High School Basketball Is Boring: Coaches Not Teaching Fundamentals

In the last five years of attending high school basketball games, the offensive sets of most teams have forsaken the time honored and proven fundamentals of basketball.  That is the pick and roll...going to the hoop by creating a two on one, the back door, and the offside pick to get the wing open for a lay-up. 

Not in all cases, however. In the last six weeks, I have seen about 17 games. North Central did a good job of the fundamentals, Lawrence North needs some work, Marion looked great and are using picks away from the ball better than most, Columbus North only sets picks to pass parallel to the goal, which doesn't do much to score a basket, the same with Columbus East.

Bloomington South was shying away, but with their speed and ability to score in transition, they have the fundamentals down. 

My main concern is the basics of basketball.  I have played the game for 40 years; man, that is a long time.  I was never great, just mediocre at best.  However, with the fundamentals, even I can get an open lay-up.

In looking at the shot selection, many of the teams, the low-scoring teams, are taking a majority of their shots from behind the three-point line.  But they are passing a lot, looking for the open man underneath.  The bad aspect of this is if someone would set a pick and it was used correctly, more passes could be completed to an "open" man underneath the basket.

I am not sorry that this sounds like criticism, because it is being critical of the coaching capabilities of some of the coaches.  The most basic element of basketball, the pick, is not being taught correctly.  The guards are not using the pick.

Oh, the pick is there, but the guard is not running to the pick; he is—and this is true for 99 percent of the players—going wide enough that the defender cannot just slip through the pick, but can run past the pick. 

Don't the coaches see this?  More later, gotta go install a sign, then play some ball tonight.

...esm