Dean Smith

Country - no thanks. Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker and the Howling Wolf - please.

baby #2's sex should be known in a couple weeks. Hoping for another boy. Connie can use a tall player or two if that it goes that way. Looks like it will be Connie, Or Cook getting baby #2. congratulations

I still think most of you have missed the point I was trying to make so it must be my fault. Players leave early on the best teams and they never get to be as good of a team as they might have. NCAA takes away practice time and teams never get to be as good as they might have. It does take more time to become a cohesive offensive unit than it does defensive. There are more skills that have to fit together. My focus was on the teams inability to maintain continuity and be given the practice time to develop to their full offensive capabilities. I've been trying to stay away from the officiating angle because I didn't want to set anyone off when I said something like, "For those of you who are complaining about that extra step after the hop - if you actually read how the rule is written, the officials were wrong when they called you for traveling and as the rule is written it is correct when they don't call it today." Good thing I didn't mention that huh?

Considering that Self's last DoBO got hired as a head coach at another program, I'm not sure exactly what you'd be reading into that. Norm it just furthers strengthens my view. The last guy in that position got a new gig, Doc did not. I will state I really wish things had worked out for Doc in Lincoln, he WANTED to be there and in my opinion would have stayed had things worked out. That said, I was never impressed with his coaching or recruiting skills. Self not hiring him tells me he may agree with my assessment. NO it doesn't. Doc's largely temporarily parking in the DOBO spot as he figures out what he wants to be when he grows up. He's not married to the K program in a way that you might expect an assistant to be when first hired. There's no indication that Sadler wanted an assistant slot (which would be the one piece of actual evidence which would support your conclusion) and every indication that his tenure helping Self out was similar in nature to Bo hanging out in Norman for a year or so with Stoops. The situations are pretty analogous. Doc is helping Self out? I think you may have that one backwards, KU would be just fine sans a Doc Sadler. That's what a DoBo does - help the head coach out. KU is doing just fine without Roy Williams but they had a better coach when he was there. Doc is helping Self out. It's in the job description.

I find it hard to believe that people are still discussing this when all they have to do to find the real answer is look at my eariler post. The best players only play one year and the NCAA has taken away a large fraction of allowed team practice time. What would the Houston teams of phi slamma jamma do to everyone in the tourney this year. Patrick Ewing, Reggie Williams, David Wingate et al of Georgetown. I mentioned the OU teams earlier, the Louisville team that Houston beat: Wagner, McCray, McCray, Thompson, Gordan, I could continue with all the Duke teams. There are so many teams from back in the day that were only really good and never won the title that would dominate with their upperclassmen today. 1984 Memphis was a good team: Lee, Bedford, Turner, Baskerville Holmes (had to use his first name) and Askew. The best team doesn't always win but that team with upper classmen would be better than anything anybody put on the floor this year. There were better TEAMS before the one and done rule. Better teams that got to practice together longer equals more points per game.

Minor was the guy sent out to third base that ended Cal Ripkins streak. He is also the guy Kelvin Sampson had in mind when he drew up that 1-4 high of his.

Welcome....Be LOUD...Enjoy! Stay the whole game! I hear that the University is going to padlock the arena 5 minutes after game time and will leave it padlocked until the final buzzer sounds. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

One and done. Surprisingly, teams made up of freshmen no matter how gifted are not as adept at putting the ball in the hole as teams of talented seniors used to be. How may of Oklahoma's players would have been there the years they were averaging over 100 points a game. Tisdale, Grant, Grace, King, Blaylock, etc. (probably misspelled half of them). College coaches used to have time to coach them up. Then the NCAA took away a ton of practice time and allowed freshmen to leave after that year and we are surprised that teams don't score as much? It's not rocket science. Clocks don't teach fundamentals and some NBA coaches were the best at it (Hubie Brown) and some because of the 82 game schedule don't spend much time on individual workouts at all during the season so NBA play has suffered because of the one and done as well.

OK I tried to stay away but I just don't have the mental strength. Adam may be the nicest guy in the world (I've seen the other side of him but whatever) but the bottom line from an assistant is can he recruit and can he coach. He has no recruiting experience for anyone nor does he have a record of steering anyone anywhere. I have heard him talk basketball and seen his workouts. There is nothing he does that you can't learn from watching YouTube videos for half an hour. He has no experience doing any real coaching, no experience recruiting, and has demonstrated no real special basketball cognizance. He has promised big things and delivered nothing. I have personally heard him lie to other coaches and have had his lies related to me by the players he lied to and was using to make money from. If it was the 1800's he would be a snake oil salesman but a damn good one. Other than that he is a swell guy. I'm sure there are people out there that know me and could write paragraphs about what an ass I am as well. and it has been a few years since I've come in contact with him. As a believer that we can all change and improve ourselves, maybe he has turned over a new leaf. (You know the wet slimy stuff under all the fallen leaves - sorry....can't stop.....myself.....trying to be..... positive.) As George Elliot once wrote, "It is never too late to be what you might have been." And of course George Elliot was actually a woman named Mary Anne Evens so she changed maybe there's hope for Adam, but I still don't want him coaching at UNL.

Bart Kofoed. Tom Kropp! Coach Kropp could still beat player Kofoed when they were at K-State at the same time.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9123661/usc-trojans-hire-fgcu-andy-enfield-men-hoops-coach

1980 or 81 - Xavier McDaniels, Cliff Levingston, Antoine Carr, Gregg Dreiling ( probably misspelled all of them especially the last - proves I wasn't Googling) four NBA players and I'm missing someone else off that team a Aubrey Sharrod maybe?

And they could do a whole lot better than Doc Sadler. Why would he leave the cushy job he has now at KU? If I was him, I'd stay there as long as I could. He wasn't going to get a good coaching job after he got fired from NU so he ended up landing a great gig at KU. He gets to be apart of one of the greatest college basketball programs. Who would want to leave that. Umm...somebody who wants to coach? Wants to coach and can coach are not the same thing. Robert Sallie or however it should be spelled becomes eligible and how things could have been so different. There is a tremendous amount of luck or things outside your control that effect this game, sometime tor the good and sometimes for the bad. Doc got hired at Kansas because someone there thought he knows something about basketball. When other coaches say something good about Miles its all, "see what they're saying about our guy!" but when other coaches often expressed their respect for Doc it was, "coaching courtesy, what else are they going to say." We respect others' opinions as long as they agree with us. Tubby Smith can coach, Ben Howland can coach, Doc has never had the success either of those have had but he can coach a bit. Let's put you at work doing whatever it is you do on TV and see how many critics show up. It's a tough job that they get well paid for so I guess they need to put up with the cries from the peanut gallery. This, to me is the major problem in America about everything - Certitude. Everyone is damn sure they have all the answers whether its sports, politics or religion, so when someone disagrees with us they can't just be wrong they have to be idiots, immoral, or have some hidden agenda to bring us all down. I do have some opinions on things that I've actually taken the time to research and think about. I think Doc can be a successful coach, but it is possible that I'm wrong and he really does suck. I don't mind the differing opinions just the certitude in which they are presented. Differences should be what gets us to think, but instead it seems to only make us defensive, snarky and insulting. Does anyone know how I'm supposed to get down off this really high box, I seem to be stuck up here.

tcp, you have to stay away from those unreliable websites. Huffington Post and daily kos are of the same ilk. If you want the truth, it's Drudge, the blaze and HHC. The Drudge report started as a Hollywood gossip column and hasn't progressed very far from that. As much as I wish you were right, there have been a few times where they were half a step ahead of me while I was trying to . . . handle an issue. It is really no fun when I find myself saying "how the fvck did Drudge get that?" A broken clock is right twice a day and Drudge is only slightly less accurate than that.

tcp, you have to stay away from those unreliable websites. Huffington Post and daily kos are of the same ilk. If you want the truth, it's Drudge, the blaze and HHC. The Drudge report started as a Hollywood gossip column and hasn't progressed very far from that.

My issue is with any 3 second violation that is called. For those that like a flow to the game (previous thread) 3 seconds is the most preventable call in the game. The ref tells the player to get out of the lane, player gets out of the lane, game continues on. Of course if the idiot refuses to move then you have to make the call but that rarely happens. The spirit of or the intent of the rule is based on whether they gain an advantage. No advantage - no violation. Al McGuire said you can tell how bad an official is by how many 3 seconds they call. He felt a good official should be able to make it through a season without making that call once.

You can't completely get rid of charges or you would have guys plowing over people to get to the basket. What needs to be changed is when someone takes a charge while the offensive guy is the in the air. You can't just slip in front of a guy a split second before he is about to go up for a layup. It is impossible for the offensive guy to avoid contact when he is in the air. I don't think so. Defenders would adjust. There wouldn't be be anyone standing under the rim or sliding under the ball handler from the under side of the lane. Defenders would actually have to defend. There could be an adjustment to compensate if necessary, but the Craft play or even the one on Zeller today, neither actually played defense, they stood there and collapsed when contact came. Play defense, contest the ball, don't play tackling dummy. The line was designed to keep people from standing under the basket and getting rewarded. Forcing people to play defense as you say. Imo if you get rid of the charge rule the defense couldn't adjust. When you needed freethrows your point could just come down and ram into his defender and you're on your way to the foul line. Working hard and beating an offensive player to a spot IS playing defense. And the idea of someone coming from the under side of the lane, they have a name for that - help defense. Then create a rule that doesn't allow you to lower the shoulder. They're making rules like that all the time. They could do it here, too. Make that the offensive foul, dropping the shoulder and ramming the defender. But to slide over stiff as a board and not make a "basketball play" isn't how the game is supposed to be played. Semantically, you're right, it's within the rules, but it's not basketball, or at least it shouldn't be. It's devolved to the point where a guy who comes over to "defend" so late that offensive player has no chance to react isn't what the game is supposed to be. It's a game of action and reaction. It's a rigid play, basketball isn't supposed to be rigid, it's supposed to be a fluid sport. What Craft did was not work hard to beat him to the spot. What Zeller did after his turnover was not beat his guy to the spot. Both plays manifestation of a bad rule and the devolution of the sport, IMO. Craft was in the restricted area and if you can go to the moniter to check the line on three point shots, they ought to be able to do the same to check the restriction line. I actually remember there being a lot more charges called back in the day myself then there are today. And we are just going to have to disagree, I think beating a player to the spot and sacrificing your body IS a basketball player. Sliding under the already airbourne offensive player means you did not beat him to the spot and it should be called a blocking foul. If you want to talk flopping, that's another topic. I don't know if it still is, but simulation used to be a technical foul. Call that once and awhile and you could clean up the flopping pretty quickly. My teams practiced how to take a charge without hurting yourself. Personally I see the problem the other way. I see a lot of fouls called on the defense that I think are bailing out an out of conrol driver. I would prefer those to be no calls. If you are in control and have body control, you can avoid the charge. If you are out of control the defense should be able to take advantage of your mistake. I do have a problem with officials being influenced by who instead of what. Craft gets ridiculous calls that he doesn't deserve because he is Craft. Micheal Jordan's last shot in his last championship game against Utah - HE FOULED BYRON RUSSELL. That was a push off that would have been called in a heartbeat if it was the other way around. I don't think we want to get into "how the game was meant to be played." Have you read Naismith's original 13 rules? None of this is how the game was originally meant to be played. And I know its not what you meant at all and you've clearified you position in later posts, but technically your first post would have made a moving screen legal as well.

You can't completely get rid of charges or you would have guys plowing over people to get to the basket. What needs to be changed is when someone takes a charge while the offensive guy is the in the air. You can't just slip in front of a guy a split second before he is about to go up for a layup. It is impossible for the offensive guy to avoid contact when he is in the air. I don't think so. Defenders would adjust. There wouldn't be be anyone standing under the rim or sliding under the ball handler from the under side of the lane. Defenders would actually have to defend. There could be an adjustment to compensate if necessary, but the Craft play or even the one on Zeller today, neither actually played defense, they stood there and collapsed when contact came. Play defense, contest the ball, don't play tackling dummy. The line was designed to keep people from standing under the basket and getting rewarded. Forcing people to play defense as you say. Imo if you get rid of the charge rule the defense couldn't adjust. When you needed freethrows your point could just come down and ram into his defender and you're on your way to the foul line. Working hard and beating an offensive player to a spot IS playing defense. And the idea of someone coming from the under side of the lane, they have a name for that - help defense.

I don't think he'll necessarily play over those guys, but having a guy like Benny coming off your bench, even for only 5 minutes a game can go a long way over the course of the season. The game will slow down for him as he matures. Just because he doesn't start doesn't mean he can't be an important player on the team. I don't know whether he'll be here TWO years from now, I do think he'll be here next year. In giving him those 5 minutes, you just took 5 minutes of playing time away from Nate Hawkins, Tai Webster or someone else. Assuming the newcomers pan out (not guaranteed, I know), we'll have very good depth at the guard spots next year without Benny Parker. With Biggs, Gallegos, Webster and Hawkins, I don't see where 5 minutes per game should be going to Parker. Just my opinion. I don't know if he will play or not next year or ever. I'm just saying these conversations really remind me of the ones people were having about Ubel four years ago. A few thoughts on this: 1. Comparing Ubel to BP is apples to oranges. Ubel is a post player. Post players almost always take longer to develop and grow into their bodies as comparted to guards. Post players have something BP will never have, height and size. Thus, if a big man can slowly develop his game, his productiveness can increase exponentially. This generally is not true with guards, especially smaller guards. 2. In regards to Ubel's freshman and sophmore year, much of the discussion wasn't so much as to whether he was worthy of retaining a scholarship. Most of the discussion was whether he should have been playing as much or more minutes than Standhardinger. There were very legitimate arguments in that regard, including the prospect that Christian would leave b/c Doc kept him on the bench almost the whole game. 3. Last, we all agree that Ube's is a great person and a great ambassador for the university. Everybody likes Ubes. But the reality is that if all of MIles recruits and scholarship players are of the same talent and ability as Ubel, then Miles will continue to finish in the bottom tier of the league and will be fired after 5 or 6 years, just like Doc. That is simply the reality. Even in his senior year, Ubel wasn't anywhere close to a premier player in the B1G. And this doesn't even factor in his freshman, soph and junior years when he wasn't nearly as productive as he was this year. A team is always comprised of underclassmen and upperclassmen. Miles will need players who can be very productive even as freshman and sophmores, not just their senior year. And once those players reach their senior year, Miles will need elite talent and production from many of them. For instance, a player like Shields is kind of a "floor" of the type of player Miles needs to recruit. Players that can come in and contribute very solid and productive minutes as freshman. They may have ups and downs, but they show they have the talent to compete in this league and continue to get better. Anything less than that is never going to get us into the top half of league b/c all the other top teams have underclassmenplayers like that already and will continue to get them. Ubel was nowhere near the talent as a freshman or sophmore that Shields is as a very young true freshman. If Miles wants to take this program to the top half of the conference, then he needs to recruit and retain elite level players. It is that simple. But we all know that Miles is not gong to bat 100%. He is going to have some misses. Every coach does. If he allows all of the current players to stay all 4 years, and allows all of his "misses" to stay all 4 years, it is going to be nearly impossible to rise to get enough elite players on the roster to rise to the top half of the conference because he will only have a couple scholarships available each year (ie, Gallegos is the only senior after next year) and it is almost impossible to bat 100%. If he has 3 to 4 scholarships available each year, then he only needs to bat .500 to make it work. People may not like this reality, but it is the reality and every coach in college BB lives in that reality and has to deal with it just like Miles. Only Miles has an even more difficult job b/c he can "select" elite talent like Duke, UNC, OSU, Mich. St., etc. He has to look for diamonds in the rough. Many of them are going to turn out to be lumps of coal. He can't keep them all for 4 years or he is going to have a locker room with 8 lumps of coach a few pearls and maybe one rough diamond. This isn't enough when OSU, Mich, Indiana, etc, all have a locker room full of finely cut diamonds. That's a very well thought out post, except I didn't compare Ubel to Benny. I was comparing people's post about Ubel to their posts about Benny. My post was about posters attitude to write people off quickly, no comment on anyone's talent or potential.

It might be interesting to see what happens but as a former coach I find it hard to get any enjoyment out of someone's failure and pain.

I don't think he'll necessarily play over those guys, but having a guy like Benny coming off your bench, even for only 5 minutes a game can go a long way over the course of the season. The game will slow down for him as he matures. Just because he doesn't start doesn't mean he can't be an important player on the team. I don't know whether he'll be here TWO years from now, I do think he'll be here next year. In giving him those 5 minutes, you just took 5 minutes of playing time away from Nate Hawkins, Tai Webster or someone else. Assuming the newcomers pan out (not guaranteed, I know), we'll have very good depth at the guard spots next year without Benny Parker. With Biggs, Gallegos, Webster and Hawkins, I don't see where 5 minutes per game should be going to Parker. Just my opinion. I don't know if he will play or not next year or ever. I'm just saying these conversations really remind me of the ones people were having about Ubel four years ago.

big picture career well done

It was a great play but from what I saw it wasn't a play. They are running motion and they got defenders across the read line which is an automatic back cut to the basket. The reason they ending up cutting from the same side is that their spacing prior to the cuts was not the best. So it was a mistake that turned into a good play. If you saw Talley's defender almost got back to make a play. If there was proper spacing, one cut and no one around to even give shadow help. Motion offense doesn't teach plays, it teaches people how to play.

My thoughts exactly. A little slow on the windup and pretty low on the release. But on the other hand, his shots appear to go inside the hoop with a strong degree of regularity! But watch his feet. He rhythm steps as the ball is arriving. So even if his release appears a little slow to you, half his shot is over before he even catches the ball. That speeds things up. I don't mean to quibble, but his release seems high enough to me, my issue is dipping the ball on the catch which does definitely slow down the release. Eliminate the dip and I think his shot will be off just fine.