The Sanford Pentagon continues to make strides to improving basketball in South Dakota and the Midwest.
The Sanford Pentagon is best known to casual basketball fans as one of the newest venues hosing neutral-court affairs featuring some of the top programs in college basketball. After two years of that success, they are now expanding their Power Basketball Academy to influence the sport across the state of South Dakota and, eventually, the rest of the midwest region.
The summer of 2016 marks the introduction of AAU teams to the Pentagon run by the Power Basketball Academy. Already housing 11 summer teams from ages 11 to 14, they will now expand those operations to include high-school level athletes looking to expand their game and make a future of the sport.
Highlighting the expansion is a fully funded U16 boys teams that will travel the country to participate in some of the biggest AAU tournaments, including the national championships in Orlando, Fla., which will take place July 13-18.
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“There’s always been some opportunities in South Dakota when it comes to summer basketball, but everybody does it differently,” said Allan Bertram, coordinator for the Power Basketball Academy. “Some of them it’s more tournament driven. One of the things we wanted to do that we do with all of our teams, expanded all the way up to seniors, is get to the point where we’re actually developing kids into becoming better basketball players.”
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Inconsistency at the AAU level has led many to discredit the entire process, hindering college basketball and taking much longer for eventual NBA players to make the transition. By adding AAU basketball to its academy, Bertram hopes to be part of the process to correct those mistakes by installing a team concept.
“The biggest thing about the team concept, for us, is that we’re going to be able to create a product or do something in a way that’s not done anywhere else in this state,” said Bertram. “Our kids are going to be not just able to play tournaments, but we’re going to work to actually develop those kids. To actually help them get better, identify those weaknesses and work on those so they actually become strengths.”
The fully funded U16 team, which will be coached by Bertram, is the top endeavor for the Pentagon’s expansion, though it is not the only one. In total, 14 teams will be added to accomodate the number of players that want to participate.
Two U17 teams featuring seniors-to-be, as well as four U15 (sophomores) teams and three U14 (freshmen) teams are being added on the boys side while one of each age group will be added on the girls side. The hope is to eventually add a fully funded national team on the girls side, but for now they’re content with what they have in place.
Add these 14 teams to the 11 the Pentagon already has in place during the summer and the number of participating athletes reaches about 250, which is a lot of bodies to try to account for. Though the Pentagon has nine courts in the facility, finding times to have all of these teams practices will be a challenge.
“We are fully understanding that any time you do something for the first time you’re going to have bumps in the road, you’re going to have bugs to work out. It’s a feeling out process,” Bertram said. “It’ll give us a great way to evaluate at the end of the year on what we need to do differently.”
Having this as the first year of this sort of venture, the Pentagon’s staff and coaches know that there’s a lot to do, including getting all of the uniforms — which are provided to each member of the teams free of charge — as well as flights and hotel arraignments for all of the traveling teams, there’s a lot to manage.
They’re prepared for that, but also know Bertram notes that failing could be “just as detrimental as it is positive.”
As of now, there are two slots open on the U16 fully funded national boys team. Invites were sent out to players early, but two slots were left open in case players performed well enough during the current season to earn an invitation to the team.
Currently, the roster is made up primarily of players from South Dakota, but two players are from out of state, including one North Dakota player who Bertram spoke very highly of. Once they gain more of a reputation, the hope is to expand throughout the upper Midwest, including Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska as well as the Dakotas. That will come later, though.
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The success of the Pentagon’s slate of college basketball games held at its facility has played an integral part of this becoming a possibility. Not only that, but as they continue to host games such as Iowa State-Colorado and Minnesota-Oklahoma State this season, recognition throughout the state and the region will continue to grow.
“As kids see bigger and bigger named teams play here, it makes them want to be more part of what’s happening here,” Bertram said. “When you look at the amount of great college teams that have played here from power conferences, that doesn’t happen anywhere else in South Dakota. It also lets the fans know, the kids know, the families know that this is no joke.”
One of those marquee teams that could be seen at the Pentagon is the near future is the Kansas Jayhawks. Head coach Bill Self visited the facility this past summer to discuss the possibility, though if the Jayhawks were to play on Heritage Court, it’s far more likely to be for a preseason exhibition game than them to give up a home game to do it.
Pentagon staffers hope to have at least two nationally televised games per season held at the facility as well as annual games featuring local programs South Dakota and South Dakota State.
Some former SDSU players will also act as coaches for these teams. In total, 40 coaches have agreed to take on some of these summer rosters and coach them, all of which have been involved in collegiate basketball in some capacity including at least one former student manager.
Despite the high number of players and coaches, every team will be coached similar principles to keep them constant as players move through the program. This allows all of their coaches to maintain order with the changing rosters and know that they will have certain knowledge of the game.
Beyond that, though, each coach has the freedom to teach from their own experiences.
“When we get together as a group, we might have 40 coaches from different college programs with 40 different college experiences,” said Bertram. “When we discuss those, the good and the bad, what I should’ve done and what I shouldn’t have done, you create a pretty cool concept of how you can help kids to be better prepared. It’s the power of having people who have been involved in so many different aspects of it and the way we work together so closely as a coaching staff, I think it allows us to add those values to the kids.”
Two pillars of the entire concept will be preached to every team, according to Bertram. The first is to play defense, the second is to share the ball, two basketball concepts that have been lost in the “it’s all about me” era of AAU basketball. Ignore those two pillars and they won’t play.
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Rosters for each of the teams will be molded around whoever is coaching them, not vice versa. This allows for each coach to coach a style they are most comfortable with, which should ease the transition for everybody.
Training camp for these teams will be held on the first weekend of April and the last tournament scheduled is set for July 25-26. The month of June will be an off period so that the players’ high school teams can train and play together. August also has no events scheduled for the teams to avoid burning them out on basketball.
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Though it’s just the first year of this process, Bertram says that this could just be the beginning for the Pentagon’s basketball academy and the expansion of basketball in South Dakota.
By allowing players to compete against some of the top players in the nation in front of the eyes of hundreds of college recruiters, the state should get more recognition and, in turn, create a better basketball environment for the area.
“For them, they’re going to be part of something that’s going to be very special as it continues to grow,” Bertram stated. “They’re going to be the ones to look back and say, ‘We’re the ones who started this.’ The concept to have a fully funded national team, that’s something that only happens in the big places. Our kids are going to walk in here and everything’s paid for for them. They just show up and play.”