NCAA Basketball: 2018 AAU Circuit Adidas Gauntlet Preview
By Bryan Mauro
Best Teams in the event
D1 Minnesota-
D1 Minnesota is far and away the best team in the gauntlet. They are loaded with D1 talent both high major and mid-major. The Minnesota AAU basketball teams in all circuits seem to have tremendous talent year after year. D1 Minnesota has loaded this roster all with talent from within the state of Minnesota. The state of Minnesota as a whole is a basketball powerhouse when it comes to recruiting. There has been so much talent to come out of that state over the past two years.
D1 Minnesota currently has a roster composed of Matthew Hurt, Power Forward, and highly touted recruit Zeke Nnanji. Point Guard and high major recruit Tyrell Terry. The one player on this roster not from the state of Minnesota is Patrick McCaffrey who is the son of Iowa head coach Fran McCaffrey. D1 Minnesota also has a recruit is starting to stack up offers in Tyler Wahl. There are not too many teams who have a roster with this much firepower. It is going to be hard to beat D1 Minnesota.
Game Elite Gold-
Even though Game Elite lost a game during the first live period, they are still the only team in the entire Gauntlet that has the talent to give D1 Minnesota a run. Game Elite also has a loaded roster and they play an exciting brand of basketball. Most of the players on this roster are going to play basketball for high major teams, and are going to succeed doing so. Game Elite is a program out of Douglasville, Georgia. Tom Crean is going to quickly make himself acquainted with the Game Elite program and its players.
The roster for Game Elite has Ashton Hagans, Georgia recruit Elias King, Alabama target Kobe Brown and Undersized Power Forward Jaylin Williams. Williams is a Memphis target and is also the coach’s son. Right now Georgia has offered every player that was mentioned on this list. Other than Hagans all players are still available for the 2019 class. Tom Crean could fill out his class with top players while never having to leave the state of Georgia.
Game Elite won’t lose many more games in this tournament, especially if they play up to their potential. D1 Minnesota is just too good, that Game Elite still may not beat them.