beverlybubba

No word. We'll know tomorrow.

Women coaching boys/men are pretty rare. (Jeesh. My grammar was terrible. "who is" should be "who are".)

Hey, I could be mistaken or the "she" may have slipped out as an intentional misdirection. But, a female coach for female players makes sense. Basketball definitely has plenty of women in it who a quite capable of being good coaches.

Heard this afternoon that the new coach will be introduced to the girls on Monday. They didn't tell the players who the coach was, but a "she" slipped out.

Haven't heard a thing.

Using positive reinforcement (not necessarily rewards) along with successive approximation is a good technique to shape someone's behavior. The positive reinforcement can be "atta boys" from coaches and fellow players. Like the suggestion above, start with the seniors and get everybody encouraging everybody. Non-tangible rewards can be quite powerful. Names and special gear help too. At Mason County we have "Pride Gear". Players earn their Pride Gear through hard work. Once the coaches feel a player has put forth the effort, the player gets shirt, short and sweats with their number on it along with "Mason County Pride" (I think). No one else is allowed to wear a players Pride Gear, not girlfriends, parents, etc. If a coach sees someone wearing your Pride Gear, he takes it back. Here's a good article on sports motivation. http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/sport-motivation.htm Successive approximation is simply rewarding any approximation, any movement in the direction of what we wanted. Each time the behavior should be a little closer to what is wanted.

I saw a lot of thug ball, etc in AAU when my son played at the middle school level. Frankly, I think playing street ball at the right place would be better experience. When I was in high school I would go play on the outdoor courts with the college kids at the University of Tennessee or find a good game at a city rec center. I learned to be tough enough that I was never scared or intimidated in a regulation game.

That's usually the case. The situation you described at Xavier can be a problem. That's why i say you need to choose the right camps. Talk to others who are familar with them. Pat Summitt does little if any instruction but has excellent instructors/coaches there. But, the big plus is the other players. You could have fielded a team that would have been an NCAA top25 team for the players at her camp. If you want to be the best, play the best and test yourself. Many college camps have coaches from other lower level schools helping out. This may be more true of football than basketball. But, you can be seen by coaches from various schools at a camp, plus they can get to know you better than watching you from the stands and short conversations.

You have to do something dluring the summer if you want to be good. My younger sister played D1 basketball. She spent 2-4 hours a day, virtually every day, year round doing something to make herself better, shooting, dribbling, lifting weights, running, playing, etc. She didn't play AAU but went to probably a half dozen camps each summer. If you want to find out how good you are and how good you need to be, go to a top notch camp. For girls that would be Pat Summitt's camp at Tennessee (my daughter's gone 3 times0. I've seen better players there than I've ever seen in an actual high school game. For boys, I imagine Calipari or Motta at OSU have comparable camps. As others allude to, I've seen bad habits picked up in AAU ball. It all depends on the coach in my book. Be picky. If you can't find a coach you really like. Go to camps.

Never mind. Didn't see the date.

Amen.

Maybe he could coach the girls.

Harris has already committed to UK. Mason lost a lot of talent. I think Harris will be out of the running simply because Mason won't be as good as they've been the last 2 years.

That was my impression during the official visit and when I talked with him.

I would hope sooner than that.

I only saw him play at the Best of the Bluegrass All Star game. He runs tough and stays north and south. He'll be a good power runner. When my son (Mason County olineman, Alex Newton) and I made our official visit to Georgetown, we were paired with Jordon and his father. Both seem like great people. I talked with Jordon again at the Mason County - Boone County girls basketball game and urged him to sign with Georgetown. He has a great attitude. I look forward to my son blocking for him the next 4 years.

I've said this before on football threads, but Gilbert is the best athlete at Mason County. The only thing that keeps him from being as highly regarded as Josh Harris is in footbal is his size. He's just as good at basketball as football, maybe better.

Good assessment. I don't think things changed too much. I've never seen much effort put into developing players. Girls don't get the same, or as much, social rewards, status and admiration, as boys for playing sports. If they feel mistreated, neglected, or unappreciated, many of them will simply quit. No problem. One girl who would have gotten a lot of playing time, maybe started, transferred to St. Patrick. Several promising girls simply quit over the past 2-3 years. At this level, you can't coach girls like you do boys. The psychology is different.

We've been discussing this at the Mason/Bracken game thread. Correct, no surprise. The programs at a low point right now. We'll see how serious they are at making it close to the level of the boy's program.

Thanks for setting the record straight. I was repeating second hand info from a parent. I'm not sure if the parent was actually in Florida or not.

Perhaps, I was told wrong. But not keeping the team together for meals makes me wonder.

I feel Mason needs a full-time person as a coach, whomever it is. I don't think anyone would dream of a part-time person coaching the boys unless it was Rick Pitino or Capalari. (sp?) My observation over the past few years is that Bracken has worked hard on their overall program and at developing their players. I didn't see that happening at Mason. It was more every one for themselves. The girls coaches need to take an approach similar to Coach Buchanan does in football, build enthusiasm in the players and potential players, encourage them, promote a greater team atmosphere and develop the team. Mason's has a morale problem and it's not as much related to losing as to other stuff. One example reported to me is that when they went to Florida to play in a tournament, the 7 "real" varsity players were taken out to eat at a fancy restaurant while the other 5 were made to stay at the hotel and eat pizza. So much for "team." At the high school level, you can't take the same attitude with girls as with boys. There's not the same social reward for girls playing sports as there is for boys. When my son was a freshman at Mason County several years back, 41 boys tried out for the freshman team. They don't have 41 girls in the high school wanting to play basketball for the freshman, JV and varsity combined. There needs to be more mentoring and a team effort on the part of the coaches and parents. I think Brian would be a great coach, but if he can't do it full-time, there are plenty of people out there who can and Mason's been able to pull in excellent coaching talent before.

Just heard that Butcher has been fired at Mason Co. I like him as a person but I'm not surprised. I didn't think the powers that be would be very happy with this season's results. The problem is programatic though, not just Butcher. Heck, maybe more other things than Butcher.

Bracken has done a great job the last few years building up their girl's basketball program. I emphasize "program" because that's what they've developed. They've worked hard developing all their girls, not just a few. It's paying off big time and will continue to do so. They have the best girl's basketball program in the district right now.

Congrats to Cory. Met him at a visit to Lindsey Wilson. Nice kid. Any word on Mason Rister?