Im with your partner on this one. If either one of them gives you a reason to call a cheap shot or a violation then I feel that they are not ready to move to the next level. We only call what we see.

Just had to offer this - kind of along the lines of the subject of the the thread.

My older son played AAU ball with a kid whose grades were so bad he was never eligible to play high school basketball. The kid ended up signing, and playing with, an elite D1 program. How did he even get into college? Prep school his senior year.

And, as a side note, one of my younger son's teammates has an older brother who plays football for an elite D1 program. Two of his classes: Yoga and History of Rock and Roll.

Hey, welcome back, theboys. Nice to see you. Isn't this kind of thing just amazing? I always wonder what these kinds of parents are thinking about. The real question is, where did the kid go after 4 years of NCAA eligibility? Do you know?

Thanks, Juulie. I've been around, just mainly lurking.

He's still at the school. This will be his second year. My older son plays DIII ball now. Lots of long bus rides.

We're starting over, though. My eight year-old played his first AAU season this spring. I feel like its a second chance for me. I'm trying to put my howler monkey days behind me. Twice during the season refs stopped our games (10 year-old games, no less) to have parents removed from the gym. Both times I looked across at my wife, and mouthed, "Yay! Its not me!"

The really good question is who paid for the prep school.

Once we know that we can figure out if the kid's AAU coach was able to grab some of that as the money changed hands. You know, consulting and services fees.

Its interesting you say that. He started off the season with my son's AAU team. After a couple of tournaments he was approached by the coach of another team. He was told by that coach if he changed teams he would be guaranteed to play for an elite D1 school. The kid ended up moving in with the family of one of the kids who played on that team. A couple of weeks after jumping to the other team, we all attended a big out-of-town showcase tournament. He committed to the D1 school while at that tournament.

This may not be as obvious as you think. A lot of people think prep schools are paid for by agents or by the schools to beef up their program, but many are paid for by the player's family. Some parents take loans to pay for the one year tuition in the hope of getting a 4-year D1 scholarship at the end of the rainbow.

The strangest way of paying for prep school that I've heard is a local NY prep school that required those on financial aid to work their grant off selling baked goods on the street during their spare time. Unbelievable.

This is something that is not talked about too often and everyone assumes there's a lot of under the table money. In reality, it's often a scam that parents have to accept because they didn't make their kids work during their real HS career.

Of course, recent changes made by the NCAA have changed the landscape for prep school eligibility. It looks like junior colleges are about to become popular destinations for academically challenged athletes.

Yep, I've seen this movie before.

The obvious answer is the kid's family payed for the prep school.

Obviously it doesn't always work that way, which is exactly why the ncaa took the steps they did break the player-AAU coach-prep school-D1 coach connection.

But they cannot break it completely and AAU coaches still have a lot of influence (and earnings potential) steering kids in a particular direction.

Unfortunately, many of the players and their parents think the summer basketball team or the college will pay for it. When they get the reality check it can be a shock.