Finding a flaw in men’s college basketball, especially this time of year, practically qualifies one as a crank, or at least a certifiable curmudgeon. The next three weeks, with its brackets, its buzzer beaters and its symphony of tattoos, is widely regarded as one of sport’s most visceral and pleasurable durations.
Yet there is concern, judging from a sampling of coaches and hoop thinkers, that the game’s paramount athleticism has surpassed and even overwhelmed the teaching and execution of fundamentals.
Defining and identifying “proper” fundamentals in the contemporary game can be tricky. Woodstock resident and longtime high school coach Rick Torbett believes there isn’t necessarily anything new under the sun, but that it’s more a matter of how it’s organized and taught.
He’s spent the last decade perfecting his Read & React offensive system,which is at once improvisational while also bursting at the seams with formal structure and fundamental principles.
“Fundamentals can simply mean me and you working on passing and shooting,” Torbett said. “But when I talk fundamentals, I’m also talking about spacing, moving without the ball, cutting correctly. I’m talking about how to play within a team and I think that’s what’s been lost.”
He’ll get no argument from Butler University coach Brad Stevens, who some believe is leading an informal back-to-fundamentals revolution within the college game. Last season with a largely anonymous collective of role players, Butler came within two points of beating Duke for the national championship.
“We live in an age where the individual is featured,” said Stevens, whose team has won nine straight and opens the tournament Thursday afternoon against Old Dominion. “There’s less an emphasis on unity in society and that carries over into basketball. It’s definitely a challenge getting the modern athlete to buy into the concept of team. But that’s the culture of our program. I tell our kids that by serving others, you feel better about yourself and your own individual achievement.”
Stevens has an unbridled admirer in longtime coach (38 years and a whopping 923 victories) Don Meyer, who retired last year from Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. Outspoken, colorful and an undeniable curmudgeon, the 66-year-old Meyer is routinely considered the game’s best teacher.
“Here’s the thing about Butler,” Meyer said. “They had a bunch of A-B guys. That is, B-level talent but an A-level mindset. They hit the floor for loose balls, they draw charges, they work on one thing 150 times or until they get it right. These are the kind of guys who look like puke in warm-ups, then they go out and beat you.”
Meyer agrees with Stevens and Torbett that team play has suffered, that colleges have gone too far emulating the NBA’s isolations, two-man games and triangle offenses.
“Last time I checked,” he said, “there were five men on the floor. I watch all these Big East games and in the last minute of every close game, they’re all running high-ball screens. It’s like these coaches have been given marching orders to run high-ball screens. What happened to actual [five-man] ball movement?”
It’s probably impossible to statistically quantify declining fundamentals, though some may look no further than this year’s tournament. A record 16 teams have lost 11 or more games and an almost unbelievable 10 have lost 13 or more.
Some also point to humiliating U.S. international performances at the 2002 World Championship (sixth-place finish) and third place behind Argentina and Italy in the 2004 Olympics as fundamental epiphanies. In both cases, international teams proved they could both shoot better and were far better schooled than Americans in comprehensive technique.
Indeed, Torbett has essentially modeled his 20-layered Read & React on European-style teaching.
“When I went to Belgium in 2002,” he said, “it was an eye-opener, particularly on how they build fundamentals within the club system from one age to the next. At age 10, you learn spacing and how to run the floor and nothing else. You learn the pick-and-roll at 13 and you don’t even start running plays until age14.
“In America,” he added, “there is no unifying system of teaching the game. Considering how many times kids change schools or summer teams, a 10-year-old might have 10 or more coaches by the time he reaches 18. In most cases, none of those coaches build on what the previous one taught. Each year a coach starts over, teaching the game from the ground up, and a player only develops so far.”
Everyone interviewed for this story expressed dismay about America’s summer basketball scene, specifically that most AAU programs are far more concerned with winning than actual player development. As Stevens said, “In our country, the whole grassroots thing is a concern. Although there are good [AAU] coaches out there, it just isn’t for the good of the game.
“They play too many games in a short time, sometimes three games a day, and I believe that’s wrong. Grass roots-level players need more time on the practice floor working on individual skills. Plus, I think kids can use less structure and a little more fun now and then. I mean, how many kids today go into the gym and create a 3-on-3 game? Believe me, you can learn a whole lot about yourself and team values playing 3-on-3.”
Fran Fraschilla, a college coach for 23 years and now an ESPN analyst, has run a number of international clinics and, like Torbett, is an admirer of European teaching. But he isn't sure, given the contemporary AAU climate, if that system could ever translate to America.
“Today there are more good coaches than ever,” Fraschilla said, “but they don’t have the clout they once had. They are more managers of talent than teachers of the game. Beginning at a young age, players cut corners and coaches are afraid to push them to develop. What was once constructive criticism is now verbal abuse.”
The veteran Meyer expresses little tolerance for modern sensitivity training.
“I hate all that stuff, kissing kids' butts and all that,” he said. “Listen, if you’re a coach, then it means you teach the game right. Period. I once went to a clinic coach [Bobby] Knight gave in Las Vegas. He told us, "Number one, take care of the basketball. Number two, get open without the ball. Number three, take good shots.’
“Then he stood up and said, ‘Clinic’s over boys. Now you can go gamble.'"
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