@DanR said in Texas Southern Game Thread:
It really is amazing how horrible big men are as freshmen. I don't know if it's just that they finally play against guys their own height or if pre-college coaching for bigs is non-existent. Sure, they make a big dunk or impressive block once in a while, but otherwise they're like a chunk of gravel stuck in the machinery
It's all of those things combined.
In HS, other than on the AAU circuit, you're unlikely to see another big man that is both as skilled as you are (if you are a legit D1 prospect) and also as big as you. The overwhelming majority of HS players will never even sniff D1, so even D1 level guards will only see a handful of matchups each year during the HS season that really test them. But those are at least quality tests because if you're 6-2 or 6-3, you will see guys that are similar in height. If you're 6-9, not so much.
Most HS coaches are not very good. The better ones are strong fundamentally, but aren't very advanced. Probably only the best 0.01% of HS coaches can really teach a D1 prospect what they need to know to succeed at the next level. Everyone else you just hope they don't screw the player up with bad habits or fundamentals. Even the top HS coaches don't have the time to cover the advanced stuff because you may only have one or two guys that can actually get that stuff. The majority of your HS players need to learn the fundamentals. A D1 player that only has good fundamentals and hasn't moved on to more advanced stuff will look lost on PnR, rebound positioning, crossing actions, etc. And everything is faster, so those fundamentals will get sped up.
And coaching bigs is harder, anyway because most HS coaches were not big men, so you have a guard teaching a big guy. Our best big man development at KU happened under Danny Manning, which is not an accident. Since then, our guards have developed more quickly, but that's no surprise on a staff full of guards. Most big men have never been coached by a good big man coach until they arrive in college.
