What's the difference between the Shoe sponsored teams and the top non shoe sponsored teams

[Amttbo]

Its somewhat obvious to the basketball junkies that there is value to playing for a shoe sponsored team. There is also value for playing on top non sponsored teams as well. I just wanted to hear some opinions on why people think that there kids have to play on a shoe sponsored team in order to get a scholarship. I also want to pose a second question. If you are a division one lock in terms of scholarship offers, is it always better for you to play on a shoe sponsored team? I will list the teams below that I think are the top teams and I would like to know what there strengths and weaknesses are as programs.

Shoe Sponsored Non Shoe Sponsored
Oakland Soldiers Nor Cal Wildcats
Splash City Lakeshow
Oakland Rebels NorCal Pharaohs
Phps

 

[TwitterLegend]

If a non-shoe sponsored teams still plays in elite events, the players can still be seen by college coaches... however, they wont necessarily be placed in the top division or one of the "super pools" so they wont necessarily get the same visibility as the shoe teams even if they're technically playing in the same event...

Shoe-sponsored teams don't have to pay out of pocket for anything (travel, lodging, entry fees, uniforms, shoes of course).. non-sponsored teams are just that, non-sponsored... every kid/parent will have to pay out of pocket for all of this... if funds are tight, this will definitely limit the schedule to mostly local events with limited travel/lodging expense I would imagine.

Free gear. A popular take on this one is that you're selling out by going to the free gear team, but in reality ask yourself this. Would you rather get a ton of free cool shoes/gear or NOT get a ton of free shoes/gear. Seems like an easy decision... of course the whole decision will not be based on this aspect, but this issue standing alone is a no-brainer.

 

[Amttbo]

Thanks Twitterlegend for your response. I think most of the top non shoe sponsored teams offer sponsorships for players. I'm pretty sure the Wildcats, lakeshow and Pharaohs all offer sponsored spots to players.

I'm also pretty sure that those 3 programs play in all the invitation only divisions and super pools. I followed the Wildcats and Lakeshow last year and they both seemed to have better showings then most of the shoe teams.

While I agree with what you said in general terms for most of the non sponsored teams, it doesn't apply to the top non sponsored teams. Didn't lakeshow beat the soldiers eybl team last spring? I'm pretty sure the Wildcats beat Cal Supreme and Houston hoops teams as well. These are both teams that the soldiers lost against.

I agree that getting free shoes and gear is nice and I can see why kids would gravitate toward those programs. My question is, if u have a team full of D1 prospects, isn't there a certainty that some of those players stock going to drop being in that environment where opportunity isn't the same for all those players? Would they be better off playing for a top non shoe team?

 

[Amttbo]

I would love hear from coach JZJ and Coach fuca on their take of how they get their teams to play at that level without the support of a Nike or adidas or under armour?

 

[?mansf]

Sponsored teams also play in their own leagues, which means the players always play top competition.

 

[sports09]

My understanding is that their are plenty of Neutral tourneys that the different sponsored teams can play non sponsored. Yes there are shoe leagues and tourneys but there is a lot of none shoe tourneys that they can play each other. My understanding is that Lakeshow last year went out and played in open or top division in tourneys and played and beat a lot of sponsored teams. Just because they are sponsored does not mean they are elite or even good sometimes.

 

[swett2victory]

I'm trying to figure out why is we talking bouts shoes

 

[Amttbo]

If You read the thread, we are not talking about shoes. We are talking about the top teams/clubs for players to play in and what the benefits of each program are.

 

[swett2victory]

If You read the thread, we are not talking about shoes. We are talking about the top teams/clubs for players to play in and what the benefits of each program are.

amttbo,
Sir, yes to be the Elite Player for the most part it takes a great coach and a great Program to bring some or most attention, cameras, paparazzi and scouts to the kid. In a place like Cali, as a kido you better be on top of your game because if you are Jerry Rice, there may be many Jerry Rice battling against you within the Cali region

 

[Coach JZJ]

@Amttbo,

The NorCal wildcats had a great year last year that I would stack up against any of the best teams on the west coast. I think as a region, we represented NorCal pretty well. Phps and Oakland rebels did a great job in the adidas circuit. Soldiers always represent well in the Nike circuit. I think us and lakeshow had great years. The Pharaohs historically represent very well. With all of that said, the wildcats are no longer putting together elite travel teams. They decided as a club to go back to being a more regional club playing local tournaments. As director, I wanted to continue to give young men the opportunity to play at a very high level while maintaining a great culture of teaching and skills training. We created a year round platform for all of our players to continue working on their games year round. We started a basketball academy called EBA. As far as our travel teams are concerned, we merged with the NorCal Pharaohs. We had a lot of returning wildcats players and so did the Pharaohs. We will continue to help players achieve their goals to play at the next level. We will continue to help develop their skill sets while teaching them to have a better IQ and understand that this is a team sport. We will do our best to represent NorCal particularly the Sacramento area the best we can. We believe in hard work and commitment. This should be a great year for NorCal. I am excited to see all of our players in NorCal be featured players on all the top teams. Hopefully, we can cut back on picking up players from other states or even from SoCal. We have plenty of talent up here. Let's focus our efforts on developing and giving our local guys the most opportunity for growth and exposure.

Coach J

 

[Hoops1124]

Best Non-Shoe sponsored team in Northern California the last 15 years was the Bay Area Hoosiers.

The Shoe circuit and non-shoe circuit discussion could take pages and pages of back and forth of pros and cons but it really depends on the individual.

Bottom line, each individual has to:

- Be realistic of what level you can play at
- Find a team where you can play
- Try to compete against really good competition
- Understand that college coaches need guys to do other things than score
- Everything you do matters from grades to skill to appearance to athleticscm etc...
- Understand that there are multiple college levels:
D1, D2, D3
NAIA D1
NAIA D2
National JUCO
CA JUCO
- Everybody thinks that all the college coaches in the gym are there to
watch you - most likely not there to watch you but to watch somebody
else, so you might as well play hard and well and you never know
- Also, college coaches change jobs very quickly so you never know when
a coach changes jobs, he will have different needs at a different level and
thus you may not think a coach is there to watch you but he is evaluating
everything

Everyone thinks they can play in college - most likely not going to happen
and thus chasing AAU teams and changing AAU teams all the time does
not help your goal of trying to play in college.

 

[Coach FJ]

@ Amttbo,,
Playing with a truly "sponsored" teams means you will participate in the shoe companies leagues that are covered by the top scouting services and top ranking websites. And during the viewing periods you will play in front of college coaches you see on TV. The reason a for sure division I player selects the sponsored team is because it helps get them into the elite camps in June and possibly Team USA tryouts while Most of your non-sponsored teams can't get you in the top camps but they can get you in the shoe company rising star level camps. Also some of the top college coaches steer players to sponsored team for obvious reasons

Good non-sponsored teams can beat sponsored teams because most of the time they train practice and play together as a team and are made up of good team players while the sponsored teams don't always blend together for many reason.

All that said no matter who you play with and I quote "at the end of the day you are who you are G" for some of them sponsored players that fall to reality is sobering.

 

[Coach JZJ]

@Hoops1124,

That's a bold statement about Bay Area Hoosiers. They may have had a year or two out of the 15, but I don't think you realize how good some of the other non sponsored teams have been since 2000. I am going to list some for you.

Early 2000's - Oakland Rebels were the best especially the couple of years they had Q who went to North Carolina
2003-2005 - NorCal Pharaohs were the best
2006-2010 - No clear dominant team, Phps, Pharaohs, Hoosiers
2011-2013 - Phps best team hands down. Probably had the top 2 teams in 2012. Both teams made final 4 of Pangos spring spectacular with top team winnings it all. No club NorCal or SoCal has ever done that.
2014 - ?
2015 - NorCal Wildcats only non shoe team in elite 8 of LV Classic. Knocked off multiple nationally ranked teams. Lakeshow had a very good year as well. Would like to see them in the LV Classic. Much stronger competition than Fab 48.

It's all debatable, I support all the NorCal programs when we are on the road. I like seeing all of our teams do well against top tier competition.

Coach J

 

[Amttbo]

Coach FJ,
Thanks for your insight. Last year I saw 2 players from Sacramento who were top 150 players leave the club they were with to go play with a shoe team. Both of them had pac 12 offers along with multiple mid major offers. While on this shoe team, neither player started and both of these players stock dropped considerably. One of the players left shoe team went back to his non shoe team for July and played well. He ended up getting several high major offers that he hadn't had before. He accepted an offer to one of the best programs in the country. A school still alive in March madness sweet 16. The other player who stayed with shoe team ended up committing to a mid major program which may never even make the dance.

I personally think that there is a lot of hype behind the shoe teams and not a whole lot of substance. If your a division 1 lock, it really doesn't matter where you play. Most of the time you will look better playing on your non shoe team. Lonzo Ball, the #1 player from California did not play for shoe team. He would not get a chance to showcase his skill set on a Cal Supreme like he does his Big Ballas team.

Stay true, and stay humble and work hard and you will accomplish your goals of playing at the next level. My 2 cents.