local bigs

[EastStang]

There was a day when the "handler" was the high school coach who was an educator and the parents. The parents are still involved to some degree, but the educator has been sidelined and serves a secondary role nowawdays. Sure, there are good things about the AAU programs and many are well run and work hard for their kids to get them off the streets and into college. But there are abuses which either the AAU should police better or the NCAA someday will step in. As to Ryan Hopkins, he might have qualified for a non-basketball scholarship anyway from everything I heard about him. But yes, that was a package deal which helped land a great prospect and it was a scholarship. But that is quite different from hiring an AAU coach to a six figure multi-year salary to get a kid to sign with you.

[ponydawg]

But if yall call each other, how are the rest of us supposed to hear?