Basketball

10th Annual McDonald’s All American Girls Basketball Game Set for March 30

The 10th anniversary of the McDonald’s All American Girls Basketball Game is set to take place March 30, 2011. Since the first McDonald’s All American Girls Game took place in 2002 at Madison Square Garden, 216 of the country’s most promising female athletes have played in prep basketball’s most prestigious event. Current and future greats include Seimone Augustus (2002), Ann Strother (2002 Game Co-MVP), Sylvia Fowles (2004), Candace Parker (2004), Courtney Paris (2005 Game MVP), Tina Charles (2006 Game MVP) and Maya Moore (2007). More importantly, the girls’ participation in the Game has helped children and families in need all across the country, since every year, proceeds from the McDonald’s All American Games benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities.

On February 10, McDonald’s will announce the 2011 final roster of 24 Girls (12 East and 12 West players) during the annual Selection Show on ESPNU, airing at 4:30 p.m. CT. Then on game day, tip-off begins at 6:30 CT at the United Center in Chicago and will air live on ESPNU. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.

McDonald’s All American Girls Game Facts:

Since 2002, UConn (17) and Tennessee (17) remain tied for most McDonald’s All American Girls recruited – Duke (13), Maryland (12), Rutgers (12), UNC (11), and Stanford (11) are close behind.
Since 2003 (the first NCAA class with female McDonald’s All Americans), every NCAA national champion has had at least four McDonald’s All Americans on the roster, except Baylor’s 2005 squad that had none.
In 2004, Candace Parker shocked the nation when she became the first and only female to win the slam-dunk competition at the POWERADE Jam Fest, two nights before the McDonald’s All American Girls Game.
Former Lady Vol, Alexis Hornbuckle, holds the all-time points record with 22 in the 2004 Girls Game; Meighan Simmons had 21 in 2010; and 2002 standouts Ann Strother and Shanna Zolman both scored 21.
More than half (61) of the 120 female McDonald’s All Americans from 2002-2006 played (or currently play) in the WNBA. All 216 players attended (or attend) NCAA programs as student-athletes.

NY Liberty Womens Basketball Players Go Overseas

Shameka Christon og the NY Liberty WNBA team Ever wonder what the ladies of the WNBA do during their off-season? Why, they play basketball, of course! Except they play in the European league teams.

You can follow NY Liberty team players Shameka Christon, Essence Carson, Sidney Spencer, and more overseas as they play to help their European teams win. From Poland to Turkey, and France to Israel, these players can handle the ball anywhere on the map!

Check out this week’s overseas update here: http://blogs.msg.com/gameon/2009/11/17/liberty-hoopla-overseas-update-1117/

5 Simple Steps to Developing Your Coaching Philosophy

Editor’s note: While the following article, written by Tonya at Breakthrough Basketball, is written with the sport of basketball in mind, all of the steps can be adapted for developing your coaching strategy for any sport.

Any winning coach will tell you that in order to achieve success both on and off the court, it’s important to establish your own coaching philosophy.

Having a sound set of values not only keeps you focused and helps you to emphasize the right skills and techniques throughout the season, but it also gives your players, parents and colleagues a sense of what kind of program you intend to run, and who you are as a coach and mentor. Because, let’s face it, as a coach you have the unique opportunity to make a huge impact on the lives of your players. And that’s nothing to take lightly.

So here’s a quick look at how you can develop your own winning basketball coaching philosophy and start your season off right.

Step 1: Decide on your personal coaching goals. What is it that you hope to achieve as a coach? Are you in it to make a difference in the players’ lives? To satisfy a personal desire to win? Take the time to really think about why you’re doing this and what you want to get out of it. It’ll be quite helpful on those drives home after suffering a tough loss.

Step 2: Determine what life lessons you want your players to learn throughout the season. We’ve all had a coach or mentor that taught us something about the human experience that we can still apply in our lives today. What lesson will you pass on to your players? The importance of teamwork? That honesty is always the best policy? Decide now and make an effort to “impart your wisdom” in various ways throughout the season.

Step 3: Decide what you want your players to gain from their basketball experience. In addition to the life lessons that they will learn, what else will your players take away from their time on your team? Will they forge new friendships with people that they otherwise wouldn’t interact with? Improve their level of play? What will the overall experience be for your players?

Step 4: Define the meaning of success for your team. What does success mean to your team? Is it winning a certain number of games? Is it making it to a certain level of tournament play? Or are you more concerned about working effectively as a team? Create a set of attainable goals for your team and strive to achieve them.

Step 5: Determine what skills your team needs to learn or improve upon in order to achieve that success. Once you have defined “success” for your team, decide how you’re going to get there by evaluating your players and determining what skills they will need to work on. If your team’s idea of success is to keep your opponents from scoring above a specific amount of points each game, then you will most likely focus the players’ efforts on basketball defense strategies and proper basketball rebounding techniques. Be sure that for every goal that you’ve set, there is a distinct and reasonable means of attaining it.

Once you develop your coaching philosophy, write it down for your own reference; and more importantly, make it clear to players and parents alike from Day 1. By establishing and effectively communicating your principles, you’re laying the groundwork for a dynamic winning strategy that’s second to none.