Tag: aau

‘The Spoils’ director discusses link between NBA and AAU basketball

The director of a new basketball documentary with a USC flavor discusses the financialization of sports.

“The Spoils” is a basketball documentary which looks at the innards of American basketball on multiple levels. Former USC basketball stars Evan Mobley and Onyeka Okongwu figure prominently in the film. We talked to the film’s director, Mike Nicoll. “The Spoils” will be released on June 13 of this year, in just a few weeks.

Trojans Wire: What will people learn in this documentary, “The Spoils”?

Mike Nicoll: I try not to tell my audience what to think about a story, because I think they’re smart enough to decide for themselves. To my eye, a successful film is a movie that asks important questions – and motivates the audience to continue thinking about them after the movie’s over. We spent 11 years, start to finish, shooting “The Spoils.” That stretch of time just happened to be the most transformational decade in the history of the landscape. Between the emergence of social media and NIL, the world we used to understand as “amateur sports” has been obliterated. The boundaries between levels are blurrier than ever … and, in many ways, the business has become the game. 

Our film unpacks the interconnectivity of the system, the professionalization of every level … and the financialization of the sport from the bottom up. I think there are some important questions facing the industry — and, more importantly, facing families and young players — in terms of the incentive structures that drive the game. 

It’s like, what do we want to optimize for? Brand building? Recruiting? Social media followers? Selling shoes? Or player development? I think that most people in and around the game would say the spirit, or soul, of the game is in trouble. I think our film asks important questions about what we want the American basketball system to be built for … and that starts with the choices that families make about what they want out of it.

Trojans Wire: What makes AAU basketball so fascinating and different from other youth sports programs?

Nicoll: I always tell people the reason I’m so fascinated by it (AAU) is because it’s sort of this quintessentially American space, where the streets are colliding with corporate America.

AAU and the NBA are interconnected pieces of the same system. Kind of like Lego pieces attached to one another. You can try to pull them apart and look at them as their own thing. But you’re gonna miss the bigger picture.”

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Around the Big Ten: What today’s AAU news means for the Big Ten?

The AAU has added three potential Big Ten expansion targets.

On Thursday, the Association of American Universities admitted six new member institutions. The news is very interesting for the Big Ten.

At least three institutions that could be targets for the Big Ten in the next round of conference expansion including Arizona State, Notre Dame and Miami have been added to the AAU.

Why does this matter to the Big Ten?

The Big Ten has only admitted universities that are AAU member institutions. Nebraska was a member of the AAU when it was admitted in 2010 but their status was terminated in 2011.

The most recent rounds of expansion (Maryland and Rutgers in 2014, UCLA and USC coming next year) featured four institutions that are all AAU members. The membership proves the elite academic status of a university as a research institution.

And with the Big Ten allegedly interested in adding four more universities, the six new AAU members expands the map for the conference.So what to make of Thursday’s news?

Three Big Ten expansion candidates are set to become AAU members

Notre Dame, of course, has been linked to the Big Ten for the last few years and is rumored to be on the conference’s shortlist for future additions.

The Big Ten is likely to look towards the West Coast and reportedly has vetted Oregon and Washington as potential expansion candidates (both schools are AAU members). Arizona State, with its own impressive media market, now enters as a possible candidate. Arizona State could either supplant Oregon and/or Washington or perhaps join those two schools in a western pod of five programs in the Big Ten.

The news about Miami is the most interesting though.

 

In a recent episode of ‘Always College Football,’ ESPN analyst Greg McElroy said that he believes the Big Ten could be looking to bulk up its East Coast presence in the next round of expansion. Florida, he said, is a state that the conference is likely to look at and would like to get a foothold in.

Miami, while boasting a strong football history, also has a top 20 media market.

“I don’t have a sense that the SEC is really mobilizing to expand. The Big Ten, however, would be very open to expanding,” McElroy said on ESPN.

“But the place that they would be most open to would be in the state of Florida. That would be advantageous to NBC that’d be advantageous to FOX, and that would also be advantageous to CBS – those are the three media rights holders for the Big Ten. So that’s something to keep an eye on the big 10 I think is far more likely to expand right now.

“The SEC? Not so much. They will kind of see exactly how this all plays out and what these ACC schools ultimately decide to do.”

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Mike Brey gives insight to recruiting new players, retaining signees

The retiring coach knows what his departure means as far as trying to keep the players making up the program’s future.

[autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] recognizes that the college basketball world he’s leaving behind is not the one he entered. More than ever, players are entering the transfer portal if they think they can thrive better elsewhere, and signees and commits can change their minds at any time. Like in Brey’s case, the coach who recruited a player often leaves before the player can arrive on campus, and that can cause the player to second-guess their decision. Add the recent NIL emergence, and it gets even more complicated.

Brey was asked about his role in recruiting and retaining players for his remaining tenure after Notre Dame’s 84-72 loss to Boston College. He was asked because the program’s future just became a more pressing issue for those who will remain in the program as well as the entire fan base. While results aren’t guaranteed, it helps to know there is at least effort being put into a process that becomes more complicated with each passing year.

Here is what Brey said:

“I share that story just because if one …

“I share that story just because if one kid has the talent to bring enough college coaches, everybody has a unique opportunity to get looks, too,” Robinson told The Times. “It’s about development and you don’t have to be the best. It could be D-3, D-2, D-1 — we want to get that school paid for free. You can do that on an AAU circuit just by playing well against people who are supposedly ranked really high. All it takes is one game and one look.”

Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson, a star at …

Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson, a star at Roosevelt, Purdue and eventual No. 1 NBA Draft pick, will be a part of the program along with Glenn’s mom, Shantelle Clay. “When I told him about this and obviously getting older — he just turned 49 — it’s crazy to see him getting older and he’s constantly wanting to give back,” Robinson said of his father, who lives in Atlanta. “He’s constantly telling me stories to empower other kids, what he did in his daily routines, how he was able to be successful in college and the league.”

WATCH: LeBron James coaches up Bronny at The Battle AAU showcase

Watch LeBron James teach Bronny at halftime during The Battle showcase.

With the Los Angeles Lakers no longer participating in the NBA playoffs this year, players have been able to attend to other matters with their time.

LeBron James is a man leading a busy life outside of his own basketball journey, and watching Bronny James, his son, evolve is among the priorities for LeBron.

Bronny suited up for Team Strive For Greatness at The Battle showcase that takes place in Akron, Ohio. Specifically, LeBron’s high school, St. Vincent-St. Mary, is where the games transpire.

Bronny plays for the 17U team and had games in the tournament on Friday. The event was sold out with about 1,300 people in attendance.

At halftime during Bronny’s match, LeBron went up to him and coached him up on different moves, via Camryn Justice of News 5 Cleveland:

Team Strive For Greatness, however, lost the game to Midwest, 99-97. More games are scheduled for the tournament until July 4.

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Women’s Basketball Profile: Rennia Davis

Women’s Basketball Profile: Rennia Davis

KNOXVILLE — The Lady Vols basketball team has gotten off to a scorching start this season, thanks in large part to the play of Rennia Davis.

Hailing from Jacksonville, Fla., Davis been a leader for this Tennessee squad reminiscent of Rocky Top legend Candace Parker. The 6-foot-2 junior swingwoman has been a tugboat for the team in her two-plus seasons, logging over 30 minutes per game during that stretch, and providing both a scoring punch and a presence on the glass.

Davis played high school ball at Jacksonville’s Ribault High School starting in 2014, where she earned numerous accolades. She was named to the FABC 4A All-State First Team all four years she played, and led her squad to state titles in both her junior and senior seasons; she participated on three total championship teams at Ribault. She averaged 20.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game her junior year, and for her senior season, Davis elevated her scoring game to post 26.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, and was named a McDonald’s All-American and MaxPreps First-Team All-American, among many other distinctions. It should also be noted that she was a superlative student, graduating 14th in her class and earning a dual-enrollment AA degree, while also being named to the National Honor Society.

Before beginning her collegiate career, Davis played in the 2016 USA Women’s U17 World Championship Team Trials with the AAU club Essence. She averaged 12.3 points over seven games, scoring double digits in five of those matches and sporting a high mark of 20 points, while also averaging 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game over the same stretch.

Davis came out of the gates on fire for the Lady Volunteers, averaging 12.0 points and 7.6 rebounds in her debut season, while starting 32 of 33 games on the year. She finished sixth all-time in rebounds per game by a Lady Vol freshman with 7.6, ranking No. 11 in rebounding in the SEC and second among conference freshmen. She shot .483 from the field, .329 on three-pointers — her 25 treys were the fourth-most on the team. She also notched nine double-doubles to tie Tamika Catchings for fifth-most double-doubles ever recorded by a Lady Vol freshman.

Her sophomore year was an impressive step forward that earned her a 2019 All-SEC Second Team selection as well as a WBCA All-America Honorable Mention selection. She led the Lady Vols in scoring (14.9), rebounding (7.7) and free throw percentage (.856) in just her second season in Knoxville. Her free throw mark was an SEC-best, while her rebounding and scoring numbers placed her eighth and twelfth in the conference, respectively. She continued her tear as a double-double machine, matching her freshman season output of nine — the seventh-most double-doubles ever by a UT sophomore and the sixth-most by an active player in the SEC. She also scored in double figures a team-leading 26 times, with 16 games of 15-plus points and six of 20 or more.

Expectations have been high for Davis entering her junior year after being named to numerous watch-lists, including the Wooden Award Preseason Top 30, the Citizen Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List, and the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 30. So far, she has lived up to the hype, recording double-doubles in four of her first six games, and already receiving one SEC Player of the Week award after she exploded for a career-high 33 points against a then No. 16-ranked Notre Dame squad. She’s averaging 15.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game so far, making 18 of 22 free throws for a healthy 82 percent mark.

The women’s team has gotten off to a tremendous start this season winning their first six games out of the gate, and Rennia Davis is one of the biggest factors in their success. The talent and potential has always been there, and fans are now witnessing one of Tennessee’s best players blossom right before their eyes. With Rennia Davis holding the reins, the possibilities for the Lady Vols are endless.

LeBron on seeing his sons rundown from AAU tournaments: ‘This isn’t right’

LeBron James said that he sees the toll of AAU basketball first-hand, with his two sons, and says the status quo bothers him.

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When it comes to his own load management, LeBron James has a pretty simple approach. But when it comes to the well-being of his children and the thousands of kids that play youth basketball on the summer tournament circuit, James has many more thoughts as a parent of two hoops hopefuls.

In an interview with Yahoo’s Chris Haynes, James tackled the issue of youth players coming into the league rundown and with injuries. He discussed seeing his sons being forced to play three games in one session at an AAU tournament this year and how jarring it was for him to see his kids rundown, explaining:

Because a lot of these tournaments don’t have the best interest of these kids, man. I see it. It’s like one time, they had to play a quarterfinal game, a semifinal game and a championship game starting at 9 a.m., and the championship game was at 12:30 p.m. Three games. I was like, ‘Oh, hell no.’ And my kids were dead tired. My kids were dead tired. This isn’t right. This is an issue.

Over the summer, the issue of youth basketball wearing down the game’s most promising young players was the topic of a phenomenal expose by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes. And as if the topic didn’t need anymore support, No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson needed knee surgery days before the season began and No. 2 pick Ja Morant had a knee procedure over the summer.

The issue of players entering the league with chronic injuries is not one that will go away soon. And while LeBron can only influence the workloads of his two sons, it’s clear he doesn’t like the non-stop cycle that often chews up and spits out players before they get a chance to be fully-formed.

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LeBron James blasts AAU culture: ‘AAU coaches don’t give a (expletive)’

Lakers star LeBron James had a candid conversation about AAU culture and how it’s contributing to injured NBA players.

The big debate of the early NBA season is load management, as the league debates why so many of its star players are choosing to sit out games during the regular seasons.

Players are banged up and being more careful to protect their bodies. The league is fine with that, in theory, but it’s hard to justify to people paying for expensive tickets, and for national TV audiences, why they can’t see their favorite players play on some nights.

The Lakers’ LeBron James has often spoken out about players having the right to do what’s best for their bodies, and is someone who has taken time off during the regular season to rest and recharge for a playoff push.

In a candid interview with Yahoo Sports this week, James also spoke out about what he sees as an issue for players’ health: The fact that they’re entering the league already banged up.

He points to a toxic culture in AAU youth basketball which puts players through outrageous schedules and is taxing on young bodies. He cites his perspective watching his two sons, LeBron Jr. and Bryce, go through the process now, and has seen what they are being demanded to do.

From Yahoo Sports:

“These kids are going into the league already banged up, and I think parents and coaches need to know [that] … well, AAU coaches don’t give a f—,” James told Yahoo Sports. “AAU coaches couldn’t give a damn about a kid and what his body is going through.”

He went on:

“I think [AAU] has something to do with it, for sure,” James told Yahoo Sports. “It was a few tournaments where my kids — Bronny and Bryce — had five games in one day and that’s just f—ing out of control. That’s just too much.

James went on to speak about how there isn’t being enough done to protect these athletes from fatigue, and how they aren’t being taught how to eat right, either. Read the entire article over at Yahoo Sports.

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