The Endless Summer: Notes for team camps
Hundreds of high school basketball programs about the state are headed into the team camp portion of the summer, while dozens of others have already started this period. According to the , the next two weekends are yellow weekends, also known…
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Continue ReadingHundreds of high school basketball programs about the state are headed into the team camp portion of the summer, while dozens of others have already started this period. According to the , the next two weekends are yellow weekends, also known as the quiet period, where college recruiters’ allowance to speak with recruits is reduced to on-campus visits, strictly.
Team camps, unlike AAU tournaments, are scholastic events, where athletes compete for their high schools in several scrimmages during a week- or weekend-long, round-robin bracket with no playoff or bracket advancement.. These events are usually hosted by a school or a school district and spread across multiple gyms. Though scores are kept in these contests, they are not reflected on any record and are essentially meant as a gauge for a team’s collective progress.
In these scrimmages, high school coaches are able to lock-in their starters for the upcoming season, establish their bench, test newcomers and underclassmen and work on situational playmaking that isn’t so easily replicated in practice. All of this can be accomplished under the blanket of repetition, as teams can play a dozen or more games during these camps.
I will have the privilege of making the hour-and-a-half drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma to watch players and teams at the University of Tulsa team camp.
While my high school basketball career wasn’t so memorable and discontinued a year early, I did participate in team camps all four years, playing a more extensive role in my junior and senior seasons. I know the process well. Because of that, I have some advice to lend to high school prospects headed into their respective team camps this period:
Have fun.
I fear that folks in the media (like me) have fostered an environment that is often too pressuring on you high school recruits; you’re expected to show out each time they step in the gym, conduct yourselves professionally in the presence of college coaches and value individualism more than altruism. In a response to this pressure, you do exactly as you’re told, acting as hyper-focused machines and denying yourselves of some of the best parts of sport — a belief I will subject my readers to more than once in this column.
Further, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you squander the opportunity to make memories with your friends. Your eleventh man is going to knock one down from 30 feet out. A freshman is going to throw up because he downed too many nachos before a scrimmage. Your best shooter is going to air-ball a shot. Somebody will smoke a layup. You’re going to beat a team that you shouldn’t beat and you’ll lose a game you shouldn’t lose. Take the good with the bad, get to know your teammates and have fun with it.
Another aspect of team camp that I love is this: this is the opportunity to make mistakes at-pace. One of my favorite facets of sport, especially team sport, is that you realize that you aren’t infallible on an applicable scale that you can choose to improve upon. For example; if your 3-point field goal percentage wasn’t quite-so-handsome in 2018, work on your shot selection at team camp. If you missed open passes last year, take a few more gambles to feel the floor out. If you have a set of new post moves you’ve been working on, try them out. You’re going to play a lot of games. So use it.
I don’t mean to cheapen competition. I don’t mean to say that marketing yourself is unimportant. All of the things I just mentioned are undeniably valuable to players with hopes to play at the college level. . I fully understand the importance of taking the measures and sacrifices to achieve your goals.
Just don’t sacrifice having fun.
Contact Prep Hoops author Bryce McKinnis via Twitter @McKinnisBryce for story suggestions or other inquiries.