Getting a shape-up before the games

The Dime Crew has been all over the debut of RBK U - one of the summer’s premier grassroots events - down at Philadelphia University. With all the changes that summertime grassroots basketball has undergone this past year, RBK U is the country’s only traditional high school All-American invitational camp held during the July evaluation period. And for more than 140 of the country’s elite high school players and the college coaches who come to see them (yesterday alone we spotted guys like John Calipari, Jay Wright, Al Skinner and reps from Duke, Louisville and USC, to name a few) this is the only place to be.

The folks at RBK were cool enough to invite me down to Philly this weekend to check out the camp and to take part in a media panel on Saturday night. The panel was part of a series of classes set up for the players to help make their experience at the camp as well-rounded and fulfilling as possible - my panel was set up to give the players an idea of how to interact with the media and how to best use the media to achieve their goals.

Afterwards, I got to check out some of the amenities set up for the players what little down time they have. They have a huge players-only lounge set up for them, complete with plasmas, video games, wireless laptops, a DJ, a massage table and two barber chairs for pre-game shape-ups.

Working out the stress

We have guys on the ground there for each day of games (be on the lookout for Austin’s recap of yesterday’s action later on today) and a bunch of us should be there for tomorrow’s final day of games and the All-Star run tomorrow night. We’ll hit you with all the news and sightings as we go along…

On the sticks after a long day