[patteeu]

I think it's good to keep score. I think one of the goals of the league ought to be to distribute the talent in a way that makes it likely that everyone will taste victory. As a corollary, I think the league ought to frown on or prohibit coaches from keeping their best players on the floor just to win at that age (unless it's clearly a competitive program instead of a recreational or developmental league).

One of my kids played for a coach that I thought did a good job of balancing playing time with pursuing victories. During the regular season, he made sure that every girl got roughly equal playing time regardless of the outcome of the game. This gave all the girls a chance to learn from game experience and have some fun. Then when the end-of-season tournament came around (everyone made the tournament) he increased the playing time of the better girls and cut back on the playing time of the others but he still made sure everyone got into the game for a while. This was understood from the beginning of the year so no one felt cheated when they got less playing time in the tournament.