grizfnz said:
No argument from me about Riley being the best player at corvallis, his dad needs to realize that his son is a good college player but others are better and more athletic.
Years ago, when I did more coaching science and was writing for various sport academic journals, I noted that in the Olympic sports we worked with that were very good, in the United States, at creating what I called "Experience Bias." That is, everybody, from local tournaments through national level, wanted to emulate the "International Rules" which invariably involved single elimination tournaments, or at best, repechage. They wanted to play by the "big boy" rules, and make it "authentic."
I pointed out that this was ridiculous. The Olympic Games were the culmination of a process, constrained by time and cost. But by following that as a development model, new players, or less experienced players, would regularly lose in the first rounds (50% lose the first round of course), and so not gain the valuable competition experience that actually results in sport success. The "experienced" players got more experience, and the less experienced players got less, substantially less. This invariably produced a very high diversity in skill levels. The problem was, it replaced any significant influence of a "Talent Bias." A talented kid could not get the experience necessary to fully exploit his talent, against more experienced players. He was in effect "handicapped" by the tournament system itself.
After a decade of arguing about it, the light finally went on that for local and regional competitions, we needed to do as much round-robin, double or more elimination as possible, to give "talent" the opportunity to obtain "experience." We had to create a "Talent Bias" to replace the previous "Experience Bias."
Riley, and anyone that sits on the bench much, is a victim of precisely the "Experience Bias" that can overwhelm any "Talent Bias." If he played as many minutes regularly as, say, Martin Breunig, he may well be scoring at that level. But, we'll probably never know because collegiate team sports are founded upon an "Experience Bias" that is very hard to beat with a "Talent Bias" that is never likely to develop. Of course, that's where the Coach comes in, to recognize that disadvantage by what he sees in practice, but even at that, with the close games this year, the risk is high of giving someone like Riley the necessary "experience" to develop whatever latent talent may be there. It's just tough to do in team sports at the collegiate level.
Riley is a talented kid. But, he's caught up in the needs of the game, and that talent may never be permitted full expression as a result. Coach DeCuire obviously works the problem, you can tell, but its just tough to do it effectively in close game after close game. Its rough on talented young guys like Riley.
