Anyways, read for yourself:
But it wasn't always this way. "I've been involved in Division I basketball for 31 years now, and when I first started, we were worried about seniors in high school and that was it," he says.
"Now there's the early signing period. It went to juniors, then sophomores -- we've even had a commitment from a freshman in the last four years, so everything's accelerated."
No school wants to lose out on recruits. "I'm not sure it's good, but it is there," Weber says. "If you don't do it, it's going to hurt you."
The popularity of the NCAA tournament games, he says, has parents pushing their children into basketball. "They see their sons or daughters being the next superstars."
Those parents may post videos on YouTube touting "The Next Kobe Bryant," but at 10 or 11, how much can you really tell about a child's potential?
"You don't know if they're going to grow -- if they're going to mature," Weber says. And, he adds, college coaches don't know if the child will one day be able to compete academically as a student athlete.
"More and more people are trying to create or make their child to be this elite person that maybe they aren't -- they're not ready to be," he says.
And that pressure could burn kids out early, Weber warns.
"The biggest thing is, the older you get, the more basketball becomes a job," he says. "If they don't play it for the love of the game, I think it's going to be something that backfires and they're never going to make the progress they should make."
By the way, a great book on the topic is Game on: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children by Tom Farray.
