NCAA Basketball: Preview of the Top 2019 Prospects in the Nike EYBL AAU Circuit
By Bryan Mauro
The top prospects in the 2019 class will convene this weekend in the Nike EYBL circuit. Here’s what to watch for.
College Basketball recruiting is going to pick up a ton of steam starting this weekend. The first live period for recruiting starts this weekend. It allows coaches to start to further evaluate the latest batch of recruits, as all of the major AAU leagues start their tournaments. Coaches from across the country at nearly every school are going to make their way to the tournaments to get a look at players and offers are going to start rolling in for players.
The shoe companies still dominate the AAU game. They get all of the top players, as well as most of the exposure during the live periods. But not all of the top players play in a league dominated by a shoe company. Numerous starters on division 1 teams have come from AAU teams not associated with one of the premier leagues. While rare, most coaching staffs are so big, they can send their coaches everywhere.
Each live period marks the start of a new tournament, and each new shoe company goes to a different major city. At the beginning of each live period, a new set of coaches will be at each teams games, trying to find that player they did not know about or to validate a player they had already seen. Coaches are going to be looking for the players who show they can lead a team and play within a system, every coach already knows about all of the top prospects.
This weeks live period brings a preview of the premier league in all of the AAU ranks. The Nike EYBL is the league that always gets the top players, top coaches and the most college coaches watching them play. They numerous top-level teams, as well as teams who are run by NBA stars both current and old. The EYBL is going to bring exciting basketball to all the fans and will result in numerous offers from many programs for all of the players represented.