You’re Not Even Doing the Thing You Said You’d Do
Youth basketball programs sell two things, depending on the age group.
For the younger kids, they sell development and a love of the game. For the older kids, they sell recruitment — exposure to college coaches, a path to the next level.
Both of these are reasonable things to sell. The problem is that a lot of programs are doing the exact things that make those outcomes impossible, and everyone’s just going along with it.
The Younger Ages: You Already Know the Score
Here’s the part that drives me crazy.
A program signs up for a tournament. Same tournament they go to every year. Same teams that show up every year. The coach knows — before a ball is tipped — that his team is going to win by 40, or lose by 40. Not a guess. Not a hunch. He’s seen it.
He signs up anyway.
Why? What is the kid on the winning side learning when the outcome was decided before the drive to the gym? What is the kid on the losing side learning when they’re down 20 in the first quarter for the third year in a row?
And the one that really kills me: why would a 6th grade team schedule a game against a 4th grade team? Period. You’re two years older. The kids on the other side belong in elementary school. That’s not development. That’s the coach manufacturing a win against a team that had no business being on the floor with his roster, so the parents see a W on the weekend recap.
And the flip side is just as bad. Why would a 4th grade team that can’t win against other 4th graders ask to play up against 6th graders? You’re already losing to your peers. Now you’re going to go get run off the floor by kids who are two years bigger, stronger, and more skilled? What exactly is that supposed to teach? Playing up is for teams that have outgrown their age group. It’s not a participation trophy for a team that’s struggling. If you’re losing to kids your own age, the answer is practice, not scheduling a beating against kids who are older than you.
You chose the tournament. You chose the bracket. You knew what was coming. Don’t sell the parents “development” when what you delivered was a predictable blowout they paid $400 to watch.
The Older Ages: You Can’t Get Recruited Losing by 40
Now the older kids. Different game entirely. At this level, the whole point — the entire pitch — is recruitment. That’s why parents are paying. That’s why you’re traveling. That’s what the program’s website says you do.
So explain this: your team shows up to a recruiting event and loses by 40. What exactly just happened there?
One of three things. Either you evaluated your talent so poorly that you genuinely thought your roster could compete at that level — which means you don’t know what you’re looking at. Or you evaluated it correctly, you knew you’d get crushed, and you went anyway — which means you don’t know what you’re doing. Or you had the talent to compete and still got blown out — which means you’re a bad coach who couldn’t get his players ready or make adjustments when it mattered.
Could be more than one. Often is.
But here’s the thing nobody wants to say out loud: no college coach is writing down the name of a kid on a team that lost 85-42. That’s not how recruiting works. A kid gets noticed by playing well in a competitive game. They don’t get noticed getting steamrolled. They don’t get noticed on the blowout side either — a kid putting up 30 on a team that couldn’t guard a folding chair doesn’t help his film.
So if the point is recruitment, and you’re entering events where your kids can’t possibly look good, you are actively working against the thing you told parents you’d do.
That’s not exposure. That’s the opposite of exposure. That’s putting your players in front of the exact people you want to impress and guaranteeing they won’t be impressed.
The Common Thread
Different ages, different purposes, same failure. The program took the parents’ money and then put the kids in situations that made the stated goal impossible.
At the younger ages, you can’t develop players or teach them to love basketball by scheduling games where the outcome is known in advance. At the older ages, you can’t get players recruited by scheduling games where they’ll never get a fair look.
You chose the roster. You chose the tournament. You chose the competition. When the scoreboard tells the same story every weekend — either way — that’s not bad luck. That’s you failing to do the one thing you said you were there to do.
But hey. At least they paid their dues.