Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="UcMiami, post: 5060098, member: 199"] No question practice time has been an issue which is why they instituted the 'pool' concept and mini-training camps every few months. But it also points to another issue - playing internationally for young pros exposed them to multiple coaching situations and systems each year. They became 'fast learners' and adept at adjusting to a variety of very different teammates which helps when being thrown together onto the national team. While I certainly think it helps playing with WNBA teammates, I think that is a double edged sword - if three of the players on the floor are playing together, what are the other two players doing? Are they trying to run Aces plays? Are they all trying to run Lynx plays? What are they actually doing? I think DT and Sue were special because they were chameleons - they wanted to and were adept at adjusting their game play to the skills of whoever they were playing with and being coached by. You want the ball passed to your left hand four feet behind the line at 38 degrees off the baseline - got it; You want the entry pass high on your right hand as you cut into the restricted area - perfect. They made everything easy for the coaches and the administrators choosing the team. And by the time they owned the team (2008), they had played 3/5 years overseas on 'all star' teams under international rules. In the last few cycles they were also the only members of the team that remembered failure - the Bronze at the 2006 WC. The current guards (and the ones who have come and gone over the last two cycles) appear to want to play 'their game' and not to adapt to whatever the national team wants/needs. It is the situation the men's national team has had to deal with over the years, and what they seem to have solved in recent years by selecting a few guards that aren't superstars, but are the ones who can adapt their games to support what the coaches/teams need. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

Forum statistics

Threads: 164,433

Messages: 4,396,157

Members: 10,209

Latest member: gemini*trvl