Selecting Your Basketball Team
by Brian Williams
The Coaching Toolbox
Regardless of what level of basketball you coach, if you have to make cuts, it is tough on both the coach and the athlete. But, to paraphrase businessman Harvey Mackay: “It’s not the players that you don’t cut who make your season miserable, it is the players that you don’t cut and should have who make your season miserable.”
No matter how tough it is to cut someone, it is even worse for the team to keep someone who does not fit in and who is going to be unhappy with his or her role. It is better to get it over with at the beginning of the season, rather than battling with the player and possibly parents all season.
I am of the opinion, that in order to evaluate players, you need to see them in both drills and in 5 on 5 scrimmages. Even if you know someone is a cut, it protects you to be able to give them looks in both settings. Sometimes, you might be surprised by what you see. A player who looks good in drills might not look so good when it comes time to apply those drills to 5 on 5.
Making cuts should be done face to face rather than with a posted list or an announcement of who made the team. There is not doubt that those conversations are always difficult. But, I know that when I have interviewed for jobs and did not get them, I have always appreciated a phone call rather than reading on the Internet that someone else was hired. I feel that I owe the same courtesy, but in person, to players that we have to cut.
It is hard to know what to say and how to say it because each situation is different and each kid is going to react differently. I do think that it is important to choose your words wisely and not say something that the player can use against you or that is going to cause you to have to defend yourself in administrative and parent meetings. It boils down to that John Maxwell concept, we don’t want to poor gasoline on a fire when we should be pouring water. My purpose in talking to them face to face is to simply show them the respect that they deserve for having the courage to try out for the basketball team.
Basketball Coaching
Seattle Basketball
Brian,
I agree with everything you wrote here. When I went to the high school level the head coach posted the roster so everyone knew who was cut and who made the team. I thought that it was the way it was done at this school. When I worked with younger kids I talked to them face to face.
I was the Sophomore coach for 8 years before I became the Head Varsity coach. I handled things differently with the Sophomores than the Varsity Team. With the Sophomores I felt that it was my job to get 8 solid players ready for the Varsity team, 3 gaurds, 3 forwards and 2 Post players… IF I could do that every year we would always have a solid Varsity team. I kept 15 players so that meant I had to pick the other 7 carefully. I would look for size and athleticism first, guys that could grow and possibly be a Varsity player down the road… but most importantly, they had to be team guys. Especially the last 3, they had to be good kids, kids that were happy to be on the team and that I was happy to have around. This worked for me the majority of the time.
When I became the Varsity coach it was a little easier because we had a JV and Varsity team. (we had 3 other levels also, FrA – FrB and Sophs.) We kept 17-18 players and this was easy because the JV had a schedule of their own. While talent is always important…. we had to look at the character of the kids. We wanted kids in our program that we could be proud of and that they would play hard ALL the time. Again, the last few had to be kids that I wanted to be part of our program. Talent was secondary.
Here is an example of this. One year at the end of the season a sophomore player came into my office and closed the door. (always a sign of something serious) He had tears in his eyes and said, ” Coach, I just wanted to let you know that I am not coming out for the team next year.” I asked him why, his answer was, “In case you haven’t noticed I am about 5’1″……” I told him that I didn’t care about that, you have heart, you are a great kid and the type of person that I want the younger players in our program to look up to. He just shook his head, I guess he didn’t expect that reply from me. He did come out and he stayed with the program for the next two years.
A little side story regarding him, we were playing a JV game on Saturday morning, his junior year, (he looked like he was 13) and one of the other players was roughing him up pretty good. One of THEIR players went up to the kid and told him to knock it off…. let him alone and play the game. There are still GOOD KIDS out there. Things like this are the reason I loved to coach this great game.
Ken