McDonald's AAs | Syracusefan.com

McDonald's AAs

One player from the Northeast, Alan's little brother.

Wow, no wonder so many programs from the Northeast are struggling.

It was a lot different circa 1990.


Do you think that is due to the growth of, for lack of a better term, basketball factory prep schools?

Funny you linked 1990, I still remember Autry's Scholastic Sports America on ESPN. Loved that show.
 
Do you think that is due to the growth of, for lack of a better term, basketball factory prep schools?

Funny you linked 1990, I still remember Autry's Scholastic Sports America on ESPN. Loved that show.

I believe so. There’s so many kids now New York kids that leave before they ever graduate from a HS here. I hate old man on the porch arguments, but I miss the days where you could watch elite players play HS basketball. Seeing Paul Harris Johnny Flynn and even Brandon Triche 10-15 years ago was incredible. Now everyone in state in New York leaves. The rare one that did not recently was Kevin Huerter.
 
I believe so. There’s so many kids now New York kids that leave before they ever graduate from a HS here. I hate old man on the porch arguments, but I miss the days where you could watch elite players play HS basketball. Seeing Paul Harris Johnny Flynn and even Brandon Triche 10-15 years ago was incredible. Now everyone in state in New York leaves. The rare one that did not recently was Kevin Huerter.

I grew up in Binghamton and they always have a tourney called the Stop DWI tournament. Always had great teams from NYC / NYC area come through.

I remember seeing Majestic Mapp (he went to UVA) and St Raymonds. I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, being told about Julius Hodge while watching that team (I think he may have been a soph?). I'm sure he would have been on varsity.

There were a bunch of other good teams that came through, but it was always great to see the city teams.
 
Jabari Smith plays at my high school in GA and is “committed” to Auburn. Rumor around there is that he doesn’t touch the court there though. Dad is an ex-NBA’er
 
I grew up in Binghamton and they always have a tourney called the Stop DWI tournament. Always had great teams from NYC / NYC area come through.

I remember seeing Majestic Mapp (he went to UVA) and St Raymonds. I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, being told about Julius Hodge while watching that team (I think he may have been a soph?). I'm sure he would have been on varsity.

There were a bunch of other good teams that came through, but it was always great to see the city teams.
I also grew up in Binghamton. Class of ‘95! I went to all those tournaments at the Arena. Charles Gelatt, Bobby Lazor, always loved when Christ the King came. Tollentine came often too.

I remember I got in my younger days crushed that King Rice didn’t go to SU! I was so mad at my sister for not giving her best to get him there lol. Cool story though, when Rice was a Sophia at NC, he brought the NC team to practice on a Saturday morning to scrimmage against our high school team. That was a lot of fun but freakin hated NC. Scotty Williams, Rick Fox, etc
 
I'm just envisioning going through Burger King's drive thru and over the intercomm they're like "welcome to Burger King, would you like to try an original chicken sandwich or Whopper today" and I yell back "DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH YOU RESPECT BENNY WILLIAMS!"

And it's silent for a little while and so I yell "WELL?"

And they say "Sir, this is an Arby's" and so then I yell back "I DON'T KNOW IF THAT JOKE WORKS BETTER OR WORSE RIGHT NOW."
 
Do you think that is due to the growth of, for lack of a better term, basketball factory prep schools?

Funny you linked 1990, I still remember Autry's Scholastic Sports America on ESPN. Loved that show.
That is definitely part of it. Morgan Wootten hated prep schools and made sure kids who went to them were not considered for the McDonald’s AA teams. That takes most of all kids who grew up in the NE off the board.

Part is surely the changing demographics of the country. There are a lot more people in the South and the West relative to the Northeast and Midwest than there were 30 years ago.

That said, my gut feeling is there are less great players coming out of the region these days. Maybe it is budget cuts, maybe encroachment from other sports...but the number of great, really good and good players is definitely down.

Just looking locally, for a long while, CNY seemed to produce a very good to great player just about every year. Sometimes more than one. It almost never happens any longer.
 
Wait a minute...I thought coach Hop couldn’t recruit out west? He has a Micky D AA! Would love him back at SU! Oh and it’s a 6-10 big man! Hmmm, is that something SU Needs? Last time I checked he took over big man responsibilities after Bernie. So he has gotten Stewart and now Jackson Grant in the last 4 years! I’m in the boat of thinking bring Hop back, bring on Hart, and then keep Gerry and Griffin. Red will get a head coaching job in the next year or two.
 
I grew up in Binghamton and they always have a tourney called the Stop DWI tournament. Always had great teams from NYC / NYC area come through.

I remember seeing Majestic Mapp (he went to UVA) and St Raymonds. I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, being told about Julius Hodge while watching that team (I think he may have been a soph?). I'm sure he would have been on varsity.

There were a bunch of other good teams that came through, but it was always great to see the city teams.

Awesome tournament. Used to go every year ( I'm from Montrose originally). A good friend of mines dad used to ref the regional games in that tourney too.
 

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