It's easy to be jaded and cynical and skeptical about the merits of big-time youth basketball, in which teenagers fly around the nation, play on national TV and grace magazine covers.
"I've been all over the world because of basketball," Georgia Southern coach Charlton Young told me when he was an Auburn assistant attending the City of Palms Classic. "I've got a degree because of basketball. These tournaments are a big thing for these kids. We can't take that away from them."
