Basketball quite the family affair for Hoveydai

If you're a serious basketball player, you typically play AAU basketball in the off-season.

In other words, you join a travel team comprised of some of the best players in the area and you travel locally, regionally and sometimes even nationally to play against other top players.

This is the rule of thumb in high school basketball.

Then again, rules were made to be broken.

Vernon Hills point guard Riaz Hoveydai has developed into one of the best players in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division and he has never played AAU basketball.

Not a single second.

And he's a senior.

But make no mistake, Hoveydai is serious about basketball, all right. He's just gone about showing it in a much different way than we're used to these days.

When it came time to choose which AAU program to join, Hoveydai chose his family instead. It's a decision he's happy with every time he steps on the court.

Hoveydai is averaging about 13 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game in leading Vernon Hills to a 10-6 overall record and a 4-1 mark in the NSC Prairie that is good for second place.

Just last weekend, Hoveydai scored a career-high 24 points in a victory over Wauconda in which he did it all. He scored on drives to the basket, midrange jumpers and 3-pointers.

If Hoveydai did have AAU coaches, they would have been proud.

"There are a lot of AAU coaches who are good coaches and have helped a lot of people become great basketball players," Hoveydai said. "But everyone has their own preferences and I just thought I would benefit more from working out on my own and with my family."

The Hoveydai family is a basketball family from top to bottom.

Said (pronounced Sa-eed), Hoveydai's father, grew up in Iran, where basketball isn't exactly the national pastime but opportunities to play were plentiful enough to get him hooked.

When Said moved to America, he met a woman in school named Hermien and eventually married her - perhaps partly for her extracurricular interests.

Hermien grew up in Kuwait and was a basketball junkie herself. She played all kinds of basketball there.

"At first, I didn't believe my mom when she said she used to play basketball," Hoveydai said. "But then she showed me all these pictures of her playing, and she's got these retro uniforms on and everything. It's pretty cool. She loved playing basketball."

The gene pool stayed true to form.

Said and Hermien had three sons who all love basketball just as much as them, maybe more. Riaz, the middle child, is flanked by older brother Ramez, 22, and younger brother Darren, a freshman at Vernon Hills.

Both of Riaz's brothers play basketball. Ramez played for two years at Vernon Hills and Darren got moved up to the sophomore team this year.

The three boys and their father put each other through some of the most intense and grueling basketball workouts imaginable. During the summer, their sessions occur daily.

"We do everything, drills with lots of repetition, shooting, fundamental work, then we'll play games like 21 or 1-on-1," Hoveydai said. "We'll go outside and play at home, or we'll go to the gym. We'll play for hours. It's pretty fun, but I know it's helped me. It's a really good workout."

And perhaps as good as any AAU workout.

Ramez, who played point guard early in his high school career and has helped Riaz with his technique and form, can vouch for the intensity of his little brother's workouts.

"Riaz is a workhorse," said Ramez, who recently graduated from UIC and is now studying for the MCAT test so that he can be admitted to medical school. "He's always in the gym, and we just try to help. His approach has always been to just put the time in. He wasn't concerned with where he put the time in, just that he did."

Hoveydai was, however, concerned about whom he put the time in with.

Knowing that he would still get a good workout in with his family, he became convinced that it was a no-brainer to bypass the AAU route. Doing so has given him so much more time to spend with his father and brothers.

And that, more than anything, has been the biggest benefit to his workouts.

"I see a lot of my friends who don't spend much time with their siblings or parents," Hoveydai said. "But over at my house, the three brothers in particular are always hanging out, always interacting. We just feel comfortable with each other. We're more friends than brothers and I think sports has brought a huge connection.

"The time we spend together (in the gym) is a huge opportunity for a lot of bonding between us and our father."

And that's something that an AAU experience probably couldn't offer.

"There were times I wondered if I had played AAU if I would be a better player," Hoveydai said. "But I guess doing it wouldn't have made me the person I am today because maybe I'd be more committed to that and not so much to my family."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com