April 50, 1945.

Sgt. GO. Fe Peshek,
Co. D, 38lst Inf., .
APO 96, c/o P.Me,
San Prancisso, Calif.

. Dear Sergeant Pechek:

I feel very apologetio in not answering your inquiry sooner. I have been
out of town much, speaking at these “grapefruit and lettuce leaf". banquets,
which we call basketball aftermaths of the season. These high sehools must
have an animated cartoon present. when they selebrate their victories, or at
least their moral victories, and I have been out almost every night for three
weeks on that tour. —

However, I am glad to tell you that in — times the basketball play
at the Denver A.A.U. tournament is high grade, and it is on a par with or
better than any basketbell played anywhere in the United States. This year,
however, I attended the tournament and out of thirty-odd teans there were
eight good teams, I would say, - no more. The fault of the A.A.U. is that.
they try to get a full bracket of 32 teams, and generally end up with 40.
Meny of tho early games, at least the first half of the week, are putrid.
Four top teams are seeded in the upper bracket and four in the lower bracket
and the rest of them are poor opponents.

The idea of the A.A.U. in doing this is that they get the money for a full
week's play. Three days would have been ample, maybe two. would have settled |
the argument, but their gate receipts would have been reduced seventy-five
per cent. I have always fought the policy of the A.A.U. in taking all the
money and giving the teams practically nothing. The A.A.U. does not own a
hurdle, a basketball goal, or anything else. ‘hey are a paper organisation
but they have the mechanism whereby these individual teams can meet for a
play-off, and naturally the boys being out of college end in being in an
organization that can play ina tournament papers else, they go for the
trip and the tournament.

I would answer you very Grant and say that any time the A.A.U. holds
@ tournament you see better basketball played there than anywhere else in
the sountry because the top teams go there. The A.A.U. tournament is the
same as the N.C.A.A. in college basketball. The top teams attend that
tournament. ‘The Invitation Tournament in New York City is nothing but the
sport writers tournament. The sport writers get together and collaborate