AAU Basketball

Do any of you guys play AAU Ball? and do you think i should play now with 2 of my buds or wait till the summer work on my game get big and then play AAU?

Might as well just play now and see how you do. Can't hurt nothing but your ego :lol

Hey I hate to sound like an idiot but can someone explain the AAU system to me? Like what it is? How it got started? Why do players join? That kind of thing.

[QUOTE=ElBronco]Hey I hate to sound like an idiot but can someone explain the AAU system to me? Like what it is? How it got started? Why do players join? That kind of thing.[/QUOTE]

just basketball tournaments. There are all different age groups ect. its a great way for players to get recruited. their pretty fun, all the teams i played on were pretty slopp-ily put together so it was just pretty playin, but tournaments are fun, and you can really get to know a lot of the ballers around your area.

I used to play aau ball but then I just started focusing on my strength and working out over the off season. its more of a preference thing do what you like to do.

AAU basketball is where its at. Hopefully you can get on a squad with a real coach who is interested in developing players. On the AAU circuit you get to play very often(usually weekly spring games and weekend tourneys from March thru August). You also get to play against the top players in your area, and if your team is good enough you can make it to national tourneys like Reno and Las Vegas. You will really get to see where your game is at. Unless your blessed physically, you have to eat, sleep, dream basketball. Daily ball handling drills, shooting drills, eating and sleeping right....and AAU spring and summer ball is a must! Your only young once, so get out there and do it now.

[QUOTE=BayAreaBaller]AAU basketball is where its at. Hopefully you can get on a squad with a real coach who is interested in developing players. On the AAU circuit you get to play very often(usually weekly spring games and weekend tourneys from March thru August). You also get to play against the top players in your area, and if your team is good enough you can make it to national tourneys like Reno and Las Vegas. You will really get to see where your game is at. Unless your blessed physically, you have to eat, sleep, dream basketball. Daily ball handling drills, shooting drills, eating and sleeping right....and AAU spring and summer ball is a must! Your only young once, so get out there and do it now.[/QUOTE]

this. to the op. depends on your age also op. Like if your trying to play at the next level (college), i would advice again depending on your age so if you young like 15 to skip AAU unless your playing for a top 20 program for your state. Once you play for an elite program you get to go to a lot of tournaments with hard competition. If you play for mediocre one you usually just do local tournaments and league play. I believe that the Vegas Big Time Tournament is the biggest AAU tournament of the summer.

I played AAU when I was younger but it retrospect it honestly feels a little like overkill. I guess I understand the logic of basketball being available to all those who wish to participate a lot, but there's something about AAU, from a coaches' perspective, that just seems a little over the top and kind of dirty. The motivation seems to sort of shift from just having fun to hyper-competition and feeding players to the old guys in sweatsuits who want you to come play for them.

Again though, it seems like a fulfilling experience to a lot of kids, so I can't really dispute that. Maybe it's the recruiting process I object to; as if these guys are trying to court all these players. It feels creepy and a little unsavory.

I guess it depends on what a player is looking to get out of playing basketball.

If I had any AAU teams around me I would. But I don't so I run track which is actually quite a bit of fun.

[QUOTE=Maize'N'Blue]If I had any AAU teams around me I would. But I don't so I run track which is actually quite a bit of fun.[/QUOTE]

Tracks awesome man, I'd do it if I weren't practicing basketball. What events do you run?

[QUOTE=carpevicis]Tracks awesome man, I'd do it if I weren't practicing basketball. What events do you run?[/QUOTE]

Well right now I'm in the open 400 and the 1600 relay. I also run the 800 sometimes, but the open 800 is too close to the open 400 so I can't do both.
Anyways my PBs are 55.46 in the 400 and 2:18 in the 800.

Also fun fact, my high school team (Gladstone) currently holds the record in the state of Michigan for most consecutive Division 1 championships with 6.

[QUOTE=Maize'N'Blue]Well right now I'm in the open 400 and the 1600 relay. I also run the 800 sometimes, but the open 800 is too close to the open 400 so I can't do both.
Anyways my PBs are 55.46 in the 400 and 2:18 in the 800.

Also fun fact, my high school team (Gladstone) currently holds the record in the state of Michigan for most consecutive Division 1 championships with 6.[/QUOTE]

Man the 400 is freaking torture... hardest event, that or the 800 in my opinion. I ran the 45m/55m and the 45/55 hurdles for a short stint, but then I stuck to dash. A couple months back I signed up for the Freshman/Sophomore Meet @ Reggie Lewis in Boston under the 45m, but my coach put me running anchor for the 4x400. To add to it, he put our qualifying time down as 3:26 :wtf: So in theory we would all have to run 54s. I ran a 71 in practice, and just chilled until the meet. I ended up running a 64, but we had to run last after waiting 4 hours...

But yeah that's my track story. I started indoor track this year to get some basketball speed, and that also explains why I run the 45m pretty good (5.6) but a terrible 100m time (13s). Strictly (very) short distance.

[QUOTE=carpevicis]Man the 400 is freaking torture... hardest event, that or the 800 in my opinion. I ran the 45m/55m and the 45/55 hurdles for a short stint, but then I stuck to dash. A couple months back I signed up for the Freshman/Sophomore Meet @ Reggie Lewis in Boston under the 45m, but my coach put me running anchor for the 4x400. To add to it, he put our qualifying time down as 3:26 :wtf: So in theory we would all have to run 54s. I ran a 71 in practice, and just chilled until the meet. I ended up running a 64, but we had to run last after waiting 4 hours...

But yeah that's my track story. I started indoor track this year to get some basketball speed, and that also explains why I run the 45m pretty good (5.6) but a terrible 100m time (13s). Strictly (very) short distance.[/QUOTE]

Actually for a 3:26 wouldn't everyone on the team have to run 51's?
And yes its awful having the relay as the last event. Next year is going to be crazy, I'm going to run the first event (3200 relay), either the open 400 or 800 in the middle, and the 1600 relay as the last event.

Also fun fact, my dads 1600 relay team had to race against both Steve
Mariucci and Tom Izzo.

Oh yeah, you're right but we sucked big time, I think we ran like a 4:01... and I really want to do indoor next year but I'm thinking about playing basketball, I haven't played organized bball since 6th grade. Outdoor tracks not my thing though, I hate the 100 cause it's over 2 times what I'm used to running.

my oldest son plays AAU on a 12U team. he's been w/ them a bit over a month and has already played in 2 tourneys. they came in 4th place nationally last year in their 5th grade bracket.

I've come to learn that playing AAU is almsot a neccessity when it comes to getting recruited. Unless you are just a can't miss physical specimen. There was a guy on our high school team that didn't play AAU. He was (in most people's opinion) the best player in the state that year, but the biggest offers he was getting was some mid-major D1's. I mean this was a 6'4" PG/SG who was a lights out shooter and a good rebounding guard. We even won state our senior year (in the 2nd biggest classification in the state) and he won state tourney MVP. Still wasn't getting the offers from bigger D1's.

He never played a day of AAU ball in his life. I mean he worked on his game religiously in the summer, but college coaches are going to notice you when you're in your empty high school gym at 9 a.m. running sprints and shooting 1,000 jumpers. He still ended up playing college ball but nowhere near the level he should've been.

AAU has a lot of levels. If a player is just looking for playing time, it's just a matter of finding a local team, going through the tryouts, playing in tourneys. Some teams play all their games close to home while others play a national schedule.

Some teams are sponsored - either by local businesses or big shoe companies.

The one thing is that a lot of parents have the idea that playing AAU will get their child a college scholarship. That's only true if they are playing on an AAU team that is of high school age and plays a national schedule during the NCAA 'live' period.

Also, college coaches and scouts value high school games more than AAU simply because AAU is far less structured. They will watch a lot of AAU because there are so many games in one place, but the level of play/coaching in general is considered far lower.

Another thing is AAU teams for young kids - parents think that a 4th grade national champion or 7th grade national champion means something, but only for fun - no serious scout will evaluate middle school or elementary school kids. Those 'national titles' are pretty much meaningless everywhere except for the players involved.

The biggest teams are sponsored by Nike, Adidas or Under Armour and they play a national schedule. The most structured is the Nike EYBL which takes place in July and plays a whole season over four cities, culminating in the Peach Jam in North Augusta, SC. The players on the teams that win at the Peach Jame are loaded with high level collegiate talent.

my experience with aau sucked but it looks like most people liked it, too many egos and politics involved