I would imagine that they ARE difficult habits to break. This is where the coach can make the difference between a good player and a great player -- finding effective ways to break those difficult-to-break bad habits.
This may sound crazy, but if the posts were mine to coach, I'd devise a system that (somehow) rewards posts for rebounds and put-backs made without bringing down the ball, and that takes next-game minutes away for every time they revert to the bad habit.
I'd start out with short periods of time in games when that is the focus, and during those times they will be playing for future minutes. Over time, I'd increase the length of time when the "break it or bench it" habit-breaking focus is on until they get further and further away from that bad habit.
Game film would serve to be the final judge as to whether there were sound reasons for bringing the ball down for a dribble or not, and we'd go from there.
Seriously, I'd be a hard-a zz about it, and would let them know that they'll sit on the bench with me the whole damn game if they cannot break the bad habit. It's ridiculous. I'd rather see the Lady Vols lose games with posts on the bench than continue to watch them making it easy for smaller players to make them look silly.
