Questions about AAU basketball in NOVA

[Anonymous]

They weren’t charging to tryout last year were they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nova 94 feet is basically a Division 2 organization at best, despite a couple of exceptions, and Takeover and Durant are Division 1. You don't really see the difference until about U13, but after that Nova 94 isn't remotely able to compete with those EYBL teams.

A couple of years ago I watched a team called NoVA something (not sure if it was 94 feet) play a TTO 16U team at a local tournament hosted by TTO. It seems the TTO kids knew ahead of time it would be a blowout and they decided that they would only score on dunks (i.e. passing up easy layups and open perimeter shots). I watched until they were up 16-0 on 8 dunks (2 alley oops) before I couldn't watch any more. I felt really bad for the NoVa kids.

There have been a lot of nova teams. Nova suns, nova elite, nova village, nova cavaliers, nova game changers, and that’s just off the top of my head.

Chances are that wasn’t the 94 feet you saw. They are pretty solid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true about Nova 94. Last year there U11 teams were already formed before the tryouts. Maybe 50+ kids came out to tryout. They only added 1 kid to the tops team and 2 to the second team. So it was a phony tryout. A money maker I guess. Same teams are togetHEr this year so why bother. They’ve played together all fall and winter already.

I don’t think it’s a phony tryout. Because if they get enough kids and the right talent, they can form another team.

And if $20 is going to break you, you shouldn’t be looking into travel basketball.

[Anonymous]

There was a fee, of maybe $15 or $20? For the under 13 boys tryout last year, the Orange team coach and players did not attend, so it was all about the "B" team for that age group. It was fine but would have liked to have understood that ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

New World which is one of the top teams around is trying to establish a team down in south fairfax/north prince William

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New World which is one of the top teams around is trying to establish a team down in south fairfax/north prince William

what age(s)? where do you find info?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New World which is one of the top teams around is trying to establish a team down in south fairfax/north prince William

what age(s)? where do you find info?

Here's their twitter. DM them and ask who to talk to.

https://twitter.com/newworldaau?lang=en

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true about Nova 94. Last year there U11 teams were already formed before the tryouts. Maybe 50+ kids came out to tryout. They only added 1 kid to the tops team and 2 to the second team. So it was a phony tryout. A money maker I guess. Same teams are togetHEr this year so why bother. They’ve played together all fall and winter already.

Just saw that they are charging $20 for their tryouts again. These same teams have stayed together all fall from last years aau teams. I know at U12 their premier and orange teams already have all their players. Same for u11 orange team. How disingenuous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is true about Nova 94. Last year there U11 teams were already formed before the tryouts. Maybe 50+ kids came out to tryout. They only added 1 kid to the tops team and 2 to the second team. So it was a phony tryout. A money maker I guess. Same teams are togetHEr this year so why bother. They’ve played together all fall and winter already.

Just saw that they are charging $20 for their tryouts again. These same teams have stayed together all fall from last years aau teams. I know at U12 their premier and orange teams already have all their players. Same for u11 orange team. How disingenuous!

$20 for two or three good workouts isn’t bad. May even be good for networking.

Even if your kid is picked, you may decide a different team fits better so you may not even except their offer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son would be playing 12U. He really wants to play in an AAU team, but we have some questions/reservations:

*) He has one friend who plays with VA Elite who have traveled across the country (LasVegas, Nashville etc). The thing is, this friend doesn't seem that good when I see him in games so I wonder if some teams are more like glorified pay to play groups. Leaving money issue aside (we've got other kids) if my son does go into an AAU team, I'd want him to be challenged.

*) The money issue. The teams run from 200- 1,000 a season. We're fine with something under 500, but anything else would not work for us.

*) My son plays well. He's on travel a year ahead of his grade (so he's about to turn twelve and plays with 13-14 year olds) but he's not physically what you'd think of a basketball player, except for his height (5'6 right now). He's heavier than most of his teammates and moves slower. He makes up for it in ball handling skills and defense. One of his coaches calls him Shaq and a lot of people urge him to play football- to give you a visual image. That's fine, but there's really only room for two guys like that on a team so he needs to probably be a smaller developmental team. Are there such things in AAU?


*) He's our last kid, so I find myself agreeing to do a lot more with him than I ever did with his brother and sisters (like taking him to tryouts all weekend and then to his game. and....looking for advice on dcum etc).

I've probably missed a few things. Any advice you all may have would be welcomed. Thanks!

Hello. I played on an AAU team for 5 years. It was pretty challenging and it’s a competition for next-level athletes. AAU is a good choice for those serious about improving their game, as well as preparing for high school basketball

[Anonymous]

Agree that players can develop faster if they play AAU in addition to their winter teams. Most obvious gains are in playing with a high motor (at edge of being out of control sometimes, physicality and toughness, and fitness needed to play up to five games in two days. You also see players get better at basket drives and finishes. So you can tell AAU players at tryouts because they play at top speed and with full effort to the whistle and can euro step and get to the rim. But the problem is that AAU coaches don't teach footwork, proper shooting form or even pass-cut-fill-screen fundamentals. Also don't teach man2man bc diamond press into 2-3 zone lets teams survive weekend tournaments through the final game. It's a mixed bag and there can be injuries from games where refs are there to manage game schedules not enforce rules and from not taking a break from basketball imo

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any tips or thoughts about how to approach the Div. III (for example NESCAC) "high-academic" recruiting process, whether through AAU clubs or not? Team Takeover is sending kids to Brown University now, so I assume Ivy League basketball is just for elite players at this point, and we need to aim lower. TIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or thoughts about how to approach the Div. III (for example NESCAC) "high-academic" recruiting process, whether through AAU clubs or not? Team Takeover is sending kids to Brown University now, so I assume Ivy League basketball is just for elite players at this point, and we need to aim lower. TIA

I saw a pretty good presentation at a Top 100 event my son attended by a guy who publishes a recruiting newsletter that hundreds of college coaches actually pay to subscribe to (unlike the mountains of spam they get from camps and exposure events). Here's what I remember of his talk, paraphrased along with notes about our experience:

- Unless you are an ESPN top 100 recruit, the process actually needs to be you recruiting the schools. Kid should make a list of programs he's interested in and contact coach or assistant coach. Request information about summer camps (on an invite if they are invite only) and complete the school's athlete interest form. Follow up with coaches with links to games, information about stats, etc.

- Don't make a choppy highlight video that's all dunks and threes. Show some defense. Show complete plays. Have a video of a whole game or a half where your kid played well that's available online. Coaches want to see your kid play defense. They want to see what the kid does when they miss a shot or make a mistake -- do they get back on defense and take the ball back? Also -- if they make a three, do they stand around celebrating or get back on D?

- Post a profile on a site like Captain U or Be the Beast (Captain U is cheaper). Not necessarily because your player will be found there but because it makes creating a profile with video clips and all the info coaches need pretty easy.

- Get good grades and have test scores available. Coaches can help players get merit aid at d3 schools (I attended a d3 school a million years ago -- so this may have changed -- on a merit-based academic scholarship for student athletes . It wasn't an athletic scholarship, but it was given to people who were successful athletes in high school).

- Every single coach who has contacted my kid has asked for test scores first ---SAT English, math and writing and ACT. It's their first question.

- Play at events that coaches attend. Local tournaments at some random high school gym won't lead to any recruiting interest. Also, be aware that playing at a Jam Fest where there are 100 D1 coaches on a live period weekend doesn't mean that any of those coaches will see your kid play unless your kid is playing on center court. For kids who aren't 4 or 5 star kids, my impression is that you are more likely to have success by contacting coaches proactively with information about grades, test scores and character and then provide links to game video that shows your kid can also play.

- College summer camps seem useful, but they are not all created equal. And I'm not talking about the Georgetown summer camp or Duke or UNC camp that anybody can sign up for. Your kid will get lots of summer camp invites, and you want to look carefully at them. Some are real prospect camps where a limited number of kids are invited to work out for coaches from that school. If your kid is invited to a camp that tells you how many kids will be there (e.g. 30 kids), that tells you your kid will be coached by the team's coaches (only -- not coaches from a bunch of different schools) and where they will meet and work out with the players, those seem useful. Others are moneymaking ventures intended to take advantage of kids thinking that playing at a college camp means they are being recruited. My kid attended a camp at a d3 school in New Jersey that was totally doing camps to make money -- they do 5 camps a summer, and they pack 120 kids into a gym, have them play 3 terrible games (everybody plays selfish ball and tries to create highlights) and then send them home. The coach of that school actually really persistently called and texted my 15 year old and me after the camp -- not out of genuine interest in recruiting my kid, but rather to get him to sign up for another camp. It was really gross.

- Your high school coach should be helping with recruitment. At the very least they should pick up the phone when coaches call. I spoke with a d2 coach who told me that he has a lot of trouble getting calls back from high school coaches.

Finally, I would say be very skeptical -- getting invited to a camp or an exposure event doesn't necessarily mean anything and you will start to get tons of spam trying to convince you that your kid is a prospect when the reality is that they want you to pay to register for an event. It's really sad because kids want to believe it means something, but it really doesn't. Even being contacted by a coach is just a first step --- the recruiting newsletter guy said that many schools contact 3,000 players a summer in order to end up eventually making offers to 5 kids.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much. I didn’t know any of the things you mentioned above. I appreciate you sharing what you have kearned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or thoughts about how to approach the Div. III (for example NESCAC) "high-academic" recruiting process, whether through AAU clubs or not? Team Takeover is sending kids to Brown University now, so I assume Ivy League basketball is just for elite players at this point, and we need to aim lower. TIA

I saw a pretty good presentation at a Top 100 event my son attended by a guy who publishes a recruiting newsletter that hundreds of college coaches actually pay to subscribe to (unlike the mountains of spam they get from camps and exposure events). Here's what I remember of his talk, paraphrased along with notes about our experience:

- Unless you are an ESPN top 100 recruit, the process actually needs to be you recruiting the schools. Kid should make a list of programs he's interested in and contact coach or assistant coach. Request information about summer camps (on an invite if they are invite only) and complete the school's athlete interest form. Follow up with coaches with links to games, information about stats, etc.

- Don't make a choppy highlight video that's all dunks and threes. Show some defense. Show complete plays. Have a video of a whole game or a half where your kid played well that's available online. Coaches want to see your kid play defense. They want to see what the kid does when they miss a shot or make a mistake -- do they get back on defense and take the ball back? Also -- if they make a three, do they stand around celebrating or get back on D?

- Post a profile on a site like Captain U or Be the Beast (Captain U is cheaper). Not necessarily because your player will be found there but because it makes creating a profile with video clips and all the info coaches need pretty easy.

- Get good grades and have test scores available. Coaches can help players get merit aid at d3 schools (I attended a d3 school a million years ago -- so this may have changed -- on a merit-based academic scholarship for student athletes . It wasn't an athletic scholarship, but it was given to people who were successful athletes in high school).

- Every single coach who has contacted my kid has asked for test scores first ---SAT English, math and writing and ACT. It's their first question.

- Play at events that coaches attend. Local tournaments at some random high school gym won't lead to any recruiting interest. Also, be aware that playing at a Jam Fest where there are 100 D1 coaches on a live period weekend doesn't mean that any of those coaches will see your kid play unless your kid is playing on center court. For kids who aren't 4 or 5 star kids, my impression is that you are more likely to have success by contacting coaches proactively with information about grades, test scores and character and then provide links to game video that shows your kid can also play.

- College summer camps seem useful, but they are not all created equal. And I'm not talking about the Georgetown summer camp or Duke or UNC camp that anybody can sign up for. Your kid will get lots of summer camp invites, and you want to look carefully at them. Some are real prospect camps where a limited number of kids are invited to work out for coaches from that school. If your kid is invited to a camp that tells you how many kids will be there (e.g. 30 kids), that tells you your kid will be coached by the team's coaches (only -- not coaches from a bunch of different schools) and where they will meet and work out with the players, those seem useful. Others are moneymaking ventures intended to take advantage of kids thinking that playing at a college camp means they are being recruited. My kid attended a camp at a d3 school in New Jersey that was totally doing camps to make money -- they do 5 camps a summer, and they pack 120 kids into a gym, have them play 3 terrible games (everybody plays selfish ball and tries to create highlights) and then send them home. The coach of that school actually really persistently called and texted my 15 year old and me after the camp -- not out of genuine interest in recruiting my kid, but rather to get him to sign up for another camp. It was really gross.

- Your high school coach should be helping with recruitment. At the very least they should pick up the phone when coaches call. I spoke with a d2 coach who told me that he has a lot of trouble getting calls back from high school coaches.

Finally, I would say be very skeptical -- getting invited to a camp or an exposure event doesn't necessarily mean anything and you will start to get tons of spam trying to convince you that your kid is a prospect when the reality is that they want you to pay to register for an event. It's really sad because kids want to believe it means something, but it really doesn't. Even being contacted by a coach is just a first step --- the recruiting newsletter guy said that many schools contact 3,000 players a summer in order to end up eventually making offers to 5 kids.

+1,000,000,000,000