Blog Series 1 of 3 – What Youth Basketball Tournament Should We Play In?

In this article we will talk about 3 areas:

Reputable Tournament Operators

Tournaments Listings

Governing Bodies

Here is the scenario.

You have a youth basketball club. Maybe they are a 14u competitive team and most of your players are the class of 2021. You have a couple players that if you put them against top tournament basketball competition and develop, something special could happen. What tournaments should you play in to assure you are on track with your goal? What should you be looking for?

This was my situation 5 years ago. My top 2 players were not holdbacks and could really hoop. They wanted to play the best though, because they had BIG goals. The players were:

Jaylen Hands – UCLA Commit – 5 Star – Mcdonalds All American

Reed Farley – Harvard Commit

 

First of all…let’s talk basics.

Insurance

There are many to pick from, but many go with AAU Basketball Insurance. Not bad pricing, for players it is $13 last time I checked for the year. You are insured under AAU’s insurance umbrella.

What is AAU Basketball? Can I have some information on this commonly used word?

Do we need to be under a Sanction?

This is pretty common to wonder. Here is a list of some organizations that have a some sort of “governing body.”

AAU Basketball – Amateur Athletic Union

 

YBOA – Youth Basketball Organization of America

USBA – United States Basketball Association

USSSA – United States Specialty Sports Associtation

IndiHoops – Indivisible Hoops

The answer to this question is up to you, the past 5 years we have witnessed not much uniformity, and recently it was not necessary for us to play under any sanction or governing body. We would go to tournaments through these channels: Word of mouth, basketball tournament directories, email blasts of events that looked like they had the best teams.

Let’s break down word of mouth. There are tournament operators that we now have as subscribers. Here are some of our heavy hitters who have a good reputation for running quality competitive aau basketball tournaments and where they are based.

Hoop Group (New Jersey), Primetime Sports (Dallas), Big Shots Basketball (South Carolina), Zero Gravity Basketball (Boston), Gym Rats Basketball (Indianapolis)

There are some others that have been known to have great events such:

ACES, Bigfoot Hoops and their Las Vegas Classic, Fab 48, Adidas 64, New Orleans Super 60 and NYBL to name a few.

The members list are as follows we are near (50). There are already over 200+ high quality tournaments in our calendar and you can view them here: IndiHoops Tournament Directory.

Cavs Basketball, Cali Elite Basketball, SoPac Basketball Club, Baylor Basketball, Seattle Select (Battle in Seattle), The Hoop Salem, Max Hoops, Sea Facilities, IndiHoops TipOff, Elite 75 Prep, XBA Basketball, Gym Time Hoops, Hype Sports,Top Gun Basketball, Team Select Basketball, MADE Hoops, Vegas Elite Premier, Gary Charles Hoops, Big Shots, Los Angeles Elite, PAT Invitational, TC Events, Team Inland, AVAC Hoyas, Basketbull, Big Time Hoops, PQ Sports, Southwest Showcase Events, MVP Flight, Bay City Basketball, NYBL, Hoop Group, Elevate Hoops, CYBL, Team Eleate, LA Bobcats, Next Generation Sport, LA Hoopz, Just4Hoopin, Word Of God Sports, USA Basketball,

Some of the best directories right now are:

Indivisible Hoops

(Shameless Self Promotion)!

Exposure Events

– Extensive! One of our favorites.

ACA Hoops

– Old school pioneer! Old look but a great site.

Tourney Machine

Back to my story. We enjoyed word of mouth and references because I valued reliability, customer service, and most of all ORGANIZATION.

IndiHoops now serves as an organization that searches out events that fall under these 3 criteria…among others.

As of recent:

1. How accommodating are they with their scheduling? Are they great schedulers?

2. Do they just allow any team to be in? Is their some sort of qualifying system?

3. Do they allow double holdbacks to run rampant?
4. How is their marketing? Website? Graphics? Social Media? This is a good sign for how their event will be run. How do they go about their business?
5. Can they find and attract top clubs and talent to their event from many states?
6. How are their facilities?
7. Do the refs care?

Among others.

Basically, what IndiHoops.com and Indi World Championships for 14u was a creation of seeing ALL of the pain points and trying to be a part of the solution rather than the problem. That is all. We liked to “vote with our wallet” and support and account for organizations that care about quality and the culture of the youth basketball game moving forward. Now you will see some very fun tournament build ups with qualifiers and regionals and national championships.

We have elected to focus on 14u. Class of 2021 right now. The reason for this is it’s a critical age in the development process and it is the last part of your youth basketball career before High School.

Regionals:

West – Top Gun Spring Open – San Diego – March 25-26
East – IndiHoops Spring Fest – New Jersey – April 7-9
North – Rock Spring Classic – Wisconsin – April 7-9
South – IndiHoops Tip Off Classic – Atlanta, Georgia – April 14-16

Indi World Championship – August 3-5 – San Diego, CA

The bottom line, use word of mouth and credible organizations to develop your calendar. After being a part of the youth basketball circuit for even 1 year, you should be able to develop a great tournament calendar and plan for success. Just like you would for your education plan or anything else.  Plan, plan, plan.

My advice, plan your year out in advance, and make sure the tournament operators know you are coming to their event. A small thing, but much appreciated and helps them build for great competition because at the end of the day, you want to be where the action is!
If you need help locating a tournament, we have a trained concierge service that can help you. Just dial 855 – INDI- 333 or email info@indihoops.com