Good morning -- I coach a 7th grade girls travel team. Unfortunately, we were placed in a lower division than we should have and as a result, we are not facing much competition (average victory margin is 25 points and I play the lower end of my bench a ton). We tried to move up but we are unable to do so due to the scheduling nightmare that would have resulted for the league. We will be scrimmaging a few times in the next month against higher division teams and these are the caliber of teams we will be facing in the playoffs because the league always re-seeds for the post season. My concern is that my top five players (out of 10) are not playing nearly as well as they should be and I am convinced it is due to the lack of game competition. The other five players are becoming a little over confident due to our winning and their individual success because they are playing against competition a little above their skill level so they are able to shine. I push the entire team as hard as possible in practice but I feel that the playoffs will be over very quickly if I can't properly prepare and motivate them for the games during the rest of the season (7 games including this Sunday). Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks

What type of defense do you run?

we play man the vast majority of the time because I really don't like zone at all at this age. We press full court man at the very start of the game until we have a decent lead of 10 or more and then fall back into half court. I do press every now and then to keep the girls sharp but I am sensitive that I don't want to over do it against the competition. We play zone only a little to give the players some rest and only when we press full court (1-2-2) because it's very difficult for the girls to press in a zone and switch back to man half court.

Well one idea is to play 100% quarter court M2M defense. Make your players learn how to win executing in the quarter court. You could also start your bottom 5 when playing half court M2M. Test your players and use this opportunity to work on the BASICS and get really good at the small things. Just an idea.

Might also be some other goals you can set that having nothing to do with wins or losses. Those are things you probably should do anyway. If you browse through this article you might get some ideas:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/mental/motivate-players.html

Scheduling some scrimmages against better teams than you are facing right now is a good idea.... how about scrimmaging some teams that are way above your level? So that it will be very hard for them... they will have to execute better in the half court, IF what you are saying is true about not being successful in the playoffs if things continue... remember that presses don't bother good teams..... or at least teams that are well prepared.

What about playing a boys team at your age level? 7th graders? Or 6th.

thanks coaches -- all great thoughts. I hadn't thought about scrimmaging a boys team - I will explore that. I've tried to schedule a scrimmage with the 8th grade team in my town but they don't want to do so (not sure why - no response to my email when I ask why) and the freshmen team won't scrimmage because they think it wouldn't be competitive enough.

I've never heard of quarter court M2M? I like focusing on other goals than the victory to motivate the girls. I will also read thru the article.

If you tell them that it will be a controlled scrimmage, maybe they will go for it that way?

great idea -- I will try that!

Good luck, let us know how it goes.