Northland Basketball Players Prepare for Possible AAU Season, College Recruiting Changes

Many Northland basketball players were hoping to use a big AAU season to figure out their college commitments. With the season currently postponed, a few Greyhounds and Bluejackets are still doing what they can.

HIBBING, Minn. – While the spring sports season is still unknown, so is the upcoming AAU, or Amateur Athletic Union, season for high school basketball players. And with the high school basketball season is in the books, many local athletes were looking forward to the upcoming AAU season.

“We were going to a lot of cool places. We were going to go to Kentucky and Louisiana,” Hibbing sophomore guard Ayden McDonald said.

AAU allows high school athletes to play with and against some of the top players in the region.

“It’s fun to come together as enemies during the season but come together as friends in the [Wisconsin] Playmakers season,” Duluth East junior center Noah Paulson said.

They also travel across the country, playing in front of college coaches and scouts.

“You can join a team and play a lot of minutes and really expose yourself and go to different tournaments with different colleges you want to go to watching you,” Hibbing junior forward Parker Maki said.

“It’s really, really hard if you’re in a small school to get noticed by college coaches during the winter season, it’s become more so that AAU is the main factor in getting noticed,” Hibbing junior guard Mayson Brown added.

“College coaches from that far away don’t get a chance to watch us or notice us from here in Duluth so I was excited to get out there from a far away standpoint,” Duluth East junior guard Mattie Thompson said.

AAU also gives athletes an extra season to improve their game.

“Last year, AAU season really helped me perimeter wise, shooting threes, and flying up the court, which you need to do that as a big guy in college now,” Paulson said.

“Last year, even from the regular season, I was more of playing around the perimeter and I wasn’t really looking to attack the hoop as much. This year, I feel like I’ve grown a little more, gotten a little stronger during the regular season I definitely looked to attack the hoop a lot more,” Thompson added.

And for rising juniors and seniors, this was the season that they would make more connections and figure out their college commitments.

“We had a lot of people kind of noticing us this year so this AAU would have been big for college looks because I want to go play college basketball,” Brown said.

Now like many Northland athletes, these players are doing what they can to prepare for the possible season.

“We have a hoop outside so sometimes I shoot out there and we have weights downstairs and a treadmill so I’m just utilizing the stuff we have at home,” McDonald said.

While they wait for a decision on the AAU season, these athletes are still trying to talk to coaches and practice what they can, working towards their dreams of one day playing college ball.

“I’m looking forward to playing at the next level in college and it’s a good motivator,” Maki said.

“If this season does get canceled, the AAU season, that just means I’m going to have to work even harder for the senior season, show off there. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time, working hard every summer and every chance that I get,” Paulson added.