Link for the U of A Newsletter – September 2010.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA NEWSLETTER  SEPTEMBER 2010

To join the newsletter list please email UA Basketball Assistant Director of Basketball Operations Jeff Feld at feld@arizona.edu to be added to the list. or visit our website each month for a copy.

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.

Florida clinic not your usual coaches camp — thankfully

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.

This was not about getting an all-expense paid trip to Florida to visit the beach, enjoy Disney World, play golf, gamble in a casino, or hit the hottest nightspot. Time (and energy) permitting, maybe some enjoyed a couple of beers with colleagues at the Ale House near the hotel one night, but that’s it. This invitation-only event was and always has been exclusively about basketball for guys who describe themselves as basketball junkies. There is no recruiting or public relations advantage to be gained. Just knowledge, if you’re willing to take it.

“A lot of the coaching clinics have you talking to high school coaches and junior college coaches, and even though you’re teaching the game and giving something back to the game, what you’re really doing is recruiting and public relations,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter, who spent nearly two hours Tuesday talking about the motion offense he learned as a kid growing up in Indiana and has darn-near perfected as a rising star in the Big Ten. “But this clinic is different. It’s just an exchange of ideas — coaches passing knowledge back and forth and trying to help each other, and I think that’s what’s great. This is what you get in it for, to coach and have fun and get better and help other guys get better.”

Sadly, there are a diminishing number of opportunities for such. Like Painter pointed out, many coaching clinics these days are run — either officially or unofficially — by summer coaches or other figures connected to prospects as a money-making endeavor. (I (Parrish) wrote about one such event last year.) They’re mostly built around a guy who invites every college coach recruiting his top prospect to speak at his clinic, then turns around and charges high school coaches — and anybody else who wants to watch stars of the sport in an intimate setting — hundreds of dollars to attend the clinic.

Will accepting an invitation to speak guarantee you the prospect?

Of course not.

But passing on the invitation will almost certainly eliminate you.

So coaches fly into various cities and stand in small gyms or meeting rooms and talk about whatever, and the person or people in charge get a nice little payday. That’s a typical coaching clinic in the year 2010 (though, it should be noted, the NCAA is trying to eliminate the practice, and the Basketball Focus Group actually caused the cancellation of at least one such clinic this spring.)

I tell you all that to tell you this: Shyatt’s clinic is different.

In fact, he actually invited NCAA enforcement director LuAnn Humphrey to speak.

She did so Monday night.

“The opportunities to do this are rare, but the interest and intent is not,” said former Georgia coach Dennis Felton, a longtime attendee. “People would be surprised to know that this is what basketball coaches are really like. Our image gets so skewed because of all the nonsense that goes on. But when it gets down to it, if we had our way we would just like to be basketball coaches and leaders and mentors.”

How frustrating is it that the sport no longer allows that at the highest level?

“Very frustrating,” Felton answered. “I’ve always estimated that the time we really spend on coaching is 10 percent. We get to spend such a tiny fraction of our time on actual basketball, and we spend all our other time trying to control all the other stuff, and that’s the stuff that’s the hardest to control.

“[College basketball] is in a bad state, but that’s why this clinic is good,” Felton added. “We all cherish the opportunity to spend all these hours over two days on development and on getting better. It’s a great time. It’s the best.”

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These thoughts can apply to any walk of life, any career, any program or organization.

Hope it is helpful as the journey begins for 2010 – 11.

Planning… Preparedness… Preparation…

• The time has come to RETHINK… RE-IMAGE… and RECALIBRATE what is possible, what is desirable, what is sustainable.  It’s time to RE-WRITE the rules.

• Someone outside your organization today knows how to answer your specific question, solve your specific problem or take advantage of your current opportunity better than you do.  You NEED to find them and find a way to work collaboratively and productively with them.

• Does EVERYONE who works with you understand were the organization is trying to go, what it is trying to accomplish and then determine what information, knowledge and insight are required?

• Failure to pay attention to paying attention is one of the top ten career killers.

• Are you curious?  We live in a world where just about everything is “KNOWABLE” for us to know, however, we must hunger to understand.

• REALITY! …  We are competing with EVERYONE, from EVERYWHERE, for EVERYTHING (Everyone has become a potential competitor or a potential ally.)

• The only way to win in the global marketplace is to “KNOW.” One of the highest values associated with business analytics is the ability to know your customers (recruits, players) – know what they want, when they want it, at what price and via what delivery process.

• The customer is boss… you can’t innovate without having a customer in mind.

• BAD TIMES are the best times to prepare for the GOOD TIMES.

• Competitiveness favors those who spot NEW FRIENDS and act on them expeditiously.

A printable copy is here.

This blog is all about inspiration.
We’re going to spend 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Atlantic Coast Conference. And then we’ll talk about how to make that even better…

What makes something a best practice? This isn’t about the most intricate experience. It’s about looking at the world from your consumer’s point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I’m treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let’s move.

It seems fitting that today is here. Yesterday, we covered the details at the bottom of a website (check what Duke does, here)… And today we will flip that around with the top navigation. Let’s move to the Maryland Athletics website, here. As you can see in the image below, they hit us front and center with a For Recruits header.
That’s where the magic happens.

First of all, let’s zoom into that menu, below:

Maryland Positions Twitter as a Recruiting Tool. We have long identified that Twitter offers the potential for prospective student athletes to stay in contact with coaches. But if you look at the majority of sites, they instead offer Twitter under “Fan Zone” or “Multimedia” or, maybe, “Social Media”. And I’m a believer that you identify your audience and speak to them. Maryland makes this very clear.

I clicked into Twitter, and come to Coach Gary Williams’ page, here. Coach Williams does a great job here – he’s up fairly often, and is conversational and relevant. Scroll through it and you’ll see he gives props to former players (Greivis Vasquez, Steve Blake, and Landon Milbourne recently) — signaling that he doesn’t forget you once you leave Maryland. Just solid all around.

How could this be better? Make this the first thing on the menu. Twitter crashed the recruits menu, the mission now is to move it to the first thing we see.

One thing Andrew doesn’t mention is that perhaps an even better use of this comes from “down the hall” at the Comcast Center… Brenda Frese and her staff have, arguably, the Nation’s #1 recruiting class in 2011 and 2012 may be equally as good.  There is no secret that Frese has long been known for her masterful art of recruiting and her staff is tremendous.

The custom UMD Women’s Basketball site (many schools are doing this now) is really, really good.

I follow many coaches “Tweets” out there and the primary difference between the ones flowing out of College Park and the rest is I don’t just here about:  “It’s a beautiful day in (you fill in the college town), or ” Heading to workouts, it’s a great day to be a (fill in mascot of your choice.)” and the best is “just had a great (fill in meal based on time of day) at (fill in local sub, pizza or food spot) AWESOME!”  Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty of that… every staff does that, it’s a given.  Follow Coach Frese on Twitter, you’ll get the idea.

I haven’t personally done a “Best of Twitter College Basketball Review,” maybe that is something that is out there.

Anyone with input and links to really good uses of Twitter forward them via comments section and we will share.

Real good entry on San Antonio Spurs defensive principles.

Bruce Bowen

Chances are, if you’re a regular reader of this blog you have a pretty good idea of what the San Antonio Spurs like to do, and avoid, on the defensive end of the floor.

But from time-to-time, I find it helpful to review things to keep them fresh in my head. And seeing as it’s mid-August and the NBA is on vacation, I thought we’d take a look at a couple of the bedrock principles of the Spurs’ defense.

Force guards away from the middle of the floor
It’s easy to boil it down to this: when the ball-handler gets to the middle and into the lane, bad things happen. This is because the offensive player has options. And the basic premises of defense are to limit the number of ways the offense can score and make it as hard as possible for them to do that.

When opposing guards get into the lane, they cause damage. They get good looks at the basket, find open teammates and draw fouls. A ball-handler in the middle of the lane usually has a better look at the basket than when forced towards the sideline or baseline. Additionally, he probably got past the defender guarding him en route to the lane. This means other defenders will have to rotate over to help on the ball-handler, leaving other offensive players open if the ball-handler can find them with a good pass.

In the play diagrammed below, Steve Nash got to the lane against the Spurs defense late in Game 2 of the teams’ Western Conference Semifinal series. The Suns had a eight point lead with about a minute left in the game. It’s a pretty significant advantage that late in the game, but not insurmountable. On the play, Nash used a pick at the top of the 3-point arc from Amar’e Stoudemire to get by George Hill and into the lane.

When Nash got into the lane, he had Hill on his right hip and a decent look at the basket. Almost every Spur on the floor had at least one foot in the lane and none were farther than two feet away.

Nash kicked the ball out to Jason Richardson, who blew past Manu Ginobili. Manu was a step outside the lane helping on Nash’s penetration and tried to closeout on Richardson, but Richardson got by him and hit the jumper at the elbow to finish off the game.

But it wasn’t all bad defensively against the Suns. Earlier in that same game, George Hill had a great defensive possession against Nash. The Suns point guard dribbled to the left wing and looked to get the ball in the post to Stoudemire, who was fronted by DeJuan Blair. Blair did a good job fronting Stoudemire, as he’s learned to do, and Nash was unable to get the ball in the post.

After determining he couldn’t get an entry pass into Stoudemire, Nash gave George Hill a quick shoulder fake toward the middle and went baseline. Hill stayed with Nash the whole time and rode him toward the baseline without needing help defense to come and stop the ball. Nash tried to find a teammate but stepped on the baseline before he got a pass off and turned the ball over.

Notice in the video of the play, Hill’s footwork. His body is angled with his back to the middle to encourage Nash to go baseline.

Do not give up the corner 3-pointer, otherwise you face the wrath of Coach Pop
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich’s next hard-and-fast rule on defense is to prevent the opponent from getting a corner 3. Coach Pop believes that the corner 3 is one of the most effective shots in basketball, which is why the Spurs look for so many corner 3′s on offense and try to prevent all of them on defense.

Luckily for Spurs fans, but not so much for me, it’s hard to find a video clip of San Antonio rotating improperly and allowing an open corner 3. However, Eddy Rivera from Magic Basketball had a great post this week about the 2/5 (or shooting guard and center) pick and roll play that Orlando uses. In that post, he had a video where the Atlanta Hawks make a rotation that would make Coach Pop’s blood boil.

Vince Carter brought the ball up-court for Orlando and Marcin Gortat came up to set a pick on Marvin Williams, who’s guarding Carter. Carter rubbed off the pick and attacked the basket. From the corner, Joe Johnson of the Hawks rotated over to stop Carter’s progress to the basket.

In doing so, Johnson left Mickael Pietrus, a 38% 3-point shooter last season, open in the corner. Carter takes the shot himself – because he’s Vince Carter – and makes it, but Pietrus would’ve been a good option.

Had the Spurs been the defensive team on this play, there would’ve been an immediate timeout called and, chances are, the guy who left Pietrus open wouldn’t have emerged from the huddle. You may remember last year a situation in which when San Antonio played the Detroit Pistons, Tony Parker allowed a 3-pointer from Rodney Stuckey and a spat between Parker and Coach Pop occurred. Parker was taken out of the game as a punishment.

Instead, the way the Spurs defend that play is to rotate help defenders from the other side of the floor. Johnson would stay on Pietrus, denying the pass to him, and Jamal Crawford, guarding Jameer Nelson in the opposite corner, would’ve rotated over to stop the ball. Because Nelson in the corner is still a decent pass for Carter to make, Josh Smith, guarding Rashard Lewis near the top of the key, would’ve slid down to prevent a pass to Nelson in the corner.

Lewis, a good 3-point shooter, is open near the top of the key, but for Carter to make that pass he would have to stop and turn. That would enable any defender, whether it’s Josh Smith or someone else, time to recover and prevent Lewis from getting a good shot.

The video below, from Game 1 of the Spurs-Suns series, shows San Antonio denying a corner 3 opportunity. Steve Nash beats Tony Parker off the dribble and Richard Jefferson, defending Grant Hill in the corner, doesn’t flinch. As Nash drives in his direction, Jefferson inches closer to Hill. Instead, you can see the help defense come from Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Antonio McDyess fulfills his duty to cover Ginobili’s man in the opposite corner. Nash ends up dribbling the ball out of bounds.

Gary Colson

Coach Gary Colson share another tid-bit of knowledge with us,  “The China Study“ and recommends the book.  On that alone, I will add it to the ABR Book List. I haven’t completely read it yet, so if you have input and feed back please share it via the “comments” section.

About the China Study…

The science is clear. The results are unmistakable.

Change your diet and dramatically reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Respected nutrition and health researcher, Dr. T. Colin Campbell reveals the truth behind special interest groups, government entities and scientists that have taken Americans down a deadly path

Even today, as the low-carb craze sweeps the nation, two-thirds of adults are still obese and children are being diagnosed with Type II diabetes, typically an “adult” disease, at an alarming rate. If we’re eating healthier, why are Americans stricken with heart disease as much as we were 30 years ago?

Drawing on the project findings in rural China, but going far beyond those findings, The China Study details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The report also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and opportunistic scientists.The New York Times has recognized the study (China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project) as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” and the “most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.”

“After a long career in research and policy-making, I have decided to step ‘out of the system.’ I have decided to disclose why Americans are so confused,” said Dr. Campbell. “As a taxpayer who foots the bill for research and health policy in America, you deserve to know that many of the common notions you have been told about food, health and disease are wrong.”

“I propose to do nothing less than redefine what we think of as good nutrition. You need to know the truth about food, and why eating the right way can save your life.”

Early in his career as a researcher with MIT and Virginia Tech, Dr. Campbell worked to promote better health by eating more meat, milk and eggs — “high-quality animal protein … It was an obvious sequel to my own life on the farm and I was happy to believe that the American diet was the best in the world.”

He later was a researcher on a project in the Philippines working with malnourished children. The project became an investigation for Dr. Campbell, as to why so many Filipino children were being diagnosed with liver cancer, predominately an adult disease. The primary goal of the project was to ensure that the children were getting as much protein as possible.

“In this project, however, I uncovered a dark secret. Children who ate the highest protein diets were the ones most likely to get liver cancer…” He began to review other reports from around the world that reflected the findings of his research in the Philippines.

Although it was “heretical to say that protein wasn’t healthy,” he started an in-depth study into the role of nutrition, especially protein, in the cause of cancer.

The research project culminated in a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, a survey of diseases and lifestyle factors in rural China and Taiwan. More commonly known as the China Study, “this project eventually produced more than 8000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease.”

The findings? “People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease … People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored,” said Dr. Campbell.

In The China Study, Dr. Campbell details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, and also its ability to reduce or reverse the risk or effects of these deadly illnesses. The China Study also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and irresponsible scientists.

The China Study is not a diet book. Consumers are bombarded with conflicting messages regarding health and nutrition; the market is flooded with popular titles like The Atkins Diet and The South Beach Diet. The China Study cuts through the haze of misinformation and delivers an insightful message to anyone living with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and those concerned with the effects of aging. Additionally, he challenges the validity of these low-carb fad diets and issues a startling warning to their followers.

Perseverance pays off for student manager

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.

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.

“I wouldn’t be the speaker I am today without my deformities,” Lipson said. “I’ve used them to make myself a stronger human being. That’s a very radical idea. That’s how I want to be an inspiration to people.

“I want to tell people you don’t have to fall and beat yourself up over your problems. You can take them and help them make you stronger. You can turn a losing situation into a winning situation.”

Born to inspire

He wasn’t always this upbeat. Lipson remembers being teased by grade-school classmates who didn’t know any better, and he occasionally would look at his brother and wonder why he couldn’t be blessed with a healthy body.

	Former Vanderbilt star Drew Maddux calls Zachary Lipson a student assistant coach.

The turning point came when he was in first grade. Lipson, a devout Christian, had an epiphany. He was in a hospital room when he started to understand how he could make the most of his situation.

“I learned humility at that point in my life,” Lipson said. “I realized my true purpose here on Earth is to share the gospel, to share my story and to be an inspiration to people.”

That’s when it dawned on Lipson that he wouldn’t get to live an average life. He was being called to do much, much more. He would tell his story to anyone who would listen. He doesn’t consider anyone a stranger.

“I noticed when we go to places, if we were sitting at a table, he’d end up not sitting at our table,” said Lipson’s mother, Susan. “He’d be sitting at a table with people who he didn’t even know. He’d get to know them, talk to them, encourage them. They’d say, ‘Wow, what an amazing story. I can’t believe what he’s been through.’ ”

He eventually found a way to spread his message through sports. Lipson grew up hating athletics because his health problems prevented him from playing organized sports or from joining his classmates in playground activities. His attitude changed after he took over as a student-manager for the football team at Christ Presbyterian Academy, the Nashville school he attends.

He caught on so well that he also became the student-manager for the basketball and soccer teams. And he made himself into the best manager a school could possibly have.

When a coach wanted him to do something during a game, Lipson would sprint to wherever he needed to be. He commanded such respect that CPA basketball coach Drew Maddux never called Lipson a manager and instead labeled him a “student assistant coach.”

“He’s like one of my sons,” said Maddux, who played basketball for Vanderbilt from 1994-98. “I’ve really grown to love Zach.”

Not only did Lipson perform the typical managerial responsibilities of fetching water and collecting equipment, he also gave locker-room speeches and even assisted Maddux in advance scouting.

Lipson’s pep talks were so legendary in the Nashville high school ranks that officials at rival school David Lipscomb High asked him to give an inspirational speech to their entire student body.

Bleeding blue

Lipson fell in love with his manager jobs so much that he wanted to continue on what he considered the best and biggest stage of all – the University of Kentucky. But he considered this goal more than just a dream; he saw it as his destiny.

“People describe me as a passionate person,” Lipson said. “I have such a love of life. What better basketball program than the University of Kentucky, which has so much tradition and passion? I think that’s what was drawing me there.”  Lipson speaks with the authority of someone twice his age. He’s a history enthusiast who has treasured the opportunity to visit more than 25 countries. He’s teaching himself to read and write in Russian. How many other teenagers would discuss leadership by referring to Napoleon’s attack in the Siege of Toulon?

But for all his obvious intelligence, Lipson still lacked the necessary grades and test scores to get into Kentucky as an out-of-state student. In fact, when he mentioned his goal to a college counselor, she indicated that wasn’t a realistic possibility.

“She said he needed to look at Plan B,” Susan Lipson said. “Well, there was no Plan B for him. I saw how he took his knuckles, gripped his chair and said, ‘I will go to Kentucky.’ ”

Lipson did everything in his power to improve his grades. He spent his lunch hour studying in his school’s locker room and took countless hours of ACT preparatory courses. All that extra work allowed him to qualify academically. Then, a remarkable chain of events brought his goal within reach.

Kentucky fired former coach Billy Gillispie after the 2008-09 season and replaced him with John Calipari, who in turn hired Martin Newton as the school’s director of basketball operations. Maddux’s father, Ray, and Newton’s father, former Vanderbilt basketball coach and Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton, were friends and had helped found “The Rebounders,” a club for former Vanderbilt basketball lettermen.

In addition, before being hired at Kentucky, Martin Newton had worked for Nike alongside Tim Thompson, a former Vanderbilt player and one of Maddux’s closest friends.

Maddux used his connections to get Lipson an opportunity to work at Kentucky’s basketball camps last summer. Lipson wasted no time making a name for himself with his work habits and his indefatigable spirit.

“I had never been to Lexington,” Lipson said. “I didn’t know anyone. I was a little … not shy but a little afraid and nervous because I’d never been to the campus before. But I worked, helped out in the team camps and put my name out there.”

Lipson apparently made quite an impact. Kentucky utilizes about six to eight student-managers each season and annually receives at least 50 applications for those positions. Lipson’s application stood out.

“Zach’s story is a unique one, not only because of what he’s overcome in life but also because of his passion for Kentucky basketball,” Newton said. “This is a young man who absolutely loves University of Kentucky basketball. He lives in Nashville. His mentor is Drew Maddux, a guy who played at Vanderbilt. Yet it never squelched his passion for Kentucky basketball.

“The combination of the type of person he is, the things he’s overcome and his passion for Kentucky made it a really easy choice.”

Student-managers are an integral part of just about every program across the country, but that’s particularly true at Kentucky, where longtime equipment manager Bill Keightley played such a vital role that an honorary jersey in his name hangs from the Rupp Arena rafters.

The student-managers work the same hours as the players. They’re present for team practices and weightlifting sessions as well as participating in more menial activities such as laundry duty.

Lipson is ready to perform these tasks to the best of his ability, but he also believes he can offer something extra. He wants to encourage Kentucky’s players and his fellow classmates the same way he has inspired just about everyone else he has met.

“The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is working with people,” Lipson said. “I feel like I’m going to be a big impact in their lives. I’m going to influence the way they think and look at things. I can show someone a positive influence.”

And if Calipari ever needs someone to help out with a pep talk, he won’t have far to look. He need only turn to his new manager, who can go into painstaking detail on how various financial moguls made their fortunes or discuss the personal traits that caused Winston Churchill to succeed and Adolf Hitler to fail.

Better yet, he simply can tell the story about his improbable path to Lexington.

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

From everyone I have spoken to this event was one of the best coaching resource tools they have ever been to.  People continue to rave about the University of Florida Coaches Clinic that Coach Donovan and his staff put on every year (sadly, I have not attended either – that will change next year).  These two coaching resources must be “Top 5″ for coaching growth and development.

If you attended either of these events (or others) and can provide information and feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.

Post a comment and I’ll share it with everyone.

COACHING U LIVE 2010

Above is a link to 70+ pages of notes provided to a friend of mine by:

Adam Cohen - University of Southern California

I don’t personally know either of these guys, but they did a tremendous job detailing the information provided by Coaching U LIVE. On first impressions, these are two young, detail oriented guys who “get it.”

Thanks for sharing with all of us.

Notice the diagrams provided by FastDraw.

CLICK HERE for .pdf of FastDraw play

Easily the BEST play/drill diagramming tool available.  Nothing else compares to it.  Combined with FastScout it is no wonder 28 of the 30 NBA teams (nearly 900 college and close to 10,000 high school and youth coaches) use it for their scouting, drill and play diagramming needs.

Purchase it below.

FastDraw

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