Not sure. It's all just seems like a money making situation. Having try-outs for kids who are not really going to have a chance and then running these programs for randomly selected kids over an hour or two of "try outs" just points towards a money grab. Watched the training at 6/ 6.30am and makes me realise how far away from development or elite this stuff is.

Think the State Performance Programme is in place for those athletes whose skills have surpassed the State Development Programme but not yet at the level of NPP. The problem it has now caused is that every athlete that has been in SDP for a number of years feels they should at least of progressed to a SPP status. I think the numbers for SPP is huge and those not selected don't want to be in SDP in top age 16's or 18's as they feel they won't have a shot at State or National selection.

there are a few things...

There are a large number of talented kids and more of these kids getting access to Vic development pathway.... but...

As pointed out, those who habe neem in sdp that have not progressed to the new spp or npp as yet feel like they have been left behind. there are lots of kids who have never even been in sdp who have leapfrogged sdp athletes straight into spp too. It has in essence, devalued sdp for those who have been in the program for at least 1 year.

More kids in programs = more money. Massive cash cow for BV.

Not sure about the cash cow call. SDP is about $500 per child per year. When you break it down, it's less than $10 per hour of training with the best coaches available. That’s much cheaper than outside training cost.

Manders is spot on. Baller99, it's not the best coaches available. It's whatever (usually young) coach is prepared to turn up at 6am for free and run some shooting drills.

In the past 15 years, I cannot think of a single player who has improved from SDP. The majority of kids do it because if you don't you can't make a state team. In reality, the majority of those players were never a serious chance of making a state team in the first place.

Money grab and creating the illusion that they are developing players.

The main issue is that it isn't about skill development. It's become about learning team offense. I wonder whether that's because they believe that's what will genuinely improve them, because they don't know how to develop skill or because thats what they think development is (conceptual understaning and reads as opposed to how to shoot/pass/etc.). Ive heard the coaches of the sessions are bound by the session plan they recieve.

Yep - apart from hub coaches leading them, no other coaches are paid. Hence you get whoever is prepared to attend to work with the kids. There are young up and coming coaches who want to improve and make their name, and those that do it for the love of the sport to work with some elite kids.

BV will have made absolute thousands just through the try outs across boys, girls and the different age groups. $50 each, and assume more than 500 kids "trying out", that is at least $25 grand. Courts ain't that expensive. Cha-Ching.

There are some good points on both sides of this argument. I'd start by saying that there are definitely some strong coaches that have and are in the SDP system, including current state team head coaches (e.g. the Vic Country U18 men's head coach was running SDP sessions at MSAC for a while). Also, these coaches obviously have aspirations on bigger gigs, but they are also giving up a lot of their time for free to develop kids. Generally, I'd say the coaching standard is high, the problem as highlighted above is the rigid plan the SDP coaches have to stick to. I think it would be better if they switched the sessions to half following the plan, and half tailored to the athletes that are attending the sessions, based on the coach's own experience on how to best develop the athletes they are working with.

I feel like the brutal reality of the SDP is that is basically a numbers game. Most (if not all?) state team athletes were in SDP at one point in their careers, so there is undoubtedly some value in the program, but I'd agree that the majority of SDP athletes at any point in time have no chance of making a state team. So where do you draw a line at casting a reasonably wide net, hoping to see a player keep developing through their SDP years (e.g. Johnny Furphy), versus being more targeted on kids that are stronger now. Maybe BV boil it down to numbers - for every 30 kids in SDP, maybe 1 will make a state team in future, so we'll set the size of our SDP/SPP/NPP programs accordingly.

I'm not sure how SDP/SPP/NPP is going to work, but I've definitely seen a lot of movement during the year of kids moving up from SDP to NPP and vice-versa. Ultimately the kid has to take primary ownership of their own development, and if they feel hard done by to be in SDP, show the coaches in those sessions that they should be promoted.

How are the hub coaches selected?

From the outside, it looks like they are all great gameday coaches and have achieved these positions through coaching good teams at good levels, but are they development coaches, do they make their players better?

I think the difference between the two types of coaches is underestimated.

BV is a business. They're selling the dream of making kids professional athletes and parents are buying the dream like toilet paper during Covid. There's money to be made in basketball.

Agree there is money to be made in basketball - just as the AABL guys and they'll let you know! 180 kids at $640 each, plus $100 for the honour of attending a "combine". That is $130,000 for a 8-10 week thing, with minimal overheads. Well played to them.

All money making!!!
Hopefully one day people will realise this and boycott BV!

Not the best coaches as mentioned above, the coaches do it on a volunteer basis except for the lead coach, which leads it to being younger coaches instead of experienced ones who are already either being paid or can't commit to free work with a family etc.

But the young coaches get the tshirt and now the opportunity to go back to their clubs as ''state coaches''

SDP is a numbers game easily, and looking for any athlete that either grows or has a late development rise as they get older. That said training at SDP/SPP/NPP should hopefully filter down to make VJBL stronger as the reality is club coaches aren't teaching skills work as well as they should with a focus on winning first.

If the demand and coaching quality is there, an extra layer of grading makes sense to me. Promotes greater strength in Victorian basketball.
For some it's not just about the progression pathway to State and National teams. Whilst they would love to reach those levels, they understand this may be out of reach but would still prefer to utilise these sessions to develop themselves as best they can, given their love for the sport.

Great comment @shootermcgavin I think sometimes we forget not everyone who plays basketball expects nor wants to make the NBA. They love the game, they want to grow, we're lucky we have so many opportunities for that in Australia.

SDP announced. Interested in thoughts as to who's missing. I think the politics and logistics of this are fortunate for some and unfortunate for some others.

This year, they have added a lot more players to SDP. I wouldn't think too many players would have missed out if they are good enough.

SPP and NPP squads are out. Looks like only 2009 kids in NPP?

Jones and Springett 2010