male or female? female no brainer, go the AIS route. given the success of Bogut and Patty you might say the same about the blokes to bur for the women there are isolated cases, but no compelling numbers argument not to go to the AIS.

I am assuming you are talking basketball development rather than the soft reasons of 'education" and "lifestyle"

can you go to AIS and then NCAA

A highly credentialed coach in this country has told his athletes to go college and ditch AIS. In my opinion, college is the way to go. AIS sounds great in developing various college athletes however you have to remember they also gets the top talents in the country.

This year my organization has helped 1 girl to get scholarship offer from Duke, St Mary's, Utah (and 1 others I can't remember right now) and we are also sending one of our boys off to college. Keep in mind our clients are also underdogs of the country. And we're also in the processing of developing many more in the upcoming years. I would like to see AIS taking this same pool of kids and see where they'll be heading.

As far as why college? easy answered: you get your name out there worldwide. While potentially get NBA Summer League Camp invite like one of our current client has been through and with this he now plays pro ball. Many who goes to AIS and never went college does have reputation to 'drop off' after about 18~20yrs old (mind you I'm not talking about EVERYBODY).

i trust LA Boy when you say "my organization" that you are not part of one of the many "services" that offer assistance to young athletes in getting to US colleges..... because otherwise you have clearly declared you conflict of interest before offering your "opinion"!!

The best path if you can get there is the AIS and then College ball...it is the path of Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills and AJ Ogilvy just to name 3.

Most AIS players get offers to go to college if they choose to do so...

HO- we're no agent, we are just a private development company for high school and pro players. As I said AIS gets the best talents and it's a disgrace for ANY one of their kids not get scholarship offer.

LAboy,

Your connections must be good because your grammar is terribly unprofessional.

You not write very good england, it not very easy to read.

LA Boy, I wont throw too many barbs at your grammar, I've seen worse from College coaches and IMO your posts speak for themselves. Your "organisation" obviously has a financial interest if you talk in the same sentences about pro-basketball (NBA Summer camp invites, representing pro athletes) as you do purely amateur basketball (AIS, College), so your conflict of interest is clearly being called out.

Your assesment that something's wrong if the AIS does not graduate all of its students to College presumes they a.) wish to go there, or b.) have the academic wherewithall to survive.

You sound like you have the opinion that its the b-all to end up in the NBA when the reason for the AIS and the aussie pathways is about producing the best Australian players. The fact they may play in the pros is a happy by-product, US or not.

The AIS has a limited number of scholarships, it targets an age groups lower than the ususal 19 yo college freshman, and it is primarily about producing Australia's best U19 teams. The fact there are more Australians (than the # of AIS Scholarship) who have the potential to play College basketball is a good thing and does not mean the AIS is doing a poor job. On the contrary it reinfores what a wonderful job is being done of fostering and developing Aussie talent.

YeTi- I never said reaching the NBA is the only success in basketball, in fact in our group we endorses playing in pro leagues around the globe. Also, I never said all AIS kids need to go college, I said scholarship "offers" as I clearly understands it's not all kid's goal to be far from home etc.

It is purely my opinion that AIS hasn't really done their job to the fullest. There are other examples, eg. Jawai was with the AIS for years and was never found to have the heart condition that could've ended his career; while at the institute they've supposedly do some of the most in-depth physicals nation-wide.

Finally, as I've said before attending college would definitely better your chance of actually playing pro later down the track.

PS: anybody here actually been to or seen AIS basketball program?

also, when you talked about nationals squad; other than the seniors squad, juniors squad sadly involves lots of politics where predominantly only AIS kids will be picked as the government don't want to look bad if the squad is saturated with non-AIS representatives. You'd know if you're a parent with kid in this situation.

Also, I know Aussie actually does pretty well in the juniors world championships but in the same token you got to remember other teams really hasn't sent out their best line up. Back in 04, imgaine if Lebron, Melo was playing for the U19 US team, or even Derrick Rose playing on the squad. Outside of US you have countries like Spain with 17yo kid representing their seniors team just like Patty Mills did for Australia.

The AIS has cultivated some our greatest products in Adelaide. Maher, Schenscher, Brad Hill, Brad Newley and Joe Ingles (as far as know) all spent time there developing their skills..... Patty also spent time at the AIS.... in fact....

Laboy, I challenge you to name 3 better Australian players who went straight to college (without out being misled by the AIS system)?... before you jump on google, I can tell you that Bogut, Bradtke and Heal also spent some time there.

Look forward to your response.

Not trying to make a point either way, just guessing at some decent names who might not have been to the AIS.

Gaze
Anstey (no college?)
Nielsen (no college?)
Bruton
Rillie
Cattalini (no college?)
Harvey (no college?)

Or did some of these attend?

Barlow and Worthington are two Boomers players who skipped AIS AFAIK - not quite Newley-level, but not far off.

ESP- what I been saying all along,these were the top kids in the country though so in essence, this should be the case and in fact they should have taken them to greater heights. How'd you explain the fact that Patty Mills is a much better player than he was at the tute. And I can GUARRANTTEE you he's made far more progress there than his years at the tute.

Players not from the tute? you got Dave Barlow, and I'm not sure if you'd really put Bogut down as AIS, he was only selected after various colleges expressed interest in him. That's why in one of his interviews after getting #1 pick he said he consider himself a Croatian (because he didn't have the support when he needed it the most). There are also a few more guys under the radar we'll see how they go...

And ESP, have you seen the AIS program? I have and I can say it's not the best program I've seen. By been in the tute helps various player through national selection etc and therefore maximizes junior's CV. I'd be extremely reserved as far as player development (I have yet to hear ANY kid who's had tremendous improvment since arriving). With the talents they have I'd be surprised if those kids won't make it by themselves. As I've said all along in other threads, Australia has the talents but not necessarily the right coaching to help kids to elite level.

Furthermore, there are some of the highest credentialled coach in Australia who recommend people focus on going to college and don't worry about going to the tute.

La Boy
I am living in Germany. At the last Albert Schweitzer Marty Clark ran a coaching clinic and was head and shoulders above the other coaches. He also nearly won it against teams that start training at 6. Before that Pat Hunt was twice the guest coach. The HEAD of coach education here said to me that he was the BEST presenter they ever had. Oz is number TWO behind the USA in fiba rankings. Somebody must be doing something GOOD.

(sorry I hope my use of "capslock" was as good as you)

After watching a number of St Marys games I recall the commentators stating on many occasions that the St Marys coach loves to recruit AIS players as they are so well rounded in their fundamentals and basketball education. I would think that we must be doing something right to achieve our FIBA ranking with such a small basketball population and its (comparitive) low profile.

All fair arguments. I still don't see the evidence for criticising the AIS system though.

At the end of the day our problem in Australia is not the AIS, it's the dire state of our professional competition.

Hey look before I came over here I too thought AIS was a great place for athlete development. But I've found it to be a place with too much theory and less practical. As a sport scientist you don't want to be elsewhere but hands on practice? I'd be reserved about it. This is based from things from facility design in the weights room, the way it is setted up is not really for pure athletic practice and coaching standpoint. And this is one example...

PS: St Mary's assistant is an Aussie. I'd take my hats off if it's coming from a powerhouse college. BTW I'm not trashing Aussie programs saying it's bad but just a lot of improvement to do to get better.

What does one of your basketball camps cost "LA Boy"? Or do you help these kids for free?

I'm not here to promote my program and let's just leave that part of things alone...

Spoken like a real money grabber. Double talk. Slam one programm and then act like you have values!

How many players paid for your camp and did not get a place in the US. How much money did you make from these type of players?

CJ Bruton went to college. Indian Hills CC and then Iowa State.

Yeah, I had Bruton in the list for that reason. Don't think he went to the AIS though.

ESP - how'd I do? Gaze and Bruton are up there, and Rillie has done pretty well for himself playing here and abroad.

Nielsen went to the AIS.

Gaze was already playing NBL for the Australian coach when offered an AIS spot. And he only did 1 year of college as a senior. Actually spent 6 months there. So doesn't really count.

Bruton was kind of the same. Spent 2 years at a JC, which isn't really like 4 years at D1.

NCAA ofcourse - it's always good to go to sckool !!

Isaac, fair call on Bruton, I'm not sure how advanced the AIS was when Gaze was starting out, but yes fair call.
There is probably some room to exclude Bruton from the debate given Cal's connections and a possible predisposition towards the college system.

In summary, I just wanted to point out that the AIS has served SA talent quite well.

Good healthy debate on the topic, including those with a vested interest to compare programs. Apart from being tax-payers, no-one here has the same level of commercial interest to promote the AIS's virtues.

I feel ESP's comment was closest with: "At the end of the day our problem in Australia is not the AIS, ...." It is perhaps that we currently don't fund enough scholarship positions or do enough to maximise the talent in State Academies/Institutes of Sport.

The list of non-AIS scholarship holders, whilst corrected and explained, still says there will be the talent 'missed' that will go on to represent Asutralia at the highest level; these weren't missed at their state level however. In saying this lets not discount that the primary KPI for the AIS is success at the world U19s, which will hopefully flow onto benefits in the Senior and Pro ranks.

Someone else's son - players with Australian parents may have been predisposed to attend the AIS. ;)