Gary Parrish also did an article on this. Someone linked it on Nafoom a couple weeks ago.
Apparently, a lot of these AAU coaches also run a "recruiting service/magazine". Essentially they put together a magazine that's basically a list of names of kids in their AAU organization. No helpful information really at all. However, they sell tons of these magazines to college coaches at a steep price. Essentially, to have a shot to recruit a kid that plays for a particular AAU team, you better be a subscriber to the coach's magazine. Some schools even will go as far to have all of their assistants get subscriptions as well to have a better shot at kids. It's all technically legal by NCAA guidelines, and most coaches just see it as the price of doing business.
On top of that, AAU organizations I believe are non-profit, so any alum or booster can make a tax deductible donation to an AAU team that he feels needs the extra jerseys or travel money, and the money can then be funneled by the AAU coach to a particular player's family. And of course when said player shows up at that booster's alma mater, it's just a coincidence and great recruiting.
There is really nothing pretty about basketball recruiting. It's worse than any other recruiting, mainly because there is such an easy loophole that allows the buying and selling of players essentially.
Of course some players still make decisions based on the coach/school/etc. Not all players are for sale, but if a player wants to be for sale, or if an AAU coach wants to sell one, it's easily done. This is also why you don't see many basketball programs get in trouble with the NCAA. It's so easy to get around the rules that you should be able to cheat all you want without having to worry about the NCAA coming down on you. Obviously Kelvin Sampson is just not very good at it.
Edited to add: Hopson was obviously for sale, and obviously Stans and MSU got outbid by Pearl.
