They Never Pass

The old playground calling cry "they never pass me the ball." You hear it on every level. Someone always wants the ball more. Someone wants to shoot more. Someone wants to score more points. So, they think they need to get more "touches" during possessions. They want plays run for them. They want everyone screening for them so that they can get open and score more points. I mean girls love the star and the star is the leading scorer (sarcasm here) of course.

Most players don't realize that they can be the leading scorer and shoot a ridiculously high percentage if they do certain things. One example is setting screens. Most defenses focus on stopping the cutter and often times forget about the screener who will be open a lot if the player understands how to make a "second cut" to either the basket or to an open area for a jumper. Plus, if you are constantly screening for guys...your teammates are going to like you and it will probably take them awhile to figure out you are scoring a lot of points because you are doing the screening. It makes the team run very well.

Second way to get a lot of high percentage shots is to offensive rebound like crazy. I learned this important necessity at the prestigious "Five-Star Basketball Camp" in the summer before my junior year of high school. It is basically a college exposure camp with a lot of good teaching going on. Well during camps like that players want to score and more importantly shoot a lot. They want to get recognized. I, of course, would try to get open on the perimeter as I was a guard but then when a player took a shot I hit the boards hard and every time. I basically ended up dominating through offensive rebounding and made the camp all-star team (hidden brag). Colleges put me on their lists either through seeing my name on the all-star team at the camp or seeing my effort during the week. Either way I accomplished what every player wanted to do without needing screens or needing touches. I forced touches by outworking the other guys.

Find a way to get the job done without being selfish. I helped the team win by screening and offensive rebounding. I then got to shoot because generally I was near the basket after an offensive rebound. Find a way to help yourself by helping the team. Do not expect the team to help you become a star.

First Time

Tonight I saw something that I don't think I have ever seen in my life. Justin Martin of Lawrence North, who is verballed committed to Louisville, missed a dunk and his teammate Dominique Ferguson, who is verballed committed to Kentucky, tip dunked the miss. I think that is the first time I have ever seen that. The play was definitely interesting to see mainly because Ferguson pounded the dunk too.

Always something new to see in the game of basketball.

Sectional Time

Sectional time in Indiana is March Madness plus more insanity. It is the first round of playoff basketball and every team makes it no matter how bad their record is during the season. It was tainted a little bit by the move to class basketball about a decade ago, but it is still bedlam.

I will be making Arlington my hang out spot. They have some great teams including Lawrence North(home of Greg Oden and Eric Montross), North Central (home of Eric Gordon and Jason Gardner), Cathedral and Lawrence Central.

The first game in sectional 10 play was North Central Vs. Cathedral. The bad thing about a random draw sectional and overall tournament is that you have teams that could dominate other sectionals playing each other in the first game. It was a packed house with standing room only available by the tip. Both teams played with great intensity and it was a nail bitter until in the 4th quarter North Central created some separation.

Lawrence North has four players already committed to Louisville (one senior, one junior, and two sophomores)...that is something interesting. Coach Pitino is banking on one school an awful lot. A definite pipeline has been formed between the two schools though. Lawrence North hasn't made a deep run since Greg Oden was a senior when they were crowded the mythical national champs.

As they say in "Hoosiers", welcome to Indiana high school basketball.

Michigan Game

I had the pleasure of going to the Michigan/Purdue game last night in Ann Arbor. We had great seats thanks to Zack Novak who hooked us up with some tickets. The game was very good. Purdue's big man JaJuan Johnson got in foul trouble and it hurt Purdue a lot. DeShawn Simms dominated the inside and had a career high.

After the game, my friends and I were waiting for Novak to get out of the locker. I saw Bill Raftery finishing gathering his equipment from announcing the game. So, I decided to go shake his hand because I am a fan. He was very nice and even introduced himself when he saw I was waiting to talk to him. That is why there is a picture of him above.

I also shook hands with Manny Harris and DeShawn Simms while we were standing around talking to Zack. We did not stay too long though because it took a little bit over 4 hours to get up there and then a little bit under 4 hours to get back. Overall, it was a good trip.

Stanley Robinson

Some players are better in the pros than they are in college. One player that stands out in my mind is Brad Miller. He had a mediocre college career at Purdue, but he has had a solid NBA career even making the all-star team. Robbie Hummel is excelling more at Purdue than he did in high school. Players occasionally excel at a higher level when they didn't necessarily dominate at a lower level. Usually it is a player that has a growth spurt and is getting used to his size or something along those lines.

Stanley Robinson has a chance to be a good NBA player I believe. He is so athletic at 6'8. If he can play the perimeter or at least guard the wing players in the NBA he will find a spot on a roster for many years. He might be the most athletic player in the Big East and that would be saying something with players like Terrence Williams in the league.

Robinson is a great story about taking time away from basketball to get his life together. He went and worked at a sheet metal factory. That will open your eyes pretty quickly. Maturity in a player is an underrated characteristic that is important to winning teams...championship quality teams.

I hope he continues to do well and maybe he will make it in the NBA one day.

Zebra Time

I'm going to follow in the footsteps of Ed Hightower and Steve Welmer. I plan on working some basketball games as a referee. I just hope I can make the two legends proud. I plan on doing outrageous charge calls by running the length of the court then making the call as Hightower would do. Mr. Hightower makes every game more fun to watch just by his antics.

Seriously though, I just hope I am decent. I should be because I will put a good effort for getting into position and that's why most refs are bad...they don't get in position to see the play. I never get on a ref if he is working and trying. It also helps if they understand the rules well.

I'll report back after I do a few games.

Recruiting

Basketball recruiting is a weird thing. There is no science to it. Some abilities transfer from high school to the college level. Some abilities do not. Everyone is quick at the college level. All the players can jump. All the players are strong. Most of the players at the college know the game very well. They don't go for fakes easily. For most players the transition from high school to college is a hard one.

First thing most college coaches look at when recruiting a player is height. It doesn't matter the position. Coaches cannot teach height and it is something that is hard to overcome in a lot of situations on the basketball court. That is not to say if you are short than you can't make it at the higher levels. There are players in the NBA under 6 feet even if they are listed at a taller height. Height can be a very overrated thing if players do not have skills to go with their height. Lots of college coaches write off players because of their height and they end up haunting them by going to a rival school and dominating.

Quickness is usually the next thing. Lateral quickness is a key to perimeter defense. To be able to defend at the collegiate level players need to be very quick laterally. Teams will have a scouting report to attack a slow player off the dribble and they will do it all game. That can put others in jeopardy of picking up fouls while trying to help the slower player out. Slower players can make up for their lack of quickness by anticipating very well...being one step ahead of the action.

Next is shooting/skill set. If a player can flat out shoot the basketball then coaches will notice. Then it will come down to if the coach thinks the player will be able to get shots off in a short window to get it off. Slow releases do not work in college and that goes for any level of college. People underestimate the speed of the game at Division II and NAIA. Basketball is not a game built for slow people. The less athletic you are the more skilled you need to be. It's a simple rule.

Recruiting is a strange game. After the top 20-30 players in America for any class...the next 200-300 are very similar to each other in potential and skill level. College fans get wrapped up in so and so as the 5th best recruiting class coming in next year...they are going to be great. Well most of the time that doesn't work. Work ethic separates a lot of people after they get in school. Some are happy to be at that level. Some would rather party and hang out with girls. Some are focused and want to better themselves and want to excel. Do you know what player will lose focus after they arrive on campus? Usually not, that's why it is so tough to recruit well.

I'll write about recruiting more in the future.