This past weekend kicked off the third Spring AAU Basketball season for my family. While my winter basketball rants ended a month ago, things never changed much. The AAU tryouts were conducted, teams selected, and practices 2-3 times per week scheduled. Even with Maja joining the Jr High Track team, there was no downtime to be seen, unless a freak snowstorm cancelled practice.
Tryouts: Two seasons of success last year, coupled with their players piling up championships and accolades over the winter school leagues meant a significant up swell in players trying out for the spring.
Of course, while one of the stereotypes of AAU operations is a win-at-all-costs mentality (thankfully not from our program), our program's big issue is greed. Instead of cutting girls who simply should not make any cut, they kept them on, offering spots on a B-team at the same rate, with barely any chance of success.
Maja and Millie both retained their spots on their respective A-teams. In reality, Millie's team suffered some attrition with their bench players all "defecting" to the neighboring rival AAU program for more playing, but gained with the influx of two players from the Dallas program, two players from the hated Wolfpack travel team, and the addition of her friend Jordyn, the extremely tall 5th grader who's only six months into basketball.
Maja is playing with three of her Crestwood Jr High teammates, and all but one player from spring and fall ball, plus a forward/back-up center from Dallas. Things looked pretty bright for both teams.
The first tournament was a return trip to Central Jersey and the Sportika complex. Reviewing my rants from the Fall, Maja's team destroyed the opposition and Millie's team didn't even have a division to play on. The 6th grade team in between the two of them had got yelled at for winning the championship game in single digits, when they blew the team out by 36 in pool play.
While no one could make up their minds about hotels, my wife made the executive decision to rent at AirBnB directly on the shore, for the same price as a hotel. While the schedule and weather only allowed a few quick walks on the beach, it was away from the craziness at the hotel everyone was staying at, and the 6:45 departure sunrises were pretty decent.
Millie's team made up from their division's previous omission with an 8am start time on Saturday. The opposing team was quite tall, with a simply ridiculous point guard, but it appeared they had things well in hand.
Until, that is, the coach replaced the five Old Guard starters with the new girls, and the score was quickly tied up. By the second half, the coach figured out a better rotation system to get the new girls comfortable with the Old Guard, and give the OGs some much needed rest en route to a 34-24 victory.
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| Millie was on the ground so much, we bought her new kneepads Sunday afternoon. |
The rest of the games in pool play were cakewalks, leading up to a rematch with the first team in the championship, Even with the OG on the court, it took all of the first half to eke out their first lead of the 15-13.
In the second half, the outstanding point guard got little help from most of her teammates , and Millie's team finally gelled. Everyone was making shots, running down balls, and diving onto court for a 24-5 2nd half. 39-18 was not indicative of just how tough the game was happy they managed to mercy them for the last five minutes to avoid injury and further fatigue.
Fun fact: it was a year ago that this crew won their first title together. This one required a bit more work and a few new friends.
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| 2021 (top) vs 2022 |
The high point of the tournament for most parents was after the buzzer of the championship game. After handshakes, most of the girls crowded around to compliment the other team's point guard.
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| Game recognizes game. |
Maja's 7th grade division was a little bit different. Her schedule started with an afternoon opener against the Comet 7th grade team. The Comets are a well-respected program out of the Drexel Hill, Philadelphia the just manufactures quality D1 prospects. The girls have played their various teams over season. We sensed a problem, when I realized all their usual teams were playing at a different tournament on the outskirts of Philly. Our first test of the season would be against the Comets National Touring team.
It went about as well as I feared it would. They put up a valiant effort, but the Comets were simply faster, smarter, and overwhelming in getting a 41-16 win.
Immediately after that game, the girls moved over to the the next court for another game, this time against the New Jersey Rise. The two teams were pretty equal, and the game came down to the wire. Maja's team's defense was able to stop everything but 3-pointers, and they rained down with painful accuracy to a last-second 42-40 win for the Rise.
Going 0-2 on a Saturday is an oddity, but the level of competition was much better compared to last spring, and far more capable than all but two teams from the fall, but their tough games were nothing compared to the B team.
Like I said previous, the influx of new tryouts forced the creation of extra teams. The 7th grade B team included a host of girls from other school, including two who go to school with Maja and Millie. The B-team has gotten the short end of the stick in the way of communication and consistent coaching, but they were practicing with Maja's A-team, and multiple coaches on site provided individual coaching.
They played a back-to-back immediately after the A-team, and things were not pretty. 40-10 and 35-13 losses. Heck, in the first game it was 20-0 in the first five minutes and those girls hadn't made it across half-court yet!
Sunday, Maja's team got a chance to go after the Bombers, the team that beat the B-Team 40-10. It was entirely for pride, but it appeared if the Bombers won, they would advance to the championship to play a fantastic Mid-Atlantic Magic team that eeked out a victory over those terrific Comets. The girls came to play, finally netting a convincing win, 39-17.
Then the girls got the opportunity of a "lifetime." Mid-Atlantic Magic had just finished demolishing the B-Team 47-4 on the adjacent court, and offered a predicament and a problem. It appeared that, all the girl's efforts to knock the Comets into the finals were in vain. The team played their 3pm game and no one stayed/came back. With no opponent, and the refs standing around, they offered the A-team a chance to play, and bragging rights as the unofficial tournament champion. The coaches agreed, and any chance of getting home before dark Sunday night simply vanished.
It wasn't ugly, but it was tough. No one likes to lose 57-33, the same point differential as the NJ Pride lost by, but almost the same offensive output as the Comets. Honestly, if they had held the lead against the Pride on Saturday, they could have said they were the 3rd best team, right after two nationally recognized programs.
All in all, it was a good weekend for both kids, an eye-opener for some other kids and their parents, and the new additions to Maja and Millie's teams look to be acclimating themselves to their team mates. We're back in Pennsylvania for the next tournament April 30th- and May 1st in Lancaster.
One final note: In reviewing last year's near-joke of a tournament, I noted that I had been assigned iPad duty to record all the games. This year I've been been promoted to "Stat-Dad" with the unenviable position of tracking stats on a phone app for the 7th grade A-Team. I'm actually in my own personal heaven, with immediate access to weird facts like Maja only scored two points all tournament, but led the team in blocks.
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