Bob Starkey, women’s basketball coach at LSU has an excellent blog. I came across an interesting piece he posted today written by ESPN’s Jay Bilas. The article goes into detail as to what is wrong with American basketball players. He also points out ways to make it better, what players should work on and of course the ever famous line of, ‘European players are passing Americans in the fundamentals category‘. This discussion gets tired…
I sat in the Shoemaker Center on the campus of the University of Cincinnati and watched many hours of AAU basketball. And what I saw may surprise Mr. Bilas and all the other pundits. Ladies and gentlemen, American basketball at the grassroots level is fine.
I saw:
Players sharing the ball.
Teams running great sets on offense.
Tough, hard nosed man-to-man defense.
Solid outside shooting. I watched one kid from one of the Florida teams knock down jumpers from the stands!
This talk of “American players need to learn how to play” needs to end. Everyone keeps writing and talking about this garbage. I’ll tell you what a problem is that no one seems to address; the parents screaming from the stands at the officials. To me, that is worse than anything reporters write about the players.
I watched All-Ohio Red 15 and Under team run great, textbook fastbreaks . I watched them move the ball side-to-side on the perimeter without dribbling until they got an open look; and I watched them listen to their coach every time he called one of them over for instructions.
I watched the Michigan Mustangs, led by Keith Appling, an amazing point guard out of Detroit, Michigan. Appling is a rising senior and then will move on to play his college basketball for fine coach in Tom Izzo at Michigan State. Appling scored 49 points in the Michigan High School State championship game back in March. I was in attendance that night and when Appling came out of the game when the game was decided late, the entire SRO crowd gave him a standing ovation.
For two nights in Cincinnati I watched him push the ball up the floor, hit the open man and take it to the rim for a score. I watched the wing players get out wide and run the floor hard and look for the kick-ahead pass. I also watched the Mustangs big men run the floor, post up and utilize good footwork for buckets in the paint. On one particular play, John Horford, younger brother of Al of the Atlanta Hawks caught the ball on the right block, take his time and after feeling for his defender, made a gorgeous spin move to the baseline and throw one down.
Chalk one up for footwork in the post.
Everyone has a solution, everyone is great at complaining, but I think it’s about time these so-called experts of grassroots basketball take a closer look and watch games. American kids can play basketball the right way. Don’t believe me? How about Tyler Hansbrough, Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Ty Lawson, Johnny Flynn are just a few of the American players who were drafted last month and play the right way. Ricky Rubio, the young man from Spain that everyone was calling the next Pete Maravich pushes the ball on the fastbreak and throws a behind the back pass to a teammate and he is praised. An American player does that and they call it showboating, he’s too cocky.
I wish people would put all the garbage talk about American players this and international players that, to rest. Let’s just play ball and not worry about where someone is from. But as an American basketball coach, when someone puts down my players, I feel the need to come to their defense.
-Coach Finamore
Hoops135@hotmail.com
Tags: basketball, College, ESPN, Fundamentals, LSU, NBA Draft, Sports, USA Basketball
