Most of the recruiting these days in done through AAU and shoe sponsored events with multiple recruits and coaches in attendance. It is actually pretty easy to influence kids towards schools as these programs control most of the recruiting relationships. Furthermore, they have built a relationship of trust with recruits and families. The easiest of all is to steer a recruit away from a school.
The best advertising for an AAU program is for their players to have success in college, so it is not that AAU programs/coaches are influencing kids towards bad choices. That rarely happens. But for every recruit there are multiple schools that can be a good fit, and that is where the coaches influence has the biggest impact. Furthermore, playing for top programs is a great advertising for AAU programs. The same way that UK claims that they "send many kids to the NBA" or a HS claims that they "send many kids to Ivy league schools", the same way AAU programs use to their advantage their history of "sending kids to blue bloods and the top basketball programs." That will not change.
Having a relationship with MIF increases our chances of landing a recruit, but having a relationship does not mean exclusivity as many think. Many top programs have strong relationships with MIF as well, and reality is that MIF needs those top programs more than they need UI right now. That does not mean that their players ending up at UK, Duke, Kansas, etc. is a bad choice or against their will.
