Running for Recruits

2-4-91

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. The hockey team picked up three wins, keeping their playoff hopes alive. The Lady Cobbers won again, going to 13-1 in the MIAC women's basketball race. The men's basketball team picked up a win over St. John's. And basketball recruiting started to enter its critical phase.

High school stars are starting to seriously whittle down their lists of schools they might attend. And coaches are busy trying to remain on those lists. It's a fascinating process. And a major part of that process involves questions of style, as in "style of play."

Most sports have these kinds of questions. In football, the player asks if the coach likes to throw the ball. In hockey, the young prospect wants to know if a coach likes skaters or bangers. In basketball it's "Do you run?"

Most young basketball players want to be part of a pressing, fast breaking, and high scoring program. Most coaches are scared to death of the running game. The result is a lot of truth-stretching when the recruiting process gets heated. And truth-stretching is fascinating.

Many slow-it-down, walk-it-up coaches, who think a fast break is any shot taken within 30 seconds of getting a rebound, will look straight into the eyes of a coveted young recruit and swear that, "If you come to our program we'll run and press every game of your career."

This, of course, angers coaches who really do like to let players get out and run.

The running game, with all its appeal, is a circular dilemma that haunts modern basketball coaches. Briefly, the haunting works like this: To press full court and fast break well, you need a of lot good players. To get a lot of good players, you often need to offer a running style of play. But running and pressing without the talent to do it often leads to a lot of losing. And that's something current and potential players, not to mention fans and athletic directors, do not like.

Some coaches are adopting a running style even though it may not be the best tactic for winning with the current talent. Their hope is that the style will attract the better players.

Other coaches are, shall we say, more short-sighted. The quick way out of the dilemma for them is to just pretend they intend to run, for recruiting purposes.

The recruit's perspective: Young people, being as they are, love the prospect of scoring a lot of points by flashing their athletic talent at the end of a fast break. It's intoxicating.

It's a celebratory act. The fans go nuts. Your teammates are happy. And your Mom and Dad get to see you doing something other than setting a pick.

Also, if a team runs, they need more players, like nine or ten each game instead of six or seven. That means more playing time early in a career. And a happy bench.

(There is an exception to this perspective. The big, slow post player is often frightened at the prospect of a career filled with throwing outlet passes and not much else. This type of recruit can sometimes be sold on the running game with this: Guards who get their points on the fast break will be more willing to throw the ball inside when the inevitable half-court situation develops. This, of course, is a lie.) The fan's perspective: Fan's love to see 94 feet of action. Most fans know that a high scoring team usually owes its success, if it has any, to defense. The running game lets athletic talent show through and requires tremendous teamwork. The running game packs more big plays into 40-minutes than a walk-it-up team has in a month.

The coaches' perspective: There are a lot of visceral (as opposed to strategic) reasons why coaches get scared away from the running game. Here are some: There are too many turnovers.

Missed layups are more painful to watch than missed jumpers. Players get going so fast that they get out of control. And it violates their purist instincts that the game should somehow be played without errors.

But the two main emotional reasons for coaches not letting their players run are these: A) The coaches lose their control because they can't call very many plays and there does not appear to be many strategic decisions to make. Despite how intricate a good pressing and fast break scheme can be, no one comes up after the game and says how clever the coach was. And coaches love being told how clever they were.

B) There is too much chance of getting blown out when you run. Walk-it-up-and-stand-around coaches love to say they only got beat by six.

This is why the men's coaches have not come out of the stone age and adopted a 30-second shot clock, something the women's game has had for years. Their raging egos will not let the players be the main focus of the game.

There are, of course, legitimate strategic reasons for not fast breaking, like wanting to give your five decent players a chance to win without having to go to your bench. But coaches who like to coach that way year after year ought to say the following to recruits.

1. If you don't make the starting lineup you will hardly play at all.

2. If you think the focus of our program will be on the players rather than the coach, you are in for a big letdown.

3. If you want to run, go play soccer.

4. If you want to play on a team with high morale where everyone feels like they are contributing, we can't use you.

The next time you get a chance to talk with a good high school player, take time to find out what he or she is being told by college coaches about their running game.

Then compare it with what you know about that coaches' teams. It'll be good for more than a few laughs.

But remember how unfunny it will be when that young athlete gets to college and finds out the coach was just kidding about wanting to run.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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