Terrible teammate for travel basketball tryout

[Anonymous]

My son was in a tryout for a travel basketball team where the whole tryout was a series of scrimmages. There was a ball hog who couldn’t play on his team.

Ball hog wouldn’t pass and kept playing hero ball. Could not make his shots. 2 out of 3 games, this kid was out of control and short of grabbing the ball away from him there was not much any other players on the team could do. They lost the first two games.

Finally in the third game my son and the other players got together and locked the ball hog out. No one would pass to him. They finally won a game, and my son was able to make some great plays.

My son’s really down bc he thinks ball hog ruined his tryout. How likely is it that the coaches caught what was going on? How do you think it will affect how my son was assessed?

[Anonymous]

What is the age group? And are the coaches experienced?

[Anonymous]

That's how basketball tryouts go. They really favor the guards and ball hogs and kids good with actually basketball skills e.g., passing, teamwork, moving the ball around, cutting, picks etc get overlooked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the age group? And are the coaches experienced?

7th grade

Not sure of the experience of coaches. Hope they are experienced enough to get what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's how basketball tryouts go. They really favor the guards and ball hogs and kids good with actually basketball skills e.g., passing, teamwork, moving the ball around, cutting, picks etc get overlooked.

We found the same with soccer tryouts, particularly when the kids were young. "Smart, intuitive players' were overlooked---going to space to receive pass, making runs, giving up the ball for a great pass (to never get it back by a kid that just ball hogged, dribbled into the ground and lost it". It became crazy like you are telling your kids to play bad, do things that go against good play just to get noticed by the vast majority of coaches that really don't know sh*t.

For us, it just meant we had to shop around Clubs, watch coaches and teams and how they played. As my kids got older, it became less of an issue. And, college scouts really notice the unobvious to novices: the kid that knows where to move, where to be and creates opportunities.

[Anonymous]

From what I have found most of the tryout happens long before tryouts take place. What team has your kid been playing with? If he’s good, the coach will have heard of him already.

[Anonymous]

You need to play differently at tryouts. Coaches should see right through that behavior but will also reward the kids who know to stop it. Did they speak up to have the ball passed to them? Being loud is a skill coaches look for so next time, tell your son to speak up loudly for the ball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's how basketball tryouts go. They really favor the guards and ball hogs and kids good with actually basketball skills e.g., passing, teamwork, moving the ball around, cutting, picks etc get overlooked.

Only if there are so few kids that those kids have to stay on the court. During the tryout for my kid's current team, the coaches where constantly shuffling teams and moving then kids to an auxiliary gym until they ended up with 10 kids playing each other in the main gym. Unsurprisingly, those ten kids are the A team now. They made B and C teams out of the kids in the aux gym.

[Anonymous]

What team has tryouts now? Is this for AAU?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son was in a tryout for a travel basketball team where the whole tryout was a series of scrimmages. There was a ball hog who couldn’t play on his team.

Ball hog wouldn’t pass and kept playing hero ball. Could not make his shots. 2 out of 3 games, this kid was out of control and short of grabbing the ball away from him there was not much any other players on the team could do. They lost the first two games.

Finally in the third game my son and the other players got together and locked the ball hog out. No one would pass to him. They finally won a game, and my son was able to make some great plays.

My son’s really down bc he thinks ball hog ruined his tryout. How likely is it that the coaches caught what was going on? How do you think it will affect how my son was assessed?

Unfortunately your son may be right that it negatively impacted the tryout. Lots of coaches overvalue “aggressiveness” and undervalue basketball IQ and teamwork.

It sounds like your kid dealt with the issue, but for other parents whose kids experience this — I can share what worked for my son. DS, who is most comfortable as a catch and shoot player, had a similar situation at a showcase. Lots of kids who thought they were the best player on the floor, lots of hero ball and no passing. He barely touched the ball in the first scrimmage, so he called his trainer between games. Trainer said “Control everything you can control, take the ball rather than waiting for passes, and score on putbacks.” Next two games, DS got a ton of rebounds and a couple of steals. He still passed, but he followed the ball in to the basket and got several put backs. On a couple of rebounds, he made the outlet pass, then sprinted down and was wide open under the basket so got the pass. It seems like when all the kids are focused on playing hero ball, often basic effort stuff (getting back on d) suffers, so a kid who learns to take advantage of that can have success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's how basketball tryouts go. They really favor the guards and ball hogs and kids good with actually basketball skills e.g., passing, teamwork, moving the ball around, cutting, picks etc get overlooked.

Only if there are so few kids that those kids have to stay on the court. During the tryout for my kid's current team, the coaches where constantly shuffling teams and moving then kids to an auxiliary gym until they ended up with 10 kids playing each other in the main gym. Unsurprisingly, those ten kids are the A team now. They made B and C teams out of the kids in the aux gym.

Correct. The tryout from the OP sounds like an awful coached team. A good run tryout should have about 50% drills and 50% scrimmages. The drills would be as simple as shooting drills, lay-ups, passing, fast break, etc. and should be applicable to the game. Any try out that is just basically scrimmages is a coach that either has team set and going through the motions or one by a coach that isn't very good or organized.

After drills scrimmages should have players moving in and out of line-ups as coaches look for combination of players they want. Not all the best athletes or tallest players make a good travel team. Good coaches look for more than the hero ball and will look at how a kid plays defense, is a glue guy, does he rebound, can he shoot, etc. but, as the tryout goes along you can see what players the coach wants or is looking at. But, I have seen coaches take really good players and move them to a B court to see how the player reacts to adversity. i.e., is the kid going to pout or step up his game.

Saying that there is an element of hero ball in tryouts.

[Anonymous]

Any recs for good travel teams that have tryouts still to come or will consider 1:1 tryout? Most of the tryouts for AAU teams were in the spring, but I hear some teams may be doing tryouts in the late summer/fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What team has tryouts now? Is this for AAU?

The AAU season is more than half way over, may a county team playing summer league?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any recs for good travel teams that have tryouts still to come or will consider 1:1 tryout? Most of the tryouts for AAU teams were in the spring, but I hear some teams may be doing tryouts in the late summer/fall.

regional and national tournaments are in July. E-mail coaches in August about playing in the fall. Not all teams will play in the fall though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any recs for good travel teams that have tryouts still to come or will consider 1:1 tryout? Most of the tryouts for AAU teams were in the spring, but I hear some teams may be doing tryouts in the late summer/fall.

Many teams are gearing up for the Fairfax Stars summer league, which will have a combo of AAU and county teams and county+rec teams (duct-taped together at the last moment). What is your closest county league/club? I'd reach out to them/look on their websites. And even if you can't get on a team, they probably would invite you to their summer open gyms, which is a way to scout/recruit for fall.