BIRDS, DOGS AND KANGAROOS

My guy Rich Zvosec has written a book. Here is the link amazon.com. If you happen to know Coach Z you know he’s one of the best out there. A preview from the site;

Zvosec takes you into the world of low majors that s never been revealed before in detail. It s a world that involves less coaching. More on the time demands centered around fund-raising, commuting and handling off-the-court affairs. It wasn t unusual for Zvosec or any other coach on the low major level to be doing the team laundry, searching for housing on behalf of his players or finding themselves as make-shift mechanics when the commuter vehicles broke down. Such as filling a hole in the roof a van with a female hygiene product. Zvosec takes you into the world of coaching that makes you ask, Why do you do it? And most often the answer is, Because they love it.

Coach Z’s website

ANYTIME, ANYWHERE WORKOUTS

Tonight!

August, Anytime, Anywhere Free Basketball Workout.
Whitehills School Outdoor Courts located on Lake Lansing Road in East Lansing
Tuesday Aug 19th, 2008
Grades 6-12, 6:30 - 7:30PM

One hour of fundamental drills. Boys and Girls. There will be more workouts throughout the month of August.

BYOB - Bring your own basketball.
More information contact Steve Finamore
E-mail: Hoops135@hotmail.com

THE GREATEST?

Charm City’s finest Michael Phelps captured 8 Gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics.  So with that comes the talk if he’s the greatest athlete ever?

When you discuss the greatest athlete of all-time, you’ll get an argument for a handful of former and current ones. I’m not here to talk about that. As usual, Doc Eslinger has some good material on the subject and a link to ESPN’s Jemele Hill’s latest column on greatness.

This is just me, but if I could spend a week with any athlete to see what made them tick, watched them workout, how they overcame obstacles and talked about the competition, it would be Michael Jordan.

I’m not taking anything away from Tiger, Phelps, Carl Lewis, Ali, Bill Russell or many others. But I would’ve loved to been in the house the day MJ came home and was crying because he got cut from his high school basketball team.

I would’ve loved to been in his shoes when the Detroit Pistons would try to rough him up during the playoffs. Or, when he was making the breakdown move against the Utah Jazz that won the game for the Bulls in the championship. (What many don’t realize is Jordan made two plays before that that actually saved the Bulls)

How about the night at Madison Square Garden back in the 90’s when the physical Knickerbockers were trying to play roughhouse with the Bulls during the playoffs and Jordan’s teammate Scottie Pippen was thrown to the ground going to the rack. The foul was called, there was a timeout. As both teams went to the bench, Pippen was sitting down, clearly shaken by the hit. With his head down, and Phil Jackson about to give instructions to Pippen and the Bulls, Jordan pushed Jackson aside, knelt in front of Pippen and shouted to #33, “YOU CAN’T LET THEM SEE YOU DOWN! GET OUT THERE AND GIVE IT RIGHT BACK TO THOSE MOTHER-Fers!” As he lifted Pippen’s chin up.

Better yet, I would’ve loved to been in the Bulls practice facility during Bulls workouts watching the man who many say was the greatest practice player ever!

What makes the great, the greatest?

THE UNKNOWN HARBAUGH

The Harbaugh name is a pretty popular one in football. Jim was a pretty good QB and is now the head coach at Stanford. Jack, the dad was a very successful college coach (I had the pleasure of sitting with him and talking about the craft) but here is the one Harbaugh, John, some may not know very much about. He starts as the new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens- Pittsburgh Live.com

One of the jobs coach Mike Gottfried had given Harbaugh, besides coaching the tight ends as a graduate assistant, was to deliver Pitt’s media guide to every high school in western Pennsylvania.

CONDOLENCES

Wake Forest men’s assistant basketball coach Jeff Battle lost his wife to lung cancer.  She was 44.  The Sporting News has the piece.

This is so sad.  I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost my lovely wife.

Drop coach Battle an e-mail or a letter - he sure can use the coaching world in a time of need.

Thoughts and prayers go out to Battle.

Ph.D.

I think it was Rick Pitino who said, “I want a player with a Ph.D. - someone who is Poor, Hungry and Determined.”

Nicole Forrester, a high-jumper for Team Canada and who is studying for her Ph.d at Michigan State University talks about the craft and school via the Lansing State Journal.

She says she’s ready to compete but is keeping her personal goals to herself.

Everyone keeps asking me that question, and I have been kind of mum on exactly what it is. I think, ultimately, it’s just about leaving it all on the track and not feeling like I could have done better.

She’s even got a website.

Her mental training coach Dan Gould:

“My work with Nicole is one part of a team of people who help her - her coach, strength and conditioning specialists, and message therapists,” Gould said. “We have learned that great performers don’t do one thing right. They do many things right every day.”

Gould on Forrester’s success:

“She did a great job of following her normal mental preparation routine, keeping her focus in the present by focusing on a few process goals and blocking out the ramifications of the outcome.”

SUCCESS

We often wonder what makes some programs/teams/coaches successful and some not? We read books, make calls to others, attend clinics and well, work our tails off.

Jeff Goodman at Fox Sports.com has put together a piece on the Gonzaga men’s basketball success over the years.

“We’ve all been together for a long time and we know what works here,” said Rice, who has been to the Big Dance in all of his nine seasons in Spokane. “There’s a level of trust with the staff.”

THE POWERFUL

Forbes magazine says Nick Saban of the University of Alabama is the most powerful coach in all of sports.

When he visits a recruit, he says, “I tell them this is a 40-year decision, not a 4-year one.” He stresses the importance of his players’ being successful as people, as students and as athletes. Queen Marvin, the mother of Julio Jones, says: “He came in here and talked about education. That’s what I want for my son. Football won’t always be there.”

I was once in attendance when Coach Saban was a guest speaker at an event back in 1999. It started at 8AM and it was probably the best lecture I have ever heard - and I’ve heard thousands.

The Wall Street Journal has a crazy, but scary story on New York Giants head football coach Tom Coughlin and the FBI with some serious extortion.

Indiana has hired a new assistant coach. IU Hoosiers,com has the piece on the new addition to Tom Crean’s staff.

FINE MONEY

This morning I came across something on Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.  Since the year 2000, he has been fined 1.6 million dollars by the NBA.

I also heard of a story where a high school sports program may have to shut down because of lack of funds to support the program.

I have an idea…

Why not have fine money from a particular professional sport go to high school sports programs in that State?

For instance, all fine money from the Dallas Mavericks, go directly to schools in Dallas.

If you are a school in need, you would apply for these funds.

A technical foul by an NBA player or coach costs some coin - so why not pass that money on to a high school program in need?

Also, why not have a fundraising night at a major league stadium where athletes from a high school program sits at each gate and looks for donations?

There’s a ton of money involved in the pro game, why not share it with high school athletics?

Last but not least, why not have a professional player go back to his roots (high school attended or neighborhood) and build a new court, baseball field, or run a FREE camp?

I understand many pro athletes already do this but why not have everyone step up and participate in this program?

A COACH AND THE INTERNET

I once had a D-1 assistant basketball coach tell me, “Nobody reads the internet“. This was back in 1999.  Boy have times changed, huh?

We can all agree that there is a lot of negative material out here.  But there is also some positive.

Take for instance, the Blog.  Many people still don’t have a clue as to what it is but it seems like more and more people are ‘Blogging’.

I have also noticed more guys in the coaching business starting up their own blog.  I have a couple of blogs listed on the links section.  Of course, guys are not going to give you everything of what goes on with their team but it’s pretty interesting for the average fan to get some sort of idea of what the coach goes through.

The latest, Todd Bozeman of Morgan State.

Matt Doherty at SMU.