July 2016 Pack your bags

Its the 4th of July holiday and that means local AAU squads are ready to head out on the road for the annual July recruiting periods to hopefully set off their own fireworks.  The college coaches will be focused on the southeastern part of the US this week.  You have The Peach Jam (Nike's championships) in N Augusta, SC and the Adidas Gaunlet Finale in Spartanburg, SC.  While Under Armour has their finals in Atlanta next week, they are hosting their star players for a camp in Charlotte, NC.  But the Midwest is full of events too and you'll find most of our locals teams there.  So here's who's playing where in the 1st July 2016 period from Wednesday thru Sunday.

Howard Pulley's 17s are at The Peach Jam.  They open play on Wednesday night as the top seed in Pool D.  Then they'll play twice Thursday and Friday to finish round robin pool play.  The top 2 teams out of 6 from each of the 4 pools qualify for bracket play starting on Saturday.

D1 Minnesota's top teams are at the Adidas Gauntlet Finale   The 16s and 17s avoided the pigtail round and will open Thursday afternoon in the round of 32.  Both teams could play Texas PRO in that opener.  2 wins for the D1 16s could put them up against the Iowa Barnstormers in the quarters on Friday afternoon.  Very interesting possibility there.  The 15s division is just 2 pools of 4.  So that means they will play 3 pool games and then 1 final game on Saturday. 

Milwaukee (NY2LA Sports Next Level Invite)
Crossfire Weege and Swanson
Grassroots 17s
Top MN Comets teams, 3 in 17s, 2 in 16s and 15s
Top 2 MN Select 17s plus their top 15s and 16s.
WOTN will have 2 17s plus a 16s and 15s.
2 Real Athletics 17s and a 16.

Indianapolis (Adidas Invitational)
What used to be a super event has gone down hill with Adidas revamping their structure.  But the Minnesota Heat will still send their 3 Sanford teams plus Heat Wright in 15U.

Then you have the group of events starting on Friday.

Chicago
The Chicago Summer Jam is a noteworthy event for Minnesota teams.  In the 17s you have Powerhouse, Fury Kallman, MN Warriors, Heat Bui, MN Phenom and MN PREP.  But Powerhouse may see Trae Berhow miss sometime.  He'll be at the Powerade camp in Charlotte (not the same as the UA camp mentioned above).  Howard Pulley's non-17U teams will be here along with the MN Eagles and Powerhouse in 16U.

There will be no championship game here as it would be the 4th game of the day for the teams.  What's more disturbing is that Howard Pulley had to skip the championship game in this same event last year for the exact same reason.  How does the NCAA not catch this in post review and why does this event operator continue to not follow the rules and get away with it?  What about all the other questions it raises?  What happens if they do play the game during the live period (some play it after 5 PM which is OK), can you punish the teams?  If so, how?  Could you penalize a college coach for watching it?  If so, how?

Also in Chicago you have all 3 D1 prospects teams playing the Chicago Summer Challenge

Kansas City (Mullen's Invite)
Minnesota Fury sends their Sanford teams to the quality Mullen's Invite again.  This year the event moves from St. Louis to Kansas City.

Ames
Iowa cleans up what hasn't yet been mentioned.  3 Crossfire and a couple of MN Rise teams there.  MN Fury's 2nd 16s and 15s also there.