Time To Protect Basketball's Future

Just when you might have thought basketball season was over for our high school-age youngsters, well, it isn't.
In fact, it really never ends.
Summertime, especially July, means meat-market time. It's when the shoe companies and and all the ancillary hangers-on around the game join with the AAU tournament circuit to peddle all that flesh covered by jerseys, baggy shorts and sneakers.
"It's out of control," says Steve Witty, who coached back-to-back champions at Ben Davis High School in 1995-96 and now is in his sixth year as executive director of the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA).
His IBCA leadership role - combined with growing national concern about the quantity and quality of youth basketball in the country - was the reason Witty was in San Antonio for the recent NCAA men's basketball Final Four. Witty is second vice president of a fledgling national organization for high school basketball coaches designed to give them greater face and voice in resolving significant issues facing the game.
The group, called the National High School Basketball Coaches Directory, is particularly concerned with the growing influence of summertime AAU basketball and how it can have a detrimental impact on the game overall.
"What we see is kids spending too much time playing games in the summer and not enough time working on their games," Witty says. "In Indiana, for example, a three-year starter on a high school team might play 60 to 90 games over the course of his career. That same player might play as many as 50 to 100 games in a single summer for his AAU coach. So you have to ask, who has the biggest influence?
"Now I'm not saying all AAU coaches are bad, but some don't have the best interests of their players in mind."
While acknowledging there is no quick fix, Witty's group did begin dialogue with the leadership of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The (Indianapolis-based) National Federation of High School Associations also has expressed a desire for the high school coaches to have a greater voice.
Not coincidentally, while all this was going on, NCAA President Myles Brand and National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner David Stern announced in San Antonio that their organizations also were joining hands in addressing a broad spectrum of youth basketball initiatives.
Needless to say, then, there is genuine concern, deservedly so, about the current state of American basketball. Most would agree - and yours truly is among them - that the game is in a state of decline. While basketball features increasing athleticism, there seem to be fewer skills involved. For example, during the recent NCAA tournament, I lost count of the number of times an offensive player would drive to the hoop in an attempt to dunk - often drawing an offensive foul - instead of driving, pulling up and hitting a short to mid-range jump shot.
Then again, that's me, an admitted old fogy.
Yet one can't deny the increasing number of European players who, blessed with fundamental soundness and outstanding jump-shooting ability, are making their mark in the collegiate ranks, the NBA and without question in international competition.
Witty said he's had feedback from college coaches who are frustrated by the fact that they have to scout potential recruits more in summer game situations and less in individual drills that would better help them evaluate a player's skill level in fundamentals.
That's why, with the IHSAA's sanction, the IBCA puts on two "showcase" workouts for the top boys and girls underclassmen in Indiana. While the athletes do compete in games, they spend more time going through drills at 12 stations, each under the supervision of a high school coach.
Another beneficial move by the IHSAA has been its decision to allow high school coaches to work with their players during the summer months.
At the very least, both in Indiana and now nationally, there is serious recognition of the need to safeguard the great game of basketball and those who play it, coach it, and love it. I'm not saying we need to replace the nets with peach baskets, but to forget the game's past is to risk losing its future.