Stringer Seeks Player Development Advice, and I Oblige

After Rutgers women’s basketball team lost their Big East Conference opener, Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer threw her team under the proverbial bus in the media. After criticizing Texas Tech Head Coach Pat Knight for his motivational ploy, I felt it only fair to examine Stringer’s comments, especially since she asked for help.

About Kia Vaughn, who is/should be one of the top centers in the country, Stringer said:

“I think she’s just moving too fast. She’s dropping everything that’s near her. Fumbling, falling back. I don’t know what it is. But I think I’m going to get a psychologist or somebody to figure out what the (heck) is going on. I’m just stunned every time I see it. It’s not that she doesn’t want to play. I wish I could get somebody else to tell me.“

Stringer is notorious for her defensive pressure and complete lack of an offensive system. Against Tennessee over the weekend, Rutgers built a 20-point first half lead through its pressure, and then went into a shell as Tennessee rallied to win. I am not at practice, so I am not commenting on Rutgers specifically, but post play instruction, generally, is very poor. Few coaches appear able to develop post players, likely because few coaches were post players. I feel fortunate because I played every position during my brief playing career, so I have some experience with all positions as a player and coach.

I don’t know if Vaughn needs a psychologist, though most teams would benefit from more mental practice, goal setting and visualization exercises.

I do know that many coaches do not get their post players sufficient game-like repetitions in practice. I finished a chapter for my next book, Developing Basketball Intelligence last night, and I wrote about the different ways that we attack skill development for guards and posts. For guards, we see a player struggle against back court pressure in a game, so we do a 1v1 or 1v2 ball handling drill. For posts, we see a mistake like a missed lay-up or a travel and we think the problem is the player’s basic technical skill: she can’t make a lay-up or pivot correctly, so we practice 1v0 post moves. We overload a guard to enhance the skill development because we know that simply dribbling the ball is not the problem, while in the post, we eliminate the defense because for some reason we think posts cannot execute the most basic fundamentals even without a defender.

My suggestion is to examine Vaughn’s practice repetitions, load them from a starting point where she is successful to more game-like repetitions.

Stringer did not just single out post players. She also criticized Kadijah Rushdan, saying:

“(When) things get anxious, she’s going to shoot it or she’s going to just turn it over. So it teaches me to not put her in a crucial situation. It’s not going to happen.”

Rather than punishing her, why not examine the mistakes? I have never watched Rushdan play, but can infer several things from Stringer’s comment:

1. Rushdan lacks confidence with the ball in her hands.
2. Her lack of confidence in her technical ability narrows her vision.
3. When she feels pressure, she takes the first available option rather than having the confidence to search for the best option.

So, what is the answer? Well, it is not bashing the player in the media. Her problem is confidence: how is questioning her publicly going to make her a more confident player?

She likely needs a better understanding of her role and her team’s offensive philosophy, and she needs to develop her technical skills under pressure so the pressure does not affect her during games, and she can maintain a broad-external attention and see the whole court and make the best decision.

By giving her opportunities to develop her ball handling (1v2 drill,for instance) and passing under presure (drills like Volleyball Passing, 2v2 Gael Passing and others from Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development), her confidence with the ball should improve. If not, maybe she plays with a fear of failure because she gets taken out of the game every time she makes a mistake. Or, maybe she is not aggressive with her pivot foot and cannot withstand pressure to keep her head up and see the floor. These are common problems, which coaches need to address through practice, and the actual problem dictates the response. However, bashing an unconfident player publicly is not going to increase her confidence and motivate the player to improve.

Stringer’s reaction is common for coaches, though most coaches do not get interviewed seconds after a disappointing loss, so most coaches do not say regrettable things in the media. Instead, they say them to their assistant coaches, significant others or the pizza delivery guy. Usually, after the coach calms down, they attempt to solve the problem.

However, some coaches blame the players in this way and do not attempt to fix the problems at practice. I read a quote by Steve Spurrier that said that he told his assistants never to blame the players because the assistants were the ones who put the player in that position. It was their job to prepare the player for the situations they were to face in the game.

I coached with a lady who complained every day about the stupidity of the players on our team, yet she never did anything to try and teach the players. We spent the entire practice before our first game going over our pre-game warm-up routine and spent the majority of our first three practices of the season teaching seven sideline out of bounds plays, yet she called the same play every time we inbounded the ball. The players did lack an understanding of how to play the game. However, she never tried to improve the situation, she put players in positions to fail and she constantly criticized the one player who did have some intelligence and tried to make plays.

Stringer’s teams always play hard, which, to me, is a sign of a good coach. However, if she feels her players have this many problems (and Vaughn is in her fourth year), something is not happening at practice or something is not transferring from practice to the games, and this is the first place for a coach to look. With Vaughn and Rushdan, it is not “what is the mistake,” as that has been established, but “why” and “how can we fix it?”

~ by Brian McCormick on January 7, 2009.