Where Have All the Gym Rats Gone?

An interesting topic of discussion came about yesterday with a good friend of mine, somebody who I see as a coaching mentor. We started talking about kids being accountable and working on their game by themselves and it made me think back to when I was a young player. It used to be you could drive through town on any given day and see groups of kids, of all ages, playing ball. If it was not a group, it most commonly was an individual or just two or three kids shooting or working on their ball handling. I still remember the days after school, my good friend and teammate, Aaron Fuska and I spent at the Delaney Courts playing one on one, "around the world" and tapping the backboards to improve our vertical jumping until it was dark out. Or, somedays it was just six of us, playing 3 on 3 at Mike Grohal's house, on the court his dad put in for us next to their garage. Just about every friend of mine had a hoop, that we often debated over who had the best court to play on. Obviously, I always felt mine was the better court!




Developing my skills as a basketball player in my driveway was something that I enjoyed from the time that I got my first basketball hoop at the age of 8. I can remember it well, it had a bright orange Kent logo as the square, with a white plastic backboard, unlike the common glass backboard that I have in my driveway at my own house today. The driveway was unpaved, filled with rocks and dirt that turned to mud when it rained. It was years until my dad decided he would black top our driveway, probably because the rocks in the driveway had already unknowingly helped me develop my ball handling skills!




I can remember in 9th grade, a bunch of us sleeping over at a friend's house, playing basketball outside until it was early in the morning. It was over Christmas break and we had one of those unseasonably mild December days. So, we took advantage of it by playing 2 on 2 for hours that night, under the bright moonlight, then got up the next morning and went to basketball practice! As a real young kid, I will never forget going to the Community Building with my dad to watch him play in his men's volleyball league. During breaks in the action, I would scoot across the court and shoot a couple of shots before the next game started. Then my dad would always spend some time working with me and shooting around after their games were over and we would then go down to the local VFW for a soda and some chips. I remember those memories like it was yesterday.




As a kid growing up, my dad was in charge of organizing the Windber Rotary Basketball Tournament, held every year just after Christmas. Today, the Rotary Tournament is the longest standing boys high school basketball tournament in Pennsylvania. He always spent countless hours planning and organizing the event, it was important to him because it was the Rotary's biggest fundraiser, which put money back into the community. My favorite part about the tournament was when I would have the chance to shoot around on the court before the teams arrived as my dad worked to get everything set up. Not only did I get a chance to shoot on the court, but I was allowed to use the game ball, which as a young basketball player was a huge deal for me. That was the same ball and the same court that the players, who I often times admired, were going to be using.




Then of course, you always could count on the Friday night pick-up games with the older men at the Community Building. There was nothing better than having Kevin Charney (who was much younger and athletic at the time) blocking your shot or a John Fuschino stealing the ball off of you, which made you go home and work on your dribbling before bed to make yourself better and promised yourself to never let that happen again. A lot of times, the next morning we would get back up and head back to "the building" for Saturday morning pick-up with many of the same "older guys". We spent hours on Saturday morning just playing pick-up games and when it got close to lunch time, we took shots from half court to see where we were going to go and eat lunch. First person to make a half-court shot, got to choose the place we were going to eat at. My friends and I spent a lot of time growing up, playing at "the building". We would pay our two bucks at the front desk, have some change left over for some soda, take our ball and play all day, whether it was a Saturday afternoon following our youth league games or morning and afternoons over Christmas break, we would play, play and play some more. That gym used to be full of kids, any age, high school, junior high or elementary age kids, even college aged kids when they were home on break. The high school kids always ran pickup games on the good side of the gym, while us younger kids watched closely, those varsity players we pretended to be, run up and down the court.



Those are just a few memories I have of spending time with my friends in the gym, on the playground or on the driveway, doing what I love to do...play basketball! Did spending all this time get me to the NBA? No, in fact it didn't even get me the opportunity to play college basketball. But, what it did get me was the opportunity to compete as a team member in some great games against other great players in front of some big time crowds. It produced championships and most importantly helped me to continue the great winning tradition at Windber High School. It produced great memories! To reach greatness, as a team member and as an individual, you must first be willing to outwork your opponents.




Where has that gone? There are no longer Friday night and Saturday morning pick up games with the older guys. No more Kevin Charney's blocking shots or John Fuschino stealing passes. Very rarely do you see a group of kids or even a single kid shooting at the Delaney Court hoops. The West End School hoops are long gone and the East End school hoops have been replaced with a parking lot for the local library. You no longer see kids bouncing a basketball as they walk through town. Kids are now riding their bikes, grasping their handle bars with two hands! It used to be that you learned how to ride your bike with only one hand on the handlebar. The other hand was always used to hold your basketball!





Growing up as a kid, I was often reminded by my father that "there is always somebody else out there whose working harder than you.", he would say with his soft voice. It always frustrated me, it didn't matter how long I would shoot jumpers in my driveway, whether it was in the heat, in the rain or in the cold, snowy weather, he would always make that same, "Mr. Miogi" like remark to me and nothing more, he would just walk away as I stood there frustrated and puzzeled, just waiting for him to give some kind of positive acknowledgement! An "atta boy" or "nice job, son" was all I was ever looking for. I would constantly think to myself, "what's it gonna take to please him?" Then, the next day I would go a little longer and a little harder, forcing myself to make more free throws in a row before allowing myself to quit.




It was not long after my father passed away, that I realized what his intent was when making that comment. Although I did not understand it at the time, I have come to realize that he knew exactly what he was doing! I wish I could thank him today! His simple little, soft spoken quote was making a huge impact on me, not only as a young basketball player, not even as a basketball player...period. He was making me a better person, preparing me for life! He was helping me establish a good work ethic, helping me set goals for myself, helping me reach higher and not allowing me to settle for being average! He distintively taught me that when you want something in life, you must work hard for it. I still get chills thinking about it and only wish that he was here for me to thank him!

Some other thoughts on Gym Rats:

• You want to be a great basketball player? Someone once said, "you become what you think about most of the time." Become a gym rat!

• Kentucky Head Men's Basketball coach, Billy Gillispie on gym rats... "Gym rats help the team take another step. Basketball is a long hard season, and a year-long situation. If one or two players want to spend the majority of their time in the gym, then before you know it three or four guys will always be in the gym, then six or seven. When this happens everyone improves and becomes a much better player. No matter how much work you put on those guys, they want more. It sends the message of commitment to everyone on the team. The title of a gym rat is earned over time because it's an important title."




• Memphis Head Men's basketball coach, John Calipari on gym rates...As much as the team can accomplish at practice, Calipari knows his players need to get into the gym on their own and work on their games.
  “Some guys are getting the message, but that’s something everybody will need to pick up on eventually.” Because sometimes, the most important work for a team with title aspirations gets done when nobody — not even Calipari — is watching.
  


• "There are some things that are common to all gym rats. They are tougher than nails. Gym rats get knocked down, but they always get up quickly; almost as if they're made of rubber. All gym rats play defense like it's a personal challenge of their manhood. They slap and scrap and claw like fighting birds at a cockfight."

Here is an article written by Randy Brown titled, "Where Have All the Gym Rats Gone?"


With the advent of technological advances in our world, our lives have become easier and more comfortable. Each year ushers in a new throng of new products and upgrades that advertising tells us we must have. Technology has impacted the sports world in hundreds of ways. Some would argue that these advances have both helped and hindered the sports we love. In this article I will focus on the dwindling interest our younger generation shows toward the greatest game on earth.
As I drive up and down the street in my neighborhood I see many basketball hoops on both sides of the street. Some are nailed to the garage or sunk in yards of concrete. Most are part of a fancy system that includes a goal, pole and base. Many of them can be adjusted by a 5 year old from 10 feet down to their preferred height. These units are easy to set up and available at almost any superstore or internet web site.
From the number of goals that line the streets of America's towns and suburbs, you would conclude that kids love playing basketball. Back yards are void of soccer goals, goal posts, or baseball fields. From what I see, basketball is the only game in town. Am I right or am I wrong?
For some reason these goals sit alone and unbothered in driveways up and down the street. There are very few kids hoisting shots toward the shiny orange rims. Not in the the fall, not in the winter, not in the summer. A few shots are taken in the spring when its easy to be outdoors in the fresh air. All of this leads me to ask the perplexing question, "Where are all the gym rats?"
Our world has made being a kid quite an undertaking. Electronics have taken over the lives of our youth. Cell phones, iPods and Playstation have captured the imagination of an entire segment of America. Is this bad news for our younger generation? Some would argue these worldly improvements are part of life. Those of us who love the game of basketball disagree.
Shooting hoops in the driveway always gave me a great sense of freedom. The ability to shoot for hours alone represented a lot of my time as a young player. With sadness, these days I rarely see this kind of expression of love and freedom. It hurts to know that kids are paralyzed in front of the LCD screen, computer flat panel, or Madden 2007. What happened to shooting the shot that wins the imaginary NCAA tournament, State Tournament, or NBA Title. Isn't it fashionable to dream anymore? Are we living out these experiences through a video game or other lifeless channel? What happened to the dreamers in our world?
Maybe it's my stubbornness or traditional approach to the game. Maybe it's because I dedicated my professional life to the game James Naismith invented. Or maybe it's because I see too many kids without this level of love for basketball. An empty heart has no love for anything. Whatever the reason, I find myself asking the same haunting question, "Where are all the gym rats?"

Blogging the Journey: Mountie Madness!

Last evening our team took some time to showcase our men's and women's programs and their talents at Mountie Madness for the local community and the students. The evening was filled with contests, player introductions and scrimmages by the men and women. Also, a 3-pt contest and dunk contest were held for the fans, where the lucky fans had a chance to win a trip to NY city. It was a great evening, filled with excitement and enthusiasm from the players, fans and coaches.

It was a great evening, but now it's time to get focused for this weekend's Coaches vs. Cancer tournament, as we tip off with St. Joseph's from Brooklyn, New York. The anxiety and anticipation will build as we approach Saturday and try to finalize and improve upon some of the necessary details.

Blogging the Journey: Playing Above the Rim

After beating up on ourselves for three weeks, we finally had the opportunity to play against somebody else! Saturday was our first scrimmage and my first taste of college level competition and there is no better way of measuring where you stand, as a coach and as a player, than against one of the top JUCO programs in the country! Our scrimmage was at Alleganey Community College...the home of Steve "the Franchise" Francis. Yes, the Steve Francis who became an all-american at Maryland and is now playing in the NBA. The environment was special, as you entered Kirk Gymnasium (named after their legendary coach, Bob Kirk), you couldn't help but admire the college and NBA jerseys that surrounded the hallways. Teams such as Texas, Kansas, Maryland, George Mason, Pitt, Georgetown and Virginia, all jerseys of players that once played for Alleganey before moving to the big time division I programs. Obviously, Steve Francis is the most well known player to come out of Alleganey, but others such as Eric Mobley from Pitt and Sterling Ledbetter from Maryland also have come out of the JUCO college.

As for the scrimmage itself, well it was a great measuring stick for where our strengths and weaknesses lie as we approach the start of the season. We struggled breaking pressure and had quite a few turnovers against their press. We need to do a better job of stepping to the basketball, weakside help positioning, stepping in on dribble penetration, bumping cutters and not trailing around screens. These are all things that we can certainly work on to get better at as we prepare for our second scrimmage this weekend against Garrett Community College. Believe it or not, there were a lot of positives as well that came out of the scrimmage. We got a lot of baskets in transition, our half-court offense was solid and allowed us a good amount of open looks at the basket, our press was effective and we shared the basketball, sometimes a little too much, passing up open looks. Most importantly, once we settled down and the nerves went away, we played with a lot of confidence and became much more competitive. It was a very promising outcome, except for the bus breaking down before we were ready to leave!

I must admit, I can get used to traveling in style with the chartered buses! The movie, Miracle, which was about the 1980 Olympic Hockey team was great...one of the better sports movies of all time in my opinion. As for my first college coaching experience, well let's just say we're not in the West Pac anymore! Somethings that you will probably not see in the West Pac this year:

• Opponents with a front court of 6'6", 6'7" and 6'8"
• 4 dunks in a row!
• Players who avoid charges by jumping over the defender and dunking on them!

I actually caught myself saying one time on a fast break..."play the miss, play the miss!" Well, trust me, at this level there are no misses on a fast break when you are playing above the rim!

This week it's back to daily grind of working on fundamentals and bettering ourselves and our teammates towards the common goal of making the playoffs!

Blogging the Journey: Practice #1

"Baby steps", that's the best way I can describe the first official practice for the 2008-09 Mount Aloysius Men's basketball team. There are a lot of changes taking place from last year's team, different offense, experienced players, higher expectations, higher emphasis on defense and the opportunity to make the playoffs. With the culture change, for the better, our approach to the first week of practice is taking the time to teach more and fine tune the details with a focus on doing the little things fundamentally. Our first practice was filled with bad passes, missed shots and nervous energy, much of what is to be expected. However, the first practice was also filled with eagerness to improve, high energy and talent...all things that you cannot teach! Those are all good signs of what's to come. The passes will get better, the shots will fall and the confidence levels will increase with time and patience. A few eye openers for me, coaching for the first time at the college level, was certainly the amount of talent. As I walked into the gym and looked around and saw guys reaching a foot above the rim to snatch an alley oop pass for a dunk, I knew I would be working with a completely different level of competition. However, the most exciting thing for me was the number of players who are eager to improve and get better! What an exciting time!

Players Don't Care What You Know Until They Know You Care

If there is one coach that defines the word passion, it would be Bruce Pearl. His passion and energy he brings to the Tennessee men's basketball program is unmatched. Below are some hightlights from an interview with Coach and Athletic Director Magazine with Bruce Pearl. Thanks to Eric Mussleman's blog for sharing this article. The full interview can be found here: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750364

On the impact coaches have had on his life:

"I can name every coach I ever played for growing up. I can tell you every little team, every youth basketball team, and every traveling team.The point I am trying to make is they make a difference. You know, their patience, and their abilities to teach and communicate, and to care and inspire. And command some discipline without living completely vicariously through the winning and losing of a child. Those coaches, in youth activities and, of course, all the way through high school, had a profound impact on my career."

On working for Dr. Tom Davis at Boston College, Stanford, and Iowa:

"I walked on the men’s basketball team at Boston College and shortly there after got cut. I wasn’t good enough because of my knee. But I stayed on in other capacities. I was the basketball manager and the director of student promotions.By the time I was a senior, I was a student assistant coach. I took on a lot of tasks for Dr. Tom Davis. And I was a part-time practice player on the road when we needed an extra body. I think the biggest thing about my experience at Boston College was — I did graduate cum laude, majoring in marketing and economics — if there is ever a time to be poor it’s when you’re young, and there is such thing as a starving student.I interned and volunteered and just got involved with so many things at BC, most of them involving athletes. I paid a lot of dues by the time I was 22. I encourage a lot of young people to do the same thing. When I graduated from BC in 1982, Tom Davis was leaving to take the job at Stanford and he took me with him."

On his passion for coaching:

" When I was in high school I coached youth basketball and football. And I umpired and I refereed — and some people think I still referee. I was always involved in coaching during high school and even in college.It was never a thought of mine until Tom Davis offered me a job when I was 22-years old to go with him as an assistant coach at Stanford. I had never done anything in athletics to try to prepare myself to be a coach. I was doing it because I loved it. I never dreamed of being a coach. Yet my first job out of college was that job at Stanford and that’s all I have done since. So in a way, if you go back to when I was almost in middle school, I have been coaching my whole life."On former BC, Stanford, and Iowa coach Tom Davis: "He is my mentor. If you’re any good at anything chances are you had a good teacher. And I had one of the best teachers the game had to offer: Dr. Tom Davis .I learned so much. I learned a whole system of basketball. I also learned patience and how to motivate. You got better when you went to play with him. Tom didn’t always recruit the best talent but he recruited enough. He wasn’t afraid to take a guy who a lot of people said wasn’t athletic enough."

On the value he added as a young coach:

"I just think I brought a level of intensity to practice every single day. I had an expectation for the players that was beyond what they had for themselves. I had to make up for what I lacked in not being able to play the game at the high level.So I made up for it with my work ethic and my intensity. And I jumped in with both feet. I tried to complement what Tom needed. Tom wasn’t a yeller or a screamer. He was a teacher. There were a lot of times, as an assistant coach, that I was the bad guy."On taking ownership as an assistant: "Tom had a way of making me feel those were my teams also. I wasn’t working for him, I was working for myself. He gave me ownership. And I was held accountable when we lost games to teams I scouted or when I made mistakes in helping prepare the team. We won some games that we did a good job in as well. But I took the losses very hard and celebrated the wins just as hard. Tom had a great way of making everybody take ownership."

On why he left Southern Indiana after nine seasons as head coach:

"I finally left Southern Indiana because my whole deal is to encourage my players to be the best that they can be. And I realized at the end of my ninth season there that I was settling. That I wasn’t being the best I could be. I did not want to ever sit on my front porch from wherever I retire from this game and wonder if I could have done it at the highest level. That’s why I left, because I wasn’t living the life I was asking my players to try to live."

On taking over at a new job:

"When you come into a new program, you are being evaluated by your players. And my guys were well coached. They hadn’t had a winning season in two years but those kids were well coached. And so, I had to be at the top of my game to win them over. While [the previous coach] got them to be competitive, they still didn’t know how to win."

On how his assistants help develop young players:

"Tom Davis did not always get the best players but people knew that those guys got better. And I learned as an assistant coach that it took time in the gym and individual workouts. I have assistant coaches who know how to teach the game and they are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get in there. [My assistant coaches] put a lot of time in the gym emphasized on individual workouts."

On Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt:

"Pat is an amazing woman. She is the best mother to her son Tyler and she is the best mother, friend, and coach to her players. She’s got more people into college basketball coaching the women’s game. It’s countless the number of former players and managers and coaches.She is extremely organized, always prepared. And she stays on top the game because she listens and she asks questions and she brings in other minds. She studies international basketball and professional basketball. I have never met anybody as accomplished who is also as hungry. You’d think she had never won one championship, let alone eight."

On the difference between being liked and being respected:

"Billy Donovan’s dominated this league. I don’t think Billy Donovan is anybody’s favorite coach outside of Florida. He’s done it because he’s beaten everybody. You can’t find a better coach. Billy Donavon is at the head of our profession and I have tremendous respect for him. I think our fans have great respect for Billy Donovan. Whether they like him or not, it doesn’t matter — it doesn’t matter to Billy. And so that’s my point; I don’t care if they like me. I want my fans to like me. It would be great if they could respect what we’re doing."

On his coaching philosophy:

"I have been a head coach for 16 years or whatever it’s been. My teams have led the league in scoring for 15 out of 16 years, including three straight years in the SEC. It’s a system that’s very committed, up-tempo basketball. We create possessions with turning people over through our pressure defense, both in the full court and the drop-back.When you press and you attack, even if you are not the more talented team, the other team can’t sit back on their heels. I think kids like to play that way. I know I like to coach that way. And I think that fans like to watch that kind of game.Logic would dictate that when you have less talent — hold the ball, be patient, and be conservative — it sends your kids a big fat message that they are no good and that the other team is better. The key is being willing to run and press, and yet be able to mix in good patience, both offensively and defensively. Ball-control coaches at all levels are somehow deemed to be better coaches than your Jerry Tarkanians and your Paul Westheads."

On the keys to team success:

"It is defense and rebounding that wins championships. The Boston Celtics proved that. You look at the teams that got to the Final Four. Ultimately that’s a huge part. You look at where Kansas finished in the Big 12 in defense and you’ll see why they won a national championship.First of all, I am not a great defensive coach. But I will tell you the teams I had that won championships with made the decision to defend. Kids want to win. My philosophy defensively is not to be on the defensive. The word being defensive is to step back and react to the way the offense moves. I want to dictate. I want to take the stuff away that you like to do and make you beat me a different way."

On develop relationships with his players:

"Players don’t care what you know until they know how much you care. I think the only way you can demonstrate that is with your time and your tough love. I think if you do those things, kids are going to appreciate it and they are going to put up with you when you tell them this is what you got to do because it’s best for you. They will trust that I am doing this because it’s best for them."

His advice for assistant coaches:

"I think as an assistant, you want to have a certain dimension and bring something to the table that your head coach can utilize. Guys get hired out of jobs that are winning. Choose your head coach wisely, assistants. Don’t get in the game or don’t move within the game unless you think your guy is going to win because that is the only chance you’ll have with the opportunity to move."Assistant coaches, don’t try to be me. Be yourself. Allow your own personality to be brought to the court. Choose wisely what you’re teaching and how you’re teaching it.

"It’s not what you teach; it’s how you teach it." - Bruce Pearl

Make sure it’s a system that fits. Make sure it flows."

Using Passion and Enthusiasm to Turnaround Performance

By Pat Forde
October 8, 2008
BOULDER, Colo. -- Texas had the game won, having beaten the hide off the Colorado Buffaloes. But on the way out of Folsom Field and on to the big game against Oklahoma in Dallas, the Longhorns' second-string defense surrendered a late touchdown that made the final score 38-14.
Will Muschamp has brought fire and passion to the Texas sideline.It was a meaningless touchdown. Unless you're Will Muschamp.
Headset pulled down around his neck and brown eyes smoldering, the Texas defensive coordinator was 5 yards onto the field and fuming.
"Jog off the field!" Muschamp bellowed at his defenders. "Jog your ass off the field, goddammit!"
Once the Horns jogged off the field, Muschamp lit them up even more.
"At that point, you would think as a coach he'd be very lenient," said first-team defensive end Brian Orakpo, who watched the scene unfold. "But he was still coaching. He was getting on them for not tackling."
Muschamp's simple explanation of his urgency: "Every opportunity on the field is an opportunity to stop people."
Every opportunity to coach defense is an opportunity for Will Muschamp to hug, holler, congratulate, castigate, slap hands, slap helmets, teach alignment and preach hustle. He is perpetual passion. Defensive coordinators tend to be among the most intense members of the football coaching profession, and Muschamp is at the far end of the intensity curve.
If you screw up, you're going to hear about it. Loudly.

Stats are for losers. I like winning games.
--Will Muschamp

If you make a big play, you're going to hear about it. Loudly.
"He is not allowing anyone to take a lazy step at any time," head coach Mack Brown said.
One thing is certain: The Longhorns never have to wonder where they stand with their first-year coordinator. They know he cares. He's constantly bathing them in animated feedback.
"We love him to death," Orakpo said. "He gets on us but he praises us, too. When we make a great play, he's out there chest-bumping us.
"Muschamp is the guy who carries the torch."
Through five games, Texas has been torching the offenses it has faced. Stealing Muschamp away from Auburn this past offseason ranks among the best personnel moves Brown has made in his accomplished career.
The Texas defense dwindled in effectiveness as last season went along. In the final five games, the Longhorns surrendered 25, 35, 43, 38 and 34 points. Unable to stop teams, the traditionally stout Horns were reduced to outscoring them.
That's why Brown reached out to snag Muschamp. The former Georgia player and coach at Auburn and LSU left his SEC roots for a new challenge in the Big 12.
He's been up to the challenge so far.

As quick as he is to yell at a mistake, Muschamp is right there with praise.Last year, the Longhorns were fourth in the league in sacks. This year, they lead the nation (3.8 per game) and have thrown opposing offenses for more lost yards (222) than anyone else. They've lived in the offensive backfield.
The Horns are third nationally in rushing defense (51.8 yards per game) and fourth in scoring defense (11.4 points per game). Texas has allowed 14 or fewer points in each of its first five games for the first time in 17 years, and has been particularly tough in the red zone. Opponents have scored on only eight of 15 possessions inside the Texas 20, the second-best defensive percentage in the nation.
None of which dazzles Muschamp.
"Stats are for losers," he said. "I like winning games."
He's won plenty over the years. Muschamp was Nick Saban's defensive coordinator when LSU won the national title in 2003 and followed Saban to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. After one year there, he returned to the college game, where his pyrotechnic personality is a better fit.
"I like what I do," Muschamp said. "It's my job to get these guys to play well and play physical. I play through them. When they make plays, I make plays. When they make a mistake, I make a mistake."
Muschamp's job has been made much easier by the return to full health of Orakpo, who is having an All-America season so far. The 260-pound end has been a terror off the edge, racking up 5½ sacks, 8 tackles for loss and 6 quarterback hurries this season. He hobbled through the first half of last season after injuring a knee in the season opener.
"It's made all the difference in the world," Brown said. "We saw this in preseason last year. When he got chop-blocked against Arkansas State, it just killed us. Boy, is he bringing it now. In fact, they're having to hold him to slow him down."
For Orakpo and the rest of the Texas defense, there was an adjustment period in the spring and in August camp. Not just to their fourth coordinator in four years, but to the new coordinator's expulsive persona.
"They thought I was nuts," Muschamp said.
Orakpo took one look at the manic Muschamp and thought, "It's a new day and era."
Change is good. But now comes the hard part.

Healthy once again, Brian Orakpo has been a beast on Texas' defensive line.Beginning Saturday with Oklahoma's explosive offense, Texas will face four straight teams averaging at least 48 points per game -- Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech follow the Red River Rivalry. All four rank in the top five nationally in scoring.
If the Horns hold up through that gauntlet, they'll have more than just an impressive record. They'll have a hot head-coaching candidate in Muschamp.
You can already find Tennessee fans clamoring for regime change: www.muschampforut.wordpress.com. There assuredly will be other enamored fan bases, although perhaps not more Web sites devoted to his hiring.
But that's a long way off in football time, and Muschamp knows it.
"It's a week-to-week profession," he said. "You can be a real good coach one week and an idiot the next."
Hugs one week, heat the next. That mirrors the way Will Muschamp mingles with his defense on a play-by-play basis.
"He's just like one of us, but he's got the headset on," said linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy. "If you give him a helmet, I believe he'd run out there."

Leading Thru Adversity: Stay Positive & Get to Work

Anatomy of a comeback
By Rick Pitino, with Pat Forde

With 15:30 to play on Fat Tuesday night in Baton Rouge in 1994, my University of Kentucky basketball team was getting killed. We trailed Louisiana State 68-37. If you asked anyone in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at that moment, the game was over.
Anyone that is but the guys in the blue uniforms.

Against all odds, we kept believing that we had a chance and kept playing. Why? Because we had an enormous amount of pride and self-esteem -- and a little arrogance as well. We were accustomed to winning, and imposing our will on opponents. Nobody treated us the way LSU had treated us, and we were determined to do something about it. Still, we had to stay in touch with our fundamentals and make this comeback in small steps.
If I had called everyone into the huddle with 15 minutes left and said, "We're definitely going to win," that would have been false bravado and the players would have seen through it.

One thing you must do in the face of adversity is to be honest with yourself,
and with the people you're trying to lead. Acknowledge the difficult spot you're
in and commence digging out of it. Don't point fingers, don't recriminate, and
don't make excuses. Stay positive and get to work.

So the first thing we had to do was salvage our dignity over the next few minutes -- to simply stop the bleeding and start making a small dent in that deficit. Down 31, the grand scheme at that very moment wasn't to emerge with a victory at night's end; looking that far ahead would have blurred our focus on the gradual progress that comprises every comeback. The goal was to get within 20 points as quickly as possible. To do that, we concentrated on three things: using our press to create turnovers, fouling the two shaky free throw shooters LSU had on the floor, and getting high-percentage shots.
All three worked, and the turnaround actually happened faster than expected. In about five minutes of clock time, we'd shockingly chopped the deficit from 31 to 14. Our frantic style of play helped -- speeding up the game and increasing the possessions for both teams gave us more chances to rally. Stubbornly, we kept whittling away at LSU's lead, as the celebrating crowd turned more and more nervous. Every timeout Tigers' coach Dale Brown called in an attempt to slow our momentum actually raised our spirits. We knew we had them rattled; we knew we had a chance.
We had little-used reserves making shots, stealing passes, and grabbing rebounds. Finally, Walter McCarty dropped in a three-point shot with 19 seconds left and we took the lead, 96-95, and went on to win 99-95. To this day, it remains the biggest comeback in college basketball history on the road. The game quickly became known nationwide as the Mardi Gras Miracle. It was certainly memorable, but it was no miracle. It didn't take divine intervention to win that game; it took an unbreakable optimism, and a plan for coming back.
I've been a part of other great rallies: When I coached the New York Knicks in the 1980s, we came from 27 points down to beat Portland; in 1995 my Kentucky team trailed defending national champion Arkansas by six points with 38 seconds left in overtime in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship and won; we rallied from 10 down in the final minute to beat Tennessee my first year at Louisville; and in 2005 we trailed West Virginia by 20 points in an NCAA tournament regional final game and won to reach the Final Four.
Here is the important common denominator in all those comebacks: They began with positive energy on the floor, on the bench, and in the team huddles.
They began with a belief that things would get better if we persevered through adversity, trusted each other and worked together.
They began with a conviction that consistent effort, even against long odds, inevitably would turn the tide. They began with a reliance on the fundamentals that made us a successful team to begin with, and we didn't desert them in a crisis. They began with a single good play, and a certainty that one good play would lead to another and another and another until the deficit was gone and the game was won.
The most important thing I did in the course of those comebacks was to build my players' self- esteem. Don't tear them down for the mistakes that got the team in those holes to begin with; build them up to the point where they felt capable of making the plays that would result in victory.

When people feel extraordinary, you get extraordinary
results. When people feel ordinary, you get ordinary
results.

I'm not talking about false patronage; don't tell little Johnny he's going to be president when he's not doing well in the classroom. They have to deserve it -- and when they do deserve it, you have to reinforce it in stressful times.
There have been times when I've not been as positive with my teams during games. I have succumbed to the frustration of the moment and filled the huddle with negative energy, telling them, "This is what you deserve because you practiced poorly." There certainly is a time for constructive criticism and even an outright tail chewing, but it's generally not when you're trying to rally people to redouble their efforts and perform at a higher level. That deprives your team of the hope that it can come back in adverse situations.
When it comes to team dynamics -- on a basketball court or in a corporate setting -- maintaining a positive atmosphere is crucial.
The most positive basketball team I've been around was in the 1986-87 season at Providence College. We played an excellent Georgetown team four times that season. We won the first game at home -- a game where I almost got into a heated verbal altercation on the sidelines with the great coach of the Hoyas, John Thompson. Afterward Big John, a glowering, six-foot-ten Providence alum, draped an arm around my shoulders and said, "I'm proud of what you're doing with my alma mater. But when you come to D.C., we're going to kick your ass."
Big John was true to his word. His team not only killed us at home, but did it again in the Big East Conference tournament.
After that game, I tried to stay as positive as possible with our team going into Selection Sunday, when the NCAA tournament bracket is unveiled. I told my players, "Let's enjoy this experience, work hard, and see what we accomplish. The only team that has our number is Georgetown, and we won't see them again."
Sure enough, the bracket was released and we were in the same region as Georgetown. If both of us won our first three games, we'd meet in the regional final for the chance to go to the Final Four. Still, that seemed like a long shot for us. But lo and behold, we won our first three games and squared off with the Hoyas for a fourth time. Before that game, I poured on the positive energy. I told our players, "In every great achievement, you need some luck. And you guys are the luckiest bunch I've ever seen. The one thing you'd want is to play a team that will take you lightly, and that's Georgetown. You have the biggest psychological advantage of all time."
We also went to work tactically for that game, completely changing our offense from shooting three-pointers on the perimeter to attacking the basket. It worked. We shocked the Hoyas and won easily, advancing to the Final Four to highlight a fairytale season.
Current University of Florida coach Billy Donovan was the best player on that Providence College team. Years later, Billy asked me whether I really believed that pep talk about how lucky the team was to draw Georgetown again. "Absolutely not," I told him, laughing, but when you're trying to overcome an obstacle, sometimes that's what it takes. Being relentlessly positive can be the only way to come back and defeat towering negativity.
In recent years, I've had to apply those same comeback fundamentals to adversities greater than anything encountered in a single basketball game. In about eight months, from January 8 to September 11, 2001, I was hit with a series of setbacks far more difficult to overcome than a 31-point deficit in Baton Rouge.
During that time I resigned as coach of the Boston Celtics -- my first professional failure -- and then I lost two brothers-in-law to sudden death in New York City. One was hit by a taxi, and the other, my dearest friend, was killed in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. This combination of events left me with some questions to answer and choices to make: After so many years of success, would I let that failure with the Celtics define me? Or would I learn from it and become a better coach? Would I stew in bitterness over the senseless deaths of Don Vogt and Billy Minardi? Or would I gain a new perspective and appreciation for life?
I had to make a two-pronged comeback: one in my professional life and one in my personal life. Chances are good that at some point in time, you'll have to do the same. Nobody goes through life without setbacks and struggles, some of them significant enough to cause you to doubt everything you believe in. You might be fired. You might face serious illness for you or your family. You might have a major financial setback, face an ethical dilemma, or find yourself starting over later in life. You might see a lifetime goal disintegrate, leaving you in a place you never imagined when plotting out your career path.
Will you have a gameplan in place to make your comeback?
You should, because the comeback is a classic American trait: We are a second-chance people. The story of the United States was not written by people who were handed everything. It was written by people reinventing their lives after encountering adversity -- by immigrants and cast-offs from foreign lands who took a leap of faith to make a new start in a new land.
After my job ended with the Celtics, I had to pull myself out of a crater by rediscovering what I call my PHD -- my passion, my hunger, and my drive. I had to quit beating up on myself and elevate the self-esteem that I always have tried to keep so high in my players. It was time for me to coach myself.
It took weeks of reflection, but I eventually got through to myself. When I decided to return to college coaching and got my current job at Louisville, I had repaired and prepared my psyche.
I was ready to make a comeback -- but the tragic deaths provided another hurdle in the midst of making that comeback. This time I had to think more than usual about other people -- how to help my family deal with these losses and how to help those who had lost a husband and a father. I had to step outside myself.
As difficult as it was going through those things, I've emerged as a wiser and happier person. I wouldn't wish some of those moments on anyone, but they've been learning experiences that will shape the later stages of my career and my life after basketball. My perspective now is totally different. Basketball is my passion, but not my life. Helping my players, family members, and friends achieve happiness counts more than the final score of any game.
I'm still enjoying what I do immensely and my energy to work remains extremely high -- but there is a greater balance at the end of the day.
There are plenty of books about succeeding in life and in business, but there aren't a lot of books that tell you how to prepare and execute a different strategy if your original path doesn't lead to the end of the rainbow. Rebound Rules will help you make your own comeback. It delves into the insidious nature of self-doubt, and tells you how to combat it by facing your fears and failures and learning from them. It explores the emotional trauma of tragedy, how it can affect your life, and how you can eventually overcome it and gain a new perspective. It details the personal fundamentals that can be relied upon daily to help you get through those difficult times. It examines the painstaking rally we must make to achieve greatness without shortcuts; living the "practice-makes- perfect" credo. It discloses the dangers inherent once greatness is achieved -- complacency, grandiosity, and a blurred focus -- and how to combat them. It explains the poise and confidence needed to keep your long-range goals intact in an accelerated world, where impatient pursuit of a quick fix can turn temporary setbacks into major setbacks.
This book proposes how to turn new challenges into new methods of success, while also improving our old methods. It shows the necessity of identifying great talent, surrounding yourself with it, fostering its growth, and using it as a support system in tough times. It probes the formula for great chemistry within an organization -- and finds ways to prevent a rogue element from ruining that chemistry. It promotes a different means for calculating your net worth -- your net worth to others, that is, not to your company's bottom line. It presents a means for rejuvenating yourself on the cusp of retirement by finding a fresh set of challenges to undertake. And once you reached a career's end, having survived all the ups and downs that can be encountered in a life's work, it provides a game plan for your final act, how to make it your greatest act yet.
Being confronted with adversity -- in sports, in business, in any walk of life -- can happen more often than anyone wants to admit. It will test you in ways most of us have never contemplated. Having a plan to deal with it can make your comeback a great one.
From the book "Rebound Rules: The Art of Success 2.0," by Rick Pitino with Pat Forde. It is published by HarperCollins and available at bookstores nationwide and online.

Conditioning at a Higher Level

Ryan takes Badgers' conditioning to higher level

By Dana O'Neil
MADISON, Wis. -- Bo Ryan can never work in Nebraska. The current Wisconsin coach also can't call the courts in Kansas home. Nix the Dakotas, too.
Just count out all the plain states.
No hills, no Bo. That simple.

More than 20 years ago, Ryan was an assistant at Wisconsin, watching his players run the steps at Camp Randall Stadium for conditioning. By the end of the season, virtually all of the Badgers complained of gimpy knees and sore backs.
Ryan got the ear of a track coach who told him that many top international track and field teams -- particularly those in Cuba and Russia -- had changed their training programs.
"They were running across hills or just running hills," Ryan said. "It got me to thinking."
And so a sadistic plan was hatched.
"Running the hill" is now a Ryan tradition, a preseason conditioning drill in which players gradually increase their trips to the summit, ending at 20 per session by the time official practices begin.

In each of his head-coaching stops -- from Platteville to Milwaukee to Madison -- Ryan has made finding a perfect hill one of his first pieces of business. He sends an assistant out in search of a spot in town that has just the right elevation to make a player adequately miserable.
For the past seven years, Elver Park has been the torture site of choice for the Badgers. The hill more closely resembles a bunny ski slope, arcing upwards for about 120 yards (Ryan had the engineering students at Platteville plot the angle of the hill there -- 11 degrees -- but hasn't enticed any UW students yet).
But on this bunny slope, there are no tow ropes or chair lifts. Just sneakers, tired legs and ruts worn into the hill over time.

"It's awful," senior Joe Krabbenhoft said. "Coach brought a recruit out recently. I was like, 'What are you doing? You don't want him to know we do this. He'll never come here.'"
On this particular Monday in September, the Badgers were in for 16 trips up the hill. The thermometer pushed to an uncharacteristically toasty 80 degrees as the players poured out of the white vans that carted them to the park from campus.
All around them, happy people ran leisurely or sat at picnic tables. A few students showed up to play the disc golf course that zigzags the hill.

His team doesn't return to campus until every player has completed his trips.The players assembled, looking somewhere on the far side of happy.
"It's tougher mentally than it is physically," Krabbenhoft said. "And it's so tough physically, so that tells you something."
To guarantee safety, Ryan has his athletic trainer, Henry Perez-Guerra, check the heat index. Based on that, Perez-Guerra will determine how much of a breather the players get between trips.

Each player also wears a heart monitor, and his heart rate is checked on every trip by another member of the training staff positioned midway up the hill with a computer.
Ryan is the winner of the ultimate game of king of the hill, standing in the breeze in a wind shirt and pants with a stopwatch as his players trudge toward him. The Badgers run in groups by position, and Ryan announces each group's split as they ascend the hill.
"I think it gets harder as you get older,'' senior Marcus Landry said. "When you're a freshman, it's all adrenaline. You're trying to prove a point to Coach. When you're established, it's not that you don't need to prove a point, but there's not that pressure.''
The guards breeze up the hill, barely panting. The forwards lumber steadily and the big men, well, the big men make it.

No one gets back into the vans until the last person has completed his trips.
"This is what it's about as much as anything -- team building," Ryan said. "There are times, especially early, when guys are really struggling and the other guys will run with them to make sure they finish."
As Ryan spoke, 6-foot-11 sophomore J.P. Gavinski slowly made his way to the top.
"How you doing, J.P.?" Ryan asked.
"Just great, Coach," Gavinski replied as he bent over, hands on knees.
And then he turned and trudged back to the bottom.
He had four more trips to go.

Good Coaches Get Players Into Games

by Jim Thompson

Download and print a PDF version of this article

Playing time is probably the biggest source of frustration and anger among sports parents, which is saying a lot.

An Unarguable Point
Kids love to play. They don’t like to sit on the bench. Moreover, most of the benefits of playing a sport are tied to competing in games. Kids who sit benefit less from sports than kids who play. I don’t see how anyone can argue with this.

Good Coaches Get Kids into Games
It is a tenet of good coaching that you get kids into games! Period. Whether there are any external rules for minimum playing time or not. Whether it is at the high school or highly competitive travel team level or not.

Good coaches get kids into games! They may be creative about how they get kids into games in high-stakes situations, because Double-Goal Coaches® do want to win. But good coaches—Double-Goal Coaches—get kids into games! Have I made myself clear?

The Mad Dogs
A creative idea for getting kids into games came from an Ohio high school basketball coach who took his bottom 8–12 players and termed them the “Mad Dogs.” The Mad Dogs knew they would play the last minute of the first quarter and the first minute of the second quarter in EVERY game, whether preseason or the state title game. This accomplished a number of things:

• Unlike typical bench players, the Mad Dogs worked extremely hard in practice because they wanted to be ready for their moment. This pushed the starters to play harder, which benefited the team on the scoreboard.

• They played all out during their two minutes. They were all over the court and had no hesitation about being highly aggressive. Over time, the coach told me, they became a competitive advantage, with the team being in a better competitive position after the Mad Dogs exited the game than before they entered.

• Some of the Mad Dogs became starters. The self-confidence they developed helped them develop a sense of possibility of themselves as starters! And when an individual latches onto a sense of possibility, watch out!

The Utility of Blowout Games
Good coaches use blowout games to get kids into games, but they do so BEFORE the game becomes a blowout. Good coaches recognize a mismatch coming up and start kids who normally don’t start. If that puts their team in a competitive disadvantage, so much the better for the starters to come into the game behind, having to work hard to catch up. If the blowout is a blowout even with the subs starting, at least the subs know they played when the game was still at stake.

Coaching for Effort
A word about the primacy of effort: If there were only one life lesson from sports it should be that hard work is a key to success. I once coined the “equation,” S=E/T, Success comes from Effort over Time, and drilled it into my players every day. We might not win today, but if we give it our best effort, sooner or later, we’ll be successful.

Good coaches in high-stakes situations should reward effort as much as talent. Tell kids that effort will be rewarded and then reward high-effort players with playing time, independent of ability. The message to a team when a weaker player who gives it her all gets into games on a regular basis is impossible to overstate.

Weaker players realize that they can get into games if they work hard. They don’t have to be as good as the best players on the team, they just have to outwork them! This is incredibly motivating to your weaker players.

And it is a wake-up call for your stronger players who will find their playing time limited if they don't up their effort level.

What’s a Parent To Do?
What is a parent to do when your child does NOT have a good coach who gets kids into games?

1) Check out the ground rules. Are there any playing time rules in this program? If not, go to the leadership of the program to propose this.

2) Check it out with your child. Is your son upset by not playing? Ask him how he feels about this. Whatever you do, don’t exclude him from the process and complain to the coach without consulting your child.

3) Cut out the middleman (that’s you!). Instead of talking to the coach, encourage your child to approach the coach. Parents complaining to coaches about their child’s playing time rarely has good results. On the other hand, coaches almost always respond well to a player who comes to them saying, “Coach, I’d like to play more. What can I do to get more playing time?”

4) Find out your options. Is there another program (perhaps one affiliated with Positive Coaching Alliance) that recognizes the importance of playing time for every athlete? If all else fails, and your kid is still sitting on the bench all the time, vote with your feet. Take your child to a better program.

A Final Thought
Coaches of selective teams where playing time is not guaranteed need to be clear about this. Much negativity results from parents being disappointed when their (perhaps unrealistic)expectations about their child’s playing time are not met.

Coaches, be absolutely clear at the beginning. Tell parents and players what they can expect in terms of playing time before they sign on to the team. If you are not going to get kids in the game unless you are confident they will contribute to a win on the scoreboard, say that at the beginning. It will save you a lot of grief down the road.

"It's the Little Things"

Here is a great article from a fellow blogger, Steve Finamore who is the head men's basketball coach at Jackson Community College in Jackson, Michigan. He also has a couple great blogs called, "Coaches Network", for coaches and "Play the Right Way", which is focused on player development on and off the court. The blogs can be found here, http://hoopscoach.wordpress.com/ and http://playerdevelopment.wordpress.com/

Swartz Creek -- Steve Finamore is officially back.

The second-year head coach at Jackson Community College was the most energetic guy in the building at Steve Bell's 2008 Bankhoops mini-camp on Sunday at the Cage in Swartz Creek.

(And, considering Holly's coach, Lance Baylis, was also in the building working a drill station, that's really saying something.)

Amazing, of course, when you consider that the only evidence left of Finamore's recent brush with death is a black neoprene brace on his right knee.

Last November, a few games into his first season at the helm of the fledging hoops program at Jackson, Finamore (pictured left) was struck by a car while walking in downtown Jackson. A driver ran a red light and was hit by a car going through the intersection before smashing into Finamore.

He was on the shelf for several weeks including a stint in the hospital.

But, for Finamore, being away from the gym and unable to coach the Jets added to the pain of recovery.

After working his drill station for two hours, Finamore spoke more than 100 high school students about taking basketball seriously. He spoke with great authority about the game, pacing around the floor almost as if he was searching for a pulpit. His presentation was a cross between a young Billy Graham and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

No one takes basketball more seriously than Finamore, it quickly became clear.

"(Basketball) has to matter to you," said Finamore, a Brooklyn-born former student assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State. "You've got to ask yourself, does this matter to me? Do I give a damn? Am I wasting my time? Do I love basketball? It has to matter to you. If it doesn't, you should go play another sport. Don't waste your time; don't waste your parents' money...if you're a serious basketball player, you come here and work your ass off...it's the little things that make you a better player."

He was shooting straight from the hip, as only he can.

"Potential is interesting, it really is," he said. "It's nice to see your name on Mr. Bell's website...but you know what, your performance is more important than that. Don't worry about that stuff. The number one player in Michigan (Trey Ziegler, Mt. Pleasant) is here today. He's a great player; but, he's here working on his game...he's number one, he can't go any higher, right? He could rest on that...but, no, he comes down here and works on his game...and he's going to make someone's day special and they're going to go home and say that they played with the best player in the state.

"Where are the second, third, fourth and fifth best players in the state? They should be here working on their games, too."

He continued his speech, telling the players that coaches will notice them if they pay due diligence to the little things; the things that Bell's camp is known for emphasizing -- defensive positioning, footwork, body control and all the rest.

And, in what must have been the first basketball-related homage to the Wizard of Oz (and "flying monkeys"), Finamore closed out his talk with the famous story of imperfect people searching for something they already had inside.

"They were all looking for something, like you are," he said. "You guys want to go to college. But let me tell you something: they all had it inside them all along...they just needed someone to tell them.

"Be coachable. Take criticism...be a great team player; love the game; respect the game and be a great person on top of all that."

Welcome back, Coach.