I shared the notes from the Coaching U LIVE clinic here last week and hope to share the notes from this one as they become available. Sadly, I did not attend. I truly hope to one day. Invite only clinics and clinics that have the focus this one does are the best. Back in the late 80′s and early 90′s a group of us used to hand out assignments: BOB’s, P & R Defense, Specialty Plays, Late Game, etc…, convene at the Final Four, meet in an empty room and go. It was truly awesome. Each person was responsible for bringing in enough copies of written material for the group. Each coach had about an hour, with time for Q & A after. Sadly, that disintegrated.
The “recruiting” aspect of the Final Four… college guys hanging with AAU guys to solidify the relationship for X player took over and the time for X’s & O’s was prioritized out of the equation. Everyone said, “We have to do that again.” It never happens.
Kudos to Coach Shyatt and the Florida staff for keeping it alive and growing the game in a way outside of recruiting. As they said, the reason why many of us got into it in the first place.
This was a good article on what the clinic is truly all about.
From Gary Parrish…
First thing Monday morning, and Larry Shyatt is standing on the men’s court inside the Florida basketball practice facility, welcoming those who have assembled on this SEC campus to talk hoops in what feels like a genuine and pure environment. There is nothing glamorous here. A white board on the court, folding chairs lining a baseline and sideline, and little more. The room is filled with everybody from future Hall of Famers to junior college coaches, and Shyatt, Billy Donovan’s associate head coach at Florida, has just one instruction before turning things over to Butler’s Brad Stevens.
Matt Painter shares information about the motion offense he has perfected over at Purdue. (Courtesy: Gary Parrish)
“No holding back,” Shyatt said. “If you’re not willing to share, this is not for you.”
What happened next was nice to witness.
The subsequent 14 hours featured one speaker after another — Stevens, NBA icon Del Harris, Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon, Boston Celtics assistant Kevin Eastman, etc., — talking about a variety of subjects, exchanging ideas, discussing, debating and thoroughly enjoying a two-day clinic Shyatt created years ago that continues today thanks to the support of Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and the willingness of those invited to make time to attend. They talked about transition defense and motion offense, about mental toughness and proper shooting techniques. They talked about how to deal with certain situations in the media, how to handle players who won’t work, what to do with student-athletes’ sometimes embarrassing addiction to Facebook and Twitter, and then they went to bed, awoke early Tuesday, and did it all again.
Continue Reading…
Posted 10 hours, 52 minutes ago at 5:56 AM. Add a comment
I really enjoy stories of perseverance…
Steve Megargee
Rivals.com College Basketball
With the confidence of a coach and the passion of a preacher, Zach Lipson has spent much of his teenage years telling anyone he meets about his plans to join one of the nation’s elite college basketball programs.
It didn’t matter to him that he’d never played a minute of organized hoops. Or that he stood little chance of ever being more than 4 feet tall. He still gave the same speech to just about everyone he met, whether he was chatting at a dinner table full of strangers or sitting across from a skeptical guidance counselor.
He was born with a spinal deformity, so he already had overcome long odds. What was to stop this Nashville resident from proving people wrong once again?
Zachary Lipson's passion has him headed to Kentucky as part of the basketball program.
Lipson’s story proved inspirational enough to earn him a spot as a student-manager at Kentucky. He is expected to live at Wildcat Lodge – the same building that houses the players.
That represents a stunning turn of events for someone who has overcome more obstacles in his 19 years than most people face in their lives.
Lipson was born eight weeks premature and weighed less than 2 pounds. He required CPR in the delivery room. He has undergone more than 30 surgeries. And if that weren’t enough to make him curse fate, Lipson also has a twin brother who is healthy. Lipson doesn’t need to wonder what might have been: He has a walking reminder in his home.
Lipson has resisted the temptation of self-pity. He instead has faced every challenge with the same upbeat approach that has helped him serve as an inspiration to friends, family members and classmates. Kentucky’s latest recruit won’t develop into the next Tony Delk, but he just might become the next Tony Robbins.
“It’s an amazing story, pretty incredible,”Lipson acknowledged. “Whenever you have a goal in life, there are always going to be some obstacles that try to stop you. There will be people who try to tell you, ‘No, you can’t do it.’ But you can’t let it beat you down.”
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Posted 6 days, 11 hours ago at 5:03 AM. 1 comment
Traded by Knicks, Lee Was Still a Team Player
By HARVEY ARATON
When Marni Jaffer was about to deliver her husband’s eulogy to a crowd of 300-plus mourners, she noticed a familiar face rising above the others in the back of the funeral chapel. She had never met the man, but she recognized him from her television screen.
It was David Lee, formerly of theKnicks.
David Lee with Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni. Despite being sent to Golden State, Lee attended the funeral of a Garden security official.
“I thought it was wonderful that he came,” Jaffer said. “And it also struck me how he stayed in the back, paying his respects quietly, not wanting to have people say, ‘Oh, it’s David Lee,’ and intrude on my husband’s moment.”
The funeral for Scott Jaffer, a longtime N.B.A. security official whose primary post was Madison Square Garden,was held July 11. Lee had been in St. Louis, his hometown, after being dealt by the Knicks to the Golden State Warriors in a sign-and-trade transaction that was announced soon after LeBron James’s all-about-me ESPN extravaganza.
Expected back in New York the next week for a basketball camp, Lee was stunned to hear that Jaffer, 63, had died.
“The guy took care of our security stuff, drug testing, things like that,” Lee said in a telephone interview. “He couldn’t do enough for us, joked with us every night, and it turned out he had cancer for three years and not one of us knew about it.”
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Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago at 5:10 AM. Add a comment
Most of you know, remember or have a story about Vera Jones… the Flying V! A caring a funny lady that you don’t easily forget. My stories and memories all stem from both our time on the road with the New York Liberty.
Vera Jones
We need to support Vera in her attempt to continue to “Play Through the Foul,” (as her book suggests). This really isn’t about Vera’s attempt to garner her own talk show… though after spending several years with Vera while she broadcast New York Liberty games, I have to vouch for her gift. She is a talented broadcaster, a funny, funny lady and a great person. A talk show featuring Vera would, no doubt, be both inspirational and entertaining.
No, this is about Vera only child Andrew. Andrew is 12 and a short time ago he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Andrew underwent many hours of surgery and came out of it alive, but having lost 3/4 of his sight. She and Andrew were immediately handed the greatest “foul” of thier lives.
As Vera’s book says…”Play Through the Foul,” she has taught her young son… “it’s not how much you can see, but who you are meant to be.” Well go ahead V… do your thing!
If that means Vera is meant to host her own TV talk show… Great! We can help her by voting for her audition tape here.
VERA JONES AUDITION.
… and lending her our thoughts and prayers for Andrew’s complete recovery.
Follow the above link, watch V’s audition and vote to help her realize her dream. Good Luck Vera!
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago at 5:10 AM. Add a comment
Coach Bob Starkey always shares so many good things with us on @LSUCoachStarkey. Here’s yet another… Safe travels this July coach.
http://bit.ly/cb4CBh
Kids who fantasize about playing in The Show dream of batting .350, hitting 75 home runs, throwing a no-hitter, or getting the game-winning hit in the seventh game of the World Series. Not many kids go to the ballpark and dream of having a good at-bat or an excellent workout in the bullpen. Yet it is learning how to readjust smaller goals that makes the mighty dreams possible. The best professional players discover that goal-setting is about taking charge of those elements a player can control. A player cannot control whether he hits .350, but he can control whether he has a good at-bat and swings at pitches he can drive. A pitcher cannot control whether a batter gets jammed and bloops a hit, but he can control whether he puts in effective work in the bullpen and whether he maintains his concentration on the mound.
“Numbers—I never look at them. I don’t like them,” shortstop Nomar Garciaparra told Baseball Weekly’s Seth Livingstone. In September 1980, Kansas City’s George Brett got the baseball world buzzing with the possibility of his reaching .400 for the first time since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. The Royals were in a pennant race, and Brett was hitting to win. “Every time up, I was just trying to give out club the kind of at-bat the situation called for,” Brett said. But the night we wrapped up our division, I thought, ‘Hey, I’m close enough. I’m going to go for it. I didn’t have to try to hit .400.’ That was the day things fell apart. I didn’t have many good at-bats when I started concentrating on getting hits.”
Focusing on the job at hand, and on the elements that a player can control, leads to reaching the great goals. Reaching then excelling, in these individual points builds a player’s confidence. The secret is the specifics: do the individual elements correctly and they will lead to greater achievement. The individual, specific goals—journey goals—are what lead to reaching the highest goals—destination goals. Only be mastering the journey goals can you reach the destination.
From Mental Toughness: Baseball’s Winning Edge
by Karl Kuehl, John Kuehl, and Casey Tefertiller
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 5:56 AM. 1 comment
