Sometimes it's better for the players to tell each other what needs work

After Kentucky beat Tennessee by 18 on January 13, Vols junior forward Tyler Smith went to UT associated head coach Tony Jones and asked if he could gather the team for a players-only meeting in which "every player was required to speak."

As described here, Smith, a John Wooden Award candidate and the preseason pick for SEC Player of the Year, had a simple message: "We've got to get better."

"The coaches can always get on the players, but sometimes it's better for the players to tell each other what we need to work on. You can't come in and just turn on a switch and play ball."

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, whose team has won two straight since the loss to UK, said the meeting had an immediate impact:

"We practiced really hard, and we had a greater understanding. The players had some really good discussion points in their meeting, and they showed a greater sense of urgency in practice.''

A season's turning point

From all indications, the turning point in the Cardinals' season came on Dec. 21 when the team traveled to a snowy New England where the Patriots beat them by 40, to drop Arizona to 8-7 after a 7-3 start.

According to this story, Cards coach Ken Whisenhunt "later acknowledged that he was deeply concerned about his club" and where it was headed, though "he never let the magnitude of those feelings come to the surface on that day."

Instead, he made like a jockey heading down the homestretch, unhappy with his position on the track but determined to crack the whip a bit harder to see if he could coax one last charge out of his horse.

Because bad weather delayed the team's return to Phoenix, the team was forced to sit at the airport for four hours, during which the seriousness of the loss sank in.

"I was pretty angry with the way we played. That set the tempo with how I handled the team and how we practiced that week. I think we got back to what we needed to get back to. I think there was a sense of urgency that week.

Obviously, your pride as a coach is hurt because of the way you were beaten so thoroughly in that game, but I was more concerned about what we needed to do to get the team ready for the playoffs because I felt like we had a good enough team that if we played better that we could win some games.

My focus at that point was, 'What do we have to do to get this team ready to go this next week so we'll have something to build off?' Somewhere in that week, we found ourselves again. Adversity makes you stronger."

Basketball as a back-alley fight

Had a chance to do color work with the great Greg Papa on the the University of San Diego-University of San Francisco game last night on Comcast SportsNet. USD jumped out to a quick lead and won by 15.USD sophmore point guard Trumaine Johnson had a great game at both ends of the floor ,He might be the best point guard defender in the WCC due to his size and length.

After the game, USF coach Rex Walters said the visitors came out aggressively:

"From the get-go. San Diego came out and punched us right in the mouth, and as opposed to attacking them, we got on our heels. Except for maybe the last eight minutes of the game, there wasn't any sense of urgency, just to try to maybe even save face. You can't play a basketball game like that. It's like a back-alley fight. Someone puts a line out. ... San Diego crossed that line and they punched us. And we had absolutely no response. Our response was to back up and put our hands up."

When you don't do your job, it should hurt

It's easy to tell that Antawn Jamison is in his 11th year as a pro. Besides the way he carries himself on and off the court, he's also willing to step up when his team needs a leader.

After the Wizards' loss on Saturday night, Jamison let his teammates know, in no uncertain terms, that he expected more from them:

"Guys are not upset. Guys are not hurting. This is your job. It's all about representing what's on your chest and doing it the right way. When you don't do your job and don't represent the right way, it should hurt.

I'm confident we can get it going, but I don't want to wait 10, 15 games into the season to get it going and you're putting too much pressure to win every game placed in front of you. The sense of urgency is here."