Opening Day Special #3: How to Select a Team

#7 posting 11.12.2007
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OPENING DAY SPECIAL #3
First I want to thank the guest bloggers for their postings. Now I will provide some insights into

HOW TO SELECT A TEAM
I used to have great responsibilities at the Osseo tryouts. We would run all sorts of tests and evaluations on the players that showed up. If you have only a handful of kids that show up your decisions will be to put kids on certain teams. If you have a huge quantity of players your decisions will inevitable involve cuts. Here are some of the things we did back in the day---

First we looked at the athlete and ran a battery of tests. How high can they jump, lateral quickness, line touches, and more. All very interesting and useful-- especially over time. We could say Mary of 1998 is faster that Sally of 1993. The one test that I felt was the best at determining the best athlete is the 400--once around the track. We never ran the mile. The top players and starters would have the top scores in the 400 year after year with maybe two exceptions.

Second we looked at individual skills. The best test for ball handling was the weak hand dribble full court and back. You won't believe how many times that simple drill eliminated players. We ran more around cones, change hands, change directions type of things but by far and away the straight line weak hand separated the wheat from the chaff. Obviously bigger kids weren't going to be all that amazing, but the knew it was coming.

Another skill set we used was based on the Basketball Decathlon by Dick DeVenzio. He used one minute, we used 30 seconds in our tests. We also had another player report the score. If you let the player report they will add a basket or two to the margin. Sometimes we would spot check to make sure everyone knew how to count. Here are the 10 shooting drills that separated the Women from the girls
1. Strong Hand Lay ups
2. Weak Hand Lay ups (no touching with the strong hand at all at any time)
3. Mikans
4. Cross Lane shots (under the block--back and forth across the lane)
5. Banks (off the glass only from the above the block on the lane)
6. Dribble in lay ups (starting at the right elbow)
7. Hustle Lay ups (Start under and shoot, then run and touch the free throw line, find the ball and shoot & touch the line.
8. Elbow shots (shooting off the dribble around a cone at the free throw elbow--dribble with the right hand around to the right elbow, left hand to the left elbow. player needs to rebound own ball.
9. Rapid fire 15. player at the free throw line with two rebounders, one hander, one counter and two balls.
10. Rapid fire 21. player behind the 3 point line. Same format as 15.
These drills definitely showed who could shoot and who could score. But sometimes a player would just focus on this drill and neglect becoming a better athlete. Sometimes the player would be a great H-O-R-S-E player but couldn't make it in a game. That is when the next set come in.

Next up was my favorite part---the scrimmage situation. We never did the 5-5 scrimmage situation, but loved the 3-3 full court. We would work it so we divided teams up (no stacking the teams) most of the time it was a random draw. We would take two teams down to a basket and a coach would bang the ball off the rim or, in the rare occasion, make it. Whatever team got the ball raced to the other end of the court. If team A got the first board ran down and missed AND they got the offensive rebound, they had to come back to basket 1. There were no put backs, only one crack at a basket. We could see how players filled the lanes (or crowded them) who can score on the move. What kind of full court defense they applied. It was all quite entertaining. We would only go about 1:00 to 1:30 on this for each contest. Once a kid asked why we didn't play 5-5. My response "Right now you are hiding in 3 on 3. You will absolutely disappear in 5 on 5." If a kid is invisible in 3-3 they should think of another activity. We taped those and broke it down later.

We also did 3-3 half court------without dribbling. This would throw the best kids off their game. It gave us a chance to see who can move, who can screen, and who can cut. This was never pretty as players tend to rely on the dribble WAAAAAY too much.

How did we evaluate the intangibles? A great way is the question "Pit Bull or Poodle?" We would ask players if they would rather be bit by a pit bull or a poodle. They obviously preferred the poodle. The coaching staff would go through the players after practice and look at each kid and answer the question. Sometimes a coach would disagree with the others. We didn't have categories for shades of gray---no Labradoodles here. Pit bulls are hard nosed, tough minded, scrappers. They get on the floor, take some pride in their defense, make life miserable for the opposition (not their own coaches). they have heart. The pit bulls might have poor scores in the decathlon, but were true warriors. Some decathlon winners were at heart poodles and some never quite could grasp why they didn't start or play. Some were even Trembling Chihuahuas. Eliminate these players. The more pit bulls the better your team. It might not be artistic, but you will be tough to beat.

We also had players rank and rate each other. I found it amusing to see "friends" just job each other in the rankings. This was a good indicator of team chemistry, what was on their minds, and who had no grasp of reality.

All these factors went into team selection. Get this right and the trajectory of your season can be the moon. Get it wrong and you will be fighting battles all year. Don't pick players that you feel you owe something too. Don't look for reasons to play a kid. You have to have a cold eye and a single minded focus on what is best for winning. Now if you plan on running an intramural team than everyone can play and you can all get ice cream later. But, from my experience it takes about seven or at most eight players to get the job done at the high school level. Anything more than that and it means you don't have a solid five. You are giving away broken presents if you are playing more. It is better to decided on five rather than keep kids in limbo.
It is a no brainer to pick the athlete, that has individual skill, knows the game, is a pit bull and that everyone loves. It takes a coach to find the others. We never looked at class rings when making our picks.
Go with athletes that are pit bulls when in doubt. There Skill will improve as the season rolls along. I don't think a player with great individual skill will become that much better an athlete, or have a personality change during the course of the year.

Good luck to all involved in the upcoming season. I am eager to smell the popcorn, hear the bands, and see and write about the epic struggles about to unfold on the court. Fasten your seat belts. The ride begins now.

Next up: A verbal