Hooked on a Thunderbird and California Dreamin!

The campus at Wagner has been a must stop for a dozen or so schools this past month but yesterday's guest caused a little bit of a stir. University of Texas Coach, Gail Goestenkors was reportedly on campus to watch Arielle Roberson practice. Coach G can get a little help in recruiting Arielle from a member of the Roberson family. Big Sister, Amber, plays volley ball for the Horns. Also in the Horns favor, Roberson played club ball for Texas Exes, Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil and Anissa Hastings. The word is out about the kid that they call "Smiley"; she is no joke!

Smithson Valley standout Danielle Blagg with be visiting the Golden State this weekend. Pepperdine University has invited the athletic wing to view the opening days of official practice. While the Malibu beaches are a major recruiting tool for many kids, the academic reputation of the school is also very appealing. Blagg has had a couple of other great academic schools show interest lately. SMU, Rice and NC State, all were on campus the past month.

Blagg has a way of making a good impression on coaches. NC State assistant coach, Richard Barron became aware of Blagg at the Baylor camp last year. He went on to join the NC State staff this season and took his liking of Danielle's game with him. A similar thing happened a couple of years ago. Former UTSA and current assistant coach for UCF, Courtney Locke, became familiar with Blagg when she was still local. It was no surprise to learn that UCF was visiting Blagg as early as last year on her high school campus.

A couple of good things to take from her experiences is that, college camps are a great way of allowing college coaches to get to know your entire game . Local players Lyndsey Cloman(Oklahoma) and Monica Engleman(Kansas) received their offers while attending Elite Camps for their respective schools. Also, please keep in mind that assistant coaches are valuable resources in recruiting. They often take new jobs at different schools and the contacts and their opinions of players go with them. While Blagg may have not earned the affections of Baylor with her camp participation, she obviously impressed a camp coach enough to warrant his interest at his new school.

From Mule to Wildcat! and Davey Crockett?

Stephanie Whitman, the super strong combo guard for Alamo Heights, has reportedly committed to Kansas St. University. Whittman was ranked in the Top 50 players nationally by Hoopgurlz before suffering a knee injury last fall.
Whittman apparently chose the Wildcats over UTSA and NC State.

Davey Crockett earned his stripes in Tennessee before coming to San Antonio to fight for the Alamo. The question is, will Meighan Simmons go the reverse route by repping the Alamo City before going on to become a Volunteer in Tennessee? Word is that her decision between Tennessee and LSU is coming sooner than reported earlier. I am fighting the inclination to speculate but here is the case:

LSU- Has been on her from the beginning. They saw the young fawn and told her how beautiful she was as a freshman. Her bright future was obvious to all who took the time to look but LSU did just that, took the time to look and SHOW her how interested they were. Reportedly, they have made school visits since her freshman year. They have a successful program led by a coach who is a Hall of Famer and has won 4 titles in the WNBA. Who better can show her the steps she needs to become a pro than the guy who coached former WNBA MVP's Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes?

Tennessee- The school that almost every girls basketball player wishes to attend during their formative basketball years( Unless they are UCONN loyalists). Tennessee is the almost perfect hunk that Simmons has admired from afar. The Candace Parker(her basketball idol) element is hard to ignore but add that to the fact that UT has sent at least 30 players to the WNBA. Never mind that Patt Summit is the greatest winner in college basketball history, playing in front of 15,000 plus fans on a night basis is tough to turn down.

Which guy will she take to the prom? The successfully attractive gentleman(LSU) that has asked her out for years or Mr. Everything(UT) that has been the object of her affection since her childhood. Another good problem to have I suppose. Stay Tuned!

Mrs. Harper Speaks!

Lorraine Harper is not only the mother of arguably the best player in San Antonio, CeCe, she is also a coach, administrator, team mom, event planner, and fundraiser for the SA Lady Rohawks. Mrs. Harper sent the following email:

Let me start by saying that I am an avid reader to your blog and just as others in the area, there are some things we all agree on, and disagree on. Nevertheless, one thing is for sure as you stated earlier, “the better the kids get, the messier this all becomes”. In saying that, I applaud what you are doing to help get San Antonio girls basketball out there for the world of coaches to see, for that has never been done before in this city. I personally know of a lot of college coaches that read your blog and often use it as a recruiting tool for SA. In the recent months, I have been told by several coaches and club directors that San Antonio’s talent is really growing in an area once under recruited. In saying this, I feel that it is the CeCe’s, Meighan’s(Simmons), and LenNique’s(Brown) that may be the household names when it comes to SA girls basketball, but it is every player in town that stands to gain from it. I use the three of them because for years there has always been comparisons amongst the three as to who is best? There is no right or wrong answer for any individual, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Now if you are speaking of San Antonio, San Antonio is beautiful and when I say that, I mean in the sense that the ugly duckling once considered not talent worthy is becoming the beautiful swan. I am not the typical writer/journalist.....but I am sure that you get my point. We in San Antonio need to come together and celebrate, NOT HATE! I for one was glad that you turned off the comments blog on your site for I thought that it was shedding some light on the girls basketball scene here that folks do not need to see. What they need to see and know, is that each and every club director, administrator, and parent is out there working to get our kids a good education for in the end, that is all that matters. I say that education is what matters for I was long following a young lady by the name of Tierra Rodgers (I am sure you are familiar with her being that she is a California kid). Tierra was a kid that had so much going for her and then all of a sudden was hit by double tragedies so young in her life that drastically changed her whole course. Although God blessed Tierra with so much basketball talent, he also took it away (read her story and know that god has a plan for each of us)

I use her as an example with all the hoopla about kids not getting a major DIV I school in comparison to a kid just wanting and wishing that they could have the opportunity to play again, whether it be a DIV II, III, NAIA, or JUCO. Tierra’s story should be one of inspiration to everyone not just basketball players in general, because it could all be taken from you in an instance. Just the other day, we had a kid visit a DIV III school (that won the DIV III Championship in 2007) and to see the look on this kid’s face just to be able to possibly have the opportunity to play in college was overwhelming. I point this out, for we all would love for our kid to go to the Duke’s, Kentucky’s, Tennessee’s, etc, but there are goals outside of basketball that we all have to be thankful for, and that is being healthy enough to even be able to continue playing this game we all love so dearly. In closing, lets all call this thing that is happening in San Antonio a blessing, not so much one is disguise for we all want the world to know that we stand behind our kids, and we stand united although we don’t always agree on the same things. Keep doing the positive things that you are doing and in the end, it will all work out. Lastly, we have no problem getting the word out to coaches about the growing talent in SA and every coach I talk to, I personally ensure that they know of the growing young talent such as the Recee’(Caldwell), McKenzie(Calvert), and Kyra’s(Lambert) of our city so that we can keep them hunting our grounds.

God Bless San Antonio



We are off the Lawrence for the late Night in the Phog this weekend, how exciting! If it were not for God enabling our daughter to continue playing this game after two knee surgeries, we feel strongly that we have prepared her for life after the ball stops bouncing. Lets All Give Thanks to God for Blessing our Kids with this talent and call it “God Gives and God Takes”.

Area Happenings!

The following are some quick hits of the local scene:

Jessica Kuster- Word has it that the Reagan Big is set to sign with Rice next month. She supposedly had reconsidered her commitment to UT-Arlington and will attend Rice.

Stephanie Whittman- The combo guard for Alamo Heights recently visited Kansas St. for an Official. UTSA and and NC State are also said to be in the mix.

Cheyenne Berry- The Lytle guard is said to be taking an official visit to Stephen F. Austin in the near future. The LadyJacks came for a home visit a couple of weeks ago. Last week, South Alabama came to Lytle for a visit while Mercer has just jumped on board as a suitor.

LenNique Brown- Wagner PG Brown had reportedly added Pitt to her long line of pursuers. She is rumored to have two visits set up for Michigan St. and Pitt in the near future. She has had NC State, UTSA, SMU, and South Alabama at school over the few weeks with a few of them visiting her home.

Chelsea Solis- The Wagner guard has committed to Texas A & M Kingsville.


Ashley Perez- The Lytle Big is said to be visiting Angelo State in the near future.

Olivia Patterson- The Steele point guard has had at least one Division 1 school on campus to observe her in practice. She is also entertaining numerous offers from NAIA programs.

Another McCormick Blog

Brian McCormick goes on the discuss the differences between Memorization vs Creative Learning:

"I watched a group and saw them run pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll, so I stopped them and asked what they were trying to create out of a pick-and-roll situation. The group was well-schooled, as they quickly responded with common teaching points like “go shoulder to shoulder on the screen” and “roll to the basket” and “lay-ups.” So, they knew the goal (to score with an easy shot), and they knew some of the specific points to execute the skill, but they had no idea what they were trying to create or how they were trying to score.



The next day, I read a blog titled “How to Learn Without Memorizing.” It occurred to me that coaches have moved more and more to a memorization-style of coaching as opposed to creative learning. As the blog says:



A few years ago, I noticed that smart people seemed to learn differently than most other people…I think part of this difference in success comes down to strategy. While most people were trying to memorize, smart people were coming up with creative connections between ideas. These connections made the ideas easier to remember, so less memorizing was required. Additionally, the new connections made the ideas easier to understand, so learning itself was faster.



What is route memorization in basketball? Most teams stress a press break rather than teaching basic spacing concepts to defeat a trap anywhere on the floor. Change the press and the team changes its press break. Many teams employ set plays or continuity offenses, and coaches tell players to run the play exactly. Coaches teach moves and expect players to make the move exactly as they teach it.



In today’s game, players receive more coaching than ever, yet every coach appears to focus on specifics and memorization and not general skills or a general approach. I am helping with a team and I am basically running open gym right now, and the players run last season’s offense: it is all they know how to do. They pass and screen the opposite wing every time. They don’t know anything else. They memorized a certain way to play last season, but they did not learn offensive basketball or develop general skills.



With the pick-and-roll, a general response might be “to confuse the defense” or “to draw two defenders to one offensive player to create an open player” or “to create a mismatch on a switch.” The goal is to disorganize the defense. Once the pick-and-roll disorganizes the defense, the offense keeps the ball moving to find the open shot before the defense recovers.



As an example, the Spurs run a pick-and-pop with Tony Parker and Matt Bonner. Tim Duncan mans the left block, and the Spurs put shooters in each corner: Roger Mason Jr. and Manu Ginobili. Bonner sets the screen and pops to the three-point line. If Bonner’s man stays with Parker, and Parker’s defender tries to recover to Parker, Bonner is open. The pick-and-roll action resulted in two defenders going to the ball and Parker simply passes to Bonner for the open shot.



However, some teams rotate quickly. Ginobili’s man in the corner sprints at Bonner. If so, Bonner feeds Ginobili in the corner. The pick-and-roll drew two defenders and forced the defense to rotate and scramble. On the pass to Ginobili, Duncan’s man could run out to the three-point line to contest, leaving Duncan open on the block. Mason’s man could run to Duncan. Now, the pick-and-roll created a mismatch in the post for Duncan or Duncan can skip the ball to the opposite corner to Mason for a wide open three-pointer. Even though the ball touches all five players, the pick-and-pop disorganized the defense, and the offense kept the ball moving until it created a wide open, high percentage shot.



The players had the right idea; ideally, in any situation, you want to shoot a wide open lay-up. However, if the ball handler focuses only on the player rolling to the basket, she may not see the help defender rotating to the roller or notice her mismatch against a big, slow post player at the three-point line. Too many times, if the pass is made to the roller and the defense rotates, the offensive player does not get the immediate lay-up and she backs out or she holds the ball. Why? Because the play was supposed to get a lay-up and it failed. However, if the team plays with a more general understanding, she knows that the rotation means the defense is scrambling and she simply has to find the most open player. It is not a matter of running a play to get one end result, but to create an advantage and take advantage of it in any number of ways.



Before moving to specific instruction and memorization, I believe that we should explain the general objectives or processes and allow the players to explore and discover on their own. Rather than teaching one specific offense or one specific move, give players a couple tools to use and more freedom to make plays on their own. Through exploring and discovering on their own, their awareness will increase – when players are told to do things in a certain way, they ignore the other possibilities, which limit their learning. For instance, the players who pass and screen away on every possession ignore the possibility of cutting to the basket, shallow cutting to the corner, following their pass for a hand-off or other possibilities, while the passer is trained to look for the cutter coming from the opposite wing rather than passing into the post, driving to the basket or passing to the corner.



If our goal is to develop players with greater game awareness and basketball I.Q., we need to start by opening up the game to the players and allowing them to be proactive in their play and decision-making. As they gain experience and comfort with this process (which, for high school players who have never played in this way can take over a year), the coach can add more specifics or situational learning to create advantages for his team based on their strengths."

Imagination!

"When it came down to game time, I had already made that shot". That is a quote from the great Mr. Clutch, Jerry West. This quote was given to me in a phone conversation with UCF assistant coach, Courtney Locke. Coach Locke went on to offer advice and comments about her life and girls basketball. Some interesting tidbits follow:

• Imagination- Girls need to spend more alone time in the gym using there imagination. They need to be Micheal Jordan or Candice Parker in their minds as they make and take shots. They also need to spend more time playing 1 vs 1 with rules such as limited dribbling. Coach Locke reminisced of the days past when a kid with a ball and an imagination worked on their games. She talked about this being before the time of social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

• No Offers in Texas- Even though Coach Locke is from San Marcos, she did not have ANY offers from Texas schools. She took the old road and sent tape to universities. One of the tapes she sent landed in the hands of C.Vivian Stringer. Coach Stringer liked what she saw and called numerous Big 12 schools with a question; why was Courtney Locke not being recruited by these schools? The answer was that these schools felt that she was a step too slow. In typical style from the elite developer that she is, Coach Stringer replied that she "could work with that". Locke went on the play four years at Rutgers before joining the UTSA coaching staff.

• Austin Lady Knights/Elite- Coach Locke went on to describe her days with the Lady Knights as wonderful. She described Coach Martin and Gregg as "good people". They had the best interest of the kids in mind. Coach Locke learned and benefited from playing with this club. She later was fortunate enough to recruit both the daughters of the club coaches, Amber Gregg and Ciara Martin to UTSA.( Both these girls are remarkable young women as well as good ball players. I got to know Amber this summer at the UTSA camp and she is truly bright, passionate about the game and her charisma is infectious). Coach Locke helped return the love by helping Evansville recruit Ciara's younger sister, Kaylan.

• A Four who can hit the trailing 3- Coach Locke went on to advise me to continue developing young bigs to play away from the basket in addition to post up games. She spoke of the new aged 4 that can hit the 3, take defenders off of the dribble and defend. She went on to call these type of players "Hard to Guard".

JUST ASK!

With all the hoopla surrounding which club is the best fit for girls, I advise parents to do what intelligent college recruits do when really seeking the truth; ask the current and former players.

If a kid really wants to know how a coach and a program operates, go and ask the people who have been affected most by the club; the players.

Go and ask Jessica Kuster and Marquisha Sparks about the SA Heat. Sune Agbuke and Victoria Willems can give you the truth about the SA Comets Elite. Try talking to Taylor Calvert and Niaga Michell-Cole about their Lady Rohawk experience. See if Meighan Simmons and LenNique Brown will tell you about the inner workings of TeamXpress. Ask Asha Finch and Michelle Rodriguez if the Hoyas are a good fit?

By seeking the truth from the players that make these clubs tick(contrary to belief of some egomaniac coaches who think they make the players), kids will get an authentic look at what is and what is not. We parents tend to have agendas and may offer a less than genuine depiction of certain clubs. But kids, they have no reason to alter the truth. By in large, they are still uncorrupted by politics and less likely to worry about the perceived repercussions of telling the TRUTH!