Local Prospects Give Feedback on NCAA Academies

Monday, July 29th, 2019

The summer of 2019 has come to an end and with it the highly anticipated new recruiting calendar. 

There has been no shortage of opinions at each and every step of this new calendar from June's new scholastic events to the shortened AAU period to last week's NCAA College Basketball Academy.

As with most things in the age of social media, the criticism has been much louder than the praise, and the reality is that the system still needs a lot of work. On the whole, there were less opportunities for prospects this year than there have been in years past. 

Last week's Academies in particular were the subject of wide-spread criticism but no one stopped to ask the participating players what they thought. 

NERR's Zack Sandberg did just that and while some players were hesitant to be publicly critical of the event, others had some positive feedback.

Ryan Biberon - "I thought it was a very well organized event actually. It ran extremely smoothly and unlike a lot of other camps I’ve been to this summer, the workouts before games were very beneficial and gave everyone a chance to spend a good amount of time working on their game. There were a lot of college coaches there and the competition was all very good. They did a great job selecting the best players in the area. They also gave out a lot of gear before camp started which was a great addition and the campus and courts were great to play on and gave the players a lot of opportunities to get looked at by coaches"

Josh Reaves - "From my experience, the best part of the camp was being able to learn from our mistakes in drills, then showcase what we are good at during games."

Jackson Benigni - "I thought it was really well run, great gear, great coaches, but the dorms were so far from everything and we only played two games a day."

Brandon Roughley - "I liked it a lot. Good balance between off court learning and being on the court working out and playing. They really did a good job making the players want to be here between free drinks whenever we want, 4 meals a day, and free gear. The teams obviously have the unbalances but overall I think it was good to be here and play in front of the coaches. 7-8 players on each team allows everyone to play in front of them too."

Aidan Carpenter - "It was a great camp. Lots and lots of exposure but we were also getting taught from a lot of coaches with a lot of knowledge about the game."

Tyler Whitney-Sidney - "I’d say it was good when it came to meeting kids and the drills, but the days were very long and took a toll on my body. Very rarely was I off my legs which was tough. But it allowed my schools to come see me."

Matt Knowling - "It was good. I liked how they didn’t only focus on making us better basketball players but better young men. The life skills sessions were very valuable and a great addition. Other than that there was great exposure at every game and at the drills."