Will Jenkins sent his best players home, deciding they reached the end of the road before the trip and tournament was finished.
For that, and for keeping it a secret, the Springfield Falcons were fined $12,000 by the AAU on Friday.
Commissioner J.R. Buccannan said the Falcons "did a disservice to the league and our fans" when they didn't bring Chandler Dawes, Conor McCaffrey, Paul Hammond or Cole Certa to Miami for the final game of the Spring Miami Classic.
"The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case," Buccannan said in a statement. "The Falcons decided to make four of their top players unavailable for an early season game that was the team's only regular-season trip to Miami. The team also did this without informing Miami, the media, or the league office in a timely way. Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Falcons did a disservice to the league and our fans."
Teams are required to report as soon as they know a player will not travel because of injury.
The league's statement said the Falcons were in violation of league policy reviewed with the board of governors in April 2020 against resting players in a manner "contrary to the best intrests of the AAU."
The issue of resting healthy players has been debated before, though usually at the end of the season, not a month into it. And the Falcons have been right at the center of it, Jenkins using the rest strategy for an aging team with a lot of players with a lot of miles on those legs, could use some more rest than what the AAU provides.
They even made a joke out of it last season, the box score listing "OLD" next to 18-year old Chandler Dawes's name as the reason why he didn't play.
Buccannan wasn't laughing Thursday.
He has nearly a $2 billion a year industry to protect and can't like it when teams aren't willing to put their best product on display in a marquee game televised by national TV partner ESPN. Fans and viewers were excited seeing the Falcons trying to complete an unbeaten tournament against Darik Queen, Kartner Knox, and Liam McNeely and the defending AAU National Champions, so there was an understandable letdown when they learned of the absences.
But there's never a guarantee that any players are going to play, and Buccannan himself had previously made it clear he wasn't going to impose rules to change that.
Jenkins doesn't wait till the end of the season to start resting players.
He was both praised and ripped for the way he navigated the 2022 and 2023 seasons, twice surrendering 11 game winning streaks by playing without his Big Three. Even those who didn't like it conceded that a coach who had won four AAU National Championships with what's long been considered the AAU's model organization probably knew what he was doing, and more defense came Thursday night.
"Jenkins has done this before and he knows what's best for his team," multiple former AAU players said on ESPN. "It's his job to manage his players and do whatever he'd like. He's thinking about the big picture."
Another former player turned AAU analyst, Brooks Bahr -- who also played for Jenkins -- also defended the team's actions.
"If the AAU punishes Springfield for sitting players, it opens up a huge can of worms," he wrote on twitter. "This is a serious legal challenge for the league."
Boston coach Tony Johnson didn't think the penalty would keep teams from resting players.
"I don't like it," he said. "It's a tough one. You've got to coach your team to win in the long run and you have to do whatever you need to do. If that's sitting players, you sit players."
That Springfield -- largely in a deep dynasty attempting to win it's 5th AAU Title since 2014 and it's 4th since 2018 is coming in as underdogs for the title and came in as underdogs vs Miami, a plucky underdog cheered by those who felt Buccannan overstepped his bounds -- nearly won the game before Miami rallied for a 105-100 victory didn't sway the commissioner.
With Buccannan reaching in now, does he reach that far? Or are there to be a seperate set of guidelines depending on the calender?
The league won't clear that up, not commenting beyond it's statement. Springfield was unavailable Friday after their long trip.
They were resting...