Questionable AAU Recruiting?
March 19th, 2009 - byShould teams within the same conference be held to different standards? Last week Baylor coach Scott Drew led his team on a miracle run through the Big XII tournament narrowly missing the NCAA tournament. However, much of the media attention was on the school’s decision to hire Dwon Clifton to fill a newly created position of director of player development. Mr. Clifton is not the typical new staff hire. He happens to be the former AAU coach of John Wall the nation’s top prep player in the class of 2009. The New York Times ran a feature on the situation.
While the practice of hiring AAU coaches as a means to lure top players in college basketball has become common place, it is being heavily questioned by other coaches and the media. Baylor of course, is quite familiar with rule violations stemming from former Coach Dave Bliss’ tenure.
When asked about the hiring Coach Drew responded with a laugh. Texas Coach Rick Barnes did not.
“We don’t believe in doing that,” Barnes said. “We just don’t. Obviously, if we wanted to do it, we could do it. We just don’t believe in it.”
Obviously the practice has skeptics but it IS legal. I was personally offended when my alma mater hired a prep star’s AAU coach. Many of my friends thought otherwise, but the media largely left the story alone.
Should the media and other coaches question a school because of its recruiting violations under a past regime? What do you think?
