Andy Katz on agents and recruiting

If you haven't seen it yet, Andy Katz filed a lengthy column taking a look at how agents have changed the way college basketball operates.

His central point is basically that agents start recruiting players the same time coaches do - early in their high school years. That recruitment does not stop when they are in college, either. While this sounds illegal, it technically isn't as long as the agent is just "establishing relationships" and no money exchanges hands.

Being an agent is just like any other job - it is all about who you know. That is why these guys start trying to establish a relationship with not only the players, but that player's family, handlers, AAU coach, etc., at such a young age. The hope is that by getting to know these young stars on a personal level before they are pro's, they will be able to land them as a client once the money starts flowing.

I'll let you read the article for the details, but there was one quote from Billy Donovan that really stood out too me:

The thing that is difficult is that agents aren't living under any of the rules as it relates to contacts. We have rules for contacting a player, but an agent can do it as much as he wants and can go over to his house. We can't do those things.

This summer has been one of scandals, and if you have been keeping track of the numerous articles delving into college basketball corruption, you would recognize the theme.

In an ideal world, college basketball coaches are the people that we want players listening too. For the most part, they have the best interest of the kid in mind - whether it is the decision to go pro, which agent to sign with, or anything else basketb (or non-basketball) related that may come up. Agents, handlers, and entourage, in general, have much more of an eye for their own self interests.

The problem, as Katz illustrates, is that the coaches are losing influence. And the biggest reason for that is the way the rules are structured. Coaches have to be so careful about not only how much time they spend with their players, but when and how many times they contact them during the recruitment period. Everyone else - agents, runners, AAU coaches - can spend as much time as possible getting the know the player, whether he is in high school or college.

You want to lessen the impact that these hangers-on have on the game? Limit the amount of time the players can spend with these people.

It is easier said than done, however.

Why?

Because the NCAA has jurisdiction over the college coaches. They have none over the agents and handlers.

How would they enforce a punishment?

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AAU Coaches: Always hustlin'

There has been a lot of talk this summer about the corruption that goes hand-in-hand with youth basketball these days. Not only are these AAU coaches slowly destroying the concept of fundamental basketball in our nation's youth, but squeezing every dime they can out of their connections has become the norm at the elite level of AAU ball.

First came the Charlotte Observer's report on online recruiting service's. Basically, the hustle is that AAU programs will start, or become "affiliated" with, a recruiting service that charges for a yearly subscription; the thought is that yearly subscription also doubles as a fee for admission into the recruiting carnival of the player's in their program. Then came the Wall Street Journal's article criticizing the way youth basketball is run in this country.

And now? Pete Thamel of the NY Times takes us through what might be the most brazen hustle of them all.

This is basically how it works. The NCAA sanctions certain tournaments that AAU coaches are allowed to attend. The price of admission is, say, $10 to get in. Perfectly acceptable. These tournaments have sunken costs - it isn't free to rent the gym time, to pay for the refs, etc. What isn't acceptable is the $275 it costs coaches to buy the packets containing such information as player's names, their contact information, and - something just a teeny bit useful - the number they are wearing.

These packets are mandatory for coaches to buy.

Say you are a coach and you are out on the recruiting trail to watch a player you know. He is playing in a tournament within driving distance, and you decide to swing by to see him play and, more importantly, have him see you seeing him play. You are there for one game, know the kid you are there to see, and have no need to spend that much money on a packet of printed paper.

You are still going to have to drop a few benji's.

Or you won't be watching the game.

Just ask Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings:

Just after sitting down with some fellow college coaches, two tournament employees told Stallings that he had to pay $295 for a packet of rosters and information that doubled as an admission fee for college coaches. The coaches in attendance told him that they had been required to do the same thing. Stallings said he had paid a $10 admission fee and did not want or need the packet, so he hit the road out of principle.

Or Yale's James Jones:

James Jones once paid $350 to watch one player play a single game in South Carolina. His other option was to buy the tournament organizer Jeff Schneider’s $600 recruiting service.

Tom Izzo has a horror story as well:

Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo refused to pay $100 for admission to the Summer Jam tournament in Milwaukee earlier this month after one of his assistants had already paid $250 for the packet that doubled as an entry fee. Izzo said the tournament director should visit him if he had a problem.

The sleaze involved in high school and college basketball, and the corruption of the process of getting high school hoopers to the next level, almost makes the sport unbearable for me to watch. Knowing that a recruit will decide where he will attend based on someone associated with a shoe company; watching what is a beautiful game when played correctly degenerate into a glorified Rucker League game; seeing "recruiting experts" rate the best 11 and 12 year olds and seeing coaches offer scholarships to kids that have yet to even decide on a high school.

I can handle all of that.

I'm not naive enough to think that cheating doesn't happen, or that in an industry worth billions of dollars there aren't going to be some shady people with questionable ethics.

But this?

Forcing coaches to pay that much for a scouting service or an identification packet, with the the prize being the ability to talk to a 16 year old kid?

That's extortion.

And, as Rick Pitino will tell you, extortion is a pretty serious crime.

The worst part is that the NCAA not only allows it, but they enable it by not changing the rules. Nothing these tournament organizers are doing is a sin in the eyes of the NCAA - only to those of us with a moral compass. And it would be so simple for the NCAA to fix. All they have to do is make a rule that you can charge X amount of dollars for a recruiting service or for a player's program at an AAU Tournament. If it is more, they pull the college coaches from the tournament. If there are no college coaches there, why will the big name recruits and AAU teams want to play there? If no one wants to play there, how does the tournament make its money?

It really that simple.

But the rules won't change unless the big name coaches speak out against them. The Bill Self's or the Jim Calhoun's or the Ben Howland's. The coaches with the clout to make a change.

The odds of that happening? Almost none.

These are the guys that are either cheating effectively or winning without cheating. Why would they want the system changed? They have their connections. They don't want to ruin friendships with the AAU programs.

Awesome. We've traded our favorite sports integrity for wins and dollars. Excuse me while I bathe with my toaster.

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AAU Basketball: About the money, not the kids

Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran a article criticizing AAU basketball. They pretty much got it right - the culture of AAU basketball centers around 1-on-1 play, emphasizes playing games over practicing skills, and rewards selfishness (i.e. scoring 40 on the guy ranked 10 spots above you is more important than winning the game).

But they missed the source of the problem.

AAU basketball has become a business. For many of the AAU coaches at the highest levels of the sport, this isn't just a fun way for them to spend their weekends or something they do because they love the game of basketball. Instead, it is a money-making venture, and for some it is probably their main source of income.

Think about it: between appearance fees for bringing high profile recruits to a tournament, the "sponsorship" these teams get from shoe companies, or the money that coaches make off of trips to elite camps, there is a pretty big chunk of change for these coaches to cash in on.

On paper, the idea of AAU is quite appealing. Essentially, these are traveling teams that play tournaments in and around their region, with the better teams playing around the country. Not only does it give you a chance to play competitive basketball during the spring and summer, the kids get a chance to get some exposure to college coaches and play against the best in your age group.

I played AAU basketball growing up, and while my team had a few kids play D1 (we sent players to two A-10 schools), it was not quite the elite level of AAU hoops. Nobody got paid when I visited Vassar College. But I loved it. We would have practices twice a week where we would scrimmage the entire two hours against the program's alumni playing college ball at the time. We also would travel to tournaments two or three weekends out of the month.

Skill work was done on your own time, as we only had a limited number of hours to use the gym. And that is exactly where the issue lies. Since we only travelled on the weekends, and I wasn't visiting every school in the country, I had plenty of time to work out on my own. If you are playing in a tournament in Vegas one weekend, one at Villanova the next weekend, one in Orlando the weekend after that, then visiting a bunch of campus's the following week, etc., where do you find the time to take 500 shots every day, to lift every day, to do something to improve your dribbling every day.

For these kids, it becomes a vicious circle. If you are working out on your own, you aren't playing games and getting exposure. If you aren't getting exposure, you aren't going to be ranked on recruiting websites. If you aren't ranked on recruiting websites, tournament organizers aren't going to pay to get you to come.

I could go on and on about the things wrong with youth basketball in this country (they start too young, ranking recruits on websites that charge for membership, shoe companies, agents, yada yada yada). But when it comes to AAU ball, the bottom line is this: its not the system that is flawed, it is the way that people abuse the system to make a buck that ruins what could be a fantastic program.

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Outside the Lines profiles High School vs. AAU basketball

In case you missed it, OTL did a piece of the growth of AAU basketball and the influence that AAU coaches now have on the recruiting process.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with this piece. Maybe it is because none of this information was knew to me, but in general I think that OTL usually does a much better job digging up some kind of information that is not already public knowledge.

And don't blame it all on the AAU coaches. The way that the NCAA rules are currently set up, there is very little time when college coaches are actually allowed to go out and watch these kids play. Given the rigorous schedule of these coaches during the season, and the nationwide recruiting searches that the top programs go on in pursuit of talent, it is almost impossible for them to scout the players during their high school season.

It also doesn't help that a top tier prospect (especially big men) rarely go against kids that are up to their talent level during a typical high school season. Can you really gauge whether a kid can play at the high-major level when he is going against a severely undermanned high school opponent?

AAU tournaments and exposure camps are the best chance that a college coach is going to get to see A) the guys that they are recruiting going toe-to-toe against someone with a similar talent level and B) a large number of potential recruits playing in the same place. With the economy shrinking athletic budgets, why waste the money to travel around the country to watch one kid play a high school game when you can spend a week at the Las Vegas Big Time Tournament and see basically every kid you are recruiting play?

That said, it is not necessarily a good thing that AAU coaches wield this much power in the recruiting business. While I'm sure that their are dirty high school coaches (just as there are probably AAU coaches with the best intentions), I think it is fair and probably correct to say that there is a high percentage of club coaches that are more concerned with making a quick dollar than they are about the welfare of their star player (or players).

Video after the jump.



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