Consider for a moment Caitlin Clark's vision of the courtroom. Of course, we love watching her score, but it's the vision that sets her apart from her peers. She grabbed the rebound, turned and fired the ball to an open Iowa teammate downcourt. She passed it through the lane to another Iowa player for a layup. She directed it into the corner for an open 3-point shot.
Now imagine Clark as a young girl learning to see the wide playing field on a soccer field and find where her available teammates are. Once she got serious as a basketball player, the small court and the movement of the ball around it came natural to her since she played soccer.
“I've coached a lot of kids, not just Caitlin,” Dixon Jensen, Clark's former AAU basketball coach at Iowa State, told USA TODAY Sports this winter. “For kids who have played soccer, soccer helps footwork, it helps vision, it helps teamwork.
“They don't get to play much basketball until they're almost 10 years old, third or fourth grade. They literally can't risk it.”
When Purdue University's Zach Eady became a basketball player as a sophomore in high school, he struggled with his special skills despite being extremely tall. Then Toronto's coach told him to think of the shooting motion like throwing a baseball. Let it roll naturally from the first two fingers.
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“It translated really quickly,” Eady told Greg Doyle of the Indianapolis Star in 2021. “As soon as I started making the changes, my shots were straighter and rolled better.”
Just like your son or daughter, college athletes are impressive athletes who have found and are still finding their way. Young athletes and their parents can learn a lot from watching them play, following their stories, and seeing how their coaches treat and develop them.
Here are five more lessons young athletes can take away from this weekend's NCAA Basketball Final Four games in Cleveland and Phoenix and the stories surrounding them.
1. You need to rely on everyone on your team, not just stars like Caitlin Clark and Paige Backers.
Iowa State and Connecticut both have star players who can dominate their opponents, but the contributions of other players could decide the Final Four games.
The team is fast and accurate in attack. It has a lot of movement and tempo, and guides the player with an open expression. This isn't necessarily the best player, but it's the best player who can hit the shot.
“When we have multiple players in double digits, we're really, really strong,” Clark said after Iowa's 93-85 win over Maryland in early February. “That's when we were really at our best. I've never scored all the points. We've been able to find some balance and if we really want to be successful. , that's what we need going forward.”
In the Maryland game, two of Clark's teammates were scoring 15 or more points, when Iowa's quick-fire passes and baskets often stymied the Terrapins' swarming defense and raucous crowd. Currently on a 10-game winning streak, the Hawkeyes have had at least four players score in double figures in a game seven times.
Hannah Stuelke gets an inside touch and Kate Martin, Sydney Affolter and Gabby Marshall all take shots from the perimeter.
Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, who has led his team to the Final Four 19 times and won eight national titles, said the “formula for winning in college from time immemorial” is similar. The Huskies like strong guards (like Bueckers and KK Arnold), inside presences (like Aliyah Edwards), and wing players who can play both inside and outside (like Aubrey Griffin).
However, the team learned how to play effectively without Griffin and other injured stars this season. Buccaneer missed last season with an ACL injury, and the Huskies went 31-6.
An elite men's or women's team at the collegiate level does not rely solely on one player. Clark, the leading scorer in the history of the sport, scored 35% of Iowa's points. Backers owns 28% of Yukon.
If you're a youth player or coach and you're constantly feeding the ball to your best player in isolation play, you're missing out.
If your kids are young and about the same size, you can teach them positionless basketball, where they all pass, cut, box out, and rebound.
If your most offensive player is double-teamed, teach that player to pass to an open teammate. And we consider a possession successful if the team can clearly see the basket, not if you score or not. The score will be determined by its appearance.
Coach Steve: 3 reasons why Caitlin Clark is so relatable and inspiring.Hint: she's just like us
2. Like Dawn Staley, as a coach, you are a closely monitored leader.
If you're a youth sports coach, South Carolina's Dawn Staley is someone to emulate. While she is the caretaker of her players, she is also responsible for their actions.
Her leadership and understanding of responsibility was on display when she nearly got into a scuffle with some members of the LSU women's team during last month's SEC Championship Game.
“They didn't handle it well. Our players didn't. Their players didn't, so it escalated,” Staley said of South Carolina forward Milesia Full. He spoke in response to a reporter's question about Willy. “They were well within the rules of ejecting players who come off the bench. … You've got to sit there and keep your cool.”
Staley, who went on to reach the Final Four six times and win two national titles, becoming a coaching icon, was keenly aware that many eyes, especially those of his players, were on him. That's the impact you have on young people as a coach. You may be their first and only connection to the sport. If they love the sport, it may be the reason you take it or leave it.
As a coach, whether you're at the youth level or Staley, what you say will be played out in front of the kids and often their parents.
3. Don't doubt yourself, even in the toughest situations, like the NC State basketball team.
The Wolfpack women's team, which will face South Carolina on Friday, defeated top-seeded Texas without a player ranked among the top 90 in the nation in scoring.
“Everyone doubted us,” said leading scorer Asiaha James, noting that her team was unranked before the season.
“We had a little bit of a stretch in February,” head coach Wes Moore said. “We lost a couple of road games, so I think everyone thought we were going to collapse.”
The NC State guys were already falling apart. They lost 10 of 14 games and entered the ACC Tournament with a record of 17-14, winning five games in five days. as 11th As seeds for the NCAA Tournament, they won four more games, most of them against teams many considered to be better.
Teams are always underestimated like this at youth level. Children often lose games against “better” teams. The men and women of the Wolfpack remind us why we shouldn't.
“We just completely switched our approach,” North Carolina State star forward DJ Burns Jr. said. “Nobody's behind things. Nobody's a problem on the court. Everyone's coming together.”
Maybe your team doesn't have a big player like Burns, or maybe you don't have five double-digit scorers like the North Carolina State women. But maybe you believe in yourself. That may mean everything in youth sports. You don't even have to win.
I coached a Little League game a few years ago against a team that everyone in the league thought was going to win. While opposing coaches were having teams come to the field an hour early (for 8 a.m. games) for batting practice, we opted to omit extra hitting and get more rest. did.
We got a few easy ground balls beforehand to tie the other team up, and as the game progressed our confidence grew and we were able to stay competitive. When the game was over and the other coach looked down on the players who didn't win. I talked about my faith in our abilities and how the work we actually did shines through.
As we learned from North Carolina State's team, intrinsic beliefs about oneself can be powerful, especially as they grow stronger over time and innings.
4. Like the UConn men, embrace the journey and try to savor the moment.
Dan Hurley was sad during this year's NCAA Tournament, despite going 35-3 as an encore to last season's national championship.
“I cried a lot today,” Connecticut's head coach said after defeating Illinois 77-52 in the Elite Eight, including a 30-0 run. “Part of it is fatigue. You're tired.
“The idea of not having Cam Spencer and Steph Castle in the Final Four is something that I've felt a lot of pressure on the last two weeks. We're setting program records in places where it's hard to do. … A lot. There's definitely some pressure to get this team to Phoenix.”
Hurley's son, Andrew, a senior on the University of Connecticut team, recently told the Washington Post that Hurley is working harder this season to win than last season.
“I never thought I could do that,” Andrew said.
If you've ever been involved in youth sports, you know that high expectations aren't just limited to Hurley's level or coaches. We set them on the kids' teams because we think they should win. And if they win, it will be more of a relief than a joy.
As Hurley's team faces Alabama in Saturday's Final Four, let's remember that the purpose of sports for most of us and most of our children is the joy we get from sports, not the pain we feel from them.
Last weekend, we got the briefest look ever at what joy it feels like when Harley and her son hug each other.
Andrew is a walk-on who played a total of 25 minutes this season. Perhaps, for at least a moment, fathers realized that the time we spend with our children on the field or court is fleeting, whether we coach them or just watch them. Win or lose, whether your child is a star or not, you can enjoy it.
Coach Steve: 70% of children leave youth sports by age 13. Why?
5. Like Purdue's Zach Eady and Alabama's Mark Sears, keep trying even if you don't get what you want in sports.
It took a long time for Edie to become a star. Currently a mainstay on a 7-4 Purdue team that will face North Carolina State in the Final Four, Eady played limited time as a high school senior at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he was scouted by Canada. I hadn't.
Despite his height, Purdue was one of three offers he received, according to 247Sports. He started two games as a freshman at Purdue during the 2020-21 season.
Mark Sears, the star guard for the Alabama team that will face Connecticut in the Final Four, started five games for Ohio State his freshman year.
“It may have been a mistake not to offer him out of high school,” said Alabama coach Nate Oats, who later acquired Sears as a transfer. “Probably not, but we failed.
When children play sports, coaches and parents often have stereotypes about who is a “good” player. These concepts are often misunderstood because players develop at their own rates.
In my experience, these players are different once the kids reach high school. In the case of Eadie and Sears, the pecking order changes even in college.
“Did you think he would be this good?'' Mr. Oates said. “No one did. Maybe his mother didn't either.”
You can always get better. And when you're young, there's always the next game to prove yourself, unlike the Final Four.
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer for USA TODAY since 1999. He coached his two sons' baseball and basketball teams for 10 years. He and his wife Colleen are now high school and middle school sports parents. His column appears weekly. Click here for past columns.
Have a question you'd like Coach Steve to answer in a column? Email him sborelli@usatoday.com
