GoHardITP

Correct Heat Check and Nike moved the EYI to the 1st weekend as well as those two events are aligned and schedule coordinated since both are under Nike flag. The Peach State traditionally was held at the same time by the event coordinators as they could piggyback on the dates the Peach Jam was held to count on college coaches to make the trip over to their facilities. It will be interesting to see if they move their dates to mirror the Peach Jam again or just hold their event as scheduled for the 2nd week. Nike made a late schedule change to move to the 1st week of live period for who knows what reason.

Either 6:30 or 7:30 CST. FC has two games and I am not sure which one they play Casey.

If true, these transfers will once again start the talk of how being AAU teammates is impacting high school transfers. Since Ballard lost Dow to that potential influence they were due to have it work in their favor this time. In regard to the younger brother of Anas (UofL player from Egypt), he has been rumored for some time to be coming to the US, but until he physically arrives it remains speculation. I feel Trinity will have a dog in that hunt as well should he really make it to the US for this upcoming season.

No on Keita that I am aware, yes on FC @ Casey tomorrow.

I was up at Hughes HS in Cincy and watch Ballard & Fern Creek go 7-1 between them going against OH high schools. I have no idea how good those teams were relative to this upcoming season, but they were bigger public high schools in the Cincy area. Ballard went 3-1 losing only to Lakota East while Fern Creek had 4 wins coming by large margins. Do not sleep on Ballard this season. They are smaller, but Renner will have another fine season and if they get the transfer(s) that is being mentioned in small circles then watch out.

Sorry, I did not mean this event was a new event as it has been around for a few years. My understanding is there have been some tweaks to it this season as Nike has done for the 16U EYBL circuit. They are making their events more exclusive and putting some of the same structure to 16U that has existed for 17U. I had heard that the EYI is now a requirement for Nike EYBL teams, regardless if you make Peach Jam or not teams must be in Augusta during this first live period if they want to stay in good favor with Nike who funds their programs.

Great question and at least the EYBL in the Spring made coaches aware of the facility and brought a general awareness to the people who run KBA. I think the answer will lie in the teams who attend. Players who are high on Coache's lists will draw a crowd that is good for everyone else too. I have always said as a Coach you want your team to be playing other teams filled with top prospects during the live periods.

I would agree Coach Q, just my opinion but I think they saw both UA & Adidas putting more investment into closing the gap and tried to step up their game a bit. That is why competition in everything is good. Necessity is the mother of innovation.

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.