A Big Assist

There are a lot of different sports and most of them have a stat line that includes the assist in one form or another.

In baseball, an assist is made when an infielder throws out a runner at any base. The person that catches the ball records the out. An outfielder that throws a runner out at any base is also credited with an assist.

In hockey, the player that passes to the teammate who scores the goal is credited with an assist and is also credited with a point as a scorer. Games such as hockey, soccer and lacrosse are very dependent upon those great passers that feed the goal scorer.

In football it is generally the QB who is credited with the assist only those assists are called touchdown passes. Every now and then someone other than the QB throws a pass for a TD and if that occurs it usually happens on a trick play but nevertheless an important play in the game.

Basketball is a sport that thrives on assists. But the highlight reel focuses on the dunk, the fast break layup or three point shot than it does on the assist. I’ve always thought it was too bad that assists in basketball weren’t scored like they are in hockey. If they were then maybe more kids would practice making the great pass.

The late Yinka Dare played for the New Jersey Nets back in the late 1990s. Dare was 7-feet-one-inch and set a record for playing the most games (58) in a season without recording an assist.

Unfortunately he also had 72 turnovers. This is obviously not a very good assist to turnover ratio.

Dare finished his four-year career with a total of four assists which averaged less than 0.1 per game. Sadly Dare died of a heart attack at the age of 31 with his NBA basketball playing days in the rear view mirror. But his futility as a passer lives on.

I first really understood the value of the assist as a sophomore. Coach Huston had stat sheets for scrimmages and for games. He had point values for assists. A basket counted as two points and an assist where the pass recipient was fouled counted as one point. I guarantee that we had a great understanding of the assist and did our best to make those important plays.

As a senior it became very evident that if I led the team in scoring by a fair amount we were most likely going to lose the game. If I led the team in assists and my teammates led the team in scoring then we were going to either win or be in the game late.

When a coach recognizes those players that lead in the assist category then there is a good chance their team will be successful. If the coach focuses on the scorers as the most important players in the game then wins may be tough to come by.

I coached a young man who was in the eighth grade back in the 1980’s. He was a pretty good ballplayer. We were playing a team I knew we would beat, so I asked him to do something that he didn’t do a lot of and that was garnering assists.

This particular game I asked him to get the ball to his teammates to give them opportunities to score.

I wanted him to score about 8–10 points and get about 8–10 assists.

When the game was over we won by about 15 and this kid scored 10 points and had nine assists. His teammates scored more than they ever had in any one game and they were extremely happy.

The young man came over to me after the game and said, “Coach that was a lot of fun. I’m glad you told me to make more passes!”

It is interesting just how many games are won by the team that makes the most assists.

Teams that believe in the big assist are most likely the teams that also play good team defense because helping each other out is a big part of every game.