Regular Season Nov 8, 2009
|
|
|
|
It's that time of the year again when the best athletes in school shed shoulder pads for gym shorts so we wondered, what are some of the obstacles players — and basketball coaches — face when transitioning from football to basketball season?
|
Eric Burnett
Har-Ber basketball |
 | The biggest thing is trying to get them in shape. The basketball players that play football aren't quote ready for basketball so just trying to get them back in basketball-playing shape. In football, they run a play and then take 25 seconds off, then another play and then another 25 seconds off and so on. Basketball is moving constantly, so that's one of the big differences between being a football player and a basketball player. |
|
Barry Gebhart
Fayetteville basketball |
 | There's just a big difference all around. It's becoming more and more difficult for football players to come in because basketball is a skill game. I always explain it like this: Everybody in basketball is a quarterback and a receiver and you want your quarterback and receivers catching and throwing year round. I'm not against football players, but when they don't touch a basketball from June to December, it's hard to really improve a lot. |
|
Jason McMahan
Siloam Springs basketball |
 | For us, my biggest concern is I don't want to give anyone false expectations. I want kids to play as many sports as they can and be successful. The basketball starters are usually really good athletes and last year, five of our top eight basketball players were football players, so there is always going to be some that plays. The main thing is not to give false expectations to the kids who are in offseason that they might be the starter when you know a really good football player is going to come in and be the starter. |
|
Beau Thompson
Farmington basketball |
 | For a player to transition, it’s just a different kind of shape than basketball is. Typically, what you see early in the season, teams that press a lot and have good guards take advantage of team that have a lot of football players. It also all rounds out later in the season, so you see a lot of pressing teams that don’t make it far in the postseason. As a coach, if you have a lot of footballers, you find yourself cramming early in the season and you have to simplify your game plan a lot because you cannot plan for everything that will happen in a game when you only have two or three practices before that first game. It’s also an advantage not having guys in the gym getting burned out and where they peak too early when you want your team to kind of peak about the district tournament. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
