The first seven weeks of the prep basketball season can be a good measuring stick in determining what a coach has on the floor and equally what they have on the bench in terms of leadership, character and talent. Opening the season with a tournament allows most teams to access these traits and skill sets but due to overlapping seasons from fall to winter, that assessment may be clouded as players are not always available due to playoff schedules from a previous sport or arrived late and have not yet gotten into basketball shape.

For that reason, I am a huge fan of late December holiday tournaments when you are typically seeing the best a team has against a non-conference schedule that can include some very challenging programs stimulating coaches to adapt their teams to different styles of play and match ups. No matter where a team finishes in December, the final eight weeks will present opportunity for every team to turn the tables and make a run towards a favorable seed in the IHSA state tournament. While a team can be 12-0 finishing December, records go out the window typically when their conference schedules dominate the chalk talks and practice plans.

Our area teams all play in tough and talented basketball conferences and a sports writer could likely pick out several which mimic that talent in the surrounding conferences but in my opinion it's the rivalries that make a conference schedule so difficult to successfully navigate. I heard a coach once say he wasn't worried about the trip ahead, his players character would serve nicely as a GPS guiding system. He didn't refer to skill nor did he point out depth of talent, the coach clearly believed that in order to be successful in games that would likely come down to the wire as conference opponents often do, his team would need to rely on the one skill that can't be overshadowed by a dunk or defined by one, character.

Champions are built in the off season but mental toughness is developed when playing at a disadvantage. Whether down by twenty or short by one, the teams we will likely see in March holding a trophy are those that let self character dictate their play and I believe anyone can live with the result regardless of the games outcome. Fans won't see a ball hog combined with a few more player ego's followed by a bench filled with frowns surrounding a coach in a time out typically leave with the victory. The fact is a team like that lost the game before they ever took the floor.

I think there should be two cuts in a basketball season that pair teams down to a twelve player roster by January 3rd each season. The first cut coming at the start of the season in early November allowing teams to roster up to twenty players and a second cut following the late December tournaments to the final season roster. Perhaps if we forced coaching staffs to evaluate their teams in this way, we would all be spared the unnecessary drama associated with selfish players void of true character and get back to team sport.

While that likely will never happen, I often feel coaches are stuck in a "politically correct" world and are forced to play by rules that players do not necessarily always adhere to. What ever happened to a demanding coach who took jersey's away from players who failed to display character? Perhaps a double cut system will counter balance a trend of selfishness and afford all players with that inner GPS we all hope guides our lives. And for those who don't get it, they will in short order when they are in the stands.