I coach girls, we play man
I have coached girls for years. We play man-to-man, and none of them object. These girls yell out "pick up your man," "whose man is that" (hope they don't yell that every possession!), etc., from our bench. I have attended numerous HS games this winter and heard the same thing from female coaches and the girls/women on the bench.
Like it or not, basketball started as primarily a men's sport, the terms are related to that beginning. We have man-to-man and zone defenses, and always will. I have never heard any of the 25+ coaches in our girls-only AAU organization call the defense anything but man-to-man. This includes both male and female coaches.
And when a rec coach tells a 4th grade boy to "pick up your man," do we really think he has a "man" to guard? Be serious - the term is used as a surrogate for player, not to suggest that a litle kid or a girl is a man.
This coach needs to lighten up. And no, I do not think calling the coach a lady is the same as that coach instructing his girls to pick up their man. Lady is not an acceptable term of art in basketball which is generally accepted to mean coach - man for player is an accepted surrogate and always has been.
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