Dumb question guys

[WarEagleIn2010 38]

What's the deal with AAU?  Do they help recruit players or something?  Also, how did our association with them have anything to do with our probation a few years back?

[pram92 0]

AAU is a circuit of basketball teams that play in the summer... usually the best players play on aau teams. its a better way to evaluate talent than  how they play high school ball.

[tigerbill 0]

Amateur Athletic Union (Union I think)  and the believe was one of the coaches (forget his name) was pushing players to AU, I think.  You can see I'm not real clear on the situation, but some can jump in and clear it up for you.  May have been an accusation of money also.

[InfernoOrangeSS 321]

That is correct.  There was a guy associated with AAU that was pushing players to Ellis' teams.  He was deemed an AU booster and cost us probation.  (I could be wrong on the details, but that is what I have heard.)

If you want to recruit top talent in state...you need to be in good with AAU.

[austing_5 0]

AAA is the best of the best of high school basketball players, i was invited to join one after my senior year but the time requirement was so large i couldn't do it and work at the same time.  You play a ton of games and travel all over the country.  Three of the guys that i played with (all of which didnt work and accepted their invitation to the team all play D-1 ball now).  And Auburn did have a booster in the Huntsville area that was pushing guys to auburn, the sanctions with him were lifted in 2006 but auburn has upheld the no-communication since then on their own.

[WDE87 0]

Mark Komara is the guys name..a little ridiculous to me but who really knows the whole story

[auclong 1]

AAA is the best of the best of high school basketball players, i was invited to join one after my senior year but the time requirement was so large i couldn't do it and work at the same time.  You play a ton of games and travel all over the country.  Three of the guys that i played with (all of which didnt work and accepted their invitation to the team all play D-1 ball now).  And Auburn did have a booster in the Huntsville area that was pushing guys to auburn, the sanctions with him were lifted in 2006 but auburn has upheld the no-communication since then on their own.

The NCAA doesn`t like the AAU process. They were looking for a whipping boy to make an example of and used Auburn and Mark Komara as their targets. One of our assistants had spent a lot of time on the phone with Komara and the NCAA came up through a convoluted process of declaring him a booster. Auburn didn`t challenge most of their findings although a lot of people felt they would win if they did. We had to quit associating with Komara for two years and that has continued even though the ban by the NCAA expired in 2006. That is it in a small nutshell. There a little more to it than that but Auburn has avoided by choice working with Komara or most any AAU coaches since then. There is no ban in place now; just a decision to do so.

[NoALtiger 3,867]

The AAU programs are the way most elite players come to the attention of colleges these days. Like someone said earlier, it is a circuit of national tournaments played by high school players during the summer and is not related to their particular high school teams. There are usually several AAU teams in a region or state and many of the players from the various local high school participate to form what amounts to an all-star team. It is similar to the football camps in that it is the preferred method of getting your name to coaches. The tricky part is that teams are usually ran and coached by people with affiliations to busineses (Nike, Adidas, Reebok, etc.) that help "fund" the team for things such as equipment and travel expenses. The line can obviously get blurred when money and recuiting come into the picture and it can be viewed as somewhat of a shadowy deal. Unfortunately, this is the way college basketball recruiting is nowadays. Almost every elite player plays AAU. You deal with them or you don't get the elite players period.

[brad5628AU 35]

Amateur Athletic Union. A lot of it is all star teams across the nation. I played AAU throughout high school and my last year we brought kids in from out of state to travel with the team. It is not as common to have practices as often as high school. Some teams are just full of rediculous players from all over the state, and as stated before possibly even the nation. It is the best way to get recruited by college coaches and leads to recruiting camps. In football you can get invited to exposure camps but mostly through high school. In basketball you for the most part get invited through AAU.