Grad School

I have recently started my Masters Degree in the Human Development Program at Saint Mary's University.  One of the main things that attracted me to this program was the ability to design some of my own courses.  My main focus is Social Media and Technology and how they are used primarily, but not entirely in the field of athletics.  As a college coach, our audience and the students we recruit are getting information in a much different fashion that people did even 5-10 years ago.

One of my courses will be maintaining and updating a blog 3X per week.  My goal is to make this a resource with things relating to technology and social media, but also other things that are happening in the world of athletics, motivation, etc.  For example, one of my classes I will be looking at the Big Ten and SEC, a Division 2 conference, as well as a Division 3 conference as if I was a prospective student.  The only information I will be using is anything that can be obtained online.  Examples would be school website, facebook, twitter accounts of coaches and the general athletic department, YouTube.

I will try to post some of the better ideas and things I find that schools are doing.

Dream Team

For those of you who do not have NBATV and were unable to watch The Dream Team documentary on Wednesday (June 13, 2012), here it is in its entirety. 

Favorite parts:

* John Stockton getting off the team bus and walking through the crowds unnoticed
* "Don't ever drink beer with Larry Bird" - Charles Barkley

Click HERE to watch the video bigger

Bear Bryant

The following piece is written by Paul "Bear" Bryant and speaks to the fact that in many phases of our job (especially recruiting) and our lives, there are no little things:

I had just been named the new head coach at Alabama and was off in my old car down in South Alabama recruiting a prospect who was supposed to have been a pretty good player and I was havin’ trouble finding the place. Getting hungry I spied an old cinder block building with a small sign out front that simply said, “Restaurant.” I pull up, go in and every head in the place turns to stare at me. Seems I’m the only white ‘fella’ in the place. But the food smelled good so I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit. A big ole man in a t-shirt and cap comes over and says, “What do you need?” I told him I needed lunch and what did they have today? He says, “You probably won’t like it here, today we’re having chitlins, collared greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I’ll bet you don’t even know what chitlins are, do you?” I looked him square in the eye and said, “I’m from Arkansas, I’ve probably eaten a mile of them. Sounds like I’m in the right place.” They all smiled as he left to serve me up a big plate. When he comes back he says, “You ain’t from around here then?” And I explain that I’m the new football coach in Tuscaloosa at the University and I’m here to find whatever the boy’s name was and he gives me directions to the school so I can meet him and his coach. As I’m paying up to leave, I remember my manners and leave a tip, not too big to be flashy, but a good one and he told me lunch was on him, but I told him for a lunch that good, I felt I should pay.

The big man asked me if I had a photograph or something he could hang up to show that I’d been there. I was so new that I didn’t have any yet. It really wasn’t that big of a thing back then to be asked for, but I took a napkin and wrote his name and address on it and told him I’d get him one.

I met the kid I was lookin’ for later that afternoon and I don’t remember his name, but do remember I didn’t think much of him when I met him. I had wasted a day, or so I thought.

When I got back to Tuscaloosa late that night, I took that napkin from my shirt pocket and put it under my keys so I wouldn’t forget it. Heck, back then I was excited that anybody would want a picture of me. And the next day we found a picture and I wrote on it, “Thanks for the best lunch I’ve ever had, Paul Bear Bryant.”

Now let’s go a whole ‘buncha’ years down the road. Now we have black players at Alabama and I’m back down in that part of the country scouting an offensive lineman we sure needed. He’s got two friends going to Auburn and he tells me he’s got his heart set on Auburn too, so I leave empty handed and go on to see some others while I’m down there. Two days later, I’m in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and it’s this kid who just turned me down, and he says, “Coach, do you still want me at Alabama?” And I said, “Yes I sure do.” And he says o.k. He’ll come. So I say, “Well son, what changed your mind?” And he said, “When my Grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and said no, he pitched a fit and told me I wasn’t going nowhere but Alabama, and wasn’t playing for nobody but you. He thinks a lot of you and has ever since ya’ll met.” Well, I didn’t know his granddad from Adam’s house cat so I asked him who his granddaddy was and he said, “You probably don’t remember him, but you ate in his restaurant your first year at Alabama and you sent him a picture that he’s had hung in that place ever since. That picture’s his pride and joy and he still tells everybody about the day that Bear Bryant came in and had chitlins with him. My grandpa said that when you left there, he never expected you to send that picture to him, but you kept your word, and to Grandpa, that’s everything. He said you could teach me more than football and I had to play for a man like you, so I guess I’m going to.”

I was floored. But I learned that the lessons my mamma taught me were always right. It don’t cost nuthin’ to be nice. It don’t cost nuthin’ to do the right thing most of the time and it costs a lot to lose your good name by breakin’ your word to someone. When I went back to sign that boy, I looked up his Grandpa and he’s still running that place, but it looks a lot better now; and he didn’t have chitlins that day, but he had some ribs that would’ made Dreamland proud and I made sure I posed for a lot of pictures; and don’t think I didn’t leave some new ones for him too, along with a signed football. I made it clear to all my assistants to keep this story and these lessons in mind when they’re out on the road. And if you remember anything else from me, remember this – it really doesn’t cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable.

NYC Hoops

I recently took at trip to New York City with my wife for a mini vacation.  In our journey through the city we came across the West 4th Street Courts, otherwise known as "The Cage". 

"The Cage" has become one of the most important tournament sites for the city-wide "Streetball" amateur basketball tournament, and is noted for its non-regulation size. Because it is so small, more emphasis is given to "banging inside," or tough physical play. Usually the sidelines are simply ignored during play.

Numerous national commercials have been shot at The Cage.

Former NBA players Anthony Mason and Smush Parker are some of the nationally recognized ballplayers to learn their tough style of play from The Cage.

The West 4th Street League, founded by a limousine driver named Kenny Graham, has carved its own place in asphalt history. Among the notables who have filled the Cage are Dr. J, Walter Berry, and Jayson Williams. Anthony Mason's Prime Time squad won five titles in the early 1990s. West 4th Street officials estimate that their league attracts more than 100,000 spectators each summer, numbers that Rucker Park rivaled only in its heyday during the late 1960s and early 1970s. West 4th's talent is big, but the court's too small to contain all the flying elbows. To some tourists, this may look like a steel-cage wrestling match. "If you don't like a physical brand of basketball," says A-Train, "stay away from West 4th."

Anytime I have been in New York City, I always make a point to go by Madison Square Garden (The Mecca, The World's Most Famous Arena).  Just a special feeling being near that building.  So many great sports moments have happened there, anyone who is anyone is music has performed there, and then the Theatre at MSG which hosts the NBA Draft and hosted the NFL Draft until 2005.  It is the 3rd busiest arena in the world. 

New York City never disappoints.  See a Broadway show if the opportunity ever presents itself.  Talk about talent.  Wow. 
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College Basketball Transfers

Here is an article floating around from the Washington Post

"College basketball transfers linked ‘play me now’ culture" 

By Mark Giannotto, Published: April 21The Washington Post

 

Not long after Virginia was beaten soundly by Florida in the NCAA tournament last month, Coach Tony Bennett asked an assistant to compile a list that since has consumed the assistant’s offseason. It features every player in major college basketball who is currently seeking a transfer, and it hasn’t stopped growing.

As of Tuesday it contained more than 390 names. That’s good news, because Bennett is in the market for transfers after four of the six players from his first recruiting class at Virginia have departed over the past two seasons in search of more playing time. But even as he tries to replenish his own roster, Bennett is part of a growing group of coaches concerned that roster turnover is out of control.

“It’s an epidemic, without a doubt,” said Bennett. “I think players have always been anxious to play, I really do. But when they thought, ‘I don’t know if this is the right place,’ the advice was always ‘Wait your turn. Stay put.’ But the times of waiting and being patient, well, it’s a different time.”

In recent years, the NCAA itself has made it easier to transfer by allowing more exemptions to traditional rules that forced transfers to sit out a season after moving to another Division I school. More players have been given waivers to compete right away if they transfer to be closer to home or an ailing family member.

Former Connecticut big man Alex Oriakhi likely will not have to sit out a year after transferring to Missouri this month because of academic sanctions that will prevent the Huskies from qualifying for the NCAA tournament next season.

But many point to the AAU basketball culture in which today’s college basketball player is raised.

“They don’t like their high school situation, they transfer. They aren’t happy with their AAU team, they transfer,” said ESPN senior recruiting analyst Dave Telep, who has covered the AAU scene for more than 15 years. “There’s so many opportunities for them to go to the next best thing that they’re never held accountable, they never fight through any adversity. And what do we expect when they get to college and things get rough? They do exactly what they’ve been taught to do: transfer.

“We see it on the floor. We see it in their play.”

TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE CLICK HERE

Here is the most recent list from CBS College Hoops Insider Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanCBS on Twitter)

350+

CLICK HERE FOR TRANSFER LIST

Homecoming: Mourning Returns to GU

Probably my most favorite clip from the show Homecoming with Rick Reilly on ESPN

Ray Lewis NIT speech

Ray Lewis spoke to the Stanford Men's Basketball team prior to their N.I.T. game in New York.  Real Talk from Ray in this one.  Tough to not be jacked up and ready to go after Ray Lewis was in your locker room.