Emptying a pile of cluttered notebooks before the new year dawns . . .
More Top Picks Best E Readers For Arthritis Sufferers
– He is as well known for his courtside contortions as he is for his coaching acumen. He stomps and snarls, screams and stalks, bellows and blasts away at players and officials alike, and over the years Purdue`s Gene Keady has come to be called one of the most combative coaches in the game.
But in the wake of an incendiary display at last spring`s Midwest Regional, a display that cost him a cool 10 grand, he promised to be a better boy in the seasons ahead. That New Keady, alas, lasted for only a few games, and then he resurrected his old self in all its combustible glory. Why? ”The refs haven`t changed, so I guess I can`t,” says Keady with twinkling eyes, and his tongue fairly bursting through his cheek.
– Oh, and in related news: Keady was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) board of directors during the last Final Four, and then, in July, given a seat on the NABC`s Better Image Committee. ”We`re trying, as a coaching fraternity, to be more conscious of that,” he said upon appointment.
– Controversy and scandal have once again descended upon Nevada-Las Vegas, yet they hardly distract those Rebel players intent on successfully defending their national title. They most certainly have the talent necessary to do that, yet they are also acutely aware that no team has repeated as champ since John Wooden`s UCLA Bruins back in 1973.
They are, then, leaving no proverbial stone unturned, which is why Rebel guard Greg Anthony invited Dr. Harry Edwards to speak to the team before its home opener last Wednesday. Edwards, the well-known black activist, works with the San Francisco 49ers, and Anthony hoped he could offer some insights into the intangibles behind that team`s remarkable run of success.
Edwards ended up not being able to make the trip due to illness. But the mere invite shows just how serious these Rebs are.
– Tony Bennett, all De Paul fans will remember, was that 6-foot guard who led Wisconsin-Green Bay to its upset of the Blue Demons last Friday. That makes Dick Bennett, his dad and coach, master of the understatement, for it was he who said this when asked about his team: ”My players are small and skinny. In fact, one of them is playing only because he`s my wife`s son.”
– – Discipline is one of the virtues Eddie Sutton is trying to instill at Oklahoma State, which ventures back this way to play Marquette on Sunday after splitting a pair in Chicago last weekend. To that end, he has established a Final Five Club that operates this way. If a player needs to be disciplined, he`s taken five miles out from campus at 5 in the morning and told to run back.
John Potter, a Cowboy forward, turns out to be the ranking member of this club. ”In fact,” says State assistant Rob Evans, ”he`s been in it so much, he says it`s like he`s president, vice president, secretary and rush chairman.”
– Missouri guard Anthony Peeler is back after being academically ineligible for the Tigers` first seven games, and that can only help forward Doug Smith. For, with Peeler absent, he was the only real experience in the Mizzou lineup, and as it limped to a 3-4 start, he tried to do everything but hand out towels and water bottles. ”He`s fighting it a little bit,” said his coach, Norm Stewart, of his struggle.
”Yeah,” said Smith. ”Everyone says I have to carry this, I have to carry that, and it`s gotten to me a little bit. I try to do too much.”
– Lee Mayberry is now a star for second-ranked Arkansas, a versatile performer his coach, Nolan Richardson, often compares to the Bucks` Paul Pressey. But it turns out that Richardson was initially reluctant to sign his sparkling guard, and that he offered him a scholarship only after some strong lobbying by his son and assistant, Nolan III.
The problem here wasn`t talent. It was nepotism. Mayberry grew up in Tulsa at the same time Richardson was coaching there, and he attended Richardson`s summer camp; shot baskets with Richardson`s children in the family driveway; and was in the wedding when Richardson`s son married his sister. ”I didn`t want any family problems,” Richardson says now, explaining his reluctance to recruit Mayberry.
”I`ve heard it so many times. As great as Pete Maravich was, a lot felt he was only as good as he was because of his father (who was also his coach). I wouldn`t let my son play for me at Tulsa even though he was a great point guard. So I had to be sure he was good enough that everyone could see (he deserved to play).”
It was only then that Richardson offered Mayberry a scholarship. Only after he was sure that he would develop into the splendid player he has become.
– ”Forty minutes of hell,” that is what Richardson and his players call their running-and-pressing style of play. The name`s origin? Well, back at Tulsa, he opened practice by setting a timer at 40 minutes, and then pushing his players through a series of drills as it ticked its way toward zero.
They would do wind sprints. They would slide in their defensive stance. They would play catch with a medicine ball. They would play catch with a ball filled with water. They would lift weights, and they would backpedal, and they would do so much more, and only after the 40-minute bell sounded would they get a break.
”Coach, this is hell,” his players got to muttering, and-like that-a slogan was born.
– One of this season`s early surprises, disappointment division, has been Michigan State. The Spartans entered it in everyone`s Top Five, but not only have they lost to UNLV, Nebraska and Bowling Green, they have also struggled against Central Michigan and Cincinnati (winning there on a disputed, last-second shot).
Their problem is not Steve Smith, their brilliant All-American who`s averaging close to 30 a game. It is, says Jud Heathcote, ”That we seem to be Steve Smith and everyone else in a supporting position instead of everyone else stepping forward. We`re still trying different combinations, but it doesn`t seem we have much offense no matter who we`re playing. We`re not a cohesive unit yet, and I don`t know if we will be.”
Has it been more of a struggle than you anticipated?
More Top Picks Best Asian Ceramic Soup Spoons
”When you say struggle, all of coaching is constantly trying to put the right pieces in the right places. So when you say struggle, it`s more a constant challenge when you`re not playing as good as you think you can. Right now, I`m disappointed, but not discouraged. I still think we can have a good season. Maybe not what was expected of us, but a good season.
”But yeah, I thought we`d be better, no question about it.”
– Smith, you may have noticed, favors game shorts about as baggy as those worn by, oh, George Foreman. Seems that was the fashion back when he was growing up in Detroit, and so now-before each Spartan game-the rail-thin guard trades drawers with 270-pound center Mike Peplowski.