A couple days ago, Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper wrote a story on the possibility of an upcoming "AAU bloodbath" with local college basketball recruiting. Every school in the area has fortified their recruiting ties in an instant, and because of that, there will be much more competition for homegrown talent that tends to go outside the area.
If anything, though, I think McKenna undersold the phenomenon. McKenna's piece focuses on Maryland's hire of elite assistant coach Dalonte Hill, who somehow convinced local native Michael Beasley to come to Kansas State. There's also a mention of George Washington hiring local guy Mike Lonergan as its new head coach, as well as some lines about Georgetown possibly rehiring Kevin Broadus. But there's more to this, I think.
First of all, I almost think McKenna undersold the Broadus rumor. Now, granted, the story explores most of the issue with bringing him back. Broadus was the head coach at Binghamton, where his players got into trouble in pretty much every way and disgraced the program. He was also exposed by several New York Times articles for the kids he brought to Georgetown. But here's what gets me. All of that is true and acknowledged, and yet a quick perusal of SB Nation's Georgetown blog Casual Hoya yields nearly unanimous support to bringing him back.
Yup, it's getting serious.
Secondly, where's George Mason in all of this? Don't forget: the program hired Paul Hewitt, who isn't the greatest in-game coach, but has always been an outstanding recruiter. While at Georgia Tech, Hewitt has brought in guys like Chris Bosh, Thaddeus Young, Jarret Jack, Javaris Crittenton and Derrick Favors. His ties to D.C. aren't great, but it shouldn't take him long to embed himself in the area. In his introductory press conference, Hewitt vowed to recruit as vigorously as ever and said the program has no reason to "take a back seat to anyone." Don't forget about him.
In other words, it looks like we're finally getting a scenario where Maryland, Georgetown, George Mason and George Washington will be competing for the same recruits at the same time. This should be fun.