My observations from another week of basketball, and another week of retirement…
Simple Text to Coach- Great story that I heard about Michigan women’s basketball. They have a great sophomore class. Last year as freshmen, when they lost in the NCAA tourney, the question was whether they would come back or enter the Portal. When the head coach sat down in the front of the bus after the game, she immediately received a text. The text was from one of the freshmen sitting in the back of the bus, “We want you to know, we are all in and will back.” I wish there were more stories like this.
Flag Football & Wrestling- I read an article that cited stats that showed flag football and wrestling were the fastest growing girls sports in high schools in America. They went onto claim two major reasons for this:
1) Too many sports like softball and basketball require kids to start early and do expensive travel teams. Then they get to HS age and they find they are not able to make the team or play. Right now, flag football and wrestling provide an option for the “beginner” at a HS level.
2) Many females like a sport that provides an opportunity to be physical.
Looking for Cinderella- Maybe only Virginia in WBB seems to be a Cinderella in either the men’s or women’s tourney. And in terms of non-Power 4 teams- there are no Power 4 teams. I miss the old days when Jacksonville and Artis Gilmore advanced, or when Indiana State made it to the Final Four.
The problem is that if a mid-major gets a great player, they can’t afford the price to keep them. With unlimited transfers available to players, the Power 4 teams just keep accumulating all the talent. The rules will not change because the rules are made by the Power 4 teams, and they won’t change what is to their advantage.
Rooting Against- It is healthy in all sports if there is some equity and competitive balance. Baseball is messed up with lack of control of team payrolls. It is not healthy for the women’s game to have teams winning by 30-40 points in the tourney.
I am rooting against South Carolina Women, UConn Women, and Duke Men, and UConn Men. Nothing in particular against any of these teams, I just think it is good for college basketball to have some new champions.
Tulsa in NIT- I had a fabulous week in Tulsa watching three NIT games, and not to mention watching their entire season. I am headed to Indy to watch the NIT semi-finals.
Coach Eric Konkel is an offensive genius. It is fascinating to watch actions and counters that he builds into their offense. They will run a stagger into a zoom action, and just when you see it coming, it turns into a backdoor cut or another option. Great stuff!!
The Big AAU Deception- Too many AAU coaches convince parents and players they have to play to get a D1 scholarship. The problem is that the player is not D1 and too many AAU programs have never had one of their players get a big-time D1 scholarship.
You might enjoy reading this post on AAU programs.
MaxPreps is Coming- MaxPreps has been used as a power ranking service for high school. More and more states are going to it for seeding purposes for the post season. It appears the IHSA may do this as early as next year. The concept of eliminating coaches doing the seeding, and trying to manipulate the voting makes sense. Also, too many HS coaches don’t do their homework for the seeding.
The formula is a combination of the team’s record, the team’s opponent’s records, and the opponent’s opponent’s record. Teams will be better off come seeding time to have played a competitive schedule.
A great example last year was the Metamora girls basketball team. They were often ranked in the top 10 in 3A, even though they may have had records at different times of 10-6, 14-8, etc. The reason they were ranked in top ten was they had played teams like Galesburg, Washington, Morton, and other good teams.
Conversely, if a team has 2-3 really bad teams in their conference, it may drop their ranking even if they are winning those games.
The major adjustment MaxPreps will need to make is accounting for whether teams are 1A, 2A, 3A, or 4A. Right now playing a 14-0 1A team is considered the same as playing 4A Loyola.
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