UNLV’S MENZIES SAYS CHANGE IS COMING

In his role as director of the Nike-sponsored Las Vegas Prospects, one of the nation’s most prominent AAU squads, Anthony Brown has been involved in the recruiting process for hundreds of players. He believes the proposed rules would be an extreme overreaction to a very specific and limited problem.

“Ridiculous,” Brown said of the proposal. “Let’s do the numbers. In the Bigfoot Hoops 17-under division, let’s say there are 500 teams. Then say on average there are 10 kids on a team. That’s 5,000 kids playing 17-and-under. We’re not even talking about 16-under, 15-under, all the way down. Right now, there’s probably 15,000 to 20,000 kids in Las Vegas this week to play club basketball, and we’re proposing rules that only affect maybe five kids — maybe three to five kids who are being recruited at the level where it’s a problem. This proposal doesn’t make sense.”

Brown believes that even if the NCAA does move to terminate the July recruiting period and decertify AAU events, ostensibly forcing college coaches to stay away, the shoe companies will still operate camps and work around the new rules.

“If (the proposal) does go through, I’ll speak from the Nike standpoint: If I’m Nike, we’re still doing our events,” he said. “We’re live-streaming. If I’m a coach, you can’t tell me I can’t watch this from my computer. They’ll still hold the camps and the coaches will still watch. You’ve just empowered the local media, the internet scouts and the companies that do the live-stream videos.”

UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said he would be a frequent spectator at gyms across town this week, maybe for the last time, as he watches some of the Rebels’ recruiting targets for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 classes. Menzies didn’t want to speculate on the proposed rule changes, but he said he and his staff would be prepared to adapt for anything the NCA A throws at them.

“You don’t really know anything until it’s engraved in stone, and I’m still hearing all kinds of different scenarios,” Menzies said. “I will say, I do believe change is coming and I do believe it will be significant. It will be a transition to that new paradigm. Whatever changes they make are going to be assessed up and down — it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right or wrong thing to do. There is definitely a need for change and I’m patiently awaiting what that actual change will be.”