What The Heck’s The Matter With Kentucky?

[JavaMan]

With several conspiracy theories swirling around the women’s basketball world this week, there was a surprising blast of candor as well, an attempt to answer a vexing question that I think is a lot more compelling in the sport than the media focus elsewhere:

What the heck’s the matter with Kentucky?

...since the end of the season, two more players have transferred and a McDonald’s All-American signee has asked out of her letter of intent. More shockingly, Mitchell’s entire staff has departed, and not for the first time.

He fired one of his assistants, Adeniyi Amadou, while Tamika Williams-Jeter and Camryn Whitaker resigned this week. Mitchell re-hired Kyra Elzy, dismissed at Tennessee, and who on staff during his successful early tenure at Kentucky.

In an unusual news conference Wednesday, and in separate interviews with local media, Mitchell said responsibility falls on him and what he admitted was a chaotic management style that included communications problems, mistakes in hiring staff members and wanting to spend time with his family.

What I didn’t understand then was the cultural change afoot with a younger generation of players that many coaches have admitted they are struggling to reach.

In a blistering piece this week at ESPN.com, boys talent evaluator Dave Telep wrote about the “entitlement culture” in youth basketball that he believes is getting worse. Since he started scouting in 1997, he noted, “I’ve witnessed a gradual decline in the attitudes of the players, the priorities of their parents and the overall state of the game.”

Nearly every day at the Women’s Final Four, UConn coach Geno Auriemma echoed similar sentiments.

In the women’s game, this disconnect can help explain, to some degree, the rash of transfers and complaints of mistreatment and lawsuits at all levels of the sport. For Kentucky women’s basketball, the issues have been different, but no less perplexing.

Wendy Parker’s Full Article [HERE]

​

 

[bags27]

New York Times Magazine this past week: "What's the Matter with College Basketball" (which assumes that there is only one gender who plays basketball, but that's another matter).
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/magazine/whats-the-matter-with-college-basketball.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/magazine&action=click&contentCollection=magazine&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=A4A80EA41C89B1009DDEF0FBEEEA4523&gwt=pay

 

[UcMiami]

This one is old news - any reason for resurrecting it?

I think better than this article is the link to the ESPN story re the boys:
The entitlement culture of elite HS hoops

It deals more with the core issues, unrelated to an school.

And while the women are less advanced along this path, they are heading down it too. Geno weeds out a lot of that with his selective recruiting, but other coaches are as selective or don't have that luxury.

 

[BroadwayVa]

With several conspiracy theories swirling around the women’s basketball world this week, there was a surprising blast of candor as well, an attempt to answer a vexing question that I think is a lot more compelling in the sport than the media focus elsewhere:

What the heck’s the matter with Kentucky?

...since the end of the season, two more players have transferred and a McDonald’s All-American signee has asked out of her letter of intent. More shockingly, Mitchell’s entire staff has departed, and not for the first time.

He fired one of his assistants, Adeniyi Amadou, while Tamika Williams-Jeter and Camryn Whitaker resigned this week. Mitchell re-hired Kyra Elzy, dismissed at Tennessee, and who on staff during his successful early tenure at Kentucky.

In an unusual news conference Wednesday, and in separate interviews with local media, Mitchell said responsibility falls on him and what he admitted was a chaotic management style that included communications problems, mistakes in hiring staff members and wanting to spend time with his family.

What I didn’t understand then was the cultural change afoot with a younger generation of players that many coaches have admitted they are struggling to reach.

In a blistering piece this week at ESPN.com, boys talent evaluator Dave Telep wrote about the “entitlement culture” in youth basketball that he believes is getting worse. Since he started scouting in 1997, he noted, “I’ve witnessed a gradual decline in the attitudes of the players, the priorities of their parents and the overall state of the game.”

Nearly every day at the Women’s Final Four, UConn coach Geno Auriemma echoed similar sentiments.

In the women’s game, this disconnect can help explain, to some degree, the rash of transfers and complaints of mistreatment and lawsuits at all levels of the sport. For Kentucky women’s basketball, the issues have been different, but no less perplexing.

Wendy Parker’s Full Article [HERE]

​

Geno started the complaint nearly 10 years about the different attitudes and what the new generation expected. He changed his style a bit to compensate and for compatibility--never doubt however, who is in charge.
Tamika Williams --is this her 3 or 4th team. ???
So the kentucky coach blames wanting more family time"?? He can give up the 1 mill per and get a nice McD job and maybe be home more often for 8 dollars an hour.
Society created the expectations of these kids--and now some in that society are complaining/>//???

 

[Kibitzer]

What's wrong at Kentucky appears to be Coach Mitchell's inability to either inspire confidence in or connect with his staff, his players or recruits. Geno Muffet, Dawn, Tara, Quentin, and many others do and that's why they enjoy sustained success. (Hmm. Add Jen and Carla to that list.)

 

[ThisJustIn]

It starts and ends at the top with the "adults" involved. They're supposed to teach balance, but the fear of losing out on a recruit - be it for their team or their AAU/HS program's benefit, they sell players and parents a bill of goods. Whose head WOULDN'T swell with all that noise?

 

[UcMiami]

What's wrong at Kentucky appears to be Coach Mitchell's inability to either inspire confidence in or connect with his staff, his players or recruits. Geno Muffet, Dawn, Tara, Quentin, and many others do and that's why they enjoy sustained success. (Hmm. Add Jen and Carla to that list.)

Teams are strange beasts, and you never know exactly where the rot starts when things go bad. It was interesting that the one player who went to Western KY when she did make a comment said that it was when Harper left school that things changed - that she had been the player who was the gravitational center and her departure fractured the team.
Geno and CD have been able to count on the older players to a degree that many programs struggle with - the culture is established early in the summer when the new players arrive by the returning players and it is perpetuated - and the coaches actually have it easier than many other places. Doesn't hurt that they are generally very successful and often are wearing new bling they earned the year before - always gives the returning players a little more credibility.

It is much harder if the coaches are the ones trying to establish the culture, and that also gets to the type of players recruited and the player input in that process - Geno can always turn around and say to his team leaders - 'you told me to offer her, now you straighten her ____ out!' sort of like 'you committed the fouls, what you looking at me for?!'

 

[Hoopz]

Old news but it sounds like a perfect storm of a coach that's out of touch and a couple of entitled players that may have helped influence the avalanche of player departures. It's pretty sad that kids no longer think they have to earn PT.