Insight into UNC Practices

One word to describe UNC Practices. INTENSE.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.  One little word can make a whole lot of difference.  Anyone can practice, but what are you practicing and how well are your executing what you practice.

Rule Breaking, errr Bending

Dana O'Neil of ESPN has written something that really irks me.

Gray scale: Recruiters struggle with perfectly legal yet ethically questionable

When does ethics and morals come into play. I ask that these coaches really sit back and think about what they are doing. Yes, it's legal, but you need to check your morals and if this is what you want your character to be displayed as. If I was a athlete being recruited, I would sure look first to the morals of the entire coaching staff before I made my decision. Just something to ponder about.

Quote from the article -
Many members of the NABC believe it's time for coaches to stop looking to the NCAA to fix what ails them and instead look in the mirror.

(Amen to this one)

Please either be black or white, don't toe the line in the grayed muddied middle. If you're playing/coaching the right way it shouldn't be too hard to do anyway.

Flippin' the M

Long time, no post. I am sorry, been pretty busy. Hopefully, as the NBA season has already started and college and high school seasons are right around the corner, I might shed a little light on a topic that really stood out to me. I found this USA Today article today about the salaries of NFL players for the 2008 year. Yes, Ben Roethlisberger is the highest paid NFL player and that former Colt, DT/FB Dan Klecko, makes more than Donovan McNabbb!!!, but that's not what stood out to me. This chart shows the payrolls broken down by NFL teams.
What caught my eye is that the Colts' and Patriots' payrolls are one of the lowest. These two franchises have arguably been at the top of the NFL teams the past 5 years. You would think that they would have the top players that make the most money. But what they have are players who want to play for their coach, who will take lower pay to help the team out, and care more about winning than how much money they are taking home. Oakland is highest on the list with $152.4 million dollars spent on their payroll. For a team who doesn't win very often, it's surprising they're paying their players that type of cash.

This just proves that playing together as a team, and buying into their coach's system is the only way that anything will get accomplished. Their can't be a "Me" first attitude. You just flip the M upside down and make it a W. "We."

A Me can only go somewhere when they start thinking as We. If that makes any sense.

Crean Speaks at IU CHEERLEADING Camp!

My wife is an all-star cheer coach at Elite Cheer and Dance in Clayton, and last weekend she took a bunch of her girls to a stunt camp at IU. For those who don't know, (I've been around cheerleading for about 9 years) a stunt is pretty much anything that goes up into a pyramid. Okay, so she tells me that the basketball coach came and gave a motivational speech to the around 500 cheerleaders. My first thought was "Way cool" and then....I just wondered why he would go talk to a bunch of cheerleaders. Isn't there something better that he can be doing? But then I realized how much of an impact a little speech can have. These girls probably have no idea that this is the coach of one of the most storied programs in history but when they go home and tell their parents what happens, that leaves a mark with their parents. He understands that he is going to have to take a grassroots effort to bring this program around to where it was at one time. My boss, a diehard IU grad and fan compared it to something that the late Terry Hoeppner would have done. His speech was based on something along the lines of "don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something, if he would have listened to all the people in his life, he wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Follow your dreams and don't let other people make all the decisions for you."
Pretty cool thing for the head coach of Indiana University to do and I applaud him. I think he is doing the right things to turn the program around and he might have just been talking to the future cheerleaders who will keep the cheering going during timeouts in the years to come.

Crean is IN!

Tom Crean, formally of Marquette, has been named head coach at IU this morning. ESPNs take here.

"We are not going to be overwhelmed by the challenges, we are going to
have to embrace them," Crean said at a news conference Wednesday.

This is definitely the attitude to have! There is nothing that Crean can do about the mess that he has inherited, but he can turn it into a positive environment. I was telling someone the other day that what I wanted IU to do about their open coach situation and I said that I didn't think any of the Big Name coaches would come to Indiana because most of them have very good jobs and wouldn't want to mess with the possible infractions that might be handed down by the NCAA. And I didn't want IU to keep going lower in the Division I ranks just to find someone. I would have liked to see an up-and-coming DII or DIII coach get the job. Who? I had no idea, but this was my thinking. Anyway, I am pleased with the hire and I think that he will build IU's character back up and I think it will start with him. I think he is very excited to be at IU and bring them back out of this hole. I also think that he will do it the right way!

This brings me to another pondering question...Why do Division I coaches just bounce around the jobs. I mean one DI guy leaves and then the carousel just simply rotates around. DI guy fills this spot, DI guy fills the hole, another DI guy slips in to his job. Why don't DII or DIII guys ever get a chance to move up? Or better yet... Why don't assistants ever get a head job. It's always another head coach. I don't know just things to ponder.

Trace Adkins Should Have Won Celebrity Apprentice, because he Played the Right Way

As I sit back and think about having kids Play the Right Way, (see Coach Finamore's blog in the Blogroll) I find myself at a loss. While flipping between Celebrity Apprentice and the NCAA games, found myself rooting for country music singer Trace Adkins. Trace played the game the right way, he always did the right thing and in the end a pompous jerk beat him. When "The" Donald asked all the other contestants who they wanted to win, it was about a 95% nod to Trace. The thing that makes me the maddest is the fact that Trump didn't see the good in Trace and awarded all the charity money to Piers' charity. Please hear me out in this, Piers' charity is amazing and what he is doing is great and I thoroughly appreciate all that the troops have done for me, everytime I see someone in uniform, I try to thank them for all they do, but Trace is fighting for money for his own daughter. He has to live with the fact that his daughter, who lives in his house, has a food allergy. I can't imagine not being able to eat anything I want.

Trace always conducts himself in a manner that is soft-spoken. He never puts anyone down, and he always chooses to see the positive in any situation. You never see him get mad, he just simply takes what he was given, thinks of a reaction to the problem and goes with it. He never bickers, never complains, never name-calls. What more did he have to do to show that he is an amazing individual? I am disappointed that Trump selected Piers, because the message that he sent is that well... you better act like Piers or you're not going to be rewarded with anything. And I know that the reward that Trace will receive at the end of his life, will be a lot better than what Piers will be getting. I just can't stand the way that Piers treats people and when someone stands up to him, Piers has no problem bringing them down even more to eventually put himself higher. I don't like the fact that the world will see that Piers got all this money for being a jerk and Trace got a number one single because, in Trump's eyes, Trump did that because of his show, if you know what I mean. When the world stops living by money alone, will the world start living? So the question is, Does playing the right way benefit or hurt you? You better bet that it is going to benefit you. The benefits might not come at once, but eventually they will. Have a good day!

Brownsburg in the Finals

Brownsburg's (21-5) going to State and will play Marion (24-4) in the Championship game at Conseco on Saturday Night. I happened to watch their sectional final game vs. Decatur Central and they narrowly escaped that game with a three pointer with 5 seconds left. It doesn't matter what level you are playing at in any tourney, to get to the final game there must be some luck involved somehow. I am not downgrading anyone's ability or anything like that, but somewhere through the tourney there is usually at least one game where something happened to bounce a certain way for a team to win and it does. I think of last year in the NCAA tourney and I can't remember the guy's name that played for Ohio State, but he hit that long bomb. If that doens't happen, then they don't even come close to making it to the finals.

In the 1A game at 10:30
Triton vs Indianapolis Lutheran
2A @ 12:45
Fort Wayne Luers vs Winchester
3A @ 6:00
Fort Wayne Harding vs Washington
Coach Al Goodens Hawks made the jump to 3A this year and they still find a way to get to the championship game. The Hawks have 5 semi-state titals since 2001. That's a pretty good run
and of course in the 4A @ 8:15
is Brownsburg vs Marion.

Ok, it's been a while, Regional Saturdays

Teams still alive in the West Central Area!

Brownsburg plays North Central
Danville plays Rushville
Tri-West plays Paoli

The best regional to go watch has to be at Washington where the four combined records are 82-8 and if you want to see one of the best atmospheres in Indiana HS basketball then that would be the place to go.

I think I might attend either of the 1A Regionals at Frankfort or Martinsville.

I hope you are doing well and leave a comment about where anyone might be headed!
Have a good day.

Bob Knight Retires

Just as I am having an emotional high from the Super Bowl, I hear on XL 950 Radio that Bobby Knight has stepped down as the coach of Texas Tech. His son, Pat will step in and take over. I have seen about three Texas Tech games this year. All of them on CW4 locally. I do appreciate them putting on some games. They have been showing a lot of Big East games the past weekends. I am thankful for that because I don't have cable/satellite TV, which inevitably means no Big Ten network or ESPN. So I do have withdrawals occasionally, but I do know that I need to treasure the games that I do get to see. Anyhow, I am really surprised about the decision because it's a mid-season decision in the middle of the conference schedule. While I was watching the TT games earlier this year all I saw was Coach Knight sitting down an awful lot and Pat being in his ear the entire game. So based on that right there, I am not surprised, I just didn't expect it at this time in the season.
For all the negative things that Coach Knight gets publicized for (I just did a Google image search for Bob Knight and the 4th pic was the chair toss, and the fifth was the choke), there is no one that can deny the impact that Knight had on the game of basketball. His motion offense is second to none. His players always understood the game. His man defense was always stifling. Another thing that always stood out to me was the fact that the ones who graduated from IU and went on to play in the NBA never had amazing stand out careers. I know Allen Henderson has been around forever and Calbert Cheaney bounced around for a while, but really Isiah Thomas is really the only one who was head and shoulders a real good NBA player. To me this stood out that his players knew how to "play" basketball the way that it was supposed to play. I am not knocking the NBA but the NBA is a different brand of basketball and typically lends itself to athleticism and finding matchup problems. Players who played for Knight understood how to be successful at life. He might have gone about it a different way than I would like, but his players knew what it took to be successful. His players had respect for him, their opponents, and the game itself. Today the winningest coach in history has stepped down and the coaching world has lost one of the game's biggest influences.

Giants Pull the Upset!, Patriots Choke?

Right before the game started I made my prediction that New York would pull the upset and beat the Patriots 24-21. I made my prediction based on a few things -
1. The Giants play great on the road.
2. They lost to the Pats the first time by 3.
3. They had guys who were capable of putting pressure on Brady.
4. Eli was playing great ball.
5. Brandon Jacobs is bigger than 3 of the 4 New England Linebackers.
6. The Pats are older and playing 18 games might take a toll.
6. Karma might have been on their side.

Okay, the last one was just a plain stretch but to go undefeated all year, including the Super Bowl, well, it's only been done once before. So, basically, it had a 1/41 chance of pulling that off. I just think that the Giants had the perfect personnel to be able to beat New England. All year it has been Brady standing in the pocket for an amazing amount of time just waiting for Welker and Moss to get open, beating the coverage downfield or underneath. But when he gets pressured, and oh boy did the front four of the Giants put pressure on Brady tonight, he seems out of Sync. There was no, "Moss, Open Deep" or "Play Artist - Pats Running Game." The front four played amazingly, and when that rookie had that last sack for the Patriots when Brady was on his back calling for a timeout, I knew that it was over. Maybe it was Brady's ankle, but I doubt it. He didn't look as if he was having trouble pushing off of it, although he had a lot of balls that were underthrown. All week I kept seeing Belichick saying to his players "Just do your job." I could not have agreed with him more. If the Pats would just have done their job, then everything would have probably wound up a win for the Pats. I don't think the Pats didn't do their jobs, I just credit the Giants for not letting them. The front 4 for New York just flat out dominated their offensive counterparts. New England couldn't even incorporate any of the screens that Brady usually gets to Faulk. He did use Welker and Gaffney on a few WR screens but you usually see the RB screens from New England. During the game, I just kept wondering if Vrabel, Seau, Bruschi, and Thomas where in the game. Thomas had that sack/fumble on Manning, but I don't remember even seeing Vrabel, Seau, or Bruschi even making a tackle. Maybe I have a bad memory, but nothing really steps out in my mind, you know, there is always that play that one of them makes in every game that turns out to be huge. I just checked the stats Bruschi - 8 tackles, Vrabel & Seau - 2 each, and Thomas had 5. More than I expected, they must have in the first half, because I don't remember much of them.

I thought when the Pats had that drive when they were rolling that the game was shifting sails and the Pats were going to pull it out. Brady got in a groove and just marched right down the field and set up the Moss TD. What happened to Webster on that play? I mean seriously, I think I could have fell down like that and tripped over my own feet just as well. With that being said, he did an excellent job on Moss the other 75 plays of the game. (Except that same series when Moss was on the left side and Brady missed him, but no one will remember that blunder either).

Offensive Impact Player of the Game -
David Tyree - 3 Catches - 1 TD (his first of the season) - 1 helmet catch (after Manning made an amazing escape on 3 and 5 for 32 yards)

Defensive Impact Player of the Game -
New York D Lineman - 4 Sacks (Kawika Mitchell had the 5th on a blitz) and countles knock downs and hurries
Antonio Pierce - 11 Tackles - he always seemed to make a big stop. And for some reason was always in the area where Moss was being tackled. I was perplexed as some of this because Moss was so open on those little routes he was running.

So I am wondering if that the Giants have pulled the biggest upset ever, or is the biggest choke ever? Leave a comment about this I would love to have some conversation. Since I am usually a very positive guy I would consider this to lean in favor of the Giants as pulling the upset. I just think the Patriots didn't play their best ball and New York played the best that they could and a little bit more. They were definitely the aggressors. And I guess Karma does come back to haunt you. Maybe the Patriots won't challenge the integrity of the game by running up the scores the way they did this year. I would hope that they will respect the game and the unwritten laws of sportsmanship a little more from now on.

Girls' Sectionals Announced

Here is the link to the Girls' Sectional matchups IHSAA

I was right about the close games this weekend as two of them went into overtime. I also thought Monrovia would give Edgewood a bigger test.

Let me know what you think about the girls sectional matchups or anything else by posting a comment.

High School Games this Weekend

I suggest trugging out in the cold to see some good games this weekend! Especially that the Colts have been eliminated from the playoffs.

Friday's contests include -
Monrovia at Indian Creek
Greencastle vs North Putnam
Cloverdale vs South Putnam
Cascade vs Speedway
Avon at Zionsville
Brownsburg at Nobleville
Plainfield vs Decatur Central
Mooresville at Whiteland
Tri-West at Fountain Central
Danville at Owen Valley

Saturday's games -
Monrovia at Edgewood
Greencastle at Tri-West
Cloverdale at Owen Valley
Cascade at Danville
South Putnam vs Riverton Parke
Avon vs Indpls. Washington
Plainfield vs Richmond
Tri-West at Greencastle

The best game I believe will be between Plainfield and Richmond on Saturday. I also think the Avon vs Washington, Tri-West vs Greencastle, and Cascade vs Speedway games will also be close contests. I'm also interested to see the Monrovia vs Edgewood score.

Have a good day and stay warm.

FW Mad Ants and Accepting Reality

I happened to watch NBA Access today with Ahmad Rashad and they had a segment on the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the NBDL. They had an interview with their head coach, Kent Davison and he said that he wanted his players to do what they do best. If you're a penetrator, penetrate. If you're a shooter, then hit your shots more than you will miss them. If you are a defenseive stopper, then I better not see the guy you're guarding get an easy, uncontested shot off. I see players all the time who are playing outside of their ability level. I do understand that if you don't have a point guard that can handle the ball, then someone will have to fill that role, but if you aren't a shooter, then why are shooting? When looking at what Coach Sfera has posted on the Powerbox Basketball Blog about the Butler Way I was intrigued that it included "Accepting Reality" as a part of the Way. But really digging deeper, I interpret that to mean that you can only do what you are capable of at that moment in time. You can't pretend to be someone else if you don't have the skills. But, and it's a big but, you can take the steps to eventually acquire the skills to do something that you couldn't do before. These skills that I am talking about are skills that you need to develop on your own, in your driveway, by yourself or possibly with a buddy. You can't acquire these skills simply by playing games. You don't become a good shooter in games without working on your shooting with no one in the stands. And you definitely can't become a good ballhandler by just playing games, it takes initiative, drive, and a commitment to get better every day. If you think about it, if you don't get better on your own, and just play games, and everyone else does the exact same thing, then no one is getting any better than you were the year before, you have the exact same repertoire of moves that you had last year. I have seen kids in the 8th grade be very good and not get any better by the time they graduate because they thought they were good enough and didn't have to work hard. And when you don't progress you stay at that 8th Grade good enough level even when they are a senior in high school and you can already guess how much playing time that he got his senior year.

There are three players from Indiana colleges playing for the Mad Ants this year -

Earl Calloway - Indiana

Ron Howard - Valparaiso

Rod Wilmont - Indiana

Have a good weekend and thanks for reading.

End of Season for Colts

As I was watching the Colts-Chargers game today, I felt the usual feeling that I normally have about all Colts games; Never think that they cannot pull something together and wind up with a win. I don't ever think the Colts are out of any game. I have seen Manning lead comeback after comeback for years and I think when you see it over and over, there is no thought that the Colts are going to lose. When that game was over, I just sat there waiting for another quarter for the Colts to come back and win. I just sat there stunned...waiting...wanting for the clock to say 5th Quarter. But no, it's over. A season filled with injuries in which the Colts still pulled through in many situations. They fell to the Pats, which is understandable, but led by 10 with like 4 minutes to go. Then the next week fell to the Chargers without around 9 starters and came up just short as Vinatieri missed a field goal. The Colts' arguably best defensive player Dwight Freeney was injured and placed on IR for the rest of the season. And if there ever was a game when Dwight's presence would have been needed it was this one. I can't remember one hand being laid on Philip Rivers, or Billy Volek for that matter, the entire game. Speaking of Volek, I was impressed with what he did in the 4th Quarter. He stepped right in for whatever injury Rivers seemed to have. I saw him run onto the field after returning from the locker room and he wasn't having a very tough time running/jogging, then he never put back on his helmet. Another mention of Rivers has to be the notion that he was expelling a lot of energy jawing with the Indianapolis during his exit to the locker room and as the game was coming to an end. The way that he led the Chargers was very Manning/Brady-like and I have gained a lot of respect for him this year for his on-field performances, but the way that he was yelling at the fans while going to the locker room to get his leg checked out was just classless. I am glad that CBS focused on him when the game was coming to an end and he was turned around and "taunting" the Colts' fans. To me that speaks more than anything. I don't care that the Chargers won, but I do care that their leader is more privy to yelling at the Colts' fans than maybe congratulating Volek, who led finished the game and pulled out a win. There have been many instances this year when Rivers and Tomlinson have had spats on the sidelines and if this is how the second/third face (L.T. and Gates) of the Chargers is going to play the game, then if I was Norv Turner, I would definitely look at playing Volek. Enough on that. The Colts' defense gave up a lot of yards and the offense looked out of sync, the running game was pretty much nonexistent, Addai and Sanders got injured but came back, Harrison wasn't Harrison, there wasn't the "fly to the ball" and drill somebody attitude from the Colts defense, and there definitely wasn't the BIG HIT that you seem to get every game from the Colts, (last week was Darrell Reid on special teams). Add all these things up and the Colts just didn't play a good game. Plain and simple. They just didn't do what they do best. It's just sad that it happened when it did. Great job Colts on another AFC South banner and posting the second best record in the AFC. Congrats to Coach Dungy for 6 straight playoff appearances! I don't know if he'll be back, I hope so, but if he is ready to walk away, then that's his decision. Congrats Colts to a great year!

A Good Read

Bill Simmons of ESPN and ESPN The Mag has figured out how to win in the NBA (or on any team for that matter). It's Chemacterility. Check it out!

"Chemacterility." Why haven't you heard the term before? Because I just made it up. But it's an amalgam of three concepts that have formed the foundation of the Duncan era in San Antonio: chemistry, character and (cap) flexibility"

Triple Threat to Power Box

Coach Sfera has updated and finished his new website at Powerbox Basketball! The former Triple Threat Basketball Blog will now be found through his website. Check the links on the side. It's not just about basketball but about all the aspects of life. Check it out

"Power Box Basketball was created in order to help today's basketball player and coach develop in areas of mental preparation, physical conditioning, and relational skills all while developing a strong foundation for life on and off the court."

Thanks Coach for the Update!

New Year's Resolutions - Sugar Bowl - Local Games

So with today being the First day of the year, I would think that it's only natural to set some resolutions for 2008. I think that starting new again is definitely a good thing to do. People get in a rut and stay in that rut for a long time. New Year's brings a new year and a new start. It's a chance to start over, go about things a new way, or completely reconcile things that have been hindering you.

I know the lose weight thing is always on people's minds, but I have really seen me put on weight this past year and I think it's time for me to do something about it. I am going to try and take off 20 pounds this year. I know that it will take a lot of work, but I seriously need to do something about my weight. My first step is going to be to eat smaller portions at meals and drink lots of water, cutting out all pop, soda, cola, basically anything that you can also get in a can, or a fountain drink.

My second resolution may sound weird but I am going to Man-Up on some things that I need to. Basically, step up and do what needs to be done, and not wait until later. Nip it in the bud, per se, before things accumulate to something of greater stature. This will take going outside my comfort zone, but I know that it is going to show growth.

And finally, another resolution that I am going to work on; procrastination. I wait until the last minute to do things all the time. I have found that it's not worth it. Do as much work as I can before I need to do it. I lost a lot of sleep last semester, because of stupid choices that I made.

I know that these are going to be tough for me but, I know that I need to do these things to be successful. I also know that I may not accomplish all these every time, but that I need to continue to do my best and if I have a dropoff, I know that I just need to fight it off and get back on track.

What are your resolutions?

I am watching the Georgia vs Hawaii Sugar Bowl Game right now and Hawaii is down 24 to 3. I was looking for this to be a little closer. I was hoping for a Hawaii win. I felt they weren't getting enough credit this year, but they aren't looking very good right now, but the announcers keep saying that they have had a bunch of comebacks this year. UPDATE Fumble by Brennan, recovered by UGA. I went to Hawaii in the summer of 2006 and it was an amazing experience. If anyone is thinking of going there, head to the island of Kauai. It is so peaceful and beautiful. There isn't any big city things like in Honolulu. One of the coolest things that happened to my wife and I, was when we were walking on a sidewalk in a very small town and we turn towards the road to see what was on the other side of the road, and both lanes of traffic stop for us to cross. It was the weirdest thing. I mean where in the continuous states would that happen! People on the islands are so nice and would do anything for you. Our tour guide said that there is basically no crime on the island. How weird would it be for the news to not have anything related to crime in it. What would they talk about?



Some local HS games this week-

Hendricks County Tournament - Should be very competitive



Local College Games this week -

DePauw vs Sewanee - Jan. 4

DePauw vs Oglethorpe - Jan. 6

Wabash vs Allegheny - Jan. 4

Wabash vs Hiram - Jan. 5

Marian vs Spring Arbor - Jan. 5

Rose-Hulman vs Translyvania - Jan. 5

Valpo at Butler - Jan. 5