Chuck Noll

There is an article on ESPN today, written by Elizabeth Merrill about legendary Steelers coach, Chuck Noll, that is a unique glimpse into the life of the coach who has won 4, count 'em, 4, Super Bowls.

My favorite quote from the article is by Andy Russell, a 7-time Pro Bowl selection, who had two stints with the Steelers. Inbetween those two stints, he served two years in the Army.

"In his first year, we won our first game and lost 13 in a row. But he never lost us because he never said things that didn't make any sense. He'd say, 'We will get worse before we get better. Because I'm going to force you to play the right way."

This truly shows how you can get better, doing it the right way, no shortcuts.

I knew that Coach Noll shaped Coach Tony Dungy I looked in his book, Quiet Strength, this morning to see what Coach Dungy had to say about Coach Noll and I found this quote from Noll.

"Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else."

Alonzo Mourning Retires

I always remember 'Zo being an amazing competitor. I used to have a poster of him on my wall while growing up.

I was listening the Tirico and Van Pelt show on ESPNRadio today and Mike Wilbon was a guest and this is what he said about 'Zo. I completely agree with these and I don't think there could be any greater compliments.

"Zo played like he was a scrub trying to make the starting lineup."

He was a starter and still played this way. Truly amazing that he understood that the day you stop working hard is the day you stop living.

"The man off the court was even better."

What are you teaching?

I'm in my last semester of getting my degree in elementary education and every day I see the similarities between being in a classroom and being on a basketball court. I have to ask you, what are you teaching? Are you teaching the fundamentals of the game? Or are you teaching kids to run a play. Can your kids make plays out of plays? I heard Seth Greenberg, coach of VA Tech, who just upset Wake Forest last night, say that in a DVD. I want to teach kids how to be successful when things are not going as perfect as they should. I want them to be prepared with the fundamentals to play the game of basketball for the rest of their life.
One last question.
When your time is up with your current players, will they be able to play a pick-up game in a park somewhere 200 miles away and be able to be successful? I don't mean successful as in win. But in a way that others can tell that they fully understand the game of basketball inside and out.

Here's a clip from Bob Knight that might help.