Author: Coach Z (Page 36 of 38)

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the induction ceremony for the College Basketball Hall of Fame and mingle with some of the greatest names in college basketball history. I grew up listening to Notre Dame basketball games on the radio and dreaming about being the next Austin Carr. My jumper was never as sweet as his, but I was overjoyed when my hometown Cavaliers made him the first pick of the NBA draft in 1971. Most people don’t realize how prolific of a scorer he was because he played at the same time as Pete Maravich. When you average 34.6 points per game for your career there is no doubt you are a Hall of Famer. The other three players inducted were Dick Groat, Dick Barnett and Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Dick Barnett regaled the crowd with a poetic verse that would have made Longfellow proud. And as he said his biggest achievement was not his three national titles at Tennessee State or his two world championships with the New York Knicks, rather his coming back to school to not only receive a bachelor’s degree and continue on to obtain his Doctorate’s.

The only thing I can say about Kareem Abdul Jabbar is what Bill Walton said in his presentation of him. He was the “King of Everything.” He is the only player to win three national titles and be named MVP three times. The sky hook revolutinized the game. However, it was his ability to score at will inside that prompted the college game to outlaw the dunk for a few years. At least until he graduated.

The Coaches took center stage next and it was Lefty Driesell that captivated the audience with his aw shucks humor. The man credited with starting Midnight Madness at Davidson is the only coach to be named coach of the year in 4 different leagues at 4 different schools. Norm Stewart from the University of Missouri, Vic Bubas and Guy Lewis of Phi Slamma Jamma fame were also inducted. Beween the fourd coaches they amassed over 2000 wins and appeared in multiple Final Fours.

It was truly a night to be remembered for an ex-coach and any true basketball fan.

Yesterday the Gazelle Group announced that they would be staging a tournament for the teams not selected into the NCAA tournament. At first glance one would say there are enought teams participating in March Madness. The NCAA tournament has expanded to 65 and the NIT is at 32. It was at 40, but when the NCAA took over they decided to save money and only have 32 teams participate. That’s what I love about Myles Brand and the NCAA. They always try to make a student-athlete experience more enjoyable. Eight teams stay home so they can have nicer offices and hire more staff….Sorry got off on a tangent….Back to the story at hand.

The Gazelle Group will begin inviting teams the moment after the NCAA brackets are filled. It could become a bidding war for the NIT. I like it. Let’s take a closer look at post season play. In college football 64 teams play in 32 different bowls. That means over 50% of the schools are rewarded. By adding the third tournament, 113 teams are rewarded. However, there are 345 men’s basketball teams in Division I. So, you are talking about less than 30% of the schools play in post season. Last season for example, there were a half dozen teams with 20 wins who did not get selected for post season play.

I say bring it on and give the players one more day in the sun…

The late Jim Valvano (NC State national champion coach) once said that the three most important things about coaching was recruiting, scheduling and recruiting. Wednesday marked the first day of the signing period for high school, prep school and junior college players. The usual schools hauled in most of the top ranked players. NO surprise that Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA and the like signed McDonalds All-americans…….But there is something you should know about the rankings of players. With a “so-called” recruiting guru popping up on every corner and rating the ability of players as young as fifth grade it is easy to see why fans get so wrapped up what player is rated the highest….One word of caution, check out who the expert really is. Most times it is someone who has never played nor coached a second of basketball in their life. So next time you get excited about a player you have never seen, but the recruiting expert says he is the next Michael Jordan, check and see who the expert is and if he has even seen the player.

Two recruiting experts I would always listen to are Jerry Mullens of Roundball Report and Tom Konchalski of HSBI. Mr. Mulles covers the Midwest and mostly junior college, while Mr. Knochalski covers the East coast like a warm balnket on cold day.

The next time you get excited about the ranking of your school’s recruiting class remember the following story. A couple of years ago I had lunch with Coach Jim Larranage from George Mason. As we talked about recruiting rankings, he mentioned that the same year that UConn signed Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor their recruiting class was ranked higher (not one NBA player in the Patriots class). He smiled and said, “do you think Jim Calhoun would trade recruits?”

A couple of years later Jim Larranage proved that you don’t have to have any top rated players to go to the Final Four. Oh, and by the way for those who don’t remember, he beat UConn to get there….

When the early signing period ends next week I will give you a coach’s take on who won and lost the first round of the recruiting wars.

Message to Coach Matt Doherty of SMU: When you have your own Tip-Off tournament you are supposed to win it or at least get a split. This past weekend Texas Southen and Alabama State out of the SWAC came in an put double digit whoopings on the Mustangs. In this day and age of win now athletic directors I hope for Coach Doherty’s sake they have some patience…..

Does this count as two big wins for the SWAC?

After last weeks loss to Grand Valley State (kudos to former Missouri State assistant Rick Wesley) Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo banned his team from the lockerroom. He was trying to send a message that they had it too soft….If I had done that to one of my teams they would have jumped for joy. At St. Francis College in New York, where I got my first head coaching job in Division I, the lockerroom was so small that we had all of our meeting in the weightroom….Michigan State on the other had has flat screen televisions, an x-box and even toothbrushes for their players…We used to have soap night where fans brought in bars of soap for the price of admission so that the players would have soap in the lockerroom.

Izzo is not the first coach to throw his team out of the plush surroundings, but rather the latest. Coach K, Roy Williams and a list of other Hall of Famers have done it…I guess I should have. Who knows we may have won a national championship!

This is just one of the coaching ploys that have been used to motivate players through the years. It dates all the way back to the “Win one for the Gipper” speech courtesy of Knute Rockne. (That speech must not be working for the Irish football team this year.)

A couple of motivational tools I have used through the years that have worked, but if viewed from the outside I might have been thought to have lost my mind. After closing the season with 4 straight losses as the head coach at the university of North Florida, I knew I had to do something dramatic to change our thinking. After instructing my Athletic Director to not look in the window during practice (I thought if he did he might fire me on the spot.), I had every player and coach put a brown bag over their head. For the first 10 minutes of practice that week we visualized all the bad going out of our heads and brought in positive karma…It worked as we upset two higher seeded teams on the way to the Sunshine State Conference Championship game. We lost in the final seconds, but it did prove what positive thinking could do.

A couple of years later my team was in a must win situation to qualify for the conference tournament (they had not made the last two years under the previous coach). I decided to paint a “W” on my chest and at the opportune time I would rip my shirt open and impress that they needed to play like warriors. I happy to say that it worked and we won the game. However, it took me a week to get the marker off my chest.

My point is this…Coaches are teachers and teachers need to get the attention of their students…Sometimes you have to go to an extreme!!

By the way Michigan State opened up with a 33-point win. Good job Coach Izzo!!!