question concerning prospect evaluation skip.
way, way back in the day when the 5-star camp was really the only big stage where college coaches could see the best of the best prospects matched head to head the story told was it was a huge advantage because you had players of similar size, physical skill sets etc.. going head to head.
now we have the travel teams and national tournament where you get a similar environment in terms of players matching up against player of physical skill sets, size, etc.... a guy like archie who might be playing close to the basket with his high school team gets to play out on the floor against true competition
i understand the defense often times is token, that there really isn't much structure offense, but i have been to a few with friends to watch their kids and you still could see which kids would be willing to compete, who was physically over matched, who could dribble and who could shoot.
ball is the same size, hoop is same diameter and height from the floor etc....so why does it seem there have been the number of misses when you have an environment that allows some comparison
this isn't like a kid who is a highly regarded defensive end prospect who never faces an offensive tackle who is college prospect talent wise during a real game or a hitter in baseball who never faces a pitcher who can throw a breaking pitch for a strike until he gets to college.
basketball to me has some very basic, transferable, individual skills that can be meausured against other college prospects
Eight-
That's a lot of stuff to unpack.
I made a post awhile back about AAU culture and some it's downfalls (emphasis isn't on winning due to number of games played in a single day, etc).
But, I think your question is regarding the way players are evaluated.
I also did a post recently about why I thought the recruiting services are flawed and how the star ratings are inaccurate and inefficient. The basic issues being that the recruiting services rate more on what they currently see, where college coaches and scouts are projecting what a player will become. The recruiting services also depend too much on which AAU team a particular kid plays for.
To be fair, it's harder to project kids on the AAU circuits, due to what you mentioned.
All that being said, player evaluation is the rarest of skills a coach can have. There are a lot of really good coaches who aren't good at talent evaluation.
So.... how do scouts project a player?
You hear scouts talk about "skinny ankles", "frame to grow into", "quick-twitch", etc. when describing players. I've known college coaches who who wouldn't offer a player because he was "already fully developed physically and wouldn't get any better". Everybody is different in what they are looking for.
Unfortunately, things like 'desire', 'toughness' and 'wanting to be the best' are harder to quantify. But, those are as big a factor in development as the physical skills.
One common denominator I have noticed over the years is-
Coaches who have specific skills they are looking for and recruit players that 'fit' what they want to do, seem to be the most successful.
