Vegas Blog #1

By: Evan Derman, COO, illinoishsbasketball.com

What’s up illinoishsbasketball.com.  This is Evan Derman here with my first blog entry for the site.  This past March Daniel gave me a call and asked me to give him feedback on some new changes he was considering for the site.  After our chat we decided that our skill sets complemented one another and that we would make a great team.  Flash forward four months and I am now officially the Chief Operating Officer for illinoishsbasketball.com.  I am thrilled to be a member of the team and hope that we continue bringing quality high school sports content to you through a variety of social media platforms. 

Despite being a huge basketball fan all my life this is the first AAU event I have ever attended. But wow! What an initiation these first two days have been.  In a span of two days I have already met or rubbed shoulders with some of the top college coaches from across the nation.  I have watched games with Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Bill Self, John Beilein, Mark Few, Tom Izzo, and many more. 

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                                              Look who we met at the airport! 

The Mac Irvin Fire team has lived up to all the hype.  The athleticism this team possesses is out of this world.  Watching players like Reggie Smith, Vince Garrett and Mike Shaw soar through the air with an array of acrobatic dunks has been nothing short of spectacular. In case you missed those dunks check them out (Reggie Smith , Mike Shaw , Vince Garrett ). 

Dan and I have already met tons of cool people and the tournaments have been an invaluable networking opportunity.  One great contact I made was Joe Eley, who happens to be Tim Hardaway Jr.’s shooting coach.  Joe (Beyondhoops.com ) has been coaching young basketball players for 40 years.  He is the real deal and has worked with some of the best including: Kevin Garnett, Glen Rice, Shawn Kemp, Terry Mills and many more.

I sat next to Joe during the Fire vs Seattle Rotary game and told him about our site.  He loved what we were doing and I told him since I am a Michigan Alum, I had a special interest in watching Tim Hardaway Jr., a Michigan Wolverine commit.  We talked about Tim’s game and how he would fit in at Michigan.  Then out of nowhere Joe gave me my personal highlight of the tournament.  He pulled out his phone and put NBA legend Tim Hardaway Sr. on the phone.  I had a nice five minute conversation with him and ended up exchanging contact info.  I will be sending him some videos (Specifically this one ) and pictures we took of Tim Jr.  I sat with Joe the rest of the game and picked his brain on all topics basketball.  He was truly a great person and any young basketball players out there that need a shooting coach Joe is your guy!

Overall, Vegas has been a great experience and we still have a few more days to go!  Until next time….

-Evan Derman

COO illinoishsbasketball.com