It's exceptional when you find a role player who's just happy to be there

Lots of interesting audio and transcriptions of interviews with athletes and coaches on the Sports Radio Interviews website.

Here's a good one from yesterday with the legendary Dr. J -- Julius Erving -- and his thoughts on how the game has changed since he played in the '70s and '80s:

“I think one of the major differences is every player to a man is regarded as, at least maybe in his own mind, a basketball star. During our era, there was a clear delineation between a guy who was a star, a guy who was a role player, and a guy who was just happy to be there. I don’t think you have too many guys today that are just happy to be there. The economics just set it up that way where there’s a star mentality 1 through 12. It’s exceptional when you find somebody who is humble and happy to be there and capable of deferring to the guys that are the actually stars.”

[Great video of some vintage Dr. J here.]

Learning about attention to detail

SAC coach Kenny Natt, an assistant with Jerry Sloan in Utah and Mike Brown (pictured here) in Cleveland, on what he learned working with Coach Brown.

"His attention to detail. Coach Sloan is not as detailed. He'll scribble something down on a piece of paper, but Mike Brown is very scripted, very attentive to detail at practice, right to the point with everything. Those are the things I learned and carry over from Mike. Most of what we want to do offensively and defensively, being more demanding, comes from Sloan -- and the disciplinary side of things. I think it's a pretty good mix."

When you have a height advantage, "the farther away you get from the basket, the shorter you get"

My sister in Dallas emailed me a note from the Texas State 2A boy's basketball semifinals. (Texas runs from the huge 5A schools to the smaller Class A and 2A schools.)

Ponder High School, one of the 2A semifinalists, is led by 6-foot-5 Scott Gregg (pictured here).

Ponder's opponent, Santa Rosa, doesn't have a single starter over 5-foot-10.

Ponder's coach made it clear before the game that he planned to take advantage of the mismatch in height.

"You're 6-5, so we're going to make you 6-5. We're going to make sure [Gregg and another tall Ponder player] don't get too far from the basket. The farther away you get from the basket, the shorter you get."

Ponder won the game, 77-54, with Gregg leading the way with 26 points.

In winning and losing there are no politics -- only numbers

In the book "The Dandy Dons," which comes out this June, former USF star Bill Russell talks about how his attitude changed after he'd been overlooked for player of the year honors in the California Basketball Association (now the WCC).

"It was then and there that I determined, 'If my team wins a championship every year, there's no quarrel anyone can come up with to deny me that. Winning is the only thing I really cared about because I found that when I left the cocoon of my childhood I came into the world and found the individual awards were mostly political.

But winning and losing, there are no politics, only numbers. It's the most democratic thing in the world. You either win or lose, so I decided early in my career that the only really important thing was to try to win every game. The only thing that really mattered was who won -- and there is nothing subjective about that."

A "non-traditional" coaching candidate who finally got a sniff

A week ago, UT-San Antonio announced they'd found a coach for its fledgling program: 60-year-old Larry Coker, the same Larry Coker who'd guided the Miami Hurricanes to a 2001 National Championship and won 80 percent of his games at U of M over six seasons. He's now the coach at UTSA.

According to Frank Solich, who was fired as head coach at Nebraska in 2003 before being hired at Ohio in 2005, Coach Coker's move to UTSA "reinforces the notion that upper-tier jobs can be hard to come by for veteran coaches who have been fired. Ask Gary Barnett. Or Dennis Franchione. Or Bob Davie. Or Glen Mason. Or R.C. Slocum. Or Jim Donnan. Or Phillip Fulmer. Or Tommy Bowden. You get the idea."

“There are plenty of guys out there who haven’t gotten a sniff,” Coach Solich said. “It’s a tough, tough business. For one thing, there’s a little stigma attached to you if you didn’t make it work at a program, or were fired. And the trend has gone toward young guys. You see it in the NFL. You see it in colleges. It just seems that once you’ve been in it for a while, and you’re an established guy, and all of a sudden you get removed from a position, it’s tough on you. I just thought I still had a lot to offer (as a head coach). I felt I was good at being a head coach.”

It also reminds me a little of Radford coach Brad Greenberg (pictured here), who "was a young assistant at American University and Saint Joseph's in the late 1970s and early 1980s but then took a detour to the NBA as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks and as a player personnel executive with the Portland Trail Blazers."

Coach Greenberg also had a "1-year stint as the 76ers' general manager/vice president of basketball operations. In fact, while Greenberg's stay in Philly was brief, he did make the most influential decision in recent Sixers history by choosing Allen Iverson with the No. 1 pick in the 1996 NBA draft. It was a franchise-altering choice, for which Greenberg never gets the full credit he deserves."

After being fired by the Sixers in April 1997, Coach Greenberg waited 10 years to get a college head coaching job. His brother, Seth, hired him at South Florida as the director of basketball ops, then took him along to Virginia Tech in 2003 where he served as associate head coach.

Along the way, "Brad applied for openings but says schools weren't much interested in a first-time head coach in his 50s."

According to Coach Greenberg, when applying for college jobs, "Some athletics directors would look at me and say, 'Wait a minute, this guy was an NBA GM. What does he want coaching my team? He's been dealing with agents and pros and flying on charter planes. Is he really going to be happy in a little, tiny office and getting on a bus?' "

In 2007, Coach Greenberg got the chance he'd been waiting for when he was hired at Radford, a Big South school 2o minutes from Va. Tech that had gone 8-22 the season before.

Radford President Penelope W. Kyle, who hired Greenberg as coach, said "it didn't bother her that he was a nontraditional candidate."

"That's why we hit it off," she says. "I was a nontraditional choice, too." She ran the state lottery in Virginia and, before that, was a business executive and a lawyer. She liked his NBA credentials.

When Coach Greenberg arrived at Radford two seasons ago, his team was described as "a laughingstock." Now the Highlanders are headed to the NCAA tournament.

Avoiding the trap of tailspin

There's an old saying: "Wins come in bunches." Of course, so do losses.

Which is why after his team's 12-game winning streak ended recently with a loss to ATL, Jerry Sloan "worries about what awaits."

So after the game at Atlanta on Wednesday night, Coach Sloan made it clear to his guys that he "wants to avoid the trap of tailspin."

"I just told them, 'Lots of times, you see a team after they've had a streak, they have one the other way,' "

According to Carlos Boozer, a seven-year NBA vet who played on the U.S. Olympic basketball team last summer, the next few games are a test for the Jazz.

"We'll see what kind of character we've got. I think if we're an elite team, we'll bounce right back. We won't just look at this thing and sulk and lose four or five in a row. We've got to bounce back from it."

Managing the home crowds' energy

Insightful comment from Northeastern hockey coach Greg Cronin, whose team is ranked fourth in the nation, behind only Boston, Notre Dame, and Michigan.

With every win, NU's home crowds have grown. According to this article, "the noise is constant."

Coach Cronin (pictured here) claims that while it's true that the Huskies' "arena has been a real special place this season," the best part is how his players can use the fans' enthusiasm to their advantage:

"Our players have the opportunity to manage the energy in the building."

It comes down to how hard you want to work

Great quote from Larry Hughes in the NY Daily News.

Hughes, who exploded for 30 points on 13-20 shooting in a win at Milwaukee on Tuesday, then added 22 in NY's win at DET the next night, said that as the postseason approaches, the key variable is effort:

"At this point it comes down to how hard you want to work," he said. "Everyone has talent. It comes down to how hard you want to work."

Your coaching philosophy: The sum total of all you believe

Jud Heathcote was a head coach for nearly a quarter of a century, including 19 seasons at Michigan State, where he won a national title in 1979 with Magic Johnson running the point.

In his 1995 autobiography, "Jud: A Magical Journey," he talked about the roots of his coaching philosophy:

"A key to success is always being able to adjust. But you have to believe in something when you coach. That's what's called your coaching philosophy -- the sum total of all you believe. Your basic philosophy is usually established at an early age. But it changes as you get more experience and the game changes.

In my playing career, I was a star in high school, a star on the small-college level, but just a role player or a substitute at the major-college level. So I can relate to guys sitting on the bench, always wanting to play. I never had any hard feelings about it. I always thought I was better than the guys playing. But I accepted it. What was important was what the coach thought. That has always been my philosophy. I've always been a good team guy. And I've always felt the team came first."

I was not allowed to quit when things got tough

Saw recently where Dwyane Wade relies on guys like Kobe and LeBron to push him to achieve more. In his words:

"Listen, I won a championship. I’ve been a Finals MVP. I’ve had All-Star games. I’m on every commercial you see. My life is good. But you have to keep going and keep going. You need things to push you, and I found them. There are always guys that are going to push me. LeBron and Kobe are two of the best talents this game has ever seen. If you want your name to be right there with them, you’ve got to continue working hard."

Wade's quote reminded me of a book I read last year. In it, professionals from various fields and walks of life talked about who had pushed them to achieve success.

The great Morgan Freeman (pictured above), one of my favorite actors, said he "was not allowed to quit when things got tough. I was not allowed to give up acting and try something else. I was just not allowed. There was always somebody there who gave me encouragement or help."

Several people credited their mothers or fathers with providing the support and positive reinforcement they needed to press on. According to Pablo Picasso, one of the world's great painters, his mother told him, "If you become a solider, you'll be a general. If you become a monk, you'll end up as Pope." He continued: "Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."

Early in his cycling career, Lance Armstrong wanted to quit a race, telling his mother that he simply couldn't go any further. His mother replied that she wouldn't allow him to quit, even if he had to walk his bike across the finish line. "So Lance walked to the finish line."

Then there's Derek Hatfield, who was in a Trans-atlantic sailboat race when his mast broke. When he finally made it to land, he called his father to tell him he was quitting. "Bring the trailer, I'm dropping out of the race," recalls Hatfield.

His father was having none of it, saying, "I'm not bringing you the trailer. You get back on the boat and go to the finish line."

Hatfield "finished the race and became one of the few people who have ever sailed around the world alone."

Pick one: Coach, officiate, or play

When he arrived at Arizona State, coach Herb Sendek "made it clear he wouldn't tolerate the persecution complex that long had been a part of the problem, a feeling that poor ASU hoops always was getting jobbed by Pac-10 officials."

He insisted "that his team not argue a single call."

Ask him why and he has a simple answer:

"Because they're not supposed to. I just don't want our guys responding to a referee's call, because the next play is getting ready to start. We ask our guys at the beginning of the year, 'You have a choice. You can pick one. You can either coach, officiate or play. Just pick one, because it's hard as hell to do any one of the three, let alone two of the three."

[Thanks to Phil Beckner at Weber State for passing along!]

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life

Del Jones, a reporter for the USA Today, frequently writes about management issues that are usually insightful and interesting. Like many of his stories, his recent piece titled "How cheating death can change your life" was worth reading.

It describes what people who've survived near-death experiences ("NDEs"), or who are currently battling a life-threatening or terminal disease, learned in the process or how it changed their "long term perspective."

Said one:

"Death is very likely the single-best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true."

Says another: "Near-death experiences give you balance. You become more worldly. Your ideas become bigger."

Many say the experience changed "them in profound ways and give them a heightened sense of purpose." As one put it: "Life becomes shinier. You should plan for the long haul, but there is a big difference in doing that and making perpetual sacrifices."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs (pictured above), who has survived pancreatic cancer, had this to say in a commencement speech he gave at Stanford in 2005:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

A basketball player sent on the court with rusty fundamentals is a good bet to fail

Got an early copy of James Johnson's soon-to-be-released book "The Dandy Dons."

It chronicles the University of San Francisco basketball teams from the mid-1950s that were coached by Phil Woolpert and featured Bill Russell and K.C. Jones. USF won the NCAA championship in 1955 and 1956. [Coach Woolpert later coached at my alma mater, USD.]

As a side note, Phil's son, Paul, has had a long and successful career in the CBA and D-League.

Here's a good excerpt from the book:

~~~~~~~~~~

When practice opened in the fall of '53, Woolpert was ready. So were the players, but they didn't know what the coach had in store for them -- in practice or during games. Woolpert had a plan: First he was going to use defense to break up the opposition's attack before it could get set. On offense he wanted to use a balanced floor, with his players working the ball around the court until they got the right shot.

Woolpert had always been a strong advocate of defense and he saw an opportunity to develop his players into an aggressive defensive squad.

"I can't see just standing around and letting the other fellow shoot. To me, it's common sense to try to stop him from scoring. There is a science and a skill to defense. It's what makes the game interesting, not a race from one end of the court to the other for one more basket."

He was also fond of saying, "We figure to have the ball only about half the time in a game, so in practice, we work on defense half the time."

Woolpert was without a doubt a defensive-minded coach. In Woolpert's system, if you couldn't defend, it was unlikely you would get much playing time. He disdained "jackrabbit basketbal," once remarking about the up-tempo offense becoming popular then: "It just isn't good basketball. I wouldn't know how to go about coaching it. You can't expect to execute scoring playing when you're running up and down the court like madmen."

Practice included what Woolpert called the "hands-up" drill. The players would line up with their feet in position, bend their knees, and put one hand high above their heads and the other one out to the side. Then they moved quickly forward or backward, to the left or to the right, at Woolpert's direction.

It was the same drill that Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell used when he was at USF and in 1959 when his Cal team won the NCAA title. Most players introduced to the hands-up drill lasted about three minutes before they begged for mercy, but eventually they could go twenty minutes nonstop. That kind of stamina paid big dividends during the season.

Woolpert was also a stickler for making his players pick up the fundamentals of the game -- dribbling, passing, footwork, and shooting. "A basketball player sent on the court with rusty fundamentals," he said, "is a good bet to fail in his operations."

In addition to sound fundamentals, a team needed talented players and a simple offense and defense. Woolpert believed that regardless of what offense a team used, "the essentially important need is for simplicity and efficiency of operation. If the players know what they are doing, and why, and are impressed with the importance of each move in an overall pattern, the chances of that pattern creating good shot opportunities are excellent."

Looking for people with convictions who can influence their peers

Came across a great quote from Joe Paterno in the book "The Competitive Edge" by Dr. Jeffrey Brown, a sports psychologist and instructor at Harvard Medical School.

"We need people who influence their peers and who cannot be detoured from their convictions by peers who do not have the courage to have any convictions."

[Here's a video at Coach Paterno at work that's worth a look.]

Veterans provide knowledge; young players bring the energy

Reds manager Dusty Baker, 59, "has a reputation for preferring veterans at the expense of young players."

"I get tired of defending myself," he says. "It's the biggest crock of (bull) I've ever heard. I never had one (young team) except my last year (2006) in Chicago. In San Francisco, they had a big mortgage on the building. We had to win now."

What's important to Coach Baker is not whether a player is young or a veteran; it's whether the player wants to improve.

"Growth, that's exactly what I want," Baker says. "Baseball intellect, the ability to learn and retain what they learn. Some guys get it right away. Other guys you've got to keep reminding. I want intelligent, energy-type players. Competition from within without envy and jealousy. Veterans give us knowledge, kids give us energy."

When asked if some of the younger Reds players were likely to develop into team leaders, Coach Baker replied: "Leadership is not appointed. It's anointed by your teammates."

The benefits of a point-forward

Having watched Louisville's Terrence Williams on TV, it's obvious he's an excellent athlete who is projected as a small forward in the NBA. He'll likely come off the bench as a limited-minutes player used primarily as a defender -- one who can guard an NBA 3/2 man off the bench.

Williams (pictured here with Coach Pitino) does a good job of rebounding his position and creates extra possessions for his team. Offensively, he's an unselfish player.

Coach Pitino and Louisville work a lot on shooting drills, and since Williams has spent four years with Coach Pitino, I don't see him improving significantly as a shooter. [Had he been coached poorly the last several years, there might be room for improvement, but that's not the case here.] Speaking of coaching, it's interesting how Coach Pitino advised Williams to "imagine that he's always doing commercials on himself in public."

Williams' offensive game is a concern. He's a poor FT shooter, failing to hit more than 62 percent of his free throws in his college career. There aren't many NBA small forwards who are shooting in that range who are in their team's rotations.

On the other hand, he's improved as a 3-point shooter, but has room to improve as a scorer. At this point, he's a player who is likely to be drafted in the 25-35 range.

As this article in SI this week points out, "Williams fills the rarest role in college hoops — that of point forward, which means he orchestrates the offense from the small-forward position, leading his team in assists at 5.1 per game, with a 2.2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio."

Louisville coach Rick Pitino knows that the two logical candidates to run the offense, 5'10" senior Andre McGee and 6'1" junior Edgar Sosa, "would rather score than assist, whereas T-Will would rather assist than score," and that Williams's court vision is second to none on Louisville's roster. At his height he can see over perimeter defenders; he can rebound and start fast breaks without the delay of an outlet pass; he can take ball-handling pressure off the guards or simply slide over from the wing and initiate offensive sets.

Williams is driven by what he feels after making a nice pass. Here's how he describes it:

"The feeling I get when I make a pass for an assist is like the one you'd get if you had a baby brother and every time he tried to walk, he fell down, until one time, he finally walked and you were there to see it. That's the kind of happiness I get from seeing other guys score."

Williams learned to appreciate the fine art of passing from watching Lakers great Magic Johnson. "My uncles used to show me old tapes of Magic," Williams says, "and I'd see the passes he'd make and think, 'That looks tight.'"

W's coach Don Nelson, who played Paul Pressey and Marques Johnson point-forwards in the mid-1980s while coaching the Bucks, is quoted in the SI story as saying, "It allow[ed] us to release our guards, who [were] not real quick, earlier, and alleviate[d] some of the pressure on them and [gave] me a chance to play two nonballhandling guards, like Kevin Grevey and Sidney Moncrief, together."

Nellie's requirements for the point-forward position?

He has to be a leader, has to rebound well, has to defend, has to have an assist-to-turnover ratio of at least 2 to 1 and has to be 6'5" or taller.

Giving players boundaries, parameters, direction, and feedback

As the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Bob Gainey is working to ensure each player "know[s] exactly what's expected of him."

According to Coach Gainey, who's coached in more than 450 NHL games, he will "try to give them boundaries, parameters, direction and feedback - done well, (or) not done well."

"After a few days, I hope to be able to give the players some key messages that there are places they will be corrected on," said Coach Gainey. "That will give them concentration - that they need to do this particular thing, or they'll be corrected on it."

As small things cumulate, bigger things will happen

Dave Ulrich wrote the foreword for the 2002 book "The Extraordinary Leader."

Ulrich, a management guru who Fast Company magazine recognized as "one of the 10 most innovative and creative leaders," outlined his advice for leaders. Here are three of his points:

~~~~~~~~~~

1. Start small. Going from good to great follows an "S" curve of learning. Starting small means doing something now, something within your control that will have an immediate impact. As small things cumulate, bigger things will happen. A leaders should identify some quick, simple, and readily visible things that can be done along the "S" curve path.

2. Excel at something. The worst leaders have an average profile with no great strengths or weaknesses. They are "vanilla" leaders, not standing out on anything. My advice to you as a leader is to figure what you are good at and improve it. Be good at something, then a few things.

3. Remedy fatal flaws. (1) The inability to learn from mistakes and develop new skills; (2) being interpersonally inept; (3) being closed to new ideas; (4) failure to be accountable for results; and (5) not taking initiative. Assess yourself and see how others assess you on these five fatal flaws. If any show up, work on them fast and furiously.

You can't stay in the basketball game if you're not going to play with effort

In SAC, Kings coach Kenny Natt has "made it very clear" who will play over the last 20 games of the season.

"What I need to do is pull guys out of the game that don't want to play. Guys who don't play with effort, that's who I'll start pulling out of the game. I've made it very clear to them that that's where we're going from now on. You can't stay in a basketball game if (they're) not going to play. If you think that you're going to stay in the game (without playing hard), you're going to be sitting over there with me."

Defense is all about desire; it has nothing to do with skill

Byron Scott spoke at length recently about his team's defense and the importance of re-visiting defensive fundamentals during the season.

"Defense is all about desire and wanting to do it. It has nothing to do with skill. So we've just got to get back to our defensive principles and understanding what we need to do on every play. We were trying to rely too much on our offense, trying to outscore people. There's going to be nights when we're not going to be able to make shots or throw it in the ocean. We've got to be able to rely on our defense a lot more.

Right now, we're having a lot of trouble on the defensive end. Specifically, guarding guys off the dribble, number one, and protecting that paint, number two. The third thing is when we're getting beat, we're fouling too much. We've got to do a better job, maybe go back to the drawing board, think about some of the things on our defensive concepts that we talked about and get better at it.

The focus on that end has to be better. As far as us understanding what our principles are, I think we understand them. We've just got to get back to doing them on a day-to-day basis. This is not the time to lose desire to play defense; this is the times we've got to pick it back up."

Your GM gives you 12 players; you've got to make it work

Watched an interview with Chuck Daly from 1997 on the Charlie Rose Show. I managed to transcribe a small excerpt here.

~~~~~~~~~~

"When I was in Detroit, it lasted nine years. I knew I should've gone the two years before that because [the players] get tired of hearing you -- they know every inflection -- and you get tired of them. It works both ways. I don't look at [the players] as having made a lot of money. I really don't care what color they are or where they come from. I've got to deal with them on a one-to-one basis. Your general manager gives you 12 players. You've got to make this work. You've gotta take these 12 guys -- cause otherwise you're gonna lose your job. They're gonna fire you or you're gonna get embarrassed. So somehow, you've got to reach them, and every one of them is different."

How do you spend the 24 hours in the day?

From a blog post by Ross Siler at the Salt Lake Tribune comes this quote from Jerry Sloan on managing your time:

"I don't worry about that stuff if you take care of yourself. There's 24 hours today. That won't change. Twenty-four hours tomorrow. See where you've got your eight hours' sleep and you've got eight hours to do something else and two hours to play basketball and you've still got a lot of time left over. So I don't buy all the stuff. If you take care of yourself, get your rest, so you're ready to play, that's your job. And I think fans deserve that out of you every single day, not just once in a while."

You always have to be ready, no matter what the circumstances

Lakers beat writer Jeff Eisenberg posts about a radio interview he heard with Jordan Farmar in which Farmar told a story about "scarfing down a burger at halftime" of a mid-season game against Seattle in his rookie season.

Besides being hungry, Farmar figured that because "he hadn't played in weeks" it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Coach Phil Jackson caught him eating the burger and used that moment as a teaching tool, not only fining him but also inserting him into the game in the second half to show the dangers of expecting not to play.

"He put me in and said, 'I hope you throw up," Farmar said. "It was just to show that you have to always be ready. No matter what the situation, no matter what the circumstances."

How coaching is like painting a fence

Good post on Rick Bonnell's blog about Larry Brown and assistant Dave Hanners (pictured here with Coach Brown).

After a 12-point loss to Orlando on February 20, Coach Brown let his guys have it, "saying the point guards were selfish and Emeka Okafor sets ineffective screens."

The next day at practice, Coach Hanners came prepared to do some "maintenance.''

That's Hanners' term for smoothing it over when Brown has maybe overshot the runway in his critiques of the players. To Hanners' surprise, the day after was a great practice: No complaining, just great focus.

Bonnell commented to Coach Hanners that he "wasn't surprised because for whatever else was wrong in the past, this team had great character."

Bonnell contends that "[former CHA coach and EVP] Bernie Bickerstaff demanded it, right up to waiving Kareem Rush when he wouldn't get in line. Gerald Wallace and Raymond Felton are true leaders, and they both understand they need more coaching, not less. Brown's relentless insistence on precision can wear a team out, but that hasn't happened."

As they talked, Bonnell writes that Coach Hanners "offered a telling analogy."

Hanners said Brown's coaching is like the guy determined to perfectly paint a fence. When he's done, you'll never find an unpainted spot on that fence, but he might apply two or three more coats than is necessary to do the job.

[By the way, since February 20, the Bobcats are 6-2.]

It boils down to people and how they work and how they respect their job

Coach Jerry Sloan, whose Utah Jazz have won 11 straight, doesn't hesitate to credit his players for the team's 40 wins thus far.

"Anybody could coach these guys. They're good people, they work hard in practice and they do the right thing. It boils down to people and how they work and how they respect their job. You always have a chance to win if you get good people who try to do their job.

I don't think it's coaching. It's not just about me. It's about our players and our coaches. There's a lot to learn as you go forward. Each game is an experience sometimes. There's always something that players aren't familiar with or things you are trying to get across to them. That's part of the coaching process."

A player-coach team is a lot better than a coach-coach team

Michigan State's Travis Walton, the Spartans' team captain, only averages about five points per game. In fact, in MSU's last five games of the season -- all wins, by the way -- Walker only has seven field goals.

Says MSU coach Tom Izzo (here with Walton): "Walton is the only guy I know who cannot score a lot of points and be a difference maker in a game."

At halfime of the Spartans game yesterday against Purdue, "Walton offered some terse, fire-up-the-troops comments at halftime."

When he speaks, which is rare in public, he commands complete attention from his teammates.

According to Coach Izzo, a vocal leader who's also respected by his peers can have a big impact on a team's performance.

"I always say a player-coach team is a lot better than a coach-coach team. He was a difference maker in our locker room. You need somebody that puts winning above everything, and is tough enough to deal with it. And you need a coach on the floor. That's all Trav."

Notes from the WCC tournament in Las Vegas

Just now getting a chance to go back through my notes from the WCC tournament this weekend in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena in the Orleans Casino & Hotel. It's a great venue that seats about 7,800 fans (not including suites).

At Friday night's Loyola Marymount-San Diego game, LMU freshman Kevin Young (pictured here), a SF with great length, displayed good athleticism. He ran hard and has the ability to push the ball himself off rebounds. He also moved well without the ball against USD's zone, finding holes for uncontested dunks.

Young is skinny, but will get bigger and stronger over the summer. His weight/strength is one reason he had trouble defending post-ups and holding his defensive position. That will change as he works on his lower-body strength.

Young had a nice first half with 16 points , but was passive in the second half - 4 second half points . I thought he out-reacted USD's upfront players and finished strong in transition in the first 20 minutes of the game.

Another LMU freshman, guard Jarred DuBois had nine first-half points. He's a good offensive player, but must improve his pick n roll defense and his on ball defense.

As for the game, USD's players spent too much time complaining to the refs and lost some focus in the first half. The Toreros got off to a slow start offensively until the middle pick-and-roll with De'Jon Jackson handling and Roberto Mafra setting the pick. But once Jackson picked up two fouls late into the first half, USD lacked point guard play.

Rob Jones' development as an offensive player has slowed. But Jones showed his versatility as a defender on a few possessions in the second half when USD went to man-to-man. Jones went from defending the 4-post to defending LMU guard DuBois. I really think Jones would make a good tight end in Football.

LMU had no one to defend USD's Gyno Pomare in the low post. But Pomare doesn't seem to run hard in either transition defense or offense. It's important for him to get in better physical condition. At this point, he's not bringing much energy except when he has the ball in his hands. Because of his ability to score from the 4-post, Pomare will play beyond college, likely for low-level European league team.

Both teams played hard, but in the second half, USD played smarter basketball and out-executed the young LMU squad.

USD really missed injured point guard Brandon Johnson, who was injured in December and lost for the year. The Toreros also missed Trumaine Johnson, who was suspended and announced last month that he'd transfer from USD. Without Brandon or Trumaine, it was no surprise that USD had 20 turnovers (to LMU's nine) in the game. USD backup PG Matt Dorr had five TOs and no assists in 31 minutes.

Free-throw shooting hurt LMU, which connected on just 13-28 from the foul line (43 percent). USD won the game by six, 62-56.

In Friday's second game, Pepperdine beat USF, 93-85. Not much defense played in this game and neither team has any size inside. All guard play. Big-time uptempo with four guards on the floor for both teams for most of the game.

USF played much better down the stretch of the season after Coach Rex Walters suspended four players. Those who were left played to their roles.

Pepperdine has a couple of good young players in Mychel Thompson (whose father, Mychal, played for my Dad at U of Minnesota in the '70s and was a No. 1 NBA pick) and Keion Bell.

Thompson (6' 7") has good offensive skills. Wiry and skilled, he played multiple positions but needs to get stronger physically. He also needs to work on his defense. Thompson's brother, Klay, a freshman at at Washington State, is a better prospect at this point.

As for Bell, he's a terrific athlete and an excellent offensive rebounder for a guard. His shot release is slow.

The Waves pushed the ball on the sideline break and shot a ton of 3-balls in transition.

At the Saturday games, the teams that played the night before (Pepperdine and USD) looked tired, which shows the impact back-to-back games have on college kids. It's tough on professionals, but even tougher on young players.

USD coach Bill Grier came into the Toreros' game against Santa Clara with a 4-0 record in WCC tournament games. USD's full-court 1-2-2 trap after free throws was effective in the first half, and after made-baskets in the second half.

USD's Roberto Mafra has really improved over the course of the season, though he still must improve as a rebounder. On the subject of rebounding, USD's Pomare had no rebounds in his last game in college. Santa Clara's John Bryant totally dominated him with 27 rebounds.Bryant out rebounded entire USD team 27-20 .

USD's Rob Jones has struggled with his perimeter jump shot most of the year, but hit his shots in this game as Santa Clara backed off him. He's also had some trouble beating people off the dribble. But he really rebounds his position and boarded better than any of USD's upfront players, finishing with 10 rebounds and 20 points.

USD's middle pick-and-roll with Jackson and Mafra setting was the Toreros' most effective offense. SCU freshman Kevin Foster was impressive creating his own shot off the dribble. Of the first two nights, Foster was the best pro prospect, but was turnover prone vs traps and must improve as a point guard.

John Bryant (pictured here) had a big game against USD, but his lack of athleticsm and lack of speed will make it hard for him to make it in the pro game. He doesn't get off the ground at all on the boards, but has such great hands and is a good passer with excellent court vision. He completely dominated the glass. His numbers are unbelievable, but I don't see it continuing at the next level vs the same size players and better athletes. Bryant reminds me of former NBA player Todd MacCulloch.

Santa Clara's Calvin Johnson hit some big 3-pointers in the second half vs USD's trapping defense. The difference in this game was perimeter shooting.

SCU freshman Marc Trasolini had a great game and did a good job moving without the ball.

In the Pepperdine-Portland game, POR coach Eric Reveno did a good job subbing early to help save his guys' legs for Sunday's game. Pepperdine didn't score until six minutes into the game and had just two points in the first 10 minutes of the game. Again, the game the night before took a lot out of the Waves.

Hire big people who are better than you

Came across a wise quote from David Ogilvy in this month's "Strategy & Business" magazine. Ogilvy, who died in 1999 at the age of 88, is regarded by many as "The Father of Advertising."

Here are his thoughts on hiring good people:

“If you hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If you hire people who are bigger than you, we shall become a company of giants. Hire big people, people who are better than you. Pay them more than yourself if necessary.”

The better you get, the more you raise your standards

After NJ Devils coach Brent Sutter "voic[ed] his displeasure after a lopsided (7-3) loss Saturday afternoon to an inferior Islanders squad," a reporter questioned whether it made sense for the coach of "a team that has won 18 of its past 23 games and sits atop the Atlantic Division" to be scolding his team.

He asked, "Doesn't a squad that has lost just five times since Jan. 12 deserve some slack for an occasional stinker?"

Not the Devils. They don't expect it, and maybe that's why they have had a winning record for 17 straight seasons. The mentality is different here.

"The better you get, the more you raise your standards," said Devils center Bobby Holik, a 15-year NHL veteran. "Because if you say, 'Well, it happens,' that's the end of it. You become satisfied. 'So what, we lost?' That's a terrible way to think. That's one of the reasons this team is competitive year after year. We're not satisfied that we've only lost five times in 23 games. We know we're not going to win them all. Nobody will. But we're not happy because we didn't compete in this (last) game."

Trust what is simple

On the flight home from the WCC tourney in Vegas, I was flipping through Forbes magazine and came across this advice from Paul Johnson, "eminent British historian and author," in his weekly column in the magazine.

"I have always been highly suspicious of things that ought to be simple but have become too intricate for me to grasp. And I am doubly suspicious of those who make them so. Trust what is simple and can be understood at a glance. Anything more elaborate, investigate carefully and thoroughly; if it's too convoluted for you to grasp, pull back."