This is going to sound like an "I remember when I was younger" post, but it I guess it sorta is.
This isn't a new phenomenon, but one we are dealing with more this year.
At what point did coaching and teaching basketball skills like dribbling, passing and shooting morph into coaching and teaching effort, toughness, competitiveness, playing hard and pride?
I really believe that execution has become less important as being tough, playing hard and competing, and we seem to have to coach that more and more each year.
I had this discussion last year with one of our assistants who played in the 70's and at first he didn't agree with that statement, but when I explained that kids being tough, playing hard, etc was a given, so execution was the difference.
But not today...if a team plays harder than their opponents, no matter how well they execute...they have a great chance of winning.
What caused this?
Fewer practices? Softer society? Officiating? AAU?
I think it's an amalgam of all of these things, I guess.
But what do I know? I'm just an old guy complaining about how it used to be.
