Kentucky Basketball Recruiting: Coaches barred from AAU events in 2019, but schools can host camps

Well, at least the FBI scandal is getting the NCAA to do something.

According to Jeff Goodman and Adam Zagoria on Twitter, the NCAA will no longer permit NCAA basketball coaches to attend AAU and sneaker events in July, due to the corruption and pay-for-play scandals involving shoe companies, AAU teams and the college teams involved.

The substitute will instead be “NCAA-certified individual camps at large D-1 schools,” according to Zagoria.

This change will be recommended to the Commission on College Basketball by the NABC Ad Hoc committee, according to NBC Sports.

Coaching staffs will reportedly be allowed to invite as many as 35 players to the regional camps, and the best players from each regional camp would get to attend an NCAA-funded camp later on.

Goodman said that G-League coaches and NBA players could be participating at these camps.

It won’t be the death of AAU basketball, but it’d at least help stop secret hotel room conversations involving major shoe company executives, Power 5 college coaches, five-star recruits and mountains of cash.

This would be a great opportunity for Kentucky to host a regional camp. As a staple of college basketball, they’d likely be in good shape to win a bid and be a host site (as if John Calipari needs any more recruiting advantage).

I am curious as to how the camps will work though. I’d hope we at least get to see 5-on-5 action of some sort. It likely won’t be the same as having AAU teams go up against each other in their traditional competitions.