A little background on the Vegas tournaments

You had the FAB 48, Las Vegas Classic put on by Bigfoot Hoops and Under Armour which replaced Adidas who had their final event the week before in Cal.

The games started at 5 pm Wednesday and ended Sunday afternoon. College coaches have to be out of the gyms at 5pm on that Sunday regardless if games are going on or not. I usually leave Sunday because I have all the interviews done by then, but I do recall being there at 5 pm on a Sunday a few years ago and it was funny watching the coaches leave in mass right before 5.

A typical day for college coaches starts with the alarm probably going off at 6 to 6:30am for an 8 am game. The last game of the day would be around 10 to 11pm depending if games were running behind. Each coach has to map out their day and figure how they can see the most kids during the day.

I threw away my sheet of games, but I believe I made nine games on Thursday and interviewed like 13-14 kids. Sometimes a gym would only be about 12-14 minutes from the previous one. There were others that took 25-30 minutes to get to. Some might have been 30 plus. The coaches and myself had to account for the travel time before deciding which games you could see. Seldom did games finish early. Most were either close to being on time or late to very late. I know some games were an hour or so late.

Friday I was planning to see 2020 guard Dayten Holman of Oklahoma Run PWP and with travel time of about 30-35 minutes I should’ve been able to catch about 15 minutes of the game. I arrived at the expected time I was hoping and was walking to the gym and here came Dayten. I was lucky to catch when I did. That was the only game that ended early.

In all, I got about 20 interviews for days I was there. Thursday and Friday were long days. I posted this to give you an idea of what an average day was like.

No big deal, if you are in your 20’s or 30’s even. I would be exhausted.
I do miss the sound of sneakers on the hardwood.

I was dragging late Thursday. The diverted Vegas direct flight from Little Rock to Dallas made for a long Wednesday. I caught the 17-Hawks that night, but that was it. Hit the sack at at 2 am central (midnight Vegas) and got up at 645 for the 16U Woodz Elite 8 am game.

The three live July periods allow the coaches to see a lot of kids, but I promise you they’re glad when it’s over.

I’m sure the coaches are relieved when that focused time of ‘must be seen’ ends, it has
to wear on them. It’s like you lose some street cred if your face isn’t seen
at those types of events.