Insights to help improve your youth basketball experience.

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Girls Youth Basketball is Different

Just came across an interesting article from TheUndefeated.com which highlights the different paths for girls when it comes to college scholarships. What caught my attention was the additional number of college scholarships available to women. It represents great opportunities for women in basketball.

Women’s Division I teams each have 15 scholarships, compared with 13 for men, so there are 644 more free rides for women. And there are about 120,000 more boys playing high school basketball than girls. In other words, women’s college basketball has more scholarships for fewer players.

Author Jesse Washington reminds that “We don’t see the 5-8 kid in eighth grade and then she’s 6-3 in 11th grade. That just doesn’t happen…”. So – as with all kids – be realistic with your daughter’s opportunities.

“Because women still spend four years in college, because the money to be made in professional women’s basketball is not life-changing in the way that men’s basketball is, the main difference is that recruitable girls and their families still value education, first and foremost,” Gottlieb said. “I think they value relationships with the coaches and with the teammates and things like the feel of the campus.”

Read the full article for more insights: TheUndefeated.com

 

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Is AAU or High School More Important?

I have coached both AAU and Highschool basketball and to me there has been issues both ways of kids skipping spring/summer tournaments to go with their AAU teams to and also I’ve lost AAU players to high school teams because their coach pressures them into having to be there, or they are trying to make an impression on their coach.

What it comes down to is players goals. Is there goal to make varsity? Is there next goal then to get to college? I think high school coaches and AAU coaches need to respect those two things. If a player has already been on varsity that last year then there next focus should be to get to college, in which AAU will help them get there 95% more than their high school team will. College recruiters like the AAU circuit because you get the best playing against the best. Not to mention scouting services who see you on the AAU circuit in big national tournaments. On many high school teams you find 1-2 really good college level players and the rest won’t probably make it past their senior years of high school. Sure there are some exceptions like the state tournament, however college coaches are usually busy preparing their own teams to really crunch down and recruit kids in the high school season. Also it is important to take in account the strength of the league you are playing in. What college or pro players have come out of your league and how well do the teams in your league compare to the rest of the state? College coaches have predetermined bias’s about your league and AAU puts everything on a level playing field for them.

For more info on the importance of AAU here is what college coaches say about the issue.