Experience is better than non experience. Many times it trump's talent. Many cases it helps develop talent. Experienced teams reach their potential more often than inexperienced teams. Duke, with a hall of Fame coach and a steady stream of 5 stars had 13 years between outright conference championships.
One of my least favorite sayings I hear are " they aren't freshmen anymore". Well they damn sure aren't seniors. They aren't juniors either and I think next year will prove that ain't even sophomores.
How that matters now? A coach on staff told a friend of mine that kids today play on several AAU teams along with their school teams. They get individual coaching to develop individual skills. They try to bring those individual skills to every team.
I'm some ways this can put kids ahead of kids 30 years ago. Where it doesn't however is in how to mesh as a team. Especially on the defensive side in a team defense concept.
Man to man at this level doesn't mean guarding your guy one on one. It means guarding your guy plus ready to help on everyone else. It's essentially guarding one guy with 2+ and the rest of the other 4 guys with 3. The one remaining is the guy farthest away from a scoring position.. when done right the opponent feels we have 6 guys playing defense.
The intensity and discipline to play that kind of defense on every possession is new to most kids. This weekend we got 3 or 4 shot clock violations yet gave up umpteen easy buckets to an experienced TCU team skilled at the back cut, and the 45 degree cut. An old school RMK motion offense might score 90 on our current defense.
Our issues are both youth and a mind set that hasn't bought in to the importance of bringing this discipline to every possession. Since I'm 99% sure we are keeping the same coach then I'm ok with creating a roster of guys who will take pride in developing the best defense in college basketball. If that means losing some favored kids off this team then ...bye.
.02
One of my least favorite sayings I hear are " they aren't freshmen anymore". Well they damn sure aren't seniors. They aren't juniors either and I think next year will prove that ain't even sophomores.
How that matters now? A coach on staff told a friend of mine that kids today play on several AAU teams along with their school teams. They get individual coaching to develop individual skills. They try to bring those individual skills to every team.
I'm some ways this can put kids ahead of kids 30 years ago. Where it doesn't however is in how to mesh as a team. Especially on the defensive side in a team defense concept.
Man to man at this level doesn't mean guarding your guy one on one. It means guarding your guy plus ready to help on everyone else. It's essentially guarding one guy with 2+ and the rest of the other 4 guys with 3. The one remaining is the guy farthest away from a scoring position.. when done right the opponent feels we have 6 guys playing defense.
The intensity and discipline to play that kind of defense on every possession is new to most kids. This weekend we got 3 or 4 shot clock violations yet gave up umpteen easy buckets to an experienced TCU team skilled at the back cut, and the 45 degree cut. An old school RMK motion offense might score 90 on our current defense.
Our issues are both youth and a mind set that hasn't bought in to the importance of bringing this discipline to every possession. Since I'm 99% sure we are keeping the same coach then I'm ok with creating a roster of guys who will take pride in developing the best defense in college basketball. If that means losing some favored kids off this team then ...bye.
.02
