There are a handful of excellent shooters in the NBA. And then there’s Ray Allen. Excellent shooters can make shots even when lanky defenders with slinky arms obstruct their view of the basket. Ray Allen will make shots regardless of the condition. Excellent shooters are Matt Bonner, Anthony Morrow, Kyle Korver, and their role-playing brethren. Ray Allen is a future Hall of Famer.
Ray Allen’s jump shot is sweeter than high fructose corn syrup, and just as deadly. The question is, Why? Why is his shot greater than all other shots? And, what’s the secret behind his success?
“That’s an excellent question,” says Karl Hobbs, George Washington University’s current head coach and the man Ray Allen credits for helping him polish his stroke while at UConn.
While Allen certainly doesn’t disagree with the man who had him study Hersey Hawkins game tape throughout his time at Connecticut, he thinks his career shooting percentage of 45 (40 from behind the three-point line) has more to do with his legs. “The lower body is the most important,” says the 10-time All-Star. “The upper body is kind of like non-existent if your lower body is doing what it’s supposed to do. If you’ve got great legs on your shot, it’s always going to have a shot to go in.”
While there may be a slight difference of opinion when it comes to dissecting the physical reasons behind his shooting prowess, the leg on which Ray Allen’s greatness stands is simple: It’s his work ethic.
Everyone knows about Ray Allen’s extremely regimented game day routine. They know about his nap in the early afternoon; they know about his post-nap meal of chicken and rice; they know about his early arrival to the gym; they know about his exhaustive shooting routine. What everyone may not know about is Allen’s equally outrageous practice habits.
According to Boston coach Doc Rivers, even on the day after a game where he played 40-plus minutes, Allen will hit the Celtics’ facility, hours prior to the start of practice. After carefully changing into his ball gear—if Allen had a hair on his head, it would never be out of place; his nature is that meticulous—he begins his workout by running on the treadmill for 60 minutes. He then makes his way down to the court, where he matriculates from location to location, taking 300 or more shots. Then his teammates arrive and practice begins.
“It’s just his warm-up, and for most people that’s their practice,” says Rivers. “That is why he is who he is.”
Who is Ray Allen exactly? He’s 15 seasons of 20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 threes a game. He is, according to many NBA players past and present, one of the greatest shooters to ever lay hands on a Spalding. He is, according to the stats, the greatest three-point shooter of all time. He is the perfect citizen, the epitome of cool and the very definition of consistent greatness.
Yet, at 35 years of age, he still practices like the scrawny freshman at UConn he was half a lifetime ago. And that is the not-so-secret ingredient behind his jumper’s serenity and his career’s longevity.
“I don’t take credit or praise for being able to shoot the basketball, because I do it so much,” says Allen. “Pat me on the back. Tell me I’m great. But get in the gym with me and you’ll be like, ‘I’ve watched him work out, so I really expect that to go in.’”
Coach Hobbs, observer of almost two decades of Ray Allen hoops, says that you can never tell what kind of game Allen is having based on his ever-neutral facial expression.
Consider February 10, 2011 the exception.
Backpedaling down the court after draining his 2561 three of his NBA career over Derek Fisher, Allen pumped his fists—seemingly still trying to keep his emotions in check. He followed that by clapping emphatically. With the crowd noise rising to an NBA Finals-esque crescendo, Allen gave the masses a thumbs-up. Then, he exhaled and Allen went over to Reggie Miller, who was on the sidelines calling the game for TNT, and gave him a handshake and a heartfelt hug.
Moments later, after re-adjusting his headset, Miller would note on national TV: “I’m so happy for him, because this is one of the best guys. He is so humble. He’s so giving. He’s a great family man.”
What Reggie Miller was trying to say, and what Ray Allen’s hug attests to, is that Allen is nothing if not gracious. Coach Hobbs knows this from his days working him out on the practice floor at UConn, where a young Allen would always make sure to say, “Thanks, Coach,” before heading to the locker room.
Not satiated with the title he won in 2008, after re-upping for two more years with the Celtics this past summer, Allen spent copious amounts of time in the gym, preparing for another run at the championship.
“A lot of guys in the NBA talk about wanting to win, but they don’t want to win on the team’s terms—they want to win on their own terms,” says Allen. “People talk about it, but they don’t really know what it means to really go about winning. It’s just talk. I’ve been fortunate to meet up with some players and an organization that really wants to win.”
The work paid off. The 35-year-old had one of his finest season since coming over to Boston in ’07. He’s averaging 16.5 points, shot career-bests of 49 percent from the field and 44 percent from downtown. More importantly, the Celtics finished third in the Eastern Conference.
“He’s gotten better with age,” says Hobbs, who watches the Celtics on TV frequently. “That’s a tribute to how he keeps his body and mind in great condition.”
There are excellent shooters. And then there’s Ray Allen.
4.21.2011
4.12.2011
EVALUATING QB's
Every pass play is a pure demonstration of human feeling. Scientists have in recent years discovered that emotions, which are often dismissed as primitive and unreliable, can in fact reflect a vast amount of information processing. In many instances, our feelings are capable of responding to things we're not even aware of, noticing details we don't register on a conscious level.
This exercise captures why it's so important for quarterbacks to rely on their feelings and not their analytical intelligence. "QBs are tested on every single pass play," Hasselbeck says. "To be good at the position, you've got to know the answer before you even understand the question. You've got to be able to glance at a defense and recognize what's going on. And you've got to be able to do that when the left tackle gets beat and you're running away from a big lineman. That ability might not depend on real IQ, but it sure takes a lot of football IQ."
How QBs develop a more effective emotional brain is the question teams should be asking. The simple answer: work. Expertise requires lots of effort and repetition. K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State, studies expertise. Ericsson acknowledges the role of genetic gifts (physical and mental skills are not distributed equally at birth), but he believes that the overwhelming majority of expertise is earned. "There is virtually no evidence that expertise is due to genetic or innate factors," Ericsson says. "Rather, it strongly suggests that expertise requires huge amounts of effort and practice." This is because it takes time to train our feelings, to embed those useful patterns into the brain. Before a quarterback can find the open man, parsing the defense in a glance, he must spend years studying cornerbacks and crossing routes. It looks easy only because he's worked so hard.
"I think the willingness to put in the hours is the most important thing for succeeding in the NFL," says Gil Brandt, former Cowboys vice president of player personnel and current draft analyst for NFL.com. "When you look at the best QBs -- guys like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees -- what you see is that they work harder than anyone else. Their work ethic is what makes them great."
In recent years, Ericsson has become known for his calculation that true expertise in various fields, from QBs to cello players, requires about 10,000 hours of what he calls "deliberate practice." And deliberate practice is not fun.
It's not casual scrimmages or a game of catch in the backyard. Instead, it's a disciplined attempt to improve specific skills. For a quarterback, this might involve spending the weekend throwing hundreds of footballs through an old car tire while moving to the left or working for months on a few steps of footwork. Consider Peyton and Eli Manning. It would be easy to conclude that the brothers have some yet-to-be-discovered quarterback gene, a snippet of DNA that makes them suited for the pocket. In reality, according to Ericsson's model of expertise, the Mannings have excelled in the pros because they began throwing the football as toddlers, racking up hours of deliberate practice at an age when most kids haven't even touched a pigskin. It also didn't hurt that their father, Archie Manning, was a former NFL passer who provided them with invaluable instruction. Peyton and Eli weren't born with the ability to read defenses and throw a perfect spiral. Those "instincts" come only from a lifetime of training.
So, if talent comes from intuition, and reliable intuition comes from practice, then the trait that teams should really be measuring is how recruits practice. And the question they should be asking is, Why are some quarterbacks so much better at getting better? This notion of practice led Ericsson to collaborate with Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Duckworth is best known for her work on grit, a character trait that allows people to persist in the face of difficulty. A few years ago, she was commissioned by the Army to measure the grittiness of cadets at West Point. Although the academy is highly selective, about 5 percent of cadets drop out after the first summer of training, known as Beast Barracks. The Army has long searched for the variables that predict which cadets will graduate, but it wasn't until Duckworth tested them using a short questionnaire -- consisting of statements such as "Setbacks don't discourage me" or "I am diligent" -- that the Army found a measurement that actually worked. Duckworth has since repeated the survey with subsequent West Point classes, and the results are always the same: The cadets who graduate are the ones with grit.
In a new paper, Duckworth and Ericsson demonstrate that grit doesn't only keep people from dropping out, but it's also what allows them to become experts, to put in the hours of deliberate practice. The researchers tracked 190 participants at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The first thing they discovered is that deliberate practice works. Student spellers who spent more time studying alone and memorizing words with the help of note cards performed much better than kids who were quizzed by friends or engaged in leisure reading. Duckworth and Ericsson also found that levels of grit determined how much the spellers were willing to practice. Grittier kids were able to engage in the most useful kinds of self-improvement, which is why they performed at a higher level. Woody Allen famously declared, "Eighty percent of success is showing up." And grit is what allows you to show up, again and again and again.
"I'd bet that there isn't a single highly successful person who hasn't depended on grit," says Duckworth. "Nobody is talented enough to not have to work hard, and that's what grit allows you to do. It lets you take advantage of your potential." For successful quarterbacks, grit is what allows them to watch hours of game tape on Monday mornings. It lets them remain in the weight room after everyone else has gone home. It's why they can practice the right way, not just the easy way. "In order to become a professional athlete, you need a certain kind of obsessiveness," Duckworth says. "You've got to devote your life to the development of this very narrow expertise. It shouldn't be surprising that this takes lots of grit."
The problem for the NFL is that instead of measuring grit, teams still subscribe to an antiquated model of talent and expertise in which innate gifts are presumed to matter the most. The scouting combine requires players entering the draft to perform a number of short physical and mental tasks (40-yard dash, Wonderlic, three-cone drill, bench-press reps, vertical jump) referred to by psychologists as "maximal measurements," since they measure people who are highly motivated to perform for short bursts of time. But to understand why those maximal tests at the combine don't predict performance in the pros, we must return to the nature of expertise. As Ericsson and Duckworth demonstrate, the most important kind of talent, emotional IQ, depends on measurements of sustained performance, on being able to engage in endless amounts of deliberate practice.
"Maybe they say he's too short or too slow or has a weak arm," Brandt says, "but the reality is that if a quarterback has the right work ethic, then he can probably make up for those problems." He points again to Brees, who wasn't drafted until the second round, and Brady, who was ignored until the sixth. "That's because teams have been looking at all the wrong things," Brandt says. "Just because you can measure it doesn't mean it matters."
Measuring grit does matter, but it's not easy. Grit can't be evaluated in a single afternoon; by definition, it's a metric of personality that involves performance over long periods of time. People don't reveal grit at the combine; they show it when no one else is around. "What coaches need is a way to test how players will perform over the entire season," Duckworth says. "Do they have what it takes to make themselves better? Will they benefit from criticism and feedback? If I were a coach, those are the questions I would care about."
This exercise captures why it's so important for quarterbacks to rely on their feelings and not their analytical intelligence. "QBs are tested on every single pass play," Hasselbeck says. "To be good at the position, you've got to know the answer before you even understand the question. You've got to be able to glance at a defense and recognize what's going on. And you've got to be able to do that when the left tackle gets beat and you're running away from a big lineman. That ability might not depend on real IQ, but it sure takes a lot of football IQ."
How QBs develop a more effective emotional brain is the question teams should be asking. The simple answer: work. Expertise requires lots of effort and repetition. K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State, studies expertise. Ericsson acknowledges the role of genetic gifts (physical and mental skills are not distributed equally at birth), but he believes that the overwhelming majority of expertise is earned. "There is virtually no evidence that expertise is due to genetic or innate factors," Ericsson says. "Rather, it strongly suggests that expertise requires huge amounts of effort and practice." This is because it takes time to train our feelings, to embed those useful patterns into the brain. Before a quarterback can find the open man, parsing the defense in a glance, he must spend years studying cornerbacks and crossing routes. It looks easy only because he's worked so hard.
"I think the willingness to put in the hours is the most important thing for succeeding in the NFL," says Gil Brandt, former Cowboys vice president of player personnel and current draft analyst for NFL.com. "When you look at the best QBs -- guys like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees -- what you see is that they work harder than anyone else. Their work ethic is what makes them great."
In recent years, Ericsson has become known for his calculation that true expertise in various fields, from QBs to cello players, requires about 10,000 hours of what he calls "deliberate practice." And deliberate practice is not fun.
It's not casual scrimmages or a game of catch in the backyard. Instead, it's a disciplined attempt to improve specific skills. For a quarterback, this might involve spending the weekend throwing hundreds of footballs through an old car tire while moving to the left or working for months on a few steps of footwork. Consider Peyton and Eli Manning. It would be easy to conclude that the brothers have some yet-to-be-discovered quarterback gene, a snippet of DNA that makes them suited for the pocket. In reality, according to Ericsson's model of expertise, the Mannings have excelled in the pros because they began throwing the football as toddlers, racking up hours of deliberate practice at an age when most kids haven't even touched a pigskin. It also didn't hurt that their father, Archie Manning, was a former NFL passer who provided them with invaluable instruction. Peyton and Eli weren't born with the ability to read defenses and throw a perfect spiral. Those "instincts" come only from a lifetime of training.
So, if talent comes from intuition, and reliable intuition comes from practice, then the trait that teams should really be measuring is how recruits practice. And the question they should be asking is, Why are some quarterbacks so much better at getting better? This notion of practice led Ericsson to collaborate with Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Duckworth is best known for her work on grit, a character trait that allows people to persist in the face of difficulty. A few years ago, she was commissioned by the Army to measure the grittiness of cadets at West Point. Although the academy is highly selective, about 5 percent of cadets drop out after the first summer of training, known as Beast Barracks. The Army has long searched for the variables that predict which cadets will graduate, but it wasn't until Duckworth tested them using a short questionnaire -- consisting of statements such as "Setbacks don't discourage me" or "I am diligent" -- that the Army found a measurement that actually worked. Duckworth has since repeated the survey with subsequent West Point classes, and the results are always the same: The cadets who graduate are the ones with grit.
In a new paper, Duckworth and Ericsson demonstrate that grit doesn't only keep people from dropping out, but it's also what allows them to become experts, to put in the hours of deliberate practice. The researchers tracked 190 participants at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The first thing they discovered is that deliberate practice works. Student spellers who spent more time studying alone and memorizing words with the help of note cards performed much better than kids who were quizzed by friends or engaged in leisure reading. Duckworth and Ericsson also found that levels of grit determined how much the spellers were willing to practice. Grittier kids were able to engage in the most useful kinds of self-improvement, which is why they performed at a higher level. Woody Allen famously declared, "Eighty percent of success is showing up." And grit is what allows you to show up, again and again and again.
"I'd bet that there isn't a single highly successful person who hasn't depended on grit," says Duckworth. "Nobody is talented enough to not have to work hard, and that's what grit allows you to do. It lets you take advantage of your potential." For successful quarterbacks, grit is what allows them to watch hours of game tape on Monday mornings. It lets them remain in the weight room after everyone else has gone home. It's why they can practice the right way, not just the easy way. "In order to become a professional athlete, you need a certain kind of obsessiveness," Duckworth says. "You've got to devote your life to the development of this very narrow expertise. It shouldn't be surprising that this takes lots of grit."
The problem for the NFL is that instead of measuring grit, teams still subscribe to an antiquated model of talent and expertise in which innate gifts are presumed to matter the most. The scouting combine requires players entering the draft to perform a number of short physical and mental tasks (40-yard dash, Wonderlic, three-cone drill, bench-press reps, vertical jump) referred to by psychologists as "maximal measurements," since they measure people who are highly motivated to perform for short bursts of time. But to understand why those maximal tests at the combine don't predict performance in the pros, we must return to the nature of expertise. As Ericsson and Duckworth demonstrate, the most important kind of talent, emotional IQ, depends on measurements of sustained performance, on being able to engage in endless amounts of deliberate practice.
"Maybe they say he's too short or too slow or has a weak arm," Brandt says, "but the reality is that if a quarterback has the right work ethic, then he can probably make up for those problems." He points again to Brees, who wasn't drafted until the second round, and Brady, who was ignored until the sixth. "That's because teams have been looking at all the wrong things," Brandt says. "Just because you can measure it doesn't mean it matters."
Measuring grit does matter, but it's not easy. Grit can't be evaluated in a single afternoon; by definition, it's a metric of personality that involves performance over long periods of time. People don't reveal grit at the combine; they show it when no one else is around. "What coaches need is a way to test how players will perform over the entire season," Duckworth says. "Do they have what it takes to make themselves better? Will they benefit from criticism and feedback? If I were a coach, those are the questions I would care about."
4.04.2011
MATT HOWARD & BUTLER KEEP WINNING
Butler is not to be trusted in this Final Four. It pretends to be a guppy but has a piranha's appetite. Underdog? Please. Butler is the favorite now, and a lot of us know it. Whatever you do, don't pet it.
Its cover is blown after last year's Final Four. We all know how it works. Butler wants you to think it's something it's not. Take its heart, senior forward Matt Howard, who looks more like a geeky band-camp RA than a possible NBA first rounder. If Ichabod Crane played hoops, he'd look like this. He's 93 percent elbow and the rest Adam's apple. He's got so many juts, you could hang tinsel off him.
He's the Academic All-American of the Year in Division I. He's so nerdy, you look at him and think, "What's the worst he's going to do to us? Reprogram our iPhones to Chinese?"
Look at those socks. They lost their elastic years ago. And those sad shoes! If those shoes were your couch, it'd be in the alley now.
"He has six pairs of brand-new shoes in his locker," teammate Shelvin Mack says. "But he won't wear them! He just keeps wearing those ratty old ones."
And what's that on his head? Arugula?
"That's just the hair I woke up with," he says, trying to run his fingers through it and getting stopped by grease. "Whatever it looks like in the morning, that's what I go with for the day." He gets it cut once a year, for free, by a teammate, whether it needs it or not. He rides a rusted-out bike to Butler's 6 a.m. practices, even in the dead of winter, even through ice storms, even though the handlebars suddenly bent under him the other day catapulting him onto the ice.
"I fixed it," says Howard, who stands 6-foot-8 and 230, most of it bone. "Just poured some WD-40 in there and bent them back. It's a little risky to ride, I guess, but I can't see buying a new one."
Kid, you'd never fit in the SEC.
Not that it matters. Howard has more drive than some GM plants. He's driven Butler to back-to-back Final Fours, a feat never before accomplished by an Indiana school. Not Indiana. Not Purdue. Not Notre Dame.
The Bulldogs wouldn't be anywhere near Houston without Howard. He's the designated floor diver, the insatiable rebounder, the guy who sets the kind of picks that would stop an Amtrak train. He once set a pick on Duke's Kyle Singler that sent Singler bouncing backward 180 degrees and onto his nose.
When the Bulldogs needed a tip-in at the buzzer in their opening NCAA tournament game this year against Old Dominion, Howard gave it to them.
When the Bulldogs needed one free throw to win their third-round game against No. 1 seed Pittsburgh, Howard gave it to them.
When the Bulldogs needed a monster in the Sweet 16 against Wisconsin, Howard gave them 20 and 12.
And when the Bulldogs needed somebody in the Elite 8 to launch himself headlong into a pile to tie up the ball and win the game against Florida, Howard and his boneyard body gave it to them.
"Matt Howard will be an NBA player," says Butler's bespectacled coach, Brad Stevens. "His team would be winning wherever he went. That's who he is. He makes teams better. He's a winner. Whenever I have to answer questions about what's his real height, how long is he, [I just say], 'He wins. He just wins.'"
Well, not always. Butler looked as confused as Howard's hair for a while this season. It lost three straight games in the anemic Horizon League. Houston looked farther than the moon then. The third loss was 62-60 to Youngstown State on Feb. 3.
"That's why I'd say this trip [to another Final Four] just feels a little better than the last time," Howard says. "Because when you think about where we came from, how far down we were, standing in that Youngstown gym, man, I can't tell you how bad I felt."
Howard is used to getting beat up. He's one of 10 kids of a Connersville, Ind., mail carrier. He's got four older brothers with the same kind of pickax elbows. He knows how it works: You bleed, you find a towel, you play some more. He rededicated himself and the Bulldogs got through it. Since those three losses, they've won 13 straight. Now they're 80 minutes from a national championship.
Through it all, Howard kept on being what Mack calls "the weirdest person I've ever met in my entire life."
"Like, remember that UConn-Syracuse game [in 2009] that went six overtimes?" teammate Ron Nored asks. "Well, after the third one, he texts me: 'Do you think Buffalo Wild Wings had anything to do with this?'"
You ask Howard what's up and he'll say, "The ceiling." Tell him your name and he'll reverse the letters the rest of your life. Shelvin Mack is permanently Melvin Shack. Together, they'd like to go to Dan Siego someday. Perhaps they'll see girls wearing "skini mirts."
Who cares? On the court, he gets it right. He's the thing you love most in a college basketball player -- a guy who just wants to win and doesn't care who gets the credit. A guy who hits class by day and glass by night. A scabbed-knee grinder who finishes every game with his tank on E.
That's Hatt Moward in a shut nell.
Its cover is blown after last year's Final Four. We all know how it works. Butler wants you to think it's something it's not. Take its heart, senior forward Matt Howard, who looks more like a geeky band-camp RA than a possible NBA first rounder. If Ichabod Crane played hoops, he'd look like this. He's 93 percent elbow and the rest Adam's apple. He's got so many juts, you could hang tinsel off him.
He's the Academic All-American of the Year in Division I. He's so nerdy, you look at him and think, "What's the worst he's going to do to us? Reprogram our iPhones to Chinese?"
Look at those socks. They lost their elastic years ago. And those sad shoes! If those shoes were your couch, it'd be in the alley now.
"He has six pairs of brand-new shoes in his locker," teammate Shelvin Mack says. "But he won't wear them! He just keeps wearing those ratty old ones."
And what's that on his head? Arugula?
"That's just the hair I woke up with," he says, trying to run his fingers through it and getting stopped by grease. "Whatever it looks like in the morning, that's what I go with for the day." He gets it cut once a year, for free, by a teammate, whether it needs it or not. He rides a rusted-out bike to Butler's 6 a.m. practices, even in the dead of winter, even through ice storms, even though the handlebars suddenly bent under him the other day catapulting him onto the ice.
"I fixed it," says Howard, who stands 6-foot-8 and 230, most of it bone. "Just poured some WD-40 in there and bent them back. It's a little risky to ride, I guess, but I can't see buying a new one."
Kid, you'd never fit in the SEC.
Not that it matters. Howard has more drive than some GM plants. He's driven Butler to back-to-back Final Fours, a feat never before accomplished by an Indiana school. Not Indiana. Not Purdue. Not Notre Dame.
The Bulldogs wouldn't be anywhere near Houston without Howard. He's the designated floor diver, the insatiable rebounder, the guy who sets the kind of picks that would stop an Amtrak train. He once set a pick on Duke's Kyle Singler that sent Singler bouncing backward 180 degrees and onto his nose.
When the Bulldogs needed a tip-in at the buzzer in their opening NCAA tournament game this year against Old Dominion, Howard gave it to them.
When the Bulldogs needed one free throw to win their third-round game against No. 1 seed Pittsburgh, Howard gave it to them.
When the Bulldogs needed a monster in the Sweet 16 against Wisconsin, Howard gave them 20 and 12.
And when the Bulldogs needed somebody in the Elite 8 to launch himself headlong into a pile to tie up the ball and win the game against Florida, Howard and his boneyard body gave it to them.
"Matt Howard will be an NBA player," says Butler's bespectacled coach, Brad Stevens. "His team would be winning wherever he went. That's who he is. He makes teams better. He's a winner. Whenever I have to answer questions about what's his real height, how long is he, [I just say], 'He wins. He just wins.'"
Well, not always. Butler looked as confused as Howard's hair for a while this season. It lost three straight games in the anemic Horizon League. Houston looked farther than the moon then. The third loss was 62-60 to Youngstown State on Feb. 3.
"That's why I'd say this trip [to another Final Four] just feels a little better than the last time," Howard says. "Because when you think about where we came from, how far down we were, standing in that Youngstown gym, man, I can't tell you how bad I felt."
Howard is used to getting beat up. He's one of 10 kids of a Connersville, Ind., mail carrier. He's got four older brothers with the same kind of pickax elbows. He knows how it works: You bleed, you find a towel, you play some more. He rededicated himself and the Bulldogs got through it. Since those three losses, they've won 13 straight. Now they're 80 minutes from a national championship.
Through it all, Howard kept on being what Mack calls "the weirdest person I've ever met in my entire life."
"Like, remember that UConn-Syracuse game [in 2009] that went six overtimes?" teammate Ron Nored asks. "Well, after the third one, he texts me: 'Do you think Buffalo Wild Wings had anything to do with this?'"
You ask Howard what's up and he'll say, "The ceiling." Tell him your name and he'll reverse the letters the rest of your life. Shelvin Mack is permanently Melvin Shack. Together, they'd like to go to Dan Siego someday. Perhaps they'll see girls wearing "skini mirts."
Who cares? On the court, he gets it right. He's the thing you love most in a college basketball player -- a guy who just wants to win and doesn't care who gets the credit. A guy who hits class by day and glass by night. A scabbed-knee grinder who finishes every game with his tank on E.
That's Hatt Moward in a shut nell.
4.03.2011
BRANDON KNIGHT - MATURE BEYOND HIS YEARS
Down 11 points with three minutes left in a regional final game, Brandon Knight stood among his high school teammates. Their heads were hanging. Their dream of a run to the Florida state championship was evaporating and they looked like they had pretty much given up.
Instead of screaming or reaching for some bombastic fire and brimstone, Knight looked directly at his coach, David Beckerman.
"He said to me, but loud enough for everyone to hear, 'What time is practice tomorrow?'" Beckerman recalled.
After the huddle broke, Knight drained three 3-pointers, picked up a charge and a steal, dished out three assists and finished with 52 points. Pine Crest not only went to the state championship game; the tony school known for its academic muscle also won the thing.
Brandon Knight saved Kentucky's bacon with the last-second shot that beat Princeton.
That is how Knight does business.
He sticks hard to Theodore Roosevelt's motto of speak softly and carry a big stick. Knight isn't going to overwhelm anyone with effusive or entertaining postgame interviews. He has Josh Harrellson to do that.
He isn't going to hop on press tables and point to the crowd after a big win. DeAndre Liggins can handle that chore.
Nor is he going to stare down an opposing bench and signal his made 3-pointer. Let Terrence Jones do that.
No, what Knight is going to do is simply beat you in every imaginable way.
In the four NCAA tournament games he's played, in his first college season, Knight has delivered the direct dagger with two buzzer-beaters -- stunning Princeton on a drive to the hoop and Ohio State with a pull-up jumper -- and the indirect blow of 30 points against West Virginia and a masterful 22 against North Carolina.
Knight comes to Houston overshadowed by the impossible story of VCU versus Butler and the star power of Kemba Walker, but could easily exit this city as the most important player on the floor.
"He's the anchor of that team and he does it very well," said North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall. "I think he's shown throughout his career what kind of player he is."
Being the starting point guard at Kentucky isn't for the faint of heart. It is an all-eyes-on-you position that requires equal parts confidence and equal parts soundproofing -- the belief that you are good enough to handle the job and the noise blockers to keep out the criticism that invariably comes when you fail to do so.
Knight is the star now, the kid who has delivered on the promise of his high school hype -- he was a consensus top-five player in his class -- but for a while, he was the collegiate kid who missed. When Kentucky was finding itself, suffering the growing pains of a team in transition, it was Knight who had the ball three times in critical games in critical situations.
Three times he failed. Against Alabama, it was a late turnover, and against both Florida and Arkansas, his would-be winning 3-pointers fell short.
That coach John Calipari still put the ball in his hand in the two most critical moments of the season -- tied with two seconds left against Princeton and tied with Ohio State with five seconds left -- tells you all you need to know about Knight.
"Why I put the ball in his hands, is because he is not afraid to miss it," John Calipari said. "If you really want to be that guy, you have no fear if you miss. If I miss, I miss, but I am not afraid to miss this shot. Life will not end."
Calipari knows a thing or two about brazen point guards. Knight is just the latest hoops prodigy to handle the ball for the coach, following in the gilded footsteps of Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and John Wall. But it is Knight whom the coach calls "the most conscientious, hardworking player I've ever been around."
That's some heady praise, but praise echoed by Beckerman, a man who knows a thing or two about exceptional.
In 1971, Beckerman founded the Starter apparel company and is a former trustee on the Naismith Hall of Fame board.
"He's very rare," Beckerman said of Knight. "A very rare kid."
Pine Crest isn't a basketball factory. If anything it's a nerd factory. The Class of 2010 alone produced 18 national merit scholar finalists.
Before Knight arrived on campus, basketball was nothing more than a convenient extracurricular. The team had never sniffed a state title.
Knight not only toted the academic load with aplomb -- he carried an AP-loaded, weighted GPA of 4.3 out of high school and, while listed as a freshman, is technically a sophomore at Kentucky -- but he basically birthed a basketball program.
In his five years at Pine Crest (he started on the varsity as an eighth grader), the school won two state titles and competed for two more.
Yet as much time as he'd log in the gym, Knight never became basketball-centric. He possesses an inquisitiveness that isn't typically found among teenagers, let alone those whose free time is consumed by sport.
"He wants to know about the world around him and know about the world that's going to affect him," Beckerman said. "Listen to what I just said: He wants to know about the world that's going to affect him. If he asks questions about the financial world, it's because at some point it's going to matter to him."
A would-be architect or engineer if he had his druthers, Knight brings the same sort of brainpower to basketball. Like most high school point guards, he was used to being more of a scorer than a distributor, averaging 32 points in his high school career.
At Kentucky he's had to do both.
Oh, and he's had to play defense, which comes about as naturally to college rookies as ice skating comes to Arizonans.
He wasn't great at either to begin with, and Calipari isn't one to let that sort of thing go unnoticed. Hard on all his players, the coach said he was probably hardest on Knight, demanding that he worry more about running the team than finding his points.
His can be a downright wilting criticism, especially when partnered with what was by Kentucky standards a so-so season around mid-February.
Yet Knight was smart enough to understand what was going on and mature enough to handle it.
"There's always tough times," he said. "Every player has tough times and points when you've had enough, but you have to be able to push through it. You have to have tough skin and let some things go. You have to take some of that as motivation and just ignore the rest, and you have to know the difference, when to listen and when to move on."
So Knight simply did what he has always done: He worked. It is no coincidence that as Knight has figured out his role, Kentucky has figured out its game.
During the 10-game winning streak that has so far taken the Wildcats to an SEC tournament title and the Final Four, Knight is averaging 16.1 points as well as 4.5 assists, figuring out finally how to score and dish with equal success.
And a kid that Calipari said "never spoke" in high school has become a vocal, if not theatrical, leader for the Wildcats.
He may not say much, but when he does, he means it.
Instead of screaming or reaching for some bombastic fire and brimstone, Knight looked directly at his coach, David Beckerman.
"He said to me, but loud enough for everyone to hear, 'What time is practice tomorrow?'" Beckerman recalled.
After the huddle broke, Knight drained three 3-pointers, picked up a charge and a steal, dished out three assists and finished with 52 points. Pine Crest not only went to the state championship game; the tony school known for its academic muscle also won the thing.
Brandon Knight saved Kentucky's bacon with the last-second shot that beat Princeton.
That is how Knight does business.
He sticks hard to Theodore Roosevelt's motto of speak softly and carry a big stick. Knight isn't going to overwhelm anyone with effusive or entertaining postgame interviews. He has Josh Harrellson to do that.
He isn't going to hop on press tables and point to the crowd after a big win. DeAndre Liggins can handle that chore.
Nor is he going to stare down an opposing bench and signal his made 3-pointer. Let Terrence Jones do that.
No, what Knight is going to do is simply beat you in every imaginable way.
In the four NCAA tournament games he's played, in his first college season, Knight has delivered the direct dagger with two buzzer-beaters -- stunning Princeton on a drive to the hoop and Ohio State with a pull-up jumper -- and the indirect blow of 30 points against West Virginia and a masterful 22 against North Carolina.
Knight comes to Houston overshadowed by the impossible story of VCU versus Butler and the star power of Kemba Walker, but could easily exit this city as the most important player on the floor.
"He's the anchor of that team and he does it very well," said North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall. "I think he's shown throughout his career what kind of player he is."
Being the starting point guard at Kentucky isn't for the faint of heart. It is an all-eyes-on-you position that requires equal parts confidence and equal parts soundproofing -- the belief that you are good enough to handle the job and the noise blockers to keep out the criticism that invariably comes when you fail to do so.
Knight is the star now, the kid who has delivered on the promise of his high school hype -- he was a consensus top-five player in his class -- but for a while, he was the collegiate kid who missed. When Kentucky was finding itself, suffering the growing pains of a team in transition, it was Knight who had the ball three times in critical games in critical situations.
Three times he failed. Against Alabama, it was a late turnover, and against both Florida and Arkansas, his would-be winning 3-pointers fell short.
That coach John Calipari still put the ball in his hand in the two most critical moments of the season -- tied with two seconds left against Princeton and tied with Ohio State with five seconds left -- tells you all you need to know about Knight.
"Why I put the ball in his hands, is because he is not afraid to miss it," John Calipari said. "If you really want to be that guy, you have no fear if you miss. If I miss, I miss, but I am not afraid to miss this shot. Life will not end."
Calipari knows a thing or two about brazen point guards. Knight is just the latest hoops prodigy to handle the ball for the coach, following in the gilded footsteps of Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and John Wall. But it is Knight whom the coach calls "the most conscientious, hardworking player I've ever been around."
That's some heady praise, but praise echoed by Beckerman, a man who knows a thing or two about exceptional.
In 1971, Beckerman founded the Starter apparel company and is a former trustee on the Naismith Hall of Fame board.
"He's very rare," Beckerman said of Knight. "A very rare kid."
Pine Crest isn't a basketball factory. If anything it's a nerd factory. The Class of 2010 alone produced 18 national merit scholar finalists.
Before Knight arrived on campus, basketball was nothing more than a convenient extracurricular. The team had never sniffed a state title.
Knight not only toted the academic load with aplomb -- he carried an AP-loaded, weighted GPA of 4.3 out of high school and, while listed as a freshman, is technically a sophomore at Kentucky -- but he basically birthed a basketball program.
In his five years at Pine Crest (he started on the varsity as an eighth grader), the school won two state titles and competed for two more.
Yet as much time as he'd log in the gym, Knight never became basketball-centric. He possesses an inquisitiveness that isn't typically found among teenagers, let alone those whose free time is consumed by sport.
"He wants to know about the world around him and know about the world that's going to affect him," Beckerman said. "Listen to what I just said: He wants to know about the world that's going to affect him. If he asks questions about the financial world, it's because at some point it's going to matter to him."
A would-be architect or engineer if he had his druthers, Knight brings the same sort of brainpower to basketball. Like most high school point guards, he was used to being more of a scorer than a distributor, averaging 32 points in his high school career.
At Kentucky he's had to do both.
Oh, and he's had to play defense, which comes about as naturally to college rookies as ice skating comes to Arizonans.
He wasn't great at either to begin with, and Calipari isn't one to let that sort of thing go unnoticed. Hard on all his players, the coach said he was probably hardest on Knight, demanding that he worry more about running the team than finding his points.
His can be a downright wilting criticism, especially when partnered with what was by Kentucky standards a so-so season around mid-February.
Yet Knight was smart enough to understand what was going on and mature enough to handle it.
"There's always tough times," he said. "Every player has tough times and points when you've had enough, but you have to be able to push through it. You have to have tough skin and let some things go. You have to take some of that as motivation and just ignore the rest, and you have to know the difference, when to listen and when to move on."
So Knight simply did what he has always done: He worked. It is no coincidence that as Knight has figured out his role, Kentucky has figured out its game.
During the 10-game winning streak that has so far taken the Wildcats to an SEC tournament title and the Final Four, Knight is averaging 16.1 points as well as 4.5 assists, figuring out finally how to score and dish with equal success.
And a kid that Calipari said "never spoke" in high school has become a vocal, if not theatrical, leader for the Wildcats.
He may not say much, but when he does, he means it.
BUTLER IS BACK IN THE TOURNAMENT
Butler's back.
The scrappy school from Indianapolis that came within two points of a national title last season and weathered a rocky ride this season will return to the NCAA tournament owning another big winning streak.
Matt Howard scored 18 points and Shelvin Mack added 14 to lead the Bulldogs to a 59-44 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Tuesday night for its third Horizon League tournament title in the past four years. Butler has won nine straight games overall.
"It doesn't get old. It's not easy to win this game, it really isn't," said Howard, the tournament MVP. "We knew it was going to be rocking in here. The key is to jump on them, and we had to jump on them. We talked about that."
Fast Facts
Butler (23-9) will get a chance to be the talk of the nation again and duplicate its wild run last year to the NCAA championship game that ended with a loss to Duke.
In the process, the Bulldogs avenged losing to Milwaukee (19-13) for the third time this season.
"I thought we made some tough shots, I think we did some tough things," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "It doesn't hurt when somebody beats you twice. You're pretty on edge and also, you've got to change, you've got to do something different. And we did."
The Panthers got 10 points apiece from Tone Boyle, Tony Meier and Anthony Hill, but couldn't overcome a terrible shooting night, finishing 30 percent from the field. Milwaukee made its move when Ryan Allen's layup cut it to 42-39, but Butler answered with a 16-1 run and held the Panthers without a field goal for more than 7½ minutes.
"We didn't shoot the ball well, and we had some good looks," Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter said. "You're not going to win many games shooting the percentages that we shot. It's unfortunate it happened in this game."
"You can't be satisfied with where you are, just because you won a championship. There's more out there if you do the right things," Howard said. "We know what it takes, you can't relax now, I think that's key."
"It's been a trademark of our program I think to withstand the storm and just be resilient," Stevens said. "Last year in the tournament, that fairy tale would've never been written if we didn't have that trait."
Butler opened up a big lead using a 14-0 first-half run after a stifling defensive effort and outworked Milwaukee, never more apparent than when the Bulldogs got two offensive rebounds on one possession before Smith's layup put Butler ahead 33-20 at the half.
The Panthers, wearing bright, bumblebee-striped yellow shoes, were looking for their fourth NCAA tournament appearance and had handed the Bulldogs their worst loss in nearly six years in early January, a glimpse of promise in an up-and-down beginning to conference play.
The Bulldogs will once again be representing the Horizon League despite having as many black and blue moments as their uniforms this season.
Injuries on top of the departures of conference player of the year Gordon Hayward, Avery Jukes and Willie Veasley appeared to bring Butler down after a 14-9 start. Three players have missed time with concussions and Mack failed to finish several games early in the year with cramps.
The scrappy school from Indianapolis that came within two points of a national title last season and weathered a rocky ride this season will return to the NCAA tournament owning another big winning streak.
Matt Howard scored 18 points and Shelvin Mack added 14 to lead the Bulldogs to a 59-44 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Tuesday night for its third Horizon League tournament title in the past four years. Butler has won nine straight games overall.
"It doesn't get old. It's not easy to win this game, it really isn't," said Howard, the tournament MVP. "We knew it was going to be rocking in here. The key is to jump on them, and we had to jump on them. We talked about that."
Fast Facts
Butler (23-9) will get a chance to be the talk of the nation again and duplicate its wild run last year to the NCAA championship game that ended with a loss to Duke.
In the process, the Bulldogs avenged losing to Milwaukee (19-13) for the third time this season.
"I thought we made some tough shots, I think we did some tough things," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "It doesn't hurt when somebody beats you twice. You're pretty on edge and also, you've got to change, you've got to do something different. And we did."
The Panthers got 10 points apiece from Tone Boyle, Tony Meier and Anthony Hill, but couldn't overcome a terrible shooting night, finishing 30 percent from the field. Milwaukee made its move when Ryan Allen's layup cut it to 42-39, but Butler answered with a 16-1 run and held the Panthers without a field goal for more than 7½ minutes.
"We didn't shoot the ball well, and we had some good looks," Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter said. "You're not going to win many games shooting the percentages that we shot. It's unfortunate it happened in this game."
"You can't be satisfied with where you are, just because you won a championship. There's more out there if you do the right things," Howard said. "We know what it takes, you can't relax now, I think that's key."
"It's been a trademark of our program I think to withstand the storm and just be resilient," Stevens said. "Last year in the tournament, that fairy tale would've never been written if we didn't have that trait."
Butler opened up a big lead using a 14-0 first-half run after a stifling defensive effort and outworked Milwaukee, never more apparent than when the Bulldogs got two offensive rebounds on one possession before Smith's layup put Butler ahead 33-20 at the half.
The Panthers, wearing bright, bumblebee-striped yellow shoes, were looking for their fourth NCAA tournament appearance and had handed the Bulldogs their worst loss in nearly six years in early January, a glimpse of promise in an up-and-down beginning to conference play.
The Bulldogs will once again be representing the Horizon League despite having as many black and blue moments as their uniforms this season.
Injuries on top of the departures of conference player of the year Gordon Hayward, Avery Jukes and Willie Veasley appeared to bring Butler down after a 14-9 start. Three players have missed time with concussions and Mack failed to finish several games early in the year with cramps.
BUTLER OVERCOMES EARLY SEASON STRUGGLES
The question that comes to mind is not how Butler got back to the Elite Eight, but rather how did these Bulldogs lose to Evansville and Youngstown State?
The reason is the Bulldogs weren’t perfect this season. They were flawed like every other team. They needed to go through some growing pains, and mercy, have they grown -- a team that started 6-5 in the Horizon League is one win away from another Final Four appearance after beating Wisconsin 61-54 on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Duke -- the team that beat Butler in a thrilling national championship game -- is out of the field after being pummeled by Arizona.
“I thought this team had a chance to be a good team, but even I’ve been unbelievably impressed with its resiliency and ability to play at a higher level,’’ said the calmest coach in Division I, Butler’s Brad Stevens.
“When we lost to Youngstown and to Evansville, it was a few possessions that we didn’t control,’’ added Butler junior guard Shelvin Mack. “We didn’t dive on the ball, we didn’t take charges, we didn’t do the things we needed to win.’’
Well, the Bulldogs haven’t lost since their Feb. 3 defeat to a Youngstown State team that finished 2-16 in conference play. And that includes a road win over Milwaukee -- a team that beat Butler twice this season -- in the Horizon League championship to secure a bid.
Since the tournament started, the Bulldogs have made winning plays in the final seconds. Against Old Dominion, Matt Howard made a last-second bucket. Against Pitt, Howard's rebound and subsequent free throw saved the game after a foul by Mack nearly cost Butler the match.
“The foul is over. I keep telling my teammates that, to let it go and move onto the next one,’’ said Mack, in jest. “Yeah, it’s been crazy, there were just a few plays here and there in the first game or we’d be home, and then a few plays here or there in the second game against Pitt or we’d be home. So we wanted to make sure we got off to a fast start.’’
And they did just that. Butler busted out on Wisconsin with a nine-point halftime lead and grew it to 20 in the second half before UW mounted a furious comeback to make it a one-possession game in the final minute. But then Mack hit yet another jumper, and after he missed a free throw a possession later, Howard was there with an offensive rebound. The senior forward finished with 20 points and 12 boards
Butler now faces Florida here at New Orleans Arena on Saturday, with a trip to Houston on the line.
“They’re scrappy, relentless,’’ said Wisconsin junior guard Jordan Taylor. “I don’t know, they’re just tough kids. They never quit. That’s what makes them winners.’’
Taylor finished with 22, but Wisconsin senior forward Jon Leuer was pestered so much defensively that he finished just 1-of-12 from the field. As a team, the Badgers shot 30.4 percent, their second-worst performance of the season.
“They’re just tough kids that are all-around good players,’’ Leuer said. “They play to their strengths.’’
Butler is hardly some cuddly, lower-profile team. You can't name a lock for the NBA draft on the Pitt team, but Mack is a first-round pick and Howard, at the very least, is a second-round pick, according to multiple NBA decision-makers. So that would mean that in the past two seasons the Bulldogs will have produced three NBA players, three more than Pitt and at least one more than Wisconsin.
But Butler still had to earn its NCAA tournament berth the hard way, since the Horizon League does not receive much respect. Losing five conference games changed the perception of this team. The nonconference slate was rugged, with games at Louisville and Xavier and against Duke in New Jersey -- all losses. But let’s not forget that Butler did win the Diamond Head Classic by taking down Florida State and Washington State; the former is in the Sweet 16 and the latter in the NIT Final Four.
“We played Valparaiso early in the year and we lost and we gave up 60 points in a half,’’ Mack said. “That’s not us. We usually don’t give up 60 points in a game. We knew what we had to get back.’’
Howard added that he isn't shocked by Butler’s recent run of 12 straight wins.
“I knew what this team was capable of,’’ Howard said. “I knew the type of guys we had and [what we're capable of] if we buy into Coach’s game plan and are able to execute it.’’
Junior guard Ronald Nored said the Bulldogs found their sense of urgency after some ugly games in league play. He added that when the Bulldogs lost three in a row (to Milwaukee, Valparaiso and Youngstown State), “it set us up for what we’re doing now.’’
“People like to put down our conference, but it’s tough,’’ said senior guard Shawn Vanzant. “The coaches got on us to lock teams down.’’
And that’s exactly what occurred against Wisconsin. Stevens said he knew this week that the Bulldogs were playing at a different clip defensively.
“I was concerned about getting out to those shooters because once Taylor comes off those ball screens you have to pay attention to the guys out there,’’ Stevens said. “Once I saw the way we were rotating out there, I knew we’d be a tough out.’’
So at the end of the night, Butler is 40 minutes away from the Final Four. And Duke is done. Who had that?
“That’s this tournament,’’ Stevens said.
It is unforgiving for the losers. And for the team that can make plays, winning plays -- like Arizona did against Duke for most of its game, and the way Butler did to Wisconsin both early and late -- the tournament can be an incredible natural high.
“Teams go through lulls, and we were in a deep one,’’ Howard said. “Fortunately, this team came together, and no doubt we went through a stretch that looked like we could have had a mediocre season. But we didn’t. I’m very, very proud to be a part of this team.’’
The reason is the Bulldogs weren’t perfect this season. They were flawed like every other team. They needed to go through some growing pains, and mercy, have they grown -- a team that started 6-5 in the Horizon League is one win away from another Final Four appearance after beating Wisconsin 61-54 on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Duke -- the team that beat Butler in a thrilling national championship game -- is out of the field after being pummeled by Arizona.
“I thought this team had a chance to be a good team, but even I’ve been unbelievably impressed with its resiliency and ability to play at a higher level,’’ said the calmest coach in Division I, Butler’s Brad Stevens.
“When we lost to Youngstown and to Evansville, it was a few possessions that we didn’t control,’’ added Butler junior guard Shelvin Mack. “We didn’t dive on the ball, we didn’t take charges, we didn’t do the things we needed to win.’’
Well, the Bulldogs haven’t lost since their Feb. 3 defeat to a Youngstown State team that finished 2-16 in conference play. And that includes a road win over Milwaukee -- a team that beat Butler twice this season -- in the Horizon League championship to secure a bid.
Since the tournament started, the Bulldogs have made winning plays in the final seconds. Against Old Dominion, Matt Howard made a last-second bucket. Against Pitt, Howard's rebound and subsequent free throw saved the game after a foul by Mack nearly cost Butler the match.
“The foul is over. I keep telling my teammates that, to let it go and move onto the next one,’’ said Mack, in jest. “Yeah, it’s been crazy, there were just a few plays here and there in the first game or we’d be home, and then a few plays here or there in the second game against Pitt or we’d be home. So we wanted to make sure we got off to a fast start.’’
And they did just that. Butler busted out on Wisconsin with a nine-point halftime lead and grew it to 20 in the second half before UW mounted a furious comeback to make it a one-possession game in the final minute. But then Mack hit yet another jumper, and after he missed a free throw a possession later, Howard was there with an offensive rebound. The senior forward finished with 20 points and 12 boards
Butler now faces Florida here at New Orleans Arena on Saturday, with a trip to Houston on the line.
“They’re scrappy, relentless,’’ said Wisconsin junior guard Jordan Taylor. “I don’t know, they’re just tough kids. They never quit. That’s what makes them winners.’’
Taylor finished with 22, but Wisconsin senior forward Jon Leuer was pestered so much defensively that he finished just 1-of-12 from the field. As a team, the Badgers shot 30.4 percent, their second-worst performance of the season.
“They’re just tough kids that are all-around good players,’’ Leuer said. “They play to their strengths.’’
Butler is hardly some cuddly, lower-profile team. You can't name a lock for the NBA draft on the Pitt team, but Mack is a first-round pick and Howard, at the very least, is a second-round pick, according to multiple NBA decision-makers. So that would mean that in the past two seasons the Bulldogs will have produced three NBA players, three more than Pitt and at least one more than Wisconsin.
But Butler still had to earn its NCAA tournament berth the hard way, since the Horizon League does not receive much respect. Losing five conference games changed the perception of this team. The nonconference slate was rugged, with games at Louisville and Xavier and against Duke in New Jersey -- all losses. But let’s not forget that Butler did win the Diamond Head Classic by taking down Florida State and Washington State; the former is in the Sweet 16 and the latter in the NIT Final Four.
“We played Valparaiso early in the year and we lost and we gave up 60 points in a half,’’ Mack said. “That’s not us. We usually don’t give up 60 points in a game. We knew what we had to get back.’’
Howard added that he isn't shocked by Butler’s recent run of 12 straight wins.
“I knew what this team was capable of,’’ Howard said. “I knew the type of guys we had and [what we're capable of] if we buy into Coach’s game plan and are able to execute it.’’
Junior guard Ronald Nored said the Bulldogs found their sense of urgency after some ugly games in league play. He added that when the Bulldogs lost three in a row (to Milwaukee, Valparaiso and Youngstown State), “it set us up for what we’re doing now.’’
“People like to put down our conference, but it’s tough,’’ said senior guard Shawn Vanzant. “The coaches got on us to lock teams down.’’
And that’s exactly what occurred against Wisconsin. Stevens said he knew this week that the Bulldogs were playing at a different clip defensively.
“I was concerned about getting out to those shooters because once Taylor comes off those ball screens you have to pay attention to the guys out there,’’ Stevens said. “Once I saw the way we were rotating out there, I knew we’d be a tough out.’’
So at the end of the night, Butler is 40 minutes away from the Final Four. And Duke is done. Who had that?
“That’s this tournament,’’ Stevens said.
It is unforgiving for the losers. And for the team that can make plays, winning plays -- like Arizona did against Duke for most of its game, and the way Butler did to Wisconsin both early and late -- the tournament can be an incredible natural high.
“Teams go through lulls, and we were in a deep one,’’ Howard said. “Fortunately, this team came together, and no doubt we went through a stretch that looked like we could have had a mediocre season. But we didn’t. I’m very, very proud to be a part of this team.’’
A year later, Butler one up on Duke
On April 5, 2010, with a national title on the line, Duke and Butler sparred in Indianapolis for 40 minutes. In the end, Gordon Hayward's last-second, half-court heave missed by inches. Duke won the national title. Butler ended its storybook run with a real-world ending.
Eight months later, on Dec. 4, the two teams met in New Jersey. Butler played Duke closer than most expected, but the Blue Devils -- helped in part by some debilitating cramps from Butler guard Shelvin Mack -- pulled away late en route to an 82-70 win.
On Feb. 3 of this year, Duke was 20-2. Butler was 14-9. That ninth loss came on Feb. 3, when Butler, in the ugliest moment of what to that point had been a shockingly ugly year, lost to Youngstown State -- yes, last-place Youngstown State. It was the fifth Horizon League loss of the season for coach Brad Stevens. The Butler of 2010 was nowhere to be found.
Last season Matt Howard and Butler had to watch Duke celebrate a national title, but the Bulldogs have outlasted the Blue Devils in 2011.
If someone hopped told you that Butler would outlast Duke in the 2011 NCAA tournament, you would have had that person committed to a highly respected psychiatric facility. And not just because of the time-travel talk.
Just seven weeks later, well, that's where we are. Butler is in the Elite Eight. Duke is not. In case you needed another reminder that college basketball predictions are a foolhardy enterprise -- not that you did -- you won't do much better than Thursday night's simultaneous Sweet 16 action.
Perhaps it was fitting -- or ironic, or coincidental, or all three -- that these two teams' trajectories led them to this night. Duke rolled through much of the regular season as one of the national title favorites -- if not the favorite. Butler struggled from its opening game (a blowout loss at Louisville).
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski found himself replacing his star freshman point guard (the injured Kyrie Irving) by shifting All-American Nolan Smith to the point, with brilliant results. Stevens found himself trying to replace Hayward, a lottery pick, and Willie Veasley, last season’s senior defensive stalwart, with a batch of marginal recruits.
But you wouldn't have been able to tell Thursday night. Butler handled an ice-cold Wisconsin offense with minimal issues, advancing the small Indiana school to its second straight Elite Eight. At the exact same time, thousands of miles west -- hooray for metaphors! -- Duke was waylaid by an athletic, aggressive, unintimidated Arizona team led by the de facto star of this NCAA tournament, forward Derrick Williams.
The nature of Duke's loss was remarkable, but really, the dual outcomes were the most surprising part of this night. Except for the last few minutes of Butler's win over Wisconsin, in which the Badgers made a last-ditch comeback attempt, those outcomes were apparent.
Duke was getting blown out. Butler was moving on.
If you called that, you're a genius. Or a savant. Or you have a really good sense of quasi-irony. Or whatever.
Chances are you, like pretty much everyone else in the world, didn't see this one coming. You didn't see it coming last year. You didn't see it coming in December. You didn't see it coming in February. You didn't see it coming yesterday.
But, yep, here we are. A pair of parallel seasons: one ending, one continuing. Another shocking upset. Another masterful postseason performance by Brad Stevens and the Bulldogs.
Eight months later, on Dec. 4, the two teams met in New Jersey. Butler played Duke closer than most expected, but the Blue Devils -- helped in part by some debilitating cramps from Butler guard Shelvin Mack -- pulled away late en route to an 82-70 win.
On Feb. 3 of this year, Duke was 20-2. Butler was 14-9. That ninth loss came on Feb. 3, when Butler, in the ugliest moment of what to that point had been a shockingly ugly year, lost to Youngstown State -- yes, last-place Youngstown State. It was the fifth Horizon League loss of the season for coach Brad Stevens. The Butler of 2010 was nowhere to be found.
Last season Matt Howard and Butler had to watch Duke celebrate a national title, but the Bulldogs have outlasted the Blue Devils in 2011.
If someone hopped told you that Butler would outlast Duke in the 2011 NCAA tournament, you would have had that person committed to a highly respected psychiatric facility. And not just because of the time-travel talk.
Just seven weeks later, well, that's where we are. Butler is in the Elite Eight. Duke is not. In case you needed another reminder that college basketball predictions are a foolhardy enterprise -- not that you did -- you won't do much better than Thursday night's simultaneous Sweet 16 action.
Perhaps it was fitting -- or ironic, or coincidental, or all three -- that these two teams' trajectories led them to this night. Duke rolled through much of the regular season as one of the national title favorites -- if not the favorite. Butler struggled from its opening game (a blowout loss at Louisville).
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski found himself replacing his star freshman point guard (the injured Kyrie Irving) by shifting All-American Nolan Smith to the point, with brilliant results. Stevens found himself trying to replace Hayward, a lottery pick, and Willie Veasley, last season’s senior defensive stalwart, with a batch of marginal recruits.
But you wouldn't have been able to tell Thursday night. Butler handled an ice-cold Wisconsin offense with minimal issues, advancing the small Indiana school to its second straight Elite Eight. At the exact same time, thousands of miles west -- hooray for metaphors! -- Duke was waylaid by an athletic, aggressive, unintimidated Arizona team led by the de facto star of this NCAA tournament, forward Derrick Williams.
The nature of Duke's loss was remarkable, but really, the dual outcomes were the most surprising part of this night. Except for the last few minutes of Butler's win over Wisconsin, in which the Badgers made a last-ditch comeback attempt, those outcomes were apparent.
Duke was getting blown out. Butler was moving on.
If you called that, you're a genius. Or a savant. Or you have a really good sense of quasi-irony. Or whatever.
Chances are you, like pretty much everyone else in the world, didn't see this one coming. You didn't see it coming last year. You didn't see it coming in December. You didn't see it coming in February. You didn't see it coming yesterday.
But, yep, here we are. A pair of parallel seasons: one ending, one continuing. Another shocking upset. Another masterful postseason performance by Brad Stevens and the Bulldogs.
BUTLER vs WISCONSIN
Matt Howard and Butler are starting to make this look a little easier.
When the final horn sounded Thursday night, the Bulldogs calmly congratulated one another and walked over to shake hands with Wisconsin, yet another higher seed sent packing. It all seemed rather routine, at least for the Bulldogs.
After narrowly surviving its first two NCAA tournament games by margins of two points or fewer, Butler led by 20 points before holding on for a 61-54 victory over the Badgers.
Butler is in the Elite Eight. Defending champ Duke is out of the tournament. Few saw this coming.
The Bulldogs took down the Big Ten bruisers, proving again they can play with anyone, especially in March. Another sure thing about these Horizon League champs: They won't have to duke it out with Duke in this year's tournament.
The top-seeded Blue Devils, who beat Butler 61-59 in last season's thrilling title game, were upset by Arizona 93-77 earlier in the evening.
"I don't know necessarily that I'm shocked by [the upsets] because I know what this team is capable of," Howard said. "But [I'm] very happy that we were able to execute again tonight and get the job done."
The victory sent Butler into the Southeast Regional final, where the Bulldogs meet second-seeded Florida (29-7) on Saturday for a trip to what would be the Bulldogs' second straight Final Four.
"Obviously, we're thrilled to still be playing," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "I don't think that this group goes into games not believing, and I don't think that this group came here not believing. And so we're going to see if we can't try to get one on Saturday and move on."
Jordan Taylor scored 22 for Wisconsin (25-9), which shot 30.4 percent (17-of-56). Jon Leuer, normally one of the Badgers' top offensive forces with 18.7 points per game coming in, was 1-of-12 shooting and finished with three points.
"We made plays that were uncharacteristic of us," Leuer said. "We tried to force some things, and Butler did some good things defensively. ... They're just tough kids who are all-around good players, and they play to their strengths."
Butler was the aggressor from the outset, using quickness and heady play to counter Wisconsin's size advantage. The Bulldogs took a 6-5 lead on Vanzant's 3 from the corner and never trailed again.
While the Bulldogs shot 50 percent (12-of-24) in the opening 20 minutes, their defense was equally impressive. Wisconsin came in averaging only 7.5 turnovers per game but had eight in the first half alone. Taylor, who entered the contest with the nation's best assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.18, had one assist and two turnovers to that point.
"It was just kinda one of those nights. The ball just wasn't going through the hoop. It's frustrating," Taylor said. "They're scrappy and relentless. I don't know -- they're just tough kids. They never quit, and that's what makes them winners."
When the final horn sounded Thursday night, the Bulldogs calmly congratulated one another and walked over to shake hands with Wisconsin, yet another higher seed sent packing. It all seemed rather routine, at least for the Bulldogs.
After narrowly surviving its first two NCAA tournament games by margins of two points or fewer, Butler led by 20 points before holding on for a 61-54 victory over the Badgers.
Butler is in the Elite Eight. Defending champ Duke is out of the tournament. Few saw this coming.
The Bulldogs took down the Big Ten bruisers, proving again they can play with anyone, especially in March. Another sure thing about these Horizon League champs: They won't have to duke it out with Duke in this year's tournament.
The top-seeded Blue Devils, who beat Butler 61-59 in last season's thrilling title game, were upset by Arizona 93-77 earlier in the evening.
"I don't know necessarily that I'm shocked by [the upsets] because I know what this team is capable of," Howard said. "But [I'm] very happy that we were able to execute again tonight and get the job done."
The victory sent Butler into the Southeast Regional final, where the Bulldogs meet second-seeded Florida (29-7) on Saturday for a trip to what would be the Bulldogs' second straight Final Four.
"Obviously, we're thrilled to still be playing," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "I don't think that this group goes into games not believing, and I don't think that this group came here not believing. And so we're going to see if we can't try to get one on Saturday and move on."
Jordan Taylor scored 22 for Wisconsin (25-9), which shot 30.4 percent (17-of-56). Jon Leuer, normally one of the Badgers' top offensive forces with 18.7 points per game coming in, was 1-of-12 shooting and finished with three points.
"We made plays that were uncharacteristic of us," Leuer said. "We tried to force some things, and Butler did some good things defensively. ... They're just tough kids who are all-around good players, and they play to their strengths."
Butler was the aggressor from the outset, using quickness and heady play to counter Wisconsin's size advantage. The Bulldogs took a 6-5 lead on Vanzant's 3 from the corner and never trailed again.
While the Bulldogs shot 50 percent (12-of-24) in the opening 20 minutes, their defense was equally impressive. Wisconsin came in averaging only 7.5 turnovers per game but had eight in the first half alone. Taylor, who entered the contest with the nation's best assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.18, had one assist and two turnovers to that point.
"It was just kinda one of those nights. The ball just wasn't going through the hoop. It's frustrating," Taylor said. "They're scrappy and relentless. I don't know -- they're just tough kids. They never quit, and that's what makes them winners."
THE BUTLER WAY
Ronald Nored and Matt Howard led Butler to another win and advance to the Final Four for the second year in a row.
The Bulldogs paved a path to get back by developing a will that once again propelled them throughout this tournament.
Butler is back in the Final Four after imposing its will in a 74-71 overtime win over Florida on Saturday afternoon.
“Last year in Salt Lake [site of the 2010 West Regional], it was almost like a ride you never dreamed of being on and we relished every moment,’’ said coach Brad Stevens, who is 10-3 in the NCAA tournament in just four short seasons as Butler's coach. “But this team has been so businesslike.’’
Butler had to earn this trip more so than a year ago, when it won 24 straight games going into the Final Four. The Bulldogs lost three straight in the middle of conference play, even falling to lowly Youngstown State on the road. Butler lost five league games, ended in a three-way tie for first and had to win the conference tournament title on the road at Milwaukee.
“There was turmoil that we had to go through after falling pretty down in January and early February,’’ said Butler junior guard Ronald Nored. “We had to earn this. It was tougher than last year.’’
Against No. 9 seed Old Dominion, Butler had to win on a last-second layup by Matt Howard. An inexplicable foul at the end of the second half allowed the Bulldogs to barely eke past top-seeded Pitt.
“We were lucky to beat Old Dominion,’’ Stevens said. “They could be sitting here. Pittsburgh could be sitting here. There’s no doubt that they were great teams. That’s the tournament. It doesn’t matter how you win, you just try to play the next one and hope you get a chance to play the next one.’’
The Florida game Saturday couldn’t have gone worse for Butler early on. The Gators sprinkled in a zone with their man defense and it perplexed Butler. Florida built an 11-point lead with less than 10 minutes to go in the game and the Gators looked the part of the more experienced NCAA team, en route to its fourth Final Four under Billy Donovan.
“We got them to take shots out of character for them,’’ Donovan said. “But then they found a way to come down and get another possession. The difference in the game was those 50-50 balls in the last 10 minutes of regulation.’’
They’re called winning plays. Butler has made them for the past few years under Stevens, and to some extent long before that under Barry Collier, Thad Matta and Todd Lickliter. Over the past decade and more, those coaches have made this one of the most consistent programs in the country.
“When you get to this point in the season, and I had this with [Joakim] Noah, [Al] Horford and [Corey] Brewer and those guys, there is an internal will and back then our internal will was terrific,’’ Donovan said of the Gators' consecutive championships in 2006 and 2007. “I thought [Butler's] internal will, coming down with those loose balls, being quicker in reacting, they just got it. They made plays. Their will at that point in time and their refusal to be denied speaks to something. I thought it stood out. I thought our guys were terrific in that, but not as good as they were.’’
“What defines this Butler group was the unselfishness of Ron Nored not starting after starting during the national championship game and guarding [Ervin] Walker as tough as he possibly could and Shawn Vanzant tipping plays and Khyle Marshall and our young guys starting to figure this out,’’ Stevens said.
The Bulldogs head to Houston not as underdogs, but as established members of an elite class. Michigan State went to consecutive Final Fours in 2009 and '10. Florida did it in 2006 and '07. The last mid-major school to make consecutive appearances was UNLV in 1990 and '91.
“I know this: Somebody is going to have to beat us because of our will,’’ Stevens said.
The Bulldogs paved a path to get back by developing a will that once again propelled them throughout this tournament.
Butler is back in the Final Four after imposing its will in a 74-71 overtime win over Florida on Saturday afternoon.
“Last year in Salt Lake [site of the 2010 West Regional], it was almost like a ride you never dreamed of being on and we relished every moment,’’ said coach Brad Stevens, who is 10-3 in the NCAA tournament in just four short seasons as Butler's coach. “But this team has been so businesslike.’’
Butler had to earn this trip more so than a year ago, when it won 24 straight games going into the Final Four. The Bulldogs lost three straight in the middle of conference play, even falling to lowly Youngstown State on the road. Butler lost five league games, ended in a three-way tie for first and had to win the conference tournament title on the road at Milwaukee.
“There was turmoil that we had to go through after falling pretty down in January and early February,’’ said Butler junior guard Ronald Nored. “We had to earn this. It was tougher than last year.’’
Against No. 9 seed Old Dominion, Butler had to win on a last-second layup by Matt Howard. An inexplicable foul at the end of the second half allowed the Bulldogs to barely eke past top-seeded Pitt.
“We were lucky to beat Old Dominion,’’ Stevens said. “They could be sitting here. Pittsburgh could be sitting here. There’s no doubt that they were great teams. That’s the tournament. It doesn’t matter how you win, you just try to play the next one and hope you get a chance to play the next one.’’
The Florida game Saturday couldn’t have gone worse for Butler early on. The Gators sprinkled in a zone with their man defense and it perplexed Butler. Florida built an 11-point lead with less than 10 minutes to go in the game and the Gators looked the part of the more experienced NCAA team, en route to its fourth Final Four under Billy Donovan.
“We got them to take shots out of character for them,’’ Donovan said. “But then they found a way to come down and get another possession. The difference in the game was those 50-50 balls in the last 10 minutes of regulation.’’
They’re called winning plays. Butler has made them for the past few years under Stevens, and to some extent long before that under Barry Collier, Thad Matta and Todd Lickliter. Over the past decade and more, those coaches have made this one of the most consistent programs in the country.
“When you get to this point in the season, and I had this with [Joakim] Noah, [Al] Horford and [Corey] Brewer and those guys, there is an internal will and back then our internal will was terrific,’’ Donovan said of the Gators' consecutive championships in 2006 and 2007. “I thought [Butler's] internal will, coming down with those loose balls, being quicker in reacting, they just got it. They made plays. Their will at that point in time and their refusal to be denied speaks to something. I thought it stood out. I thought our guys were terrific in that, but not as good as they were.’’
“What defines this Butler group was the unselfishness of Ron Nored not starting after starting during the national championship game and guarding [Ervin] Walker as tough as he possibly could and Shawn Vanzant tipping plays and Khyle Marshall and our young guys starting to figure this out,’’ Stevens said.
The Bulldogs head to Houston not as underdogs, but as established members of an elite class. Michigan State went to consecutive Final Fours in 2009 and '10. Florida did it in 2006 and '07. The last mid-major school to make consecutive appearances was UNLV in 1990 and '91.
“I know this: Somebody is going to have to beat us because of our will,’’ Stevens said.
KEVIN EASTMON ON KEVIN GARNETT
We are very fortunate to have a Kevin Garnett to coach, and his teammates are fortunate to have a Kevin Garnett to lead. You may have your own Kevin Garnett or someone on your team that can develop into a Kevin Garnett -- not just from a talent standpoint but also from a leadership standpoint.
Here are some of the things I have observed Kevin doing, saying, or demonstrating that allow him to lead at a higher level than most.
• He always looks for teaching opportunities to help young players become “true professionals,” from the way they dress to the way they prepare for the game and for practice, to the way they interact with teammates.
• He lives the “team concept” every day in every way. In fact, last year Kevin wouldn’t do interviews without Paul Pierce or Ray Allen with him because he didn’t want the team to be “his” team; he always wanted it to be “our” team.
• He demands that the coaching staff coach him, call him out, correct him -- so that he can become a better player. He understands that coaching is not criticism, but a very important part of his improvement.
• He works on his game just about every day of our 287-day season. Understands that repetition is the key to being good.
• He is competitive and committed: he plays just as hard whether we are ahead or behind and whether he had 3 shots or 30 points.
• He shows everyone that the great ones just want to get better; always wants to know anything that will make him a better player.
• He often says, “it’s about what you are willing to sacrifice; that’s our way of life here with the Celtics. It’s about putting the team and winning before anything else.”
• He often says, “in order for this thing to work, we all have to sacrifice.”
• He always talks about defense: “We said from Day 1 that we were a defensive team that could also score.”
• And the ultimate sacrifice in today's me-oriented world Kevin says, “from Day 1 we said this is Paul’s team.” Everyone else wanted to make it Kevin’s team but he knew Paul deserved it because Paul had been with the Celtics during tough times.
The list could go on and on, but the point is that true leadership is not about oneself. It is the ability to get not only the most from your own ability but true leadership also means getting the most out of every teammate’s ability as well. Kevin does this by example, by teaching, by his public comments and by his unending commitment to team over self.
Here are some of the things I have observed Kevin doing, saying, or demonstrating that allow him to lead at a higher level than most.
• He always looks for teaching opportunities to help young players become “true professionals,” from the way they dress to the way they prepare for the game and for practice, to the way they interact with teammates.
• He lives the “team concept” every day in every way. In fact, last year Kevin wouldn’t do interviews without Paul Pierce or Ray Allen with him because he didn’t want the team to be “his” team; he always wanted it to be “our” team.
• He demands that the coaching staff coach him, call him out, correct him -- so that he can become a better player. He understands that coaching is not criticism, but a very important part of his improvement.
• He works on his game just about every day of our 287-day season. Understands that repetition is the key to being good.
• He is competitive and committed: he plays just as hard whether we are ahead or behind and whether he had 3 shots or 30 points.
• He shows everyone that the great ones just want to get better; always wants to know anything that will make him a better player.
• He often says, “it’s about what you are willing to sacrifice; that’s our way of life here with the Celtics. It’s about putting the team and winning before anything else.”
• He often says, “in order for this thing to work, we all have to sacrifice.”
• He always talks about defense: “We said from Day 1 that we were a defensive team that could also score.”
• And the ultimate sacrifice in today's me-oriented world Kevin says, “from Day 1 we said this is Paul’s team.” Everyone else wanted to make it Kevin’s team but he knew Paul deserved it because Paul had been with the Celtics during tough times.
The list could go on and on, but the point is that true leadership is not about oneself. It is the ability to get not only the most from your own ability but true leadership also means getting the most out of every teammate’s ability as well. Kevin does this by example, by teaching, by his public comments and by his unending commitment to team over self.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)