Four Problems with High School Players Today
I asked Coach Moseley if she had the power to stop an AAU game or some other game that she was watching at the high school level what she would stop it for. In other words, what drives her nuts. She ended up giving me four problems with high school players today.
Problem Off the Court
When players come out of the game and just put a towel over their heads. From a recruiting perspective, this sums up that a player is not a good teammate. A good teammate should give energy from the bench, not take it away. A good player understands that the team is playing on the floor and helps them in the smallest way from the bench. Coach Moseley also touched on the player and coach relationship. She said that kids just tend to think their coach wants them to score points. At UConn, the details went so much deeper than this and that is what she intends to build with players at Boston University.
Problems On the Court
Give it up
Coach Moseley believes in a simple rule. If someone is more open than you, give it up. That is why it probably is not surprising that she hates it when players try to go one-on-five. It is ugly basketball when girls just run into each other attacking on offense. There is no rhyme or reason to the timing of when they are attacking.
Don’t help out of the corner.
She also mentioned another scenario that I found enlightening. She said when players drive, she is used to preaching not to help off of an offensive player in the corner. They would rather give up a two than a three. Also, chances are the two can still be contested by the defender and the three will go uncontested. On the flip side, offensive players should be looking for opportunities to kick it to shooters when they get in the lane.
Get shots up individually.
One final note about something that irritates Coach Moseley is that players do not do enough on their own. They do not shoot enough, get game speed shots, nor shoot contested shots. At practice, they make sure that players make a certain number of shots before transitioning to something else. For players on their own, she is a big advocate for tracking how many you make instead of just how many shots you take. That way, the next time you play you are competing against your old score.
This is one of three articles with thoughts from Marisa Moseley. Here is what she said about coaching players with different roles and here is what she said about post defense and recruiting.
