GoHardITP

This year Nike EYBL has the qualifiers in Augusta for the much anticipated Nike Peach Jam and the remaining Nike EYBL teams must attend Nike’s Elite Youth Invitational (EYI) which is loaded with premier basketball prospects itself. Many college coaches who are there for Peach Jam will attend both as they are co-located. Games are strategically played during the non-playing times of the Peach Jam which allowed media and college coaches the opportunity to see games from both events. This works out very well for the Nike EYBL teams who missed qualifying and the kids playing in the EYI.

KBA event. KBA has certified the event with the NCAA and hopefully will become an annual event in the state. So many NCAA live certified events are held in distant states and it is great if in addition to the National AAU we could have a 2nd strong event for the kids of KY and other states in the region can get exposure with college coaches.

I agree unless you can be like Coach Cal and convince them they can or will win a national championship and everyone get to the next level. It is much harder at the HS Elite travel team level. Many top HS kids in KY play the entire game during the high school ball season and have the responsibility to score at will for their team. They have to make huge sacrifices and many times do not understand that playing for the right team in front of an abundance of college coaches does not require you to play 32 minutes or score 25 points/game. You can gain major interest in a two minute span of game time with the right performance and the right people watching during that time. It happens every Live period.

From the casual eye, I feel we have enough talent in the state with the guard and wing positions. I personally feel that the bigger issue is the lack of quality big men or how few there are to fight over with other programs. The other obstacle we have is there are not any premiere academies or prep schools that get a flood of foreign players who come to the US to develop their skills, but already are 6'9 or taller when they arrive. It is not a coincidence that the kids who happen to make their way over to the states at these basketball factory academic institutions are seem to be tall. The EYBL teams in states with these schools harvest players from them.

As good a ballplayer that Ben is, he is equally as good if not better young man. We often hear that about these kids, but I could not miss the opportunity to make that known about Ben. He is a really good kid that deserves all the good things that happen to him on the court. Parents did a great job keeping him well grounded and not a pampered athlete.

I am obviously not in tune with the real job today, so blame the frequent posts on being bored and anxious for a big weekend of basketball coming up. For illustrative value, I am going to use Coach Q's post and the solid performance last year for the 16U Hoops Dream team at the Nike Memorial Day Classic to put things in perspective with how dominating many Nike EYBL programs can be. * Last year it was an open Nike event with Nike EYBL programs and many of the best non-Nike teams like the 16U Hoop Dreams competing in the same open division. This year will be separated due to 16U EYBL changes made. I feel Coach Q will vouch that the HD 16U team of last year was one of the best in their program and became the nucleus of their very good 17U team of this season. * As Coach Q pointed out, Hoop Dreams 16U (1st in their pool) did beat the Travelers 16U team (2nd in their pool) in 1st round bracket game 49-47. * I will post link at bottom to the schedule and bracket results, but few (less than a handful) of the 2014/2015 EYBL Nike programs failed to either win their pool or advance into bracket play as a 2nd place team. Several EYBL programs had A & B teams or even 15U teams playing up along with their 16U teams advance into bracket play. * Hoop Dreams went undefeated in their pool which included one Nike EYBL program team, the 15U St. Louis Eagles who played up an age group which HD beat by 10 points in pool play. * After 1st round play was completed, 11 Nike EYBL teams advanced to the round of 16 and 5 non-Nike team which included Hoop Dreams *After the round of 16 play, 7 Nike EYBL programs advanced and one Non-Nike program won to advance. That single non-Nike EYBL teams was Hoop Dreams who beat another non-Nike EYBL team (FL Tarheels) to advance to the quarterfinals *In the Round of 8 half of those teams (4) came from 2 Nike EYBL programs which were the A & B team from the host program GA Stars, and the 15U & 16U St. Louis Eagles. * The Final Four or semi-finals were all Nike EYBL program teams as the Hoop Dreams team was eliminated by the GA Stars "B" team that actually went on to play their Elite EYBL team in the finals. * The Elite GA Stars team beat their "B" team by 20 in the finals, but both of their teams finished 1st & 2nd in the event. My point to all this is that until you really dig beyond the surface, the level of competition faced in Nike EYBL exclusive events is unprecedented. I had no idea myself what to expect until you actually experience it. Schedule

Thanks, but I have a hard enough time keeping peace over the dinner table at home. Sports rivalries are great, it feeds us old guys our competitive hunger from days we used to be out there playing. I just remind myself we are all part of the same fraternity that in the end there are far to few people associated with helping the kids in KY who dream of playing college basketball.

I think you are asking about this current spring season and the answer to that would be no. The challenge as many know with a team made up with kids from a wide geographical area is getting together for practice. Non-EYBL dates were set aside for weekend practice dates, otherwise you basically have no time to practice. I guess there are pros & cons for playing other events, but the challenge is playing in events at the expense of limited practice availability. Last year I was part of a team that had 40 games in April and May in what I recall as 7 or 8 tournaments, most beyond the state border. We seldom practiced and development was not part of our effort, we were a team built to play in tourneys. But we won 39 games during that span so I also have a perspective on both playing in many events /games and having the kids taste success. I know one thing, it costs a lot of money to hit the road every weekend....lol.

NASCAR might be less confusing than this scoring system in the way it produces point totals. With a total of (2) points from two pool wins, your suggestion is that is very close to 50th out of 50. But you also have to take into account that those teams with 0 or 1 point will never get to 2 points if they fail to win pool games. There are 17 teams that played in Hampton or Louisville (some both) that have fewer points than The Travelers. There is an equal number of teams that have more points. That makes their position in the standings pretty much middle of the pack. 3 of the 4 losses came to teams that rank in the Top 10 (5th, 7th, & 10th) so the losses came to quality teams that are as good as any in the country. The other loss was a bad loss in overtime in a game that should have been won. If you use 2 points as a guide to being very close to the bottom, that argument holds true for 32 16U EYBL teams being very close to 50th. When Atlanta ends the picture should be more clear as point totals will only account for the best two event performances. The league is brutal and if you are hunting for victories the EYBL is not the league for that.

I get a chuckle too, but we all have to remember when we take a shot at each other's programs there is collateral damage (the kids) when doing so.

Not sure if you have a dog in this fight or not, but most would say it takes two to tango and in this case it has cuts both ways at times. Coach Q to his credit can be pretty subtle and Doubletake not so much. To your suggestion that the Traveler 16U team is basically ranked 50 out of 50 there seems to be a misunderstanding on your part. Travelers 16U went 1-2 in pool play in both Hampton & Louisville during live periods acquiring 2 total points as the Nike scoring system awards points for every victory in addition to other bonus points you can acquire in bracket play or if you win your pool. It is a circuit that rewards 2 teams from each pool. You advance to gold and silver bracket play if you win your pool or come in 2nd. You play no more in an event if you do not come in 1st or 2nd. There are 18 teams with more points and 17 teams with fewer points. There are ten teams including the Travelers who have 2 points. They are not a top team for sure, but neither are they at the bottom. If you are attempting to leave the impression they are at the bottom of a 50 team league you are not being fair or accurate.

As mentioned above, the 16U Travelers are in Atlanta as this event is a 16U EYBL qualifier like the Boo Williams, Spring Takeover (in Louisville) & Houston two weekends ago. What I suspect is there will be a separate 16U division for the teams Nike has identified as their 16U EYBL programs and another 16U open division. I am just guessing based on what Nike is doing to make the 16U EYBL program more exclusive like the 17U is. I have also heard that Sylvester may not be joining Magic now so we will have to see if he stays with Hoopsters or ends up in Chicago after all. Hill will be in Chicago for sure though and will make the 15U team even better.

Paging Coach Q for some insight......

I did not realize D2 was able to be out, but figured NAIA might. How did Ruthsatz and Jalen Johnson match up against each other from Hoptown? I have seen Johnson and figured those two may have been matched up at the guard spot.

It was not a NCAA live period, not saying you were not by some college assistants but what type of college assistants were they?

Washington DC area/Baltimore. This is the program which Assistant UofL Coach Kenny Johnson was very involved running and launched his coaching career from. Also very near Under Armor HQ which is why it is so attractive to them in addition to the talent pool that area produces.

So true, and a reality of all the shoe sponsored circuits. In general people have no idea how tough it is to fund any elite travel ball team. While many people provide ample support, just as many never help even when asked. And then the same people wonder why KY basketball is down compared to other states. It starts with investing in our young talent and that requires a bigger budget than most have funding for.

In the Spring it is the only non-Nike event and the 16U team was scheduled to be in Houston as well that weekend but changed plans. Nike requires all 17U teams to play in the EYBL scheduled events and has moved toward requiring that with 16U also. Nike enhanced the 16U circuit and require the 16U teams to be in a minimum number of those events. I would not be surprised if next year they require the 16U to play in all of the events the 17U attend. I also was told that the Travelers have always played up even when they were in Tennessee and that the tradition of doing so would not ever change. Just a philosophy that has been in place for 15 years so who knows what factors started that.

Q is right and that is exactly what I was told too. To continue the preparation of what they face in the events they play in. As to the age of their 9th grade (15U) players on the team they buck the trend of frequent use of reclassification benefits. Each of them are 15: Ahmad Price, Trey Hill (moving to 15U Lou Magic), & JJ Reed-Each 15 with Fall birth dates in 1999 Anthony Wales & Zan Payne-Both just turned 15 with Spring 1999 birth dates Tre King is actually a sophomore this past season, but is only 15 with a fall 1999 birth date and was a 4 year old entering school. So in some cases they were not only playing against two years older in grade, but if those kids were reclassified kids they were actually three years older. I personally think the reclassification value diminishes as they start to enter high school. I see way too many star middle school kids who get left behind as they lose their size advantage of the past.

Boys...Boys...all the brotherhood lasted all of about 3 days. I really thought we had a chance at world peace here on the board. I must admit the two of you do bring a bit of a chuckle when you poke at each other. I trust it is all in good jest. There was some great basketball played and hopefully the kids competed hard and there was not any on court battles that went over the line of just good hard play. Does anyone know of any fights/troubles in any games? I saw none and for the most part good sportsmanship throughout.

Hammered is accurate, by the eventual state champion Charlotte Court in the Elite 8. Before that they were undefeated in pool play with (2) 20 point plus victories over Louisville Prospects and KY Heat in a pool where each of those three teams reached the Elite 8. They narrowly beat the NKY Legends in a round of 16 game that lasted until well past midnight on Saturday. They actually played very well until turning around and playing Charlotte Court on Sunday morning where it was never really close, but got bad at the end. The Court is very good and I am surprised more people are not talking about Dishman as one of the better returning seniors for the upcoming season. He is really nice and plays above the rim with a strong interior game. As for Trey Hill, anytime a player leaves you have to presume the obvious that he did not like playing with the team he is leaving. As I said in Q's post and as mentioned by someone here...Parents and kids need to make decisions about playing up or playing in your own grade. Lots of variables, but it no doubt is easier to be a more dominating player when you play in your grade for sure which can be tempting.

It is tough for me to weigh in because hindsight will always be the best judge in these type of situations of what was best or not. I just think at the end of the day parents have the right to do what they feel is best for their child. Kids obviously want to play major roles and sometimes when you are playing up with an elite travel team it is at the sacrifice of the potential of a lesser significant role than if you played at your age level. The Travelers do not have a 15U team and the Magic have a great 15U team which will be even better with the addition of this great young prospect. Only kids and families should make that decision and sometimes you have to find yourself in the situation to figure out what is best for you. The same situation may find another kid and family making a different decision so there is not any right or wrong that comes from playing up or dropping down. Each situation and impacted player deserve the right to make their own decision what is best for them and there was not any controversy other than a choice to move on to the 15U Magic team to join a talented group of 2018 players.

Word in Jefferson County is that two open jobs have been filled and they are sort of related....Former Shawnee Coach Miquel Coleman who was discussed as leaving Shawnee earlier in this post has been named the Jeffersontown coach while the Shawnee job he left has been filled with Coach Kevin Geary, an assistant at Doss for multiple seasons. This has been reported by Jason Frakes of the Courier Journal so likely official at this point.

I am buying lots of lottery tickets tonight.....on my post on the bottom of page 4 it shows I received two likes-one from Coach Q & the other from Doubletake. If I am the one to help them find common ground then I am feeling lucky tonight. Good luck to all teams and good health to all players.

I think this is the perfect resolution. If the young man wants to play in his last chance to participate in his State's AAU Championship who could blame him. Last year he played with an out of state team so now that he is back in a state program I could understand his desire to play again in the State Championships. His regular team was sitting out which they have the right to elect to do for whatever reason they see fit. Playing with the other team from that program makes sense in so many ways. Kid is happy, HD program is happy, and I suspect most families on Manimal also are pleased. Coaches and Players in many instances embrace guest pickups, but rarely has my experience been that families prefer to see that.