Well, I don't know the particulars in every case.
In this one, though, J'Covan's AAU coach was Chris Walker. Walker is a former Villanova player who came back to head the adidas affiliated TMac All Stars AAU team for several years. He's been angling for a college coaching job for a while. Finally this past offseason he got one at New Mexico with Steve Alford, and has proceeded to bring in 4 of his current or past AAU players in this first recruiting class.
Henderson is Chris Walker's protege. Henderson has been involved in AAU coaching in the past, but a couple of years ago was named the head coach for Port Arthur Memorial in one of the most stupefying coaching hires I've ever been familiar with. J'Covan transferred from Beaumont Kelly to Port Arthur Memorial after his freshman season, so for the last couple of years he's played his high school ball with Henderson, and his AAU ball with Chris Walker, as well as on a team run by his Dad based out of Port Arthur. I think it's called Port Arthur Select, but I can't remember exactly.
When Walker left for New Mexico, the idea was to give his position to Henderson to keep the pipeline open, but adidas decided to go in a different direction, and will merge the Houston Select and Tmac organizations together, with David Salinas and Martin Fox in charge. So Henderson has been frozen out for now.
I don't know all the particulars with each school, but I do know one of them had a booster offer a couple of people involved in the recruitment over $100,000 per year to fund an AAU program for as long as J'Covan Brown played for their school. I doubt the figures from other places were so high, but there's no doubt in my mind something was being promised somewhere.
In this one, though, J'Covan's AAU coach was Chris Walker. Walker is a former Villanova player who came back to head the adidas affiliated TMac All Stars AAU team for several years. He's been angling for a college coaching job for a while. Finally this past offseason he got one at New Mexico with Steve Alford, and has proceeded to bring in 4 of his current or past AAU players in this first recruiting class.
Henderson is Chris Walker's protege. Henderson has been involved in AAU coaching in the past, but a couple of years ago was named the head coach for Port Arthur Memorial in one of the most stupefying coaching hires I've ever been familiar with. J'Covan transferred from Beaumont Kelly to Port Arthur Memorial after his freshman season, so for the last couple of years he's played his high school ball with Henderson, and his AAU ball with Chris Walker, as well as on a team run by his Dad based out of Port Arthur. I think it's called Port Arthur Select, but I can't remember exactly.
When Walker left for New Mexico, the idea was to give his position to Henderson to keep the pipeline open, but adidas decided to go in a different direction, and will merge the Houston Select and Tmac organizations together, with David Salinas and Martin Fox in charge. So Henderson has been frozen out for now.
I don't know all the particulars with each school, but I do know one of them had a booster offer a couple of people involved in the recruitment over $100,000 per year to fund an AAU program for as long as J'Covan Brown played for their school. I doubt the figures from other places were so high, but there's no doubt in my mind something was being promised somewhere.
