It’s been very interesting to chart the increased notoriety of AAU Coach J.O. Stright in the last year as the ceiling on Herb Pope has risen. I know I didn’t start finding out much about Stright until last summer when the reports swirled that Herb Pope was headed to a Florida Prep School at the behest of his AAU Coach. That led me to a little Googling and searching online that didn’t turn up much, though it did reveal a very close relationship with Bob Huggins. Elsewhere, the Stright name started appearing in message board strings and his motivations and history became discussion topics.
But this Spring. Oh, this Spring. You had rising HS star Terrelle Pryor make a verbal to Pitt as a sophomore then have Stright announce that he was backing off that a bit. The chatter increased. Stright’s profile was rising with his young AAU studs.
This led to the Pittsburgh Sports Report Piece on Stright written by Chris Dokish. Additionally, Dokish answered some questions on this blog about the piece and Stright. All of which was further picked up, discussed and dissected on the Pitt message boards (and one for K-State as well).
This has led to the mainstream newspapers in Pittsburgh to belatedly realize there might be something of a story and interest here.
The Trib ran their story at the beginning of May. It pointed to a lot more gray in Stright than clearing anything up: plenty of high school coaches defending him, the Pittsburgh JOTS doesn’t take shoe money, and Stright is a Pitt Athletics booster — not just a season ticket holder and donator to the academic side.
Now the Post-Gazette has its turn. Let’s given them credit. This piece actually fills in some nice gaps in the story. You’d almost think the writer, Ray Fittipaldo (also the Pitt basketball beat reporter), actually was reading the message board and this blog to find some additional questions to answer.
An NCAA spokesperson said anyone can be a booster and AAU coach. The spokesperson said it is up to individual institutions to instruct boosters what is permissible and what is not when it comes to recruiting.
Pitt said any booster is not allowed to give a recruiting presentation to prospective student-athletes. A recruiting presentation is defined as anything that can be perceived as an effort to encourage a person to attend a respective institution.
According to the NCAA, Stright is allowed to give recruiting pitches to schools at which he is not a booster.
Pitt has never reported any violations to the NCAA concerning Stright, perhaps because Stright has sent just one player to Pitt in his 20 years as an AAU coach.
And perhaps because if it was every revealed that Pitt reported an AAU coach, they’d be at risk from all other AAU coaches closing ranks and do their level best to not send any of their kids to Pitt.
It would be a brave and potentially suicidal school/coach to risk the program and job to start ratting out shady AAU coaches. They could shut off the spigot to an overwhelming majority of the talent.
The story in question finally answers the long-nagging question: how do Stright and Huggins know each other.
By 1986, Stright decided to found the JOTS, when his son, Justin, was coming through the AAU program. He did it with the help of former Pitt stars Charles Smith and Demetrius Gore, who coached the team for a few years when they were playing at Pitt and gave the team credence in the local and national AAU scene. The AAU was quickly becoming the place for college coaches to evaluate players because they wanted to judge players against top-caliber competition. AAU — Amateur Athletic Union — is an organization that sanctions tournaments for every sport at an amateur level. Boys’ basketball is its lifeblood. Teams range in age level from second grade through senior boys’ division (senior year in high school).
Stright’s relationship with Pitt soured shortly after Paul Evans became the Panthers’ coach in 1986. Players complained to Stright about Evans’ abrasiveness and the way he treated them. Stright said he had a falling out with Evans and purposely steered players away from Pitt because of it.
That coincided with the rekindling of an old friendship with Huggins, a childhood chum who started to come to Pittsburgh to see the JOTS play. Stright and Huggins got to know each other in the 1960s when their high school teams scrimmaged each other. Stright played for Hickory High School in Mercer County, Huggins for Indian Valley South High in Gnadenhutten, Ohio.
Since rekindling the friendship they have since become best friends.
And while Huggins spent his season outside the reach of the NCAA, he could really take advantage of his situation. It is well known how Huggins has been recruiting players like O.J. Mayo and such but this is a nifty nugget.
Pope has been linked to Kansas State from the moment Huggins was hired this year. Huggins has developed a relationship with Pope over the years through Stright, including some coaching sessions this winter.
Huggins was out of college coaching last season for the first time in decades, and once every month he would come to Pittsburgh for a long weekend at Stright’s home on Mount Washington. During those visits, Stright arranged for Huggins to give coaching clinics to JOTS players, including Pope and Pryor, on Saturday mornings at local high school gyms.
Because Huggins was out of coaching, it was legal under NCAA rules.
“We weren’t trying to hide anything,” Stright said of the clinics.
Then there’s the fact that one of the present AAU assistant coaches is Darrelle Porter, the former Pitt great and Duquesne head coach.
Porter is an assistant coach with the JOTS. He also is a fixture at Pitt, where he said he recently spent some of his free time working out Pitt players to help ease the burden on head coach Jamie Dixon, who had been operating without two assistant coaches after Barry Rohrssen and Joe Lombardi accepted college head coaching positions.
Porter has known Stright for 20 years and used to coach the JOTS with Sean Miller, now the coach at Xavier. He said the people associated with Pitt who complain about Stright don’t know what they’re talking about.
I’m not sure if he’s interested, but Porter could very well be one of Pitt’s assistant coaches full-time in a short while.
In a companion piece on Stright, there are profiles of the top stars on the Pittsburgh JOTS. There is also a story about the AAU, specifically the basketball AAU and Pittsburgh.
Not all of the prospects play for the JOTS. There are a number of other successful AAU teams in the area besides the JOTS that boast other Division I prospects.
The Pennsylvania Storm consists of two teams of 15- and 16-year old players who have a number of prospects of their own. Klimchock coaches the 15-and-under team. Mike Shanahan, the brother of former Duquesne University player Brian Shanahan, coaches the Storm’s 16-and-under team.
Mike Shanahan Jr. of Norwin, Brian Walsh of Moon, Antoine Childs of Blackhawk, Jonathan Baldwin of Aliquippa and Christian Wilson of Montour are a few of the Storm players who could land Division I scholarships in a few years.
The 15-year old squad has a number of players who could land scholarships as well. Most of Klimchock’s players started as freshmen on their high school teams this past season.
Stright said recently that he is considering retirement from the local AAU scene. When that happens, Porter said he would like to continue the tradition Stright started and showcase the area’s top players on one team.
That could lead to a competition with the Storm for the best area players. As it is now, Porter said he only gives college coaches information about players who are playing for the JOTS. He said he would be willing to work with the Storm because he believes it is in the best interest of local basketball to have one team that showcases the top talent.
“There are going to be players here,” Porter said. “If J.O. retires, I’m going to stay involved and make sure our best players have a way to showcase their talent. We have to let these kids be seen.”
Very interesting.
