4.13.2009
Univ. of Wisconsin Has A New "Battle Cry"
"WE BEFORE ME! Usually, the teams that win are the teams that stick together."
Mike Conley - Memphis Grizzlies
"The first year at any level is all about learning the game all over again and the speed of the players. It took me awhile to adjust when I was at Ohio St. and especially in the NBA because your playing against the best players in the world."
TRYING TO FIND A LEADER
New Univ. of Oregon football coach Chip Kelly is going through the tough process of finding the leader of his football team for next season.
After losing team leaders Patrick Chung and Nick Reed on defense and Max Unger and Jeremiah Johnson on offense, the Ducks are looking for someone to take over that hard-to-define role of team leader.
"There's a Zen saying that says when leadership is needed, a leader emerges," Kelly said. "But obviously our guys don't take Zen, because nobody's figured that out yet."
Asked if anyone is more vocal this spring, Kelly offered his signature quick response.
"Besides the coaching staff?" he said. "No."
The Ducks have five seniors with appreciable experience but, "sometimes that's hard just for a guy to assume that role," Kelly said.
Possible leaders start, as usual, with the quarterback. Jeremiah Masoli, who earned credibility with his improvement and tough play last season, has made a concerted effort this spring to become a more vocal leader. But Kelly said Masoli has work to do on his own game before he can ride his teammates.
"You can't be a vocal leader if you're not making plays," Kelly said. "He needs to stop yelling at people and start doing things himself, too. He's got to know what he's doing, and right now he's forcing the issue on too many things, and it'll come.
"I think he wants everything too fast. When he starts to do his job, then he can start getting on some other guys."
So where can the Ducks find some leadership?
They have a senior running back, but Blount was suspended this winter for not following team rules. And in football, the leader must first follow.
The eldest receiver is junior Jamere Holland, who said he's ready to lead as "the oldest receiver" on the team, and he has drawn praise from Kelly this spring. Dickson is a personable, NFL-bound senior tight end but one under whom coaches continually try to light a fire.
On defense, the only returning starter on the line is Tukuafu, who at 25 is certainly old enough to be a leader. But he's soft-spoken, as is junior Casey Matthews, the elder statesman among linebackers.
"We need somebody to step up on both sides of the ball," Kelly said. "We've got players that are kind of doing some things by example, but it shouldn't be up to the coaching staff to get these guys to play hard all the time and understand it."
And it's not just about practice effort or keeping teammates out of trouble off the field. It's the ability to make game-changing plays, as the aforementioned four leaders of last season did with regularity. Kelly said those players are often one and the same.
"Who's the guy who's going to step up?" Kelly said. "And it's the same guy who would step up in a game if we had a couple three-and-outs on offense. If we're on defense and we've given up a couple big plays in a row, who's gonna kind of bow his back and stand in there and make a play for us to rally around?"
After losing team leaders Patrick Chung and Nick Reed on defense and Max Unger and Jeremiah Johnson on offense, the Ducks are looking for someone to take over that hard-to-define role of team leader.
"There's a Zen saying that says when leadership is needed, a leader emerges," Kelly said. "But obviously our guys don't take Zen, because nobody's figured that out yet."
Asked if anyone is more vocal this spring, Kelly offered his signature quick response.
"Besides the coaching staff?" he said. "No."
The Ducks have five seniors with appreciable experience but, "sometimes that's hard just for a guy to assume that role," Kelly said.
Possible leaders start, as usual, with the quarterback. Jeremiah Masoli, who earned credibility with his improvement and tough play last season, has made a concerted effort this spring to become a more vocal leader. But Kelly said Masoli has work to do on his own game before he can ride his teammates.
"You can't be a vocal leader if you're not making plays," Kelly said. "He needs to stop yelling at people and start doing things himself, too. He's got to know what he's doing, and right now he's forcing the issue on too many things, and it'll come.
"I think he wants everything too fast. When he starts to do his job, then he can start getting on some other guys."
So where can the Ducks find some leadership?
They have a senior running back, but Blount was suspended this winter for not following team rules. And in football, the leader must first follow.
The eldest receiver is junior Jamere Holland, who said he's ready to lead as "the oldest receiver" on the team, and he has drawn praise from Kelly this spring. Dickson is a personable, NFL-bound senior tight end but one under whom coaches continually try to light a fire.
On defense, the only returning starter on the line is Tukuafu, who at 25 is certainly old enough to be a leader. But he's soft-spoken, as is junior Casey Matthews, the elder statesman among linebackers.
"We need somebody to step up on both sides of the ball," Kelly said. "We've got players that are kind of doing some things by example, but it shouldn't be up to the coaching staff to get these guys to play hard all the time and understand it."
And it's not just about practice effort or keeping teammates out of trouble off the field. It's the ability to make game-changing plays, as the aforementioned four leaders of last season did with regularity. Kelly said those players are often one and the same.
"Who's the guy who's going to step up?" Kelly said. "And it's the same guy who would step up in a game if we had a couple three-and-outs on offense. If we're on defense and we've given up a couple big plays in a row, who's gonna kind of bow his back and stand in there and make a play for us to rally around?"
RON WILSON - TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Coach Wilson gives his thoughts on the upcoming offseason...
Even though the players will technically have the next five months off, Wilson wants them to be working harder than ever. He's instituted a new type of fitness testing.
"What I've told our team all along, we've got to start training and driving ourselves to become elite athletes, forget the hockey part," said Wilson. "We're nowhere near an elite team when it comes to your max VO2 (maximum heart rate) and our overall conditioning, which doesn't come from a hockey season. It comes from your work habits that you put yourself through in the summertime and offseason."
"My God, if you haven't made the playoffs in the three of four years, those four or five months that you have you ought to put them to good use."
Even though the players will technically have the next five months off, Wilson wants them to be working harder than ever. He's instituted a new type of fitness testing.
"What I've told our team all along, we've got to start training and driving ourselves to become elite athletes, forget the hockey part," said Wilson. "We're nowhere near an elite team when it comes to your max VO2 (maximum heart rate) and our overall conditioning, which doesn't come from a hockey season. It comes from your work habits that you put yourself through in the summertime and offseason."
"My God, if you haven't made the playoffs in the three of four years, those four or five months that you have you ought to put them to good use."
4.11.2009
TOM BRADY
Tom Brady was not given one snap at quarterback on a winless freshman team at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif.
He was seventh on the depth chart when he enrolled at Michigan and struggled so mightily for playing time that he hired a sports psychologist to help him cope with frustration and anxiety. He heard 198 other names called before the New England Patriots took a flier on him in the sixth round of the 2000 draft.
"Throughout my football career," Brady says, "i have always has been looking up at other people."
Not anymore.
After an improbable climb to the pinnacle of his profession, he is without equal among current NFL quarterbacks when it comes to winning championships, having surpassed boyhood idol Joe Montana by becoming the first to win three Super Bowl rings before his 28th birthday.
"There is no quarterback I would rather have," Patriots coach Bill Belichick says simply.
How can it be that the two-time Super Bowl MVP reigns supreme after being for so long a passer no one particularly wanted?
If there could be a glimpse into Brady's soul, it would almost surely reveal a raging fire, fueled by all of those coaches and all of those teams that did not think he was quick enough or strong enough or good enough. He will never forget the rejection of his past.
"I would say every day he feels that pain," says his sister, Nancy. "I think that people will never know how much being considered a backup by some of the people that he really respected hurt him."
Says his father, Tom Brady Sr.: "His competitive nature kicks in every time somebody says he can't do something, and as a result he works harder. He's the guy who trains every single day to prove people wrong."
For Brady, 29, unwavering dedication was the only way to crack the lineup and complete an against-all-odds rise to stardom.
To this day, he leads by example. He remains the player to beat when it comes to winning the coveted parking spot given to the most devoted member of the Patriots' offseason program.
"If I'm not up at 6 am or I'm not trying to win the parking spot here," Brady says, "then someone else is going to win it and I'm going to have to drive in every day and see their name up on the wall rather than mine."
"If another team wins the Super Bowl, it's going to be painful to watch those guys celebrate. I'm not going to be happy for them."
Brady's greatest strength is his ability to will his team to victory:
•When New England was tied 17-17 with the heavily favored St. Louis Rams with 1:21 left in Super Bowl XXXVI to close the 2001 season, he hit five of eight passes for 53 yards in a final drive that led to a 20-17 triumph and his first MVP award.
•When the Patriots were tied 29-29 with the Carolina Panthers with 1:08 remaining in Super Bowl XXXVIII, he converted four of five throws for 47 yards to position Adam Vinatieri's game-winning field goal as part of a dazzling 32-for-48, 354-yard, three-touchdown MVP performance.
•With a 58-20 record and .744 winning percentage entering this season, he joined Roger Staubach (85-29, .746, from 1969-79) and Montana (117-47, .713, from 1979-94) as the only passers in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to win at more than a 70% clip.
Brady has performed his late-game magic so often — he led the Patriots to victory on 21 occasions when they faced a fourth-quarter deficit or were tied through 2005 — that it is virtually expected. "If we have the ball in our hands," veteran offensive tackle Matt Light says, "we always feel we have a chance to win."
A critical juncture in Brady's life came when he was a sophomore at Michigan. He was concerned about his seeming lack of opportunity and was considering transferring. He met with coach Lloyd Carr to discuss whether he had a future with the Wolverines.
Carr responded: "Go out there and do everything you can to control what you can control and quit worrying about how many reps you get or the other quarterbacks get, the skills they have and you don't. Worry about things that you do well because thats all you can control."
Brady uses his intelligence and work ethic to master each week's game plan. His knowledge of defenses allows him to almost immediately recognize whatever look is presented and quickly make whatever adjustments are necessary.
He is fanatical about preparation, so much so that then-offensive coordinator Charlie Weis jokingly complained about the quarterback's late-night calls to his hotel room in the days leading to New England's 24-21 decision against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.
"I don't want any unknowns. I don't want any guesswork. When I go out onto the field, I want to know exactly what we're going to do versus every defense we could face," he says. "And when I feel like I'm prepared like that in my mind, I feel like it's just execution from there, and if I can go out and execute and that's the stuff I work on, then we're going to do exactly what we set out to do."
There are never loose ends.
"I don't take the field if I'm not prepared," he says. "It's as simple as that."
Brady's glittering 10-1 postseason record stems largely from his ability to limit turnovers when the stakes are highest. He has been picked off only five times in 11 postseason appearances, an interception percentage of 1.36 that is the best in playoff history.
As much as he has accomplished, Brady wants more. He is not content with either his lofty position in the game or his number of championships he has won.
As painful as the journey has been for Brady, as much as each snub gnawed at him, he would not change a thing:
"At the end of the day, you can hold that Super Bowl trophy up and you know you've done everything the right way and you've paid the price. When the situation came up and the pressure was at the highest, you performed your best."
He was seventh on the depth chart when he enrolled at Michigan and struggled so mightily for playing time that he hired a sports psychologist to help him cope with frustration and anxiety. He heard 198 other names called before the New England Patriots took a flier on him in the sixth round of the 2000 draft.
"Throughout my football career," Brady says, "i have always has been looking up at other people."
Not anymore.
After an improbable climb to the pinnacle of his profession, he is without equal among current NFL quarterbacks when it comes to winning championships, having surpassed boyhood idol Joe Montana by becoming the first to win three Super Bowl rings before his 28th birthday.
"There is no quarterback I would rather have," Patriots coach Bill Belichick says simply.
How can it be that the two-time Super Bowl MVP reigns supreme after being for so long a passer no one particularly wanted?
If there could be a glimpse into Brady's soul, it would almost surely reveal a raging fire, fueled by all of those coaches and all of those teams that did not think he was quick enough or strong enough or good enough. He will never forget the rejection of his past.
"I would say every day he feels that pain," says his sister, Nancy. "I think that people will never know how much being considered a backup by some of the people that he really respected hurt him."
Says his father, Tom Brady Sr.: "His competitive nature kicks in every time somebody says he can't do something, and as a result he works harder. He's the guy who trains every single day to prove people wrong."
For Brady, 29, unwavering dedication was the only way to crack the lineup and complete an against-all-odds rise to stardom.
To this day, he leads by example. He remains the player to beat when it comes to winning the coveted parking spot given to the most devoted member of the Patriots' offseason program.
"If I'm not up at 6 am or I'm not trying to win the parking spot here," Brady says, "then someone else is going to win it and I'm going to have to drive in every day and see their name up on the wall rather than mine."
"If another team wins the Super Bowl, it's going to be painful to watch those guys celebrate. I'm not going to be happy for them."
Brady's greatest strength is his ability to will his team to victory:
•When New England was tied 17-17 with the heavily favored St. Louis Rams with 1:21 left in Super Bowl XXXVI to close the 2001 season, he hit five of eight passes for 53 yards in a final drive that led to a 20-17 triumph and his first MVP award.
•When the Patriots were tied 29-29 with the Carolina Panthers with 1:08 remaining in Super Bowl XXXVIII, he converted four of five throws for 47 yards to position Adam Vinatieri's game-winning field goal as part of a dazzling 32-for-48, 354-yard, three-touchdown MVP performance.
•With a 58-20 record and .744 winning percentage entering this season, he joined Roger Staubach (85-29, .746, from 1969-79) and Montana (117-47, .713, from 1979-94) as the only passers in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to win at more than a 70% clip.
Brady has performed his late-game magic so often — he led the Patriots to victory on 21 occasions when they faced a fourth-quarter deficit or were tied through 2005 — that it is virtually expected. "If we have the ball in our hands," veteran offensive tackle Matt Light says, "we always feel we have a chance to win."
A critical juncture in Brady's life came when he was a sophomore at Michigan. He was concerned about his seeming lack of opportunity and was considering transferring. He met with coach Lloyd Carr to discuss whether he had a future with the Wolverines.
Carr responded: "Go out there and do everything you can to control what you can control and quit worrying about how many reps you get or the other quarterbacks get, the skills they have and you don't. Worry about things that you do well because thats all you can control."
Brady uses his intelligence and work ethic to master each week's game plan. His knowledge of defenses allows him to almost immediately recognize whatever look is presented and quickly make whatever adjustments are necessary.
He is fanatical about preparation, so much so that then-offensive coordinator Charlie Weis jokingly complained about the quarterback's late-night calls to his hotel room in the days leading to New England's 24-21 decision against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.
"I don't want any unknowns. I don't want any guesswork. When I go out onto the field, I want to know exactly what we're going to do versus every defense we could face," he says. "And when I feel like I'm prepared like that in my mind, I feel like it's just execution from there, and if I can go out and execute and that's the stuff I work on, then we're going to do exactly what we set out to do."
There are never loose ends.
"I don't take the field if I'm not prepared," he says. "It's as simple as that."
Brady's glittering 10-1 postseason record stems largely from his ability to limit turnovers when the stakes are highest. He has been picked off only five times in 11 postseason appearances, an interception percentage of 1.36 that is the best in playoff history.
As much as he has accomplished, Brady wants more. He is not content with either his lofty position in the game or his number of championships he has won.
As painful as the journey has been for Brady, as much as each snub gnawed at him, he would not change a thing:
"At the end of the day, you can hold that Super Bowl trophy up and you know you've done everything the right way and you've paid the price. When the situation came up and the pressure was at the highest, you performed your best."
4.02.2009
VILLANOVA
Kyle Lowry, now with the Houston Rockets, was just a freshman when Villanova battled North Carolina in the Sweet 16 in 2005.
It was four years ago when Villanova and North Carolina played. In Villanova circles it’s remembered by, “the call.” In the waning seconds the whistle blew and everyone figured a foul was going to be called. Instead the referee signaled travel, negating the made basket, negating a free throw attempt that might have forced overtime, negating a shot at an epic upset.
Four years later the dust has settle for Villanova and they have got their rematch in the Final Four with North Carolina, but the question has to be asked again:
How did this happen?
How did a team with no evident NBA prospects on its roster get to the Final Four.
The answer is in that 2005 game against North Carolina.
"Carolina had a bunch of pros and nobody knew who we were," said Kyle Lowry. "We weren't a national team or anything like that, so no one gave us a chance. But in that game, we really showed our resiliency. We weren't going to back down from the fight and that's the kind of team we decided to be. That's the kind of program Villanova is now."
Sports teams always talk about developing an identity and passing it down.
Villanova has established a predictable persona. Villanova is going to be tough. Theirs a trait passed down like a treasured family heirloom from generation to generation.
Asked to characterize his team's attitude, Scottie Reynolds said, "No excuses."
Former guard Mike Nardi was reached by phone as he was sitting in his beachfront apartment on the Adriatic Sea in Italy, explained Villanova this way, "No matter what you take care of your business. Guys might be sick, injured, maybe you have homework to do, we don't care. You take care of business."
Senior co-captain Dante Cunningham described it, "It doesn't matter what the refs call or what happens in the game, we just play."
Kyle Lowry, now with the Rockets, said, "We don't back down from a fight, doesn't matter what the odds are."
Shane Clark, another current senior shrugged his shoulders, "Everybody is going to have bumps along the way. You can't worry about it."
Randy Foye, who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves described it simply, "We don't quit."
And so the identity was born in 2005.
After two years, one great recruiting class, two NIT berths and probation to show for it, Jay Wright was on the hot seat.
Villanova started the year slowly.
Then the Wildcats won their final seven games of the regular season to earn a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Wright became an instant hero.
But early into the second-round game against Florida, Curtis Sumpter crumbled to the floor. Sumpter averaged 15 points and 7 boards.
The diagnosis was immediate: a torn ACL. He was done.
"We were building a power team, not this little four-guard team," Wright said. "And then, bam! Curt goes down and we changed everything."
The Wildcats dispatched of Florida 76-65 to roll to the Sweet 16 showdown with North Carolina.
Most people figured good enough.
After all, Lowry wasn't exaggerating. That Tar Heels team sent four first-round picks to the NBA that June. Without Sumpter the Wildcats were basically six deep.
"I vividly remember Jay saying to Mike Nardi and Kyle, the two smallest guys on the team, 'if you get switched off on any big guys, you better not get posted up,'" said Pinckney, then an assistant on the Villanova bench and now with the Timberwolves. "They took that to heart."
From the opening tip, Villanova went at Carolina. Foye drained 11 points in the opening 4:30, delivering the message: GAME ON.
"One thing I've learned, players look at games completely different," said Brett Gunning, then the associate head coach at Villanova and now on the Rockets staff. "Fans are thinking, 'No chance.' As coaches we're thinking, 'Oh my God,' but players are just thinking, 'Let's play.' Do you think Allan Ray was scared? Or Kyle or Randy? No way. They don't see pressure. They see an opportunity."
The Tar Heels trailed 33-29 at the half and with Raymond Felton on the bench already fouled out, would have been in deep trouble had the game gone into OT.
Instead Ray was whistled for the travel, Rashad McCants hit one free throw and Lowry's 3-pointer was too little, too late. Final score 67-66.
"It wasn't a moral victory," Wright said. "We thought we could win, but there was something about everything that we overcame I felt like we had something starting. We didn't just hang with Carolina. We could have beaten them."
It is one thing for that attitude to permeate the team the following year, when Foye, Ray, Fraser and Sumpter were seniors.
It is another for a program a full class removed to continue with the same attitude.
But Cunningham, Clark and Dwayne Anderson were like kids sitting at the knees of wily veterans when they got to Villanova.
They watched players who would go on to NBA paychecks trying to win Attitude Club -- where points are awarded for taking charges, diving for loose balls and making other hustle plays.
They bought in and when Foye, Ray, Fraser and Sumpter graduated and Lowry bolted early for the NBA, the next class passed it on like some attitudinal game of whisper down the lane.
"Coach always would say, 'That's the way Randy did it,' or 'This is how Kyle did it,' and of course it gets old hearing it," Reynolds said. "But at the same time, they earned it. They made us reach to be what they were. They set the bar for everything that we wanted to be and how we wanted to play."
It was four years ago when Villanova and North Carolina played. In Villanova circles it’s remembered by, “the call.” In the waning seconds the whistle blew and everyone figured a foul was going to be called. Instead the referee signaled travel, negating the made basket, negating a free throw attempt that might have forced overtime, negating a shot at an epic upset.
Four years later the dust has settle for Villanova and they have got their rematch in the Final Four with North Carolina, but the question has to be asked again:
How did this happen?
How did a team with no evident NBA prospects on its roster get to the Final Four.
The answer is in that 2005 game against North Carolina.
"Carolina had a bunch of pros and nobody knew who we were," said Kyle Lowry. "We weren't a national team or anything like that, so no one gave us a chance. But in that game, we really showed our resiliency. We weren't going to back down from the fight and that's the kind of team we decided to be. That's the kind of program Villanova is now."
Sports teams always talk about developing an identity and passing it down.
Villanova has established a predictable persona. Villanova is going to be tough. Theirs a trait passed down like a treasured family heirloom from generation to generation.
Asked to characterize his team's attitude, Scottie Reynolds said, "No excuses."
Former guard Mike Nardi was reached by phone as he was sitting in his beachfront apartment on the Adriatic Sea in Italy, explained Villanova this way, "No matter what you take care of your business. Guys might be sick, injured, maybe you have homework to do, we don't care. You take care of business."
Senior co-captain Dante Cunningham described it, "It doesn't matter what the refs call or what happens in the game, we just play."
Kyle Lowry, now with the Rockets, said, "We don't back down from a fight, doesn't matter what the odds are."
Shane Clark, another current senior shrugged his shoulders, "Everybody is going to have bumps along the way. You can't worry about it."
Randy Foye, who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves described it simply, "We don't quit."
And so the identity was born in 2005.
After two years, one great recruiting class, two NIT berths and probation to show for it, Jay Wright was on the hot seat.
Villanova started the year slowly.
Then the Wildcats won their final seven games of the regular season to earn a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Wright became an instant hero.
But early into the second-round game against Florida, Curtis Sumpter crumbled to the floor. Sumpter averaged 15 points and 7 boards.
The diagnosis was immediate: a torn ACL. He was done.
"We were building a power team, not this little four-guard team," Wright said. "And then, bam! Curt goes down and we changed everything."
The Wildcats dispatched of Florida 76-65 to roll to the Sweet 16 showdown with North Carolina.
Most people figured good enough.
After all, Lowry wasn't exaggerating. That Tar Heels team sent four first-round picks to the NBA that June. Without Sumpter the Wildcats were basically six deep.
"I vividly remember Jay saying to Mike Nardi and Kyle, the two smallest guys on the team, 'if you get switched off on any big guys, you better not get posted up,'" said Pinckney, then an assistant on the Villanova bench and now with the Timberwolves. "They took that to heart."
From the opening tip, Villanova went at Carolina. Foye drained 11 points in the opening 4:30, delivering the message: GAME ON.
"One thing I've learned, players look at games completely different," said Brett Gunning, then the associate head coach at Villanova and now on the Rockets staff. "Fans are thinking, 'No chance.' As coaches we're thinking, 'Oh my God,' but players are just thinking, 'Let's play.' Do you think Allan Ray was scared? Or Kyle or Randy? No way. They don't see pressure. They see an opportunity."
The Tar Heels trailed 33-29 at the half and with Raymond Felton on the bench already fouled out, would have been in deep trouble had the game gone into OT.
Instead Ray was whistled for the travel, Rashad McCants hit one free throw and Lowry's 3-pointer was too little, too late. Final score 67-66.
"It wasn't a moral victory," Wright said. "We thought we could win, but there was something about everything that we overcame I felt like we had something starting. We didn't just hang with Carolina. We could have beaten them."
It is one thing for that attitude to permeate the team the following year, when Foye, Ray, Fraser and Sumpter were seniors.
It is another for a program a full class removed to continue with the same attitude.
But Cunningham, Clark and Dwayne Anderson were like kids sitting at the knees of wily veterans when they got to Villanova.
They watched players who would go on to NBA paychecks trying to win Attitude Club -- where points are awarded for taking charges, diving for loose balls and making other hustle plays.
They bought in and when Foye, Ray, Fraser and Sumpter graduated and Lowry bolted early for the NBA, the next class passed it on like some attitudinal game of whisper down the lane.
"Coach always would say, 'That's the way Randy did it,' or 'This is how Kyle did it,' and of course it gets old hearing it," Reynolds said. "But at the same time, they earned it. They made us reach to be what they were. They set the bar for everything that we wanted to be and how we wanted to play."
3.27.2009
HOW DO YOU MEASURE 'TOUGHNESS' IN BASKETBALL?
I am sure you have heard countless times, about a coach preaching "toughness" to his team or a player.
What exactly is toughness in the context of basketball?
Here are a few examples of how you can demonstrate true "toughness" in basketball:
• Taking a charge
• Knocking down pressure free throws, especially when your tired
• Communicating with your teammates on defense
• Touching every line during wind sprints
• Diving on the floor for a loose ball
• Giving your teammates five when you get subbed out even when your frustrated
• Getting fouled hard and not complaining
• Never putting your head down when you make a mistake
• Lifting up your teammates and giving them confidence when their struggling
• Getting fouled and making the basketet…AND 1!
• Never coasting when you step on the floor
• Looking your coach in the eye when he is speaking to you
• Displaying positive body language when things aren’t going right
• Putting a body on somebody and blocking them out
• Passing up an open shot to a teammate that might have a better one
TOUGHNESS IS A LOT MORE THAN JUST BEING PHYSICAL
What exactly is toughness in the context of basketball?
Here are a few examples of how you can demonstrate true "toughness" in basketball:
• Taking a charge
• Knocking down pressure free throws, especially when your tired
• Communicating with your teammates on defense
• Touching every line during wind sprints
• Diving on the floor for a loose ball
• Giving your teammates five when you get subbed out even when your frustrated
• Getting fouled hard and not complaining
• Never putting your head down when you make a mistake
• Lifting up your teammates and giving them confidence when their struggling
• Getting fouled and making the basketet…AND 1!
• Never coasting when you step on the floor
• Looking your coach in the eye when he is speaking to you
• Displaying positive body language when things aren’t going right
• Putting a body on somebody and blocking them out
• Passing up an open shot to a teammate that might have a better one
TOUGHNESS IS A LOT MORE THAN JUST BEING PHYSICAL
ARE YOU A PUPPET OR A PUPPERMASTER...
There has been one constant theme in all the cheap-shot incidents directed at Oklahoma's Blake Griffin this season, his reaction. He never really has one. After the pain subsides, his expression reverts to the blank state that Texas Tech coach Pat Knight said reminded him of the ‘Terminator.’ There is no rage or retaliating; all Griffin does is shake off the cobwebs and walk away.
His extreme composure was what fascinated me most while watching him in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament, more so than his baseline spin moves or his breathtaking dunks. Part of it, I suspect, comes from his father, Tommy. But I had also heard about a San Francisco trainer named Frank Matrisciano who helped build Griffin into an even more explosive force over the summer, and introduced him to a mental-control concept called the "Puppetmaster."
Matrisciano is a hard man to find -- he has no listed number and no web site -- but is renowned for training not just basketball players but also members of Army Special Ops units, federal marshalls, and martial artist. He addresses people as "sir" during normal conversation. You have to know someone in his training circle to become a part of it. At Jeff Capel's urging, Blake, and his brother, Taylor went to San Francisco in the offseason, doing basketball skill work in the mornings with a group of college and pro players, and then going through Matrisciano's grueling and unconventional training in the afternoon.
During the first round of the NCAA tournament when Blake Griffin was flipped onto the ground by Morgan State player Ameer Ali, Matrisciano didn’t know what to expect. "What made me proud was that Blake just got up and walked way. He could have ripped Ali's head off. But then Blake's kicked out of the game, and the next game too. So who wins? If he retaliates, he hurts himself and the opponent achieves his goal. Blake didn't react, and didn't let him win."
This, in a nutshell, is the Puppetmaster concept Griffin embraced for his sophomore season, after a freshman campaign in which he was easily ruffled by defenders and referees. "You're either a puppet on the court, or you're the puppetmaster," Matrisciano would constantly tell him. "You're either allowing someone else to control you, or you're the one in control."
When USC's Leonard Washington punched Griffin in the groin, Utah's Luka Drca tripped him, Michigan's Manny Harris undercut him, and numerous players elbowed him, Griffin stayed in control of the situation. Matrisciano said Blake was able to do this because he has the mental discipline of a "robot," allowing him not only to stay in control, but also plow through workouts that had caused NBA players to quit the training programs.
"I can't express to you how hard we work," Matrisciano said. "I've had pros who, 3 minutes in, 11 minutes in, a couple of days in, say, 'F--- this, you're crazy, I'm leaving.' The Griffin kids woke up every morning and worked."
In the case of Blake Griffin, Matrisciano already knows what he is: "He's a puppetmaster. He sure ain't no puppet."
His extreme composure was what fascinated me most while watching him in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament, more so than his baseline spin moves or his breathtaking dunks. Part of it, I suspect, comes from his father, Tommy. But I had also heard about a San Francisco trainer named Frank Matrisciano who helped build Griffin into an even more explosive force over the summer, and introduced him to a mental-control concept called the "Puppetmaster."
Matrisciano is a hard man to find -- he has no listed number and no web site -- but is renowned for training not just basketball players but also members of Army Special Ops units, federal marshalls, and martial artist. He addresses people as "sir" during normal conversation. You have to know someone in his training circle to become a part of it. At Jeff Capel's urging, Blake, and his brother, Taylor went to San Francisco in the offseason, doing basketball skill work in the mornings with a group of college and pro players, and then going through Matrisciano's grueling and unconventional training in the afternoon.
During the first round of the NCAA tournament when Blake Griffin was flipped onto the ground by Morgan State player Ameer Ali, Matrisciano didn’t know what to expect. "What made me proud was that Blake just got up and walked way. He could have ripped Ali's head off. But then Blake's kicked out of the game, and the next game too. So who wins? If he retaliates, he hurts himself and the opponent achieves his goal. Blake didn't react, and didn't let him win."
This, in a nutshell, is the Puppetmaster concept Griffin embraced for his sophomore season, after a freshman campaign in which he was easily ruffled by defenders and referees. "You're either a puppet on the court, or you're the puppetmaster," Matrisciano would constantly tell him. "You're either allowing someone else to control you, or you're the one in control."
When USC's Leonard Washington punched Griffin in the groin, Utah's Luka Drca tripped him, Michigan's Manny Harris undercut him, and numerous players elbowed him, Griffin stayed in control of the situation. Matrisciano said Blake was able to do this because he has the mental discipline of a "robot," allowing him not only to stay in control, but also plow through workouts that had caused NBA players to quit the training programs.
"I can't express to you how hard we work," Matrisciano said. "I've had pros who, 3 minutes in, 11 minutes in, a couple of days in, say, 'F--- this, you're crazy, I'm leaving.' The Griffin kids woke up every morning and worked."
In the case of Blake Griffin, Matrisciano already knows what he is: "He's a puppetmaster. He sure ain't no puppet."
3.16.2009
LARRY HUGHES
Great quote from New York Knicks guard Larry Hughes...
"At this point it comes down to how hard you want to work," he said. "because everyone has unbelievable talent at this level."
"At this point it comes down to how hard you want to work," he said. "because everyone has unbelievable talent at this level."
BILL RUSSELL: WINNER
BILL RUSSELL:
5 - NBA Most Valuable Player Awards
12 - NBA All-Stars
11 - NBA Championships
2 - NCAA National Championships at San Francisco
1 - Gold Medal at the Summer Olympics
Below Bill Russell talks about how his attitude changed after he'd been overlooked for player of the year honors when he played college basketball at San Francisco.
"It was then and there that I determined, 'If my team wins a championship every year, there's no quarrel anyone can come up with to deny me that. Winning is the only thing I really cared about. I found that when I left my childhood and came into the real world that individual awards were mostly political."
But winning and losing, there are no politics, only numbers. It's the most democratic thing in the world. Your either a winner or a loser, so I decided early in my career that the only really important thing was to try to win every game. The only thing that really mattered was who won -- and there is nothing subjective about that."
5 - NBA Most Valuable Player Awards
12 - NBA All-Stars
11 - NBA Championships
2 - NCAA National Championships at San Francisco
1 - Gold Medal at the Summer Olympics
Below Bill Russell talks about how his attitude changed after he'd been overlooked for player of the year honors when he played college basketball at San Francisco.
"It was then and there that I determined, 'If my team wins a championship every year, there's no quarrel anyone can come up with to deny me that. Winning is the only thing I really cared about. I found that when I left my childhood and came into the real world that individual awards were mostly political."
But winning and losing, there are no politics, only numbers. It's the most democratic thing in the world. Your either a winner or a loser, so I decided early in my career that the only really important thing was to try to win every game. The only thing that really mattered was who won -- and there is nothing subjective about that."
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