Thorpe & Miss Basketball

#1 posting 5.1.2006

NUMBER 1
HAWAII
Iolani is still the team to beat as Hawaii begins its playdowns starting this weekend. Here is the Honolulu Star Bulletin with the statewide top ten, stats and a story on Iolani's Defense. http://starbulletin.com/2006/05/01/sports/story03.html

THORPE ON A SOAP BOX
Today Thorpe takes on the idea of Miss Basketball

I was not surprised by the Minnesota Miss Basketball decision. Jenna Smith is a Division1 player that had a great high school career and was well deserving. I think all the candidates were excellent.

Being on such a committee is a difficult job and some outstanding players are always going to be left off and cause hard feelings. I can think of some this year that could have been included. However, it’s easy when you don’t have to make the decisions.

What is a Miss Basketball candidate???? Everyone has opinions so will give me mine.
1. An outstanding basketball player.
2. A good student
3. A good role model for younger players (work ethic, shows respect for adults, handles adversity in an appropriate way).
4. Team player(Makes others look better because of her presence on the court). I am sure their are other categories that could be included .
There are many other qualities besides just basketball that contribute to success.

During the years I coached it seemed to be that during crunch time it was the players that were not necessarily outstanding talent but had characteristics of reasons 2-4 that would step up. The good citizens would be there. The players who ran up big stats against easy teams but were marginal students, citizens and lacked discipline in the classroom and on the court would often disappear. I smile when I think back of all the different types of kids I coached. I am not saying I liked one type of kid over another. However, I do think that their may be some truth to my hypothesis.

Come to think of it, I hit the ball great on the driving range and when I get in a big scramble and it’s money time I have disappeared. Oh well, I guess that tells me what category I am in.

Have a good week.
Dave Thorpe

Next up: I will put up an explanation on the numbers I use later tonight and make it a link so any time you can go check out what pp100 or floor % or what a possession is.