Romney Wordsworth

They were doubling Max much of the second half, so what? You still get him the ball. If he’s doubled, that means you have 3 guarding 4 on the rest of the court. It creates opportunity.

McKinnon had 29 and was white hot in the second half. He didn’t take a shot the last 4 times down the court. That tells you all you need to know about coaching.

3 possessions in a row and the hottest scorer on the court doesn’t get a touch. SMH.

We’ll be out of players soon.

Miller is lost on defense

Atta Boy Tamba

Death, taxes, a CMM team with a 5 minute scoring drought

Here comes the avalanche

I’ve seen 1A high school teams shoot better than we do.

I'm an assistant basketball coach at the high school level and also head coach of the JV team (freshmen & sophomores). Prior to this position, I coached middle school for a decade and in rec/developmental leagues prior to that.

Your son is 10, so I believe that would make him a 4th or 5th grader. By this age he should have at least the base skills: dribbling (even if it is only with his dominant hand), passing (chest, bounce, overhead), an understanding of the pivot foot, triple threat, and basic shooting mechanics. If he can't at a minimum do these things, he has no business being on the court, even at the 4th/5th grade level. These are all skills that can be acquired at home, in the driveway on a $150 Wal-mart goal, with a little guidance. If he wants playing time, he doesn't have to be Steph Curry at this age, but he does have to be competent enough that he is not a liability. Putting a kid on the court with no basic skills is a slap in the face to the kids that do work hard and that have acquired and honed those basic skills. It also causes resentment toward the kid that is the liability.

I had a player once in a 10 year old rec league. He was literally the last pick in the draft. On evaluation day, I wrote "NO!" beside his name but as luck would have it, I had the very last pick of the draft and he fell to me by default. He was a nice kid, but he couldn't do anything, not even play defense, he was small, slow, couldn't dribble, could shoot the ball high enough to even hit the backboard, couldn't catch a pass, travelled every time he touched the ball, etc. Meanwhile, the other 9 players on my team ALL had the basic skills, and at least 5 of them were above average skill wise. The league had a minimum playing requirement of 1, whole, quarter a game. So, I played him, one whole quarter a game. During that quarter, we could not run an offense (because he would wander around aimlessly), we could only play the most basic defense and try to hide him in the middle of it. We were only given 1 hour of court time per week to practice. I could have spent 8 hours a day with this kid and maybe could have gotten him to a 2nd grade playing level. His parents still had the nerve to complain that I wasn't developing him. Like, what the hell am I supposed to do with that. Don't be that guy!!

If you want your son to get more time on the court, you must spend time with him at home working on the fundamental skills because I can tell you from about 6th grade up, without a good grasp on the fundamental skills, you are not going to find many minutes on the court in any league (school, rec, AAU or otherwise). Have him dribble (strong and weak hand), show him basic shooting mechanics, watch some college games, go to local high school games. It is the only way to get proficient enough to compete, even at the junior high level.

When I coached 8th grade, my best 2 or 3 players (depending on the team) never came off the court. Our games were only 24 minutes long. My teams ranged from 9-13 players and I always managed to get everyone in the game, but the bottom 2 or 3 players only got a minute or 2. The exception being a blow out, then everyone got a lots of court time.

By the time your son gets to 7/8 grade, the best players play. Period. And the best players are the ones who have worked, trained, played rec leagues, AAU, pick up games, etc. After that, there is no playing time if you aren't good. On my JV team, my starters play 85-90% of the minutes. On the varsity team, our head coach plays the starting 5, that's it. The 6th man goes in if there is an injury or foul trouble, or if a starter needs to come to the bench for a minute to get corrected for doing something dumb.

Long story short, don't expect him to "develop" with 1 hour a week of team practice and a few minutes of game time per week. Put in the work and you will see results.