Wishing Doesn't Work

My 4th grade basketball team is now 0-4 and isn't improving the way I had hoped. Even so, there were some interesting things happening last night in our game that are worth talking about.

At the half, we were down 10-4 and the final score was something like 30-10. The other team had only 5 players and I thought that we'd be able to run them down in the 2nd half by pushing with an aggressive fast break style.

At the beginning of the 2nd quarter, I noticed that a few of our girls stopped trying hard in getting back on defense and were standing around. I'm thinking... if this was high school, I'd be yelling my head off and these girls would be running their butts off at practice. But then I snapped back to reality and remembered where I was.

I called a time out and talked to my team, telling them that the game wasn't over and that we had a chance for a great comeback if ONLY they came together as a team and all gave 200% effort on every play. Hands in, 1-2-3, we all yell go team and off we go...

Almost immediately, a few girls simply stopped trying at all. Literally walking back on defense while the other team continued to pile on the points.

Now, here's where it gets interesting.

At the half, my "tired" team ran out on the court and started shooting around, throwing up shots behind their backs and goofing off. I was so pissed I had to walk outside the gym for a minute and calm down.

I didn't push the issue but did rotate more than usual with subs for the rest of the game. I'm a bit confused as where to go from here. Obviously the girls are getting frustrated that we aren't winning, I get that. But what kills me is that they aren't connecting the dots that their effort is what will help them be more competitive.

It really seems as if some of my players are doing more wishing than working to try to get better.

Got any suggestions?