Travel Hoops Grounded By The Virus
Illinois' top AAU basketball team never left the state in 2020 but found a way to play by staying in house
(Photo Credit: Illinois Wolves)
This article is the latest in an ongoing series from The Kerr Report on how the sports industry is working through the coronavirus pandemic. Today, in the first of two articles, TRK examines travel basketball. The second article will be published Friday.
Scott Burgess watches basketball for a living. Hours and hours of basketball.
As Senior Scouting Director of Preps Hoops Illinois, Burgess is charged with evaluating Chicagoland high school prospects for coaches and fans. Whether it be detecting a slight shot adjustment with a high end prospect or the growth spurt of an underclassman, Burgess enjoys his dual role as curator of information and player advocate.
“For the elite guys, you pick up little things. This guy’s shot mechanics are getting better, his athleticism has improved,” Burgess said. “My favorite part of my job is when you come across a player and you are like ‘he’s really good and no one knows about him.’ Finding new names for me is the biggest thing.”
In a typical spring and summer, Burgess is out multiple times a week in gymnasiums across Chicagoland. In July, when players swap high school jerseys for that of their AAU teams, he travels to out-of-state showcase tournaments heavily scouted by college coaches. For a talent evaluator, in-person is the optimal form of observance.
But the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of live sporting events for much of the spring and summer. While casual fans may attend a holiday tournament or cheer on their local high school team in January and February, the four months between the end of March and July are critical for the travel basketball industry. Those months are when reputations are established and futures are solidified. The virus, as it has for so many businesses across the country, is forcing players, coaches and scouts to adjust expectations and change conventional patterns of behavior.
“For me, everything in July and August was online,” Burgess said. “I watched 200 games online.”
Since 1999, Mike Mullins has coached travel basketball. In 21 years, the Illinois Wolves has grown from a first-grade team to one of the most prominent AAU programs in the the state.
Graduates of the Wolves program include former Wisconsin great Frank Kaminsky and Rock Island native Chasson Randle, the No. 4 pick in the 2015 NBA draft. Every year, Mullins’ top age group team, U17, sends players to Division 1 programs.
“We have a long history in our program and we’ve been around a long time with a lot of credibility and a lot of players that have done well,” Mullins said.
After all the years of developing great talent, the spring and summer of 2020 was setting up to be something special.
The U17 Wolves roster is the travel equivalent to an Illinois high school First Team All-State squad—Max Christie of Rolling Meadows is the No. 13 national prospect according to ESPN.com, No. 14 on 247Sports.com’s national list. Of the top eight players in Illinois according to PrepsHoops.com, five are on the Wolves’ U17 roster—Christie, Chris Hodges (Schaumburg), Isaiah Barnes (Oak Park-River Forest), Louis Lesmond (Notre Dame) and Anthony Sayles (Notre Dame).
“They would have been pretty competitive on the (travel) circuit this year as far as competing at a high level,” Burgess said.
Elite travel teams such as the Wolves are tied to a seasonal circuit, sponsored by a shoe company. The Wolves are an Under Armour Association team. This means their tournament schedule is set well in advance. In April, the Wolves were scheduled to play in tournaments in Dallas and Kansas City; a trip to Georgia was planned for July and potentially followed by the UAA finals in Baltimore.
With a once-in-a-decade team, Mullins believed his team not only capable of making the national finals, but individual players benefitting from the exposure. In the travel game, currency is Division 1 offers.
“Having sent hundreds of kids to Division One, you have to have identifiable things physically, mentally and skill-wise,” Mullins said. “Many of these guys have been together since the eighth grade and have flourished and prospered. We have one of the most recruited teams in the nation.”
When the spring events got cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it became apparent the summer was in jeopardy, Mullins decided to shift gears.
“I’m a commodities trader and broker by profession and you have to adjust on the fly there too,” Mullins said.
For the first three months of the pandemic, state health and safety guidelines forced his hand. Mullins could not hold indoor practices until the state entered Phase Four. By July, restrictions had lifted and the Wolves resumed workouts. With the calendar clear and no tournaments to attend, Mullins set up shop with a residency at two Chicagoland gymnasiums—the Berto Center in Deerfield and Yorkville Christian High School in Yorkville, IL.
If the Wolves had gone on the road to Dallas or Kansas City, their opponent’s would be worthy adversaries. Golden State Warriors star Stephan Curry sponsors a UAA team out of Charlotte, North Carolina. 247Sports.com’s No. 2 national recruit, Chet Holmgren, plays for the Grassroots Sizzle, an UAA team out of Minneapolis. Matchups with any number of other UAA teams and players would be must-see events.
Grounded and unable to travel, Mullins reviewed his options. He was quickly reminded that the best competition for his U17 team were the names written on his roster.
So he rolled the ball out and went 5-on-5.
On any given Saturday and Sunday, the Wolves scrimmaged the Wolves. Christie vs. Barnes. Hodges vs Sayles. Wolve vs. Wolve. Every position on the floor taken up by a Division 1 player.
“It’s different but it’s still competitive with all the good players we have,” 6-foot-2 guard Conor Enright said.
Enright, a senior at Mundelein High School, is a member of the Wolves’ U17 team. A typical weekend scrimmage might find him matched up against Sayles, a 6-2 senior from Notre Dame College Prep in Niles, IL or Denham Wojick, a 6-1 guard from La Lumiere School in La Porte, IN. In another scrimmage, Enright guards Christie, 6-6 a Michigan State commit who turned down Duke, or Lesmond, who along with Wojcik, is a Harvard recruit.
A tenacious defender with a lightning bolt first dribble, Enright misses the tension-laden atmosphere at summer league games. But he now realizes gains from the intra-squad scrimmages.
“It’s been new for me guarding athletic big guys that can shoot like that,” Enright said. “It’s definitely improved my defensive ability and to be able to score against a bunch of 6-7, 6-8 guys in the paint has helped me.”
The relentless pace of Under Armour or Nike-sponsored tournaments leaves little time for in-game instruction. With the scrimmages, there are no time constraints. Mullins or another Wolves coach will often stop play and offer a teaching point before resuming action.
Although the players on the floor are some of the best in their age group in the nation, they are not immune to errors that need to be corrected in real time.
“If someone drives and takes a bad shot instead of a jump stop and kick to the corner, (the coaches) can stop to talk about that,” Enright said, the Lake County News-Sun Player of the Year in 2019-20. “They can talk about when to get up the court or pull it back in certain situations. At an AAU game, you have to go, go, go all the time.”
Enright is an outlier on the U17 team—he verbally committed to a college before his junior high school season, to Drake University in late fall 2019.
The early basketball signing period for a recruiting class is the previous November of the graduating year. For instance, 2021 grads can sign scholarship papers in November 2020.
It is common for the top recruits to sign in the early window. That’s after one last spring and summer of on court evaluation from colleges coaches and an essential off court evaluation from the player.
The official visit.
But what happens when all of that is taken away? When what is customary, habitual for all parties involved, is turned upside down and on its head?
“I think things would have been totally different if we’d had a normal summer,” Burgess said.
If we know anything about the year 2020, nothing is normal.
Friday, TRK will publish Part 2 where we examine the recruiting impact on the 2021 class