Finally He Makes It Painfully Clear

[RockyMTblue2]

I was making a post about 3 hours ago and my machine frozen with a pop up message. Essentially I was going to say this. Geno saved me the trouble.

You’re a program that doesn’t have to go on the road and play these high risk games. Why do you do it?

“I do it because I’m trying to increase the chance we lose. Because we win too much, and it doesn’t help us to win that much and it doesn’t help us get better. It used to be that kids were so competitive and they were so driven to win that you didn’t have to worry about that stuff. In today’s world kids aren’t motivated by much, so you’re trying to put them in situations where they have to struggle to win. So our schedule’s even harder next year.

“So yeah, I want them to grow; I want them to get better. I want them to see what it’s like to have the things that you want to try and the thing that always work not work, and you have to figure out a different way to do it. I don’t think we should shy away from that just because we want to protect our record. I mean, we’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve been coaching. How many places can I take my team where there’s a good chance we’re going to lose? "

Lots of fine Geno stuff here.

What Geno Auriemma had to say about UConn’s loss to Louisville - Hartford Courant

Kids today. Sigh.

 

[willtalk]

I was making a post about 3 hours ago and my machine frozen with a pop up message. Essentially I was going to say this. Geno saved me the trouble.
In today’s world kids aren’t motivated by much, so you’re trying to put them in situations where they have to struggle to win. So our schedule’s even harder next year.--------------------------------------
Kids today. Sigh.

This is exactly what I have been posting about. The change in the type of recruits coming out of high school. They do not have the same degree of self motivation that they used to have. It was that motivation that made them chose Uconn and Geno's program in order to become the best players they could be. Today they will settle for less as Stevens did when she left early. I am not saying this is wrong, but that is just todays reality.

What needs to be understood is that todays players, with a few exceptions, have spent far more time developing their basketball skills than most players did in the past. If you follow high school and AAU you can see this first hand. They play ball almost year round and constantly are honing their skills with personal trainers. Their individual skill level is already well developed when they come to college and so development is less important. You see this in the raised skill level of players now compared to the past. In ESPN's top 100 a rating of "96" was not to long ago the top rating received by few. In the 2019 the 96's fall between the 43 and 53 ranked players. The amount of time required of girls basketball is so intensive now that Mo'ni' Davis had a snow balls chance in he!! of competing with others with the amount of effort she chose to put into basketball. In todays reality the only real projects programs take on are very tall post players who generally develop later anyway.

In todays reality, girls have already spent so much time on basketball that most are not that enthused ( burn out ) about spending more than necessary in college. There frankly is not that much individual skill top side skill left for them to develop. What is basically left is integrating the individual skill into a team dynamic. To put it simply, there are progressively fewer recruits coming out of high school who want to commit to a highly challenging developmental program like Uconn. This certainly diminishes the number of players that would qualify to fit the profile of past Uconn type players.

 

[Plebe]

Worth repeating:

I do it because I'm trying to increase the chance we lose.

 

[EricLA]

Worth repeating:

I do it because I'm trying to increase the chance we lose.

EXCEPT for in the tourneys!

 

[Centerstream]

"I do it because I'm trying to increase the chance we lose."

I guess that 111 game winning streak put a damper on his "goal"

 

[HuskyNan]

"I do it because I'm trying to increase the chance we lose."

I guess that 111 game winning streak put a damper on his "goal"

It’s a different generation of players now. I see it at work. The young people have their ear buds in and are surfing on their phones every time I go by their cubicle. If they screw up, they don’t understand why the boss is angry with them because they were always given praise for showing up and looking like they were kinda trying up til then.

It was a sudden and dramatic change. When my youngest son was a senior in high school, he was disgusted with the freshmen. He said they didn’t work hard at anything and didn’t try to figure out how to solve problems. He offered that opinion - unsolicited- as an 18 year old in 2015.

 

[Centerstream]

It’s a different generation of players now. I see it at work. The young people have their ear buds in and are surfing on their phones every time I go by their cubicle. If they screw up, they don’t understand why the boss is angry with them because they were always given praise for showing up and looking like they were kinda trying up til then.

It was a sudden and dramatic change. When my youngest son was a senior in high school, he was disgusted with the freshmen. He said they didn’t work hard at anything and didn’t try to figure out how to solve problems. He offered that opinion - unsolicited- as an 18 year old in 2015.

And there is a term, not allowed on the BY, for this generation. Hmm.
I also believe that the people of my generation (baby boomers) were the ones that started this because we wanted our kids to have it a little easier than we and our parents had it. Then the next generation took the same approach and so on.
Frankly it scares the hell out of me. Can we imagine what it is going to look like when a generation of people are raised not ever having to drive a car due to self driving cars? I am positive that Geno will not be coaching when that happens...

 

[HuskyNan]

And there is a term, not allowed on the BY, for this generation. Hmm.
I also believe that the people of my generation (baby boomers) were the ones that started this because we wanted our kids to have it a little easier than we and our parents had it. Then the next generation took the same approach and so on.
Frankly it scares the hell out of me. Can we imagine what it is going to look like when a generation of people are raised not ever having to drive a car due to self driving cars? I am positive that Geno will not be coaching when that happens...

Have you seen the Pixar movie Wall-E?

 

[Bama fan]

Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way?

 

[Centerstream]

Have you seen the Pixar movie Wall-E? View attachment 39043

I have not, but with a 2 1/2 yo grandson I am guessing that I will be seeing it sometime. (Right now it is the Cars dvds)

 

[RockyMTblue2]

We are training our children and grandchildren to have the attention span of gnats. Human physiology (including the brain) is being altered by the apple of every 40 and under person. We are doomed.

 

[BroadwayVa]

WAy back 2000 years ago a Greek philosopher lament on the state of the current generation they he and every generation after him thought the next was going to hell in a row boat and never amount to anything---the kids fooled him and each made the world easier and better to live in--think of the kings of 1880--they didn't live as comfortably as the poorest today.