What does it take?- high school basketball

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, height is important in basketball. But on my son's private school team there are a surprising number of very skilled shorter kids on the team. My son is a legit 6-2 (meaning he is about as tall as many basketball recruits in the DMV who claim they are 6-4), and he was taller than all but a few kids on the team last year. Granted, he is not at PVI, but this is a real team. All of these super-skilled little guys are serious AAU players, and most of them them do not play much on varsity, but they are on the varsity. The local publics are loaded with shorter players (say 6-1 and under). Many teams have no size at all, probably because almost all the bigs have been recruited to the private schools.

Isn't it much easier to make most private school basketball teams vs. public school teams? A 3000 student public high school has a lot more kids trying out than a 400 student private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, height is important in basketball. But on my son's private school team there are a surprising number of very skilled shorter kids on the team. My son is a legit 6-2 (meaning he is about as tall as many basketball recruits in the DMV who claim they are 6-4), and he was taller than all but a few kids on the team last year. Granted, he is not at PVI, but this is a real team. All of these super-skilled little guys are serious AAU players, and most of them them do not play much on varsity, but they are on the varsity. The local publics are loaded with shorter players (say 6-1 and under). Many teams have no size at all, probably because almost all the bigs have been recruited to the private schools.

Isn't it much easier to make most private school basketball teams vs. public school teams? A 3000 student public high school has a lot more kids trying out than a 400 student private school.

My own experience is with a WCAC team, but, in theory, yes, it would seem that statistically speaking it is easier to make a private school team, BUT, at our WCAC school varsity and most of the jv team are recruited players. Freshman team is generally not recruited athletes, but, there may be a couple of super tall kids that do not have the skills to be on JV but coaches think they have some potential. My son's freshman year, one of these kids was entirely new to BB (but 6'5" and still growing) and was placed on freshman team. He made JV sophomore year then didn't even come back to tryout junior year. Just didn't love basketball enough to devote the time to it. This is a long-winded way to say there are very few spots at some of these schools. I'd say there are 10ish open spots for Freshman, maybe 2 for JV. None for varsity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, height is important in basketball. But on my son's private school team there are a surprising number of very skilled shorter kids on the team. My son is a legit 6-2 (meaning he is about as tall as many basketball recruits in the DMV who claim they are 6-4), and he was taller than all but a few kids on the team last year. Granted, he is not at PVI, but this is a real team. All of these super-skilled little guys are serious AAU players, and most of them them do not play much on varsity, but they are on the varsity. The local publics are loaded with shorter players (say 6-1 and under). Many teams have no size at all, probably because almost all the bigs have been recruited to the private schools.

Isn't it much easier to make most private school basketball teams vs. public school teams? A 3000 student public high school has a lot more kids trying out than a 400 student private school.

The issue is that private schools can recruit to fill their rosters from anywhere and the public schools (at least in theory) have to pull from the local area.

The result is that the hardest teams to make by a mile are the private schools that recruit for basketball.
The large public schools are the next hardest to make.
Then much much easier are the private schools that don't recruit for basketball.

[Anonymous]

My DS only played rec and made the freshman team (fcps) this year. He was 5’10”, played other travel sports, not a Bball phenom.
It can be done

[Anonymous]

DS made a competitive HS freshman team without playing "travel" basketball. Tall and played other sports, though.

[Anonymous]

WCAC Are much more competitive at the varsity level than any public schools. They can recruit and have the top coaches in the area. Their players play for EYBL teams for AAU. It doesn’t mean to take away from the public schools, but the caliber of player is higher on the private school varsity teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WCAC Are much more competitive at the varsity level than any public schools. They can recruit and have the top coaches in the area. Their players play for EYBL teams for AAU. It doesn’t mean to take away from the public schools, but the caliber of player is higher on the private school varsity teams.

Absolutely.
We happened to attend a game between two public HS teams, one of which had a player who was originally recruited by a private powerhouse school but then was sent back to his local HS (or so the story goes, don't know the details) and ended up playing on a varsity team there. OMG, the difference between that boy and his teammates - and the boys on another team - it was simply jarring. Ironically, his team didn't go far in the tournament since even the best of players can't singlehandedly win games

[Anonymous]

I took my son to a Virginia HS playoff games. We were pretty sure my son’s younger middle school (top tier) AAU team could have beaten either team. There were several very skilled players on both teams who played almost entire game but they couldn’t carry some of their teammates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took my son to a Virginia HS playoff games. We were pretty sure my son’s younger middle school (top tier) AAU team could have beaten either team. There were several very skilled players on both teams who played almost entire game but they couldn’t carry some of their teammates.

This probably isn't accurate, especially if we're talking about regional playoffs. Your son's 8th grade AAU team isn't beating a Varisty team in a regional playoff game.

[Anonymous]

Name your son’s aau team and the schools you watched?

[Anonymous]

Do kids typically know in the fall what team they'll make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do kids typically know in the fall what team they'll make?

You mean kids trying out for their local public HS basketball teams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids typically know in the fall what team they'll make?

You mean kids trying out for their local public HS basketball teams?

Yes. I was wondering since public schools in NOVA go in a fall league and players are split between jv, freshman and varsity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids typically know in the fall what team they'll make?

You mean kids trying out for their local public HS basketball teams?

Yes. I was wondering since public schools in NOVA go in a fall league and players are split between jv, freshman and varsity.

No. The fall league is an extended tryout. Several kids got cut from my son's varsity fall league team, and one was added who the coach didn't know about--he had recently moved to the area. Football players don't participate in fall league either, so that is always an added uncertainty.

[Anonymous]

So is it possible to move up a level from placement on fall league?