Making the Basketball Team:
Get Off The Bench and Into The Game
by Lane Czaplinski
Quality Sports Publications, 1996
ISBN: 1885758-08-1
143 pages, black and white photos/diagrams
Suggested retail cost: $12.00

Making the Basketball Team is a unique sort of basketball book. It unique because there are hundreds of basketball books on the market that teach about basketball, techniques, skills, and tactics, but don’t always address how to help the underdog. Anyone who has had high aspirations to achieve basketball stardom and started out in the grade school system will relate well to what the author Lane Czaplinski writes about. It can be summed up in the acknowledgment at the beginning of the book where he writes Dedicated to those names who were never called, when choosing sides for basketball.

This book probably addresses 99.9 percent of all basketball players who have ever played the game. We were all passed over at some point when choosing sides, or looked at on the bench when the coach had to make a critical substitution in a youth game only to be passed over for the more athletic kid. The author was one of those overachiever types that everyone said couldn't play. Well he may not have played in the NBA but his experiences at the Co-Captain of the 1991-92 Kansas Jayhawks basketball team and Big Eight Championship and NCAA tournament are a good indication he is more than qualified to talk about how to Get Off The Bench and Into The Game.

Making the Basketball Team is a book about all the little things that can help get you playing time. It is a book for young players. If you are a grade school, junior or high school player, this book can teach you some valuable lessons. The book is divided into three major sections; Trying Out for the team, Skills that need to be practiced, and Getting Ready. Young players, if you want to know about how to succeed in trying out the for team, the first third of this book will provide you very useful tips.

One of the greatest strengths of the book is that Lane writes with a locker room sense of humor. It’s written by a player about players. This makes reading this book more entertaining than most technical books. It is full of useful details for this age group, but is clearly at an understandable level for grade schoolers and junior high players.

The tips move from sound technical advice to plain common sense. For example, Czaplinski write too many people are concerned with facts no one can control: how tall someone is or how many times someone’s name appears in the newspapers. Young players need to spent more time concentrating on all the skills that are within their power to improve. Very straight-forward and a valuable lesson for young players with stars in their heads. A short while later in the book, one topic is titled Does the Coach Know Who You Are?. A had to chuckle a little when I read this section but later say isn’t that the truth. He states Sounds like a stupid question huh? They why do so many kids show up for the first day of practice without ever having introduced themselves to the coach.

The middle section of the book helps young players familiarize themselves with a typical basketball workout. This section of the book is literally arranged like a practice plan. Free throw shooting technique, lay-ups, 3 on 2 to 2 on 1, defensive footwork, and one on one are amongst the topics he’s covered. When discussing building your shot, the author encourages you to be the first player in the gym. The best players always go early and stay late. Be the first to show up and the last to leave. Always start close to the basket whether you are learning a new skill or just warming up. Develop your rhythm by not being concerned with distance.Now young guys pay attention. You’ve probably heard your coach tell you these things more than once. This is a players player talking. You want to survive as a player amongst an ever increasingly competitive field, you better pay attention.

The best part of the skills section is that it provides very useful tips for improving those skills without being overly technical. For example, when discussing the 2 on 1 fast break opportunity Lane states if you have the ball, dribble all the way for the lay-up unless the defense stops you, at which point, you pass to your teammate. More than half of this book is dedicated to these kinds of examples of skills and decision making necessary to get off the bench.

The latter portion of the skills section crosses over into conditioning, weight lifting and stretching all of which are critical areas for young players growth. When describing the importance of conditioning, he writes Out of shape short people usually have a hard time making the team. To get yourself into shape, cross half court during every change of possession. A simple detail but one that will get you off the bench.

The final section of the Making The Basketball Team is a very short, but critical for young players. So you have all the tips on what to practice, and what kind of mind set necessary to become a contributing factor to a team. His advice you will not become the player you want overnight but you can improve each day and take consistent steps toward your goals. To achieve this you need; 1) goal oriented individual practices where your goals and results are written down, 2) competition, not against player you can beat but those that beat up on you, and 3) off season conditioning.

Coaches and players, I like this book. It has something to say, and does it with intelligence, experience, and a players sense of humor. If you’ve got some young players that are always asking how they can get more playing time, or wonder why they’re not playing, encourage them to read Lane Czaplinski’s Making the Basketball Team. If they don’t get something out of it...they probably never will.