How do you teach confidence?

Stryker coach Steve Brown pointed out that Edgerton had superior height and impressive depth in terms of team talent. But his players have been competing in recent years against fellow Stryker players such as the Boetz triplets and they have all matured and grown confident from that routine. The Lady Bulldogs started the Tuesday night game in a dazed and confused state and are playing far below their talent level. With seven losses, Edgerton coach Kelly Thiel is scratching her head wondering when her players will step up and move toward a better effort paced by improving their confidence.

Brooke Riehle is a proven star for Edgerton with wit, style, size, and athletic ability. But most telling of Edgerton's chemistry and confidence issues, she did not score a point against Stryker. She had numerous opportunities for shots in the lane but seemed unsure of her position on the floor and seldom had a good touch on the shot. The general scoring frustrations around the area, it seems to many observers, is focused on so few players being able to create easier shots.

Meanwhile, senior Brooke Hancock is a much stronger and more creative player this year compared to last year for Stryker. She had several slick drives and moves to the basket and rarely, as she did last year, is content to stand on the perimeter and look for the long three ball.

The impact of the three-point line still seems negative to many veteran observers. Much of the local high school game is set up based on most players standing around or rotating to the outside of the arc. Few players can post up, head fake, drop step, or be creative in making shots on short-range areas in the lane. What happened to between the legs dribble moves, cross-over dribbles, hook shots, and up and under moves to create easier shots? It seems like the local high school game is digressing in some ways thus the low scoring contests with many boys and girls teams struggling to score more than 40 points on any given night. It's like a throwback to the 1950s to report now that most game-high scorers were limited to only 12 or 15 points.

An old coach of mine in the late 1960s said an above-average athlete should be able to score 25 points every game. His formula per game? Five outsides shots made (no three pointers back then) gets 10 points, two steals for layups makes four more points. Three hustle plays gets three easy follow-up offensive rebound baskets or "garbage points" for six more points. Five times to the foul line guarantees five more points and presto that's 25 points and routine back in the "old days." That mindset and more helped the late, great Pistol Pete Maravich set the average per game scoring NCAA record of 44 points per contest when he played college ball for LSU. There were no three-point lines back then and if so Pete would have averaged more than 50. The most creative scoring whiz of all time was constantly double-teamed, too.

Next week I'll get to see Steve Curry at Davidson College in North Carolina play live and in person. He seems to be the first player in many years with the knack and the creative wizardry to hit for 40 or more points in a single college game. His ability to get open, create shots, and hit from all over the floor, might offer insight for local high school players after reporting on watching Curry close up and in person.

This is from Mike Brown, but we're still trying to figure out how this blog works so I'm posting it...