When I read that the kids on these AAU teams are from all over the state, I wonder how they practice and how often? How does Moses Moody play on an Arkansas AAU team but goes to school in Florida?
I don’t believe Bradley Beal Elite is an Arkansas AAU team, but it’s not a FL team either. I’d like to know as well
Bradley Beal Elite is listed as being out of St. Louis. The team Twitter handle is @STLEaglesBBall
It is rare the full team practices together in today’s AAU. It’s gone from being an extension of your high school team back in my day, to local players joining together, to players in the state playing together, to players in neighboring states playing together to national all star teams.
Pretty tough to get the team together during the spring. Much easier in the summer with the kids often being in St. Louis.
I spent the weekend attending Girls elite AAU games. The team I was following is based in Arkansas but hat players from all over the state and even out of state. As Richard said they practice very little together in the spring. I also talked to parents of great teams in Tennessee and Kentucky one mom said they just show up for games because getting them together to practice is next to impossible.
There are some great, great young women playing. Very impressive.
I wonder how the heck these high school “students” can be students, ie attend classes and study while playing spring AAU ball all over the country.
Most went to school a half day Friday traveled to Murfreesboro TN for games Sat & Sun drove home Sunday night back to school Monday morning. Simple. The girls I’m follow are excellent students. And fine young women.
MOST summer teams are composed of people from neighboring cities/counties etc. So, in those cases, it’s easier to practice 2 or 3 times a week … But most of the Elite Travel teams have a few out of state guys … In those cases, they may have team “workouts” a couple times a week for the local guys mainly … weekend practices during off weekends where they may have 2 a days over a weekend so the out of town players can practice 2 - 4 times with the team … This scenario is not one that happens every weekend most of the time though. The Elite Travel programs may play 5 - 9 weekends a year from April - End of July (rarely play in June) … outside of those 5-9 weekends, the 2 a day practice weekends may happen 2-4 times.
Lack of real practice time is why most of the offense is Screen and roll and dominated by guard play.
You are right. You know the AAU scene well. Your last paragraph captures it all,
I’ll never understand the AAU system. Feel free to try and educate others if you understand how it’s set up.
From a family member of a Bradley Beal player: Bradley Beal pays travel expenses for players AND family members to all tournaments.
This person said Joe Johnson pays expenses for players but not family members.
I don’t get it either. All I know is, I enjoy watching high school games much more than AAU. High School games are more about teams than individuals.
Is that not a NCAA violation?
I hope not. We have a low level team that plays in AAU style tournaments locally. We are not a sanctioned AAU team but we have kids from 3 local schools and ply in about a 100 mile radius. We(my son and I) almost always have a kid that can’t pay so we cover it. Plus buy meals and transport a lot of them. It is a whole different level than the Bradley Beal team but we occasionally run into some very good teams. We have 3 kids on our squad that have a chance at JC or low level scholarships. One has already made 30 on the ACT and wants to go to a NAIA school in Tennessee.
Bradley Beal must be funding it himself. I remember when my son played AAU in early 90s, we had to go around the city, stand outside grocery stores and collect money just to have money for coaches and players to go to national tournaments. Forget the parents. How things have changed!
It’s still like for 98% of Travel teams… a Select few organizations can afford to do what Bradley Beal does … The largest organizations in Arkansas (Woodz Elite - funded by the Monks; Hawks - funded buy Joe Johnson and fundraising of Real Deal in Rock; Wings - Idk if he’s still connected b/c they kinda combined with Woodz- Ron Crawford; Team South - Idk much about them) in Arkansas The top teams in the age divisions They usually pay Tourney Entry Fees… 17u and 16u top teams sometimes get all expenses paid for players… But even most of their teams are fundraising like everyone else too.