Thorpe & Cutting; Lynx Offensive Analysis

#1 posting 6.12.2006
Your Daily Dose of Girls Basketball News & Information

THORPE ON A SOAP BOX--The Cut Edition

Kevin, it’s raining today in the Sunshine State. Our softball game will probably be cancelled. We need the rain.

The question was. Did you cut? How did you handle cuts?

Again, I will give my opinions from my perspective. I am sure every coach has different ways of handling such a tough assignment. I always thought cutting kids was probably one the toughest jobs a coach had to deal with. Most kids, whether they could play or not, had dreams of playing on varsity and in the State Tournament. When you cut, you take away that dream. Its difficult for everyone. Yes, I did cut. We would only spend 3 days on tryouts and choose our team. I thought that was enough time for our coaches to make good decisions. Any longer would just prolong the agony for everyone. We had a variety of drills, as well as live play under game conditions and would chart each player. We also would do an athletic assessment that would take into considerations such as speed, ups, strength, etc. We took it seriously and think we did a good job.

Did we make mistakes over the years. I am sure we did. However, if we did they were probably small ones. I don’t think we missed any All Americans.

I know there are athletic directors and some coaches that take pride in saying that they do not cut any player. That’s fine for intramural programs. If you try and keep 3 or 4 teams at each level on a high school team no one is happy. If you try to please everyone, you don’t please anyone. I looked at all those kids sitting on the bench in schools that didn’t cut. Are they really doing what's best for kids? In many ways they are already cut because they are getting no clock.
Second, they could use those many months in another sport or activities that they could make better use of their time. Lets face it. Kids want to play. If athletic directors want to give an opportunity to everyone consider taking money spent on all their workshops and administrative breakfasts and put it into a quality intramural program that is well organized and would give every kid that wants to play an opportunity. Varsity athletics is not the right fit for everyone. I also tried not to keep seniors that were not going to get playing time. I know a lot of you are saying, “What about loyalty?” I think cutting them is best for the senior. How many seniors want to be on a team for 4 or 5 months and get little clock? How many seniors, with no future years to look forward to, want to take those long bus rides in December, sit on the bench and give up all the other events that they look forward to their senior year? Also, from my experience, a senior that isn’t playing is not good for team chemistry. It’s usually a poor situation for the senior, coaches, other players and everyone involved.

I also don’t think seniors should be playing on JV. JV should be for underclassmen to improve their skills and gain experience for that time when they can be part of Varsity.

Well, any Thorpe on a soapbox wouldn’t be complete without a boring Thorpe flashback. Sorry, but here it goes. I was invited to a wedding of a former player on mine. She was a great kid and if my senior memory is working I think an Athena award winner a few years back. She was such a great kid with a positive attitude. I kept her as a senior even though she didn’t get much clock. If I remember my assistants leaned on me and I caved in and kept her. It’s always convenient to use your assistants as scapegoats. She said years later that it would have been better if I would have cut her. If this great positive kid had difficulty as a senior sitting on the bench I should have learned something.

Finally, I would not sit down and talk to each kid the day they were cut. I know this is the general procedure but I don’t believe in it. As a team we talked about how they wanted it handled. The general consensus was we would set up appointments for those kids or parents that want to meet and go over results in the days that follow. Even though sitting down immediately after the cut is popular and required by many athletic programs I don’t believe in it.

First, a kid is very emotional immediately after the cut. They need time to go home and evaluate and think things over. If you meet with them 10 minutes after the cut you need to go over once again why they are not good enough to be on the team. They get beat up again when they are at a very emotional and irrational time. They are not ready to deal with the facts. You probably burn bridges that may last forever. Over the years some kids would meet with me in the days to follow and some would not. If the team would have decided to meet immediately after I probably would have honored their requests.

Well, this is a few of the things I did during cuts. I am sure this is a difficult situation for all coaches . Each coach must find a system that he or she is comfortable with and fits into their individual philosophy for their program.

Dave Thorpe

Got a question for Thorpe. Email me at the profile and I will see he will receive it. He will pick a question from those submitted.

Can't get enough of Thorpe? Now get Thorpe on a Soap Box by the Case

COACHING OPENINGS

SIGNINGS
MN
Molly Erdman, Nicollet will be headed to Bethany Lutheran in Mankato
VERBALS

AAU Tournament Next Weekend
MN
Bloomington Jefferson is the site for next week's event. Here is the HS Blue schedule This level has six pools of three each. Teams from Iowa, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas are in this division.
Robbinsdale Cooper hosts the next level HS Red
Jefferson has the 17/19 division
Jefferson also has the 15 Blues
Cooper has the 15Reds
Cooper also has the 14s

PICK UPS
NC Heat will be adding to their roster for the AAU Nationals. They are picking up
Courtney Krantz, Visitation
Katya Leick, Park-Cottage Grove
Carly Rothfuz, Eden Prairie
Mandy Poke, Richfield
NC Heat's Tayler Hill is receiving tons of mail from colleges and camps all wanting the Mpls South soph to be to think about them. Here is story on how Hill is spending the summer from the St. Paul Pioneer Press

AAU ROSTERS

ALL STAR GAME
SD/WY
The South Dakota All Stars will take on Wyoming tonight in Gillette, WY at 6 pm. Spearfish, SD is the site Tuesday night. Here is more from the Rapid City Journal

NEW FEATURE
CALENDAR

A LOOK AT THE LYNX (Part 2--Offense)
NUMBERS EXPLAINED
player, points, possessions, pp100, floor %
MINNESOTA
STARTERS
Amber Jacobs 2, 9, 22.2, .111
Simone Augustus 19, 18, 105.6, .564
Krista Mann 5, 6, 83.3, .333
Timika Williams 10, 9, 105.6, .556
Nicole Ohlde 16, 10, 160.0, .800
BENCH
Svetlana Abrosimova 8, 6, 133.3, .667
Meghan Duffy 7, 8, 87.5, .375
Adrian Williams 8, 9, 88.9, .444
Tynesha Lewis, no possessions
Shona Thorburn, no possessions
Vanessa Hayden, no possessions

HOUSTON
STARTERS
Dawn Staley 3, 4, 75.0, .250
Dominique Canty 10, 14, 71.4, .357
Roneeka Hodges 2, 9, 22.2, .111
Tina Thompson 19, 16, 118.8, .563
Michelle Snow 16, 16, 100.0, .500
BENCH
Anastasia Kostaki 2, 2, 100.0, .500
Tamecka Dixon 6, 9, 66.7, .333
Sancho Lyttle 2, 3, 66.7, .333
Tari Phillips 2, 4, 50.0, .250

BY THE NUMBERS
Minnesota 75, 75, 100.0, .493
Houston 62, 76, 81.6, .395

MN racked up 14 scoring possessions in the 3rd quarter, as many as they had the entire first half. The put together six straight scoring possessions to finish the 3rd and then added two more to start the 4th for an eight possession scoring string. They outscored Houston 17-5 during the stretch. Ohlde scored all her points in the 1st & 3rd quarters.
A comparision from last week shows that Canty and Staley's numbers dropped hard. Canty had 133.3 and .778 floor %; Staley 144.4 & .667. That is where the Comets were broken this week.

Next up: later today with the 43 Hoops Lady Elite vs Bluejackets game at the Midtown Y