Going Pro in Something other than…
A commentary on the first day of the Full Court Press West Coast All Star Camp.
By Jerome Green
July 12, 2008
The one thing I love about camps run by Dinos Tragonis (Full Court Press) is that he doesn’t waste anyone’s time with drills/instruction where everyone just goes through the motions. Instead, he just jumps right in and get the kids playing. Therefore, when you step on the floor you better have done your homework.
I spent 10 hours in the Hangar Athletic Xchange (HAX) in Hawthorne watching some pretty talented kids go up and down the court. As always I go with the intentions of watching the top players like Jeremy Tyler, Roberto Nelson, and the Hood (Compton Dominguez team) play. I watch them and for the most part they demonstrate why they are the tops at what they do. There are guys like Jerry Freitas that really watch all those numbers, and makes his list of prospects, new talent, etc. Jerry does a very good job as do many of the national scouts. After an hour into these events I realize that I am not a scout reporter – there are plenty of those out there. I am a commentator, pure and simple.
Today’s commentary is on aspirations, academics and going pro in something other than... As I stated earlier, the talent level was not bad, much better than camp #1 of Double Pump. The Bot Fly crisis (see previous article on the Double Pump camp) while still present wasn’t nearly as bad, but there is still some larvae residue with the guards:
1) Making the difficult pass, when the easy pass was right there
2) Over dribbling and head down dribbling
3) Limited ability to recognize they are on the court with teammates that are 6”9” or taller.
4) Limited understanding of how to run the point and make the players around them better
5) Limited ability to defend or desire to defend
Watching all of this triggered in my mind the current commercial that is run throughout most NCAA televised events. The commercial starts out saying that a student athlete is going pro in something other than the sport they play. As I watched these players play today and listen to them and their parents talk I hope that they are taking care of their academics and thinking about Going Pro in Something Other than … Basketball.
While I was watching all of this I realized I happened to be sitting next to several Division I coaches and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t being bias or too old school in my vision. I figured maybe, being born in 1953 aged me to a point that I was not hip enough to recognize how the current game is played. All the coaches that I spoke to confirmed that my age is not a limiting factor in what I am seeing. Some of their comments (off the record) were…
A) We don’t come to an event like this necessarily looking for scorers. We know where the scorers are. We are looking for complimentary players, distributor of the ball, kids that can bang the boards and know how to play.
B) Most of these kids are not Division I prospects, but they are prospects and someone might get on the radar. The problem with today’s players and families is that they feel if they are not recruited to a D1 school, than they have failed. There are tons of great D2, D3 and NAIA schools that a lot of these kids can play for.
I then asked the coaches if they were seeing a lot of borderline players also producing borderline grades? The answer was a resounding yes. One coach said that kids now think that a 2.2 is a good GPA because they are eligible.
Another coach from a prominent D1 school in the area summed it up this way. I come here looking for kids that can run a team, feed the post, drop into help, and get his players on the court into position and make the people around them better. I have plenty of players already signed or on the roster that can score with the ball.
All and all it was a pretty good day at the Hangar. The team hopping was a little frustrating to watch because it doesn’t make a difference. Jeremy Tyler wasn’t team hopping. He played his two games, period. A lot of kids who were team hopping just cemented their fate - to the “not a factor category.” I heard one coach laugh in regards to a player who had jumped to one game after another, “Hey, he better hurry up, the next game is about to start on court 1.”