During the Memphis Girls Basketball Fall Fest events, I was reminded that there is a lot of young talented players in Memphis. It’s not uncommon for Memphis to have talented players entering high school. It’s also not uncommon for the same talented players to graduate from high school with the same skills they had when they entered ninth grade..—NO GROWTH IN THEIR GAME..
Your talent can only get you so far. It can get you notoriety in the city, on MemphisGirlsBasketball.com and even nationally. Sometimes it can get you college basketball scholarship offers. SOMETIMES!
Check out Kentucky’s Head Men’s Basketball Coach John Calipari on the Harrison Twins high school talent not being enough to be successful for the college level:
“They had habits they had to understand weren’t going to work. Let me tell you something: If you’re doing something your whole career and it gets you a scholarship to Kentucky – the most coveted scholarship in the country; ‘Just give me an offer so that I can publicly tweet that offer’ – and you did certain things to get you that offer and get you that scholarship, now you’re thinking, ‘What, I’m going to change?’ No, your first thought is, ‘This got me here. I’m going to go with it.’ But what got you here, a lot of times, isn’t going to get you there, to that next level. Now I’m talking about as a player, to be a better version of yourself.
“What got you here may not work to get you there. You know why? Because you’re 7-foot tall and the dude playing against you was a non-athletic, 6-3 kid that just held you. Well you’re not playing against 6-3, non-unathletic dudes. Now the guy playing against you is 7 foot. Or you’re a guard and everyone on the floor was a guard; you jumped center sometimes. Well guess what? That’s not what this looks like. So what got you here may not get you there. And that’s the case with the twins. I just think that they needed me to give them better direction. They needed me to basically better define their roles.
Tulsa’s Skylar Diggins ended her career at Notre Dame dominating in women’s college basketball. However her college talent wasn’t enough for her to immediately make an impact on the professional level in the WNBA.
After averaging just 8.5 points on 32.8 percent shooting as a rookie in 2013, Diggins averaged 20.1 points in her sophomore campaign on her way to being named the 2014 Most Improved Player. That kind of improvement does not take place without a strong off season regimen.
Check out a couple samples of what Diggins has been up to since being released from the U.S. Women’s National Team roster before the team headed to the 2014 FIBA World Championship.
There are talented players everywhere. But what separates the legends, the super stars, the top 5% from the rest is the extra work they put into their game, their craft.
