While walking through a crowded gymnasium in Orlando, Fla., a few days ago, everywhere Tom Droney and Nate Perry looked, they recognized a college head coach, many from the Division I level.

They would turn to their left and see Kentucky's John Calipari and Kansas' Bill Self. They'd glance to the right and spot Pitt's Jamie Dixon and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. And if they didn't watch where they were going, they might bump into North Carolina's Roy Williams.

Droney and Perry are two of the top high school senior basketball players in the WPIAL, and, along with their teammates, have been playing against some big-time talent and in front of some even more revered coaches this summer while with the Basketball Stars of America AAU program.

Headed by former NBA and college assistant Daryn Freedman, who was recently named the head coach at Kiski School in Saltsburg, Basketball Stars of America has quickly become the class team on the local AAU scene in just two years. The under-17 squad is star-studded.

"Coach Freedman took the best players from the area and put them on this team," said Perry, a senior at Hempfield Area High School and an Appalachian State recruit. "We have the best players in the WPIAL."

Outside of Chartiers Valley's T.J. McConnell and possibly a couple others, Perry is right in regard to Basketball Stars of America's talent.

In addition to Perry and Sewickley Academy's Droney, a Davidson recruit, the team boasts Mt. Lebanon's Evan Pierce, Deion Turman and Grant Latus; Hampton's Bill Luther and Tim Donegan; Shady Side Academy's Jerome Barnes; Sewickley Academy's Peter Schramm, and Kiski School's Barry Smith, who previously played at Penn Hills.

Basketball Stars of America held its own two weeks ago in Orlando playing in the Super Showcase and the AAU Nationals. The team didn't advance as far as Freedman would have liked, but did put some scares into a few elite squads.

At the Super Showcase, Basketball Stars dropped a 67-62 decision to eventual finalist St. Louis Eagles 16s. That game provided a showdown between Droney and St. Louis' Bradley Beal, ranked by Rivals.com as the nation's No. 1 shooting guard in the class of 2011. Droney said he scored 26 points in the game, while limiting Beal to 10.

At the AAU Nationals in Orlando last month, the Basketball Stars, after finishing in third place in pool play, went on a roll, winning their final eight games to capture the Classic Bracket (a consolation bracket) championship.

They defeated the Shockaz from Louisiana by three points in the championship game. Along the way, Basketball Stars scored a big victory against the Baltimore Stars and Memphis recruit Will Barton, ranked by Rivals.com as the nation's No. 2 shooting guard in the 2010 class. Perry scored 29 points in the game.

In pool play earlier in the tournament, the Basketball Stars played the highly regarded Boo Williams team from Virginia, which had players headed to North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest. Basketball Stars hung tough before losing by 15.

"We battled. We beat some of the best teams in the country, and everybody played very well," Freedman said. "It showed people that Pittsburgh basketball is really good."

It's that ambition that has Freedman and his staff working hard to achieve.

Basketball talent locally hit a spike the middle part of the decade with the likes of DeJuan Blair, D.J. Kennedy, Herb Pope and Terrelle Pyror strutting the courts for the Pittsburgh JOTS. That organization has since fallen off, however, leaving the door open for another program to step to the forefront.

Enter Freedman, who, after getting married in August of 2007, decided to leave his post as an assistant at Duquesne University two weeks later. Hoping to take a break from the hectic, always-on-the-go life of a college assistant, Freedman chose to go another route. He had previous experience coaching AAU teams, so forming his own program in hopes of improving and showcasing Western Pennsylvania's talented players seemed like a good idea.

"There wasn't any developmental programs here, but we've been able to help change that," Freedman said. "Usually you'd have one or two Pittsburgh kids getting Division I interest, but now we're in double figures and I expect it to grow."

Development is a big reason why. A number of AAU programs are all about traveling to tournaments and playing games, while spending little time on fundamentals. Basketball Stars is among the exceptions.

"AAU-wise, it's the best team I've been a part of," said Droney, who lives in Green Tree and helped Sewickley Academy win the WPIAL Class A title this past season. "We do a lot of skill work in practice. [Freedman's] a really good coach. He's a great guy who knows what he's doing."

And, as Freedman, his staff and players have wasted little time in showing, the local basketball resurgence continues to be on the upswing.