Please Use a Different Word
Every parent who has ever called us about their player has used the same word.
"He's good."
"She's really good."
"She played good last weekend."
We hear it constantly, and every single time, we have to figure out what it actually means — because "good" by itself tells us almost nothing about a player, their development, or whether they're on track for their next step.
At Hoops College, evaluation is central to everything we do. And real evaluation requires something that word doesn't give you: context.
**Good Compared to What?**
"Good" is a relative word that most people use like it's absolute. Good relative to the rec league? Good relative to the AAU circuit? Good relative to what a high-major college program is looking for? Those are completely different standards, and collapsing them all into one word creates a gap between where a player thinks they are and where they actually stand.
We see it in players who've been told they're good for so long that they're blindsided the first time they face real competition. Not because they lack talent — sometimes they have plenty — but because no one ever held the word up to the light.
**The Shot That Went In**
Here's a concrete example of why this matters: shots are not good shots just because they went in.
A player hits a heavily contested pull-up with a hand in their face. Everyone on the sideline says "great shot." But that shot went in once. At the next level, with better length and better defenders, that same shot misses most of the time. If we let the result define the evaluation, we reinforce a decision-making habit that will eventually get that player in trouble.
This is not about being hard on players. It's about being honest with them about the difference between a good result and a good process.
**Clips Are Not Evaluation**
The way player footage circulates now makes this harder. A highlight reel of five great plays out of fifty possessions tells a story that the full film might completely contradict. Recruiting services assign rankings. Parents share clips. Everyone sees the peaks and almost no one sees the floor.
We watch both. We look at what a player does consistently, not just what they do occasionally. That's the version of "good" that transfers — to the next level, to the next program, to a coach who is watching the full game, not the reel.
**What We Actually Measure**
At Hoops College, we're evaluating players every session:
- **Decision quality**, not just results — did the player make the right read, even if the outcome was bad? - **Habit formation** — are the things they do well durable habits, or are they situational? - **Competition context** — do their strengths show up against better defenders, or only in controlled settings? - **Floor-raising**, not just ceiling-peeking — can they play well without scoring? Are they valuable when the shot isn't falling?
You can play a great game without taking a shot. You can score 15 points and play poorly. None of that gets captured in one word.
**The Question Worth Asking**
If you want to give your player something more useful than reassurance, start asking more specific questions after games. Not "did you play good?" but: What decisions did you make well? What reads did you miss? Were you good enough to guard your assignment?
These questions are harder. They're also the ones that actually move a player forward.
If you want an honest evaluation of where your player stands — not a highlights reel, not a ranking, not a word that tells you nothing — that's what we do. Read Aram's full essay on this at aramparunak.com for more on why "good" might be the most dangerous word in player development.
Aram writes about basketball, teaching, and standards at aramparunak.com. The essays are the long version of what we believe.