Making the most out of a fall showcase
Now that I've had some time to think about what I saw this fall, there are some good and there are some bad things that players today need to polish up when they attend these kind of showcase events.
First the good, I was very impressed with the number of talented players in the Ohio
2029 and 2028 classes. I've told somebody recently that the 28–29–30 classes is one of the best three year periods that we've had in Ohio for a while. There were several really good players that were not there, and there were some incredible players who were. Players definitely played their way onto our radar last weekend, kids I had not seen before so many congratulations to all the players who participated.
I always believe that the cream will rise to the top, and that happened. The players who I thought would compete at the highest level, did so. Others who I wasn't sure about, some of them did the same thing and rose to the top. That's what this kind of an event should be about, not only getting exposure, being seen by the right people, and competing against the best.
I thought all the players did a great job considering the schedule, going straight from a 5V5 setting to a 3V3 setting which I believe, brings out weaknesses and strengths more than a game atmosphere.
One of the negative things that continues to happen at events like this all over the country, share the basketball more. I noticed that some of you did a great job at this, others probably needed to ice your arms down. There's no room in these kind of events to take shots every time you come down the floor. Coaches don't want to see it, we don't want to see it, and parents don't want to see it. I understand these kind of events turn into a “look at me” type of deal yeah we want to look at you, but we don't wanna look at you shooting every time, we want to see you pass, we want to see you defend, we wanna see you run the floor, we want to see you hustle. While a lot of you did all of these things, I did notice a quick trigger on some of you. I understand that that's how some of you have to play at the high school level, you have to carry your team. And freshman, I understand that in eighth grade a lot of times you did most or all of the scoring for your team. But getting into a different mindset is just as important at the high school varsity level, you have good players with you, you need to use them.
Also, with the rankings now out, it's really early in your career to stress about them. If you're ranked that's great, celebrate and work to get better. If you aren't ranked high enough in your mind, don't get mad, just work to get better. I always say it's not where you start, it's where you finish. Some of you will be late bloomers on the court, others will see their rankings go up others will go down over the next four years. Just use it as motivation, but don't let it define you. Every player at our showcases showed good things and deserved to be there. You are all talented and will all have different roles at the high school level. Embrace your role, work hard every day to increase your role. Some of you will be on teams as freshman where you don't need to score 25 points, or even play a ton because the team is good with upperclassman. Embrace that do what it takes for your team to win. Your time to shine will come!
