

They aren't having it.

5? Garner Road, Wall, and Loaded. Who am I missing? But that makes sense what Adidas was doing. I am not as familiar with Adidas and wondered if that was going to be their strategy to compete with the other circuits.

The reality is that this is the case with every state. I have moved down to North Carolina and there are 7 shoe company teams. Granted that is a talent rich state when it comes to basketball, but the situation is the same. All of the teams are getting watered down with the addition of the Under Armour circuit and Adidas adding a million teams to their circuit.

Updated standings has them tied for 26th.

That was actually the 15U A team that finished runner up in the 16U tourney.

Did they play m(any) tourneys outside of Nike this year besides AAU state playing up? Like you said, the circuit is brutal.

Basically you get a point for every win. Winning your pool gives you 2 more, winning a first round game gives you 6, semis gives you 10 more and winning it adds like 16. I believe they take your top two tourney results. So not going to all 4 tourneys doesn't hurt you.

Correct. There is a EYBL qualifier and a regular 16U tourney for the non Nike teams. This is the last qualifier for Peach Jam. The top 16 16U teams will go to North Augusta in July.

16U Travelers are in Atlanta I believe for EYBL qualifiers.

Oh I know Under Armour offered the money. I am just saying that Nike didn't match that. They get money from lots of different places, which include former players, but their allotment (certainly not $35k) isn't drastically different than the other programs. The majority of the kids pay to play. Although he does field both boys and girls. Keith's money is a different situation.

Takeover also does a great job with their program financially. They host multiple events throughout the year (with one actually being in Puerto Rico this year), and they don't "buy" kids by giving them tons of free stuff. They might not have the same budget, but its not some astronomical number. Definitely not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I coach in the EYBL and I don't believe that this is true. Best option for what? While the most talent and best teams might be in the EYBL as a whole, there are tons of top players that are doing very well for themselves that never played one minute in the EYBL. College coaches go to all three circuits now and if you perform, you will be seen and recruited. I think there are a lot of people with a false sense of how scouting, rankings, and recruiting works.

16U Travelers went 1-2. Lost to Expressions and Alabama Challenge and beat Houston Hoops. The two teams they lost to are both really good.

Based on what I have seen IMO the top team in KY 16U is the Louisville Magic. But that is only if the big freshman plays 16U.

Yeah same. I know Team United's schedule but I was just wondering if the schedule was posted for everyone yet. Alabama challenge is pretty good.

Is the schedule out yet?

He played 16U this weekend. Did really well in the game I saw.

How does this team compare to the Louisville Magic?

Team United won the 16u championship over Western Kentucky elite. 8 point game where western Kentucky led almost the whole game.

The quality of all non shoe company teams tourneys are unfortunately starting to dwindle. There are only around 5-6 top tier teams in the top age groups for this tourney. That is pretty consistent with the tourneys from last weekend in the south/southeast as well. But I have to believe that Easter has something to do with it this year. I am looking forward to seeing the KY teams this weekend.

Are they not playing this week? I see they are at Boo next week.

For Nike, you are allowed to be a reclassed senior, but you have to have been in that program the past year.

Next Level will also be there.

Hopefully it slows down the reclassing of kids for sports. I don't foresee most of the showcase teams making many changes to their rosters though outside of not playing in nationals. I imagine most of the grade exception kids leave to play on the higher level teams that will play based on their grade now instead of playing their age. The guy who wrote that article runs arguably the top league for middle schoolers in the country and he will still allow the elite teams to play in his league based on grade. At the end of the day though, AAU will benefit from this and so will the shoe company teams IMO.