PERSPECTIVE

A point guard from Ohio State University men’s basketball decided to transfer.  Hotbed Hoops/Flint Journal has the story.

The player who transferred was the back-up to a guy,  Jeremie Simmons a junior and a two-time Junior College National Champion.

Let’s keep in mind it’s the Big Ten, a great education and a great social experience.  Why a freshman would want to transfer after 10 games is beyond me.

P.J. Hill, a junior who was the third string point guard for Thad Matta has an outstanding outlook on the whole college process.  The Columbus Dispatch Men’s basketball blog has the piece.  Here is Hill and the current situation.

“I came here for a reason (and it was) more than just basketball. It was education, everything,” Hill said. “I like the whole atmosphere at Ohio State, and I know if you can make it at the best level, you can make it at any level.

“I know there’s always going to be a fight and you’ve got to work, and you may not always get what you want. But if there’s an opportunity to climb a ladder, then you’ve got to stay and fight. That’s how I’ve been taught, that’s how my mom raised me, and that’s what Ohio State is about. It’s fighting, no matter what it is.

“That’s what I felt, and that’s why I stayed, and I’m not going nowhere.”

These words should be posted in every college and high school player’s locker.  What a great outlook!

This afternoon I watched Hill help win the game for OSU over Iowa.

He controlled the pace, got the ball to open shooters, defended, made deflections, blocked shots and made a HUGE play at the end by diving, yes I said diving, on a loose ball.  He brought energy!  This guy has a bounce to his step.  He pressures the ball on defense and plays hard.

Hill scored zero points in only 10 minutes of play but had 4 assists.  And the most important thing was he was on the floor at the end of the game.  Someone once said that it didn’t matter if you started or not, what matters is who is on the floor at the end of the game when it matters.

Too many players worry too much about their playing time.  Too many ‘outsiders’ get involved when they have no business making a decision for someone when it comes to leaving school.  Someone will take the kid that transferred, someone will give him a chance and I hope he does well.

“Impatience sometimes gets the best of us.” -Thad Matta

Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

HAND – EYE COORDINATION

A good friend who I grew up with back in the day told me something very funny the other night. He happened to be a pretty good player. He was cut from his high school team but was determined to play college basketball after a lot of people said he wasn’t good enough.

This guy worked on his game, 24/7. He spent many nights in the park working on his jumper. He lifted and played all the pick up ball he could find around the city.

After a stop at a Juco out West., he earned a scholarship at the D-1 level where he played against David Robinson while the Admiral was at Navy.

Him and I exchange e-mails daily and I love reading his take on the state of the game today. Sorry, much of it can’t be typed here. But something very funny popped up in my e-mail last night from him.

His son is on Christmas break from school and on the last day, when he drove by school to pick his young son up he noticed a sign outside the school that a coach was giving ‘hand-eye coordination’ workouts over the break for $75 per session.

“Are they crazy?” my friend wrote. “My hand-eye coordination drills were ducking and blocking punches thrown at me by my father!”

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

GAME OVER

I caught the end of ESPN’s Outside the Lines this morning and they had a story on a female basketball player who was the number one player in the country last year in high school. Here is Mark Swartz at ESPN.com and his piece.

This kid was provided with a personal trainer at the age of 7?

That’s a joke.

She signed to play with UConn, one of the top women’s program in the nation. Seems like she gave it all up after spending two days in Storrs. Just decided she had enough. The passion was gone. No more ball (for now anyways).

Oh well, such is life. The girl put in a lot of time over the years to become a top player but the one thing I find odd is her comment. Here is a story from Delaware On-line.com

“I faked it really well,” DelleDonne said of her enthusiasm for basketball. She said the sport was “work” to her. “I just didn’t want to show weakness in any way,” DelleDonne said when asked why she didn’t tell her parents of her dislike for basketball.

Wow, she faked her love for the greatest sport in the world. She’s a good actor. The thing is, there will be many more players after her to come along. And in order to be great at anything, it takes work.

I applaud her courage in stepping away from a great, great sport. She’s 19 years old, she has her whole life in front of her. You go girl, play volleyball and I hope you make the USA National Team and we see you in the 2012 Olympics!

A personal trainer for basketball at 7?

-Coach Finamore

hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

POST X-MAS THOUGHTS

Christmas Day, game two.

2:00 PM Spurs-Suns

I heard something interesting by Mike Tirico, ABC’s play-by-play guy during the telecast.   He talked about the Suns having four days off so that would give Shaq an advantage – he expected to see Shaq do well.   My thing is, how come during the playoffs, when you hear that same nonsense about teams having a long layoff, the announcers say the team may be rusty because they haven’t played in four days?

Suns got off to an 11-0 start early in the game.  San Antonio won it.

Spurs head coach Greg Popovich on the 4 games in 5 nights the Spurs were playing.  “Nobody cares.  All that matters is if you win or lose.”

One of the biggest plays of the game was the last play.  Spurs point guard Tony Parker drove left to the rim and Jason Richardson of the Suns looked to help leaving Roger Mason open in the left corner.  Parker kicked it to Mason and boom!  Three-pointer at the buzzer.  Spurs win.  Game over, arrive home safely.

Always stay at home!  Don’t help, don’t help!

Speaking of J-Rich, I remember him as a junior at Arthur Hill HS in Saginaw, MI.  He couldn’t shoot a jumper.  He was a runner and flyer.   He wasn’t even the best player on his team his junior year.  Fast-forward two seasons to Michigan State University this guy use to get up at 5AM to shoot hundreds of jumpers.  I also remember him in the IM on campus the day after a tough Spartan loss working on his jumper.   Now he is leading the NBA in 3-pt shooting.

Interesting that Steve Nash of the Suns teams up with Nike to run a Skills camp in the summer.  How about every NBA player running a Skills camp in their hometown?  How much better would players be if they had a camp to go to and work on their fundamentals?  Give back to the game!

Hack-A-Shack late in the 3rd quarter by the Spurs.  No use.  Shack made 5 of 6.  Practice those free-throws!

After the game, ABC employee and former NBA player Jon Barry on the Suns.  ‘They don’t defend consistently.”

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

DON’T SLEEP!

This past week was amazing!

I’ve actually lost track of how many NBA games I have watched.

Let’s start with Christmas Day.  I’ll examine each game in different blog entry’s.

12 Noon Hornets-Magic

Orlando came out on top 88-68.  They led by 31 at the half!

I loved how Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy got after his players even though they were well out in front.  You have to play the whole 48 minutes.  Never stop going hard.

A couple of things that had nothing to do with the game:  One, Chris Paul’s steals record.  The announcers were all over it.  Who cares?  That’s an individual record that means ZERO!  Steals are one of the most overrated stats in the world.  Look, they are important, of course, but you can get a steal by not even guarding your man.

Speaking of announcers, they had a female doing the color and she said, “The Magic can’t beat Boston or Cleveland.” No Miss Basketball, they can’t but the Golden State Warriors can, right?

The Magic are a team to be taken seriously.  They have what it takes to get to the NBA Finals!  They can shoot it, post it, and run with it.  They also have a terrific defender in the middle in Dwight Howard.

This is how hard it is to get minutes in the League;  J. J. Reddick, the best 3pt-shooter in college basketball history can’t get a run for Orlando.

-Coach Finamore

hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

TECHNICAL FOUL!

I never understood it.  I laugh when I hear coaches say, ‘I had to get my team fired up’, after they get a ‘T’,  or something along those lines.

As for players getting T’s, I really don’t understand it.

Why get on the officials bad side?

Why complain and whine?

Just play!

Someone once said, ‘don’t complain about something you have no control of…’

Tayshaun Prince of the Detroit Pistons tells the Free Press what he thinks of a technical foul.  A couple of days ago I blogged about the Pistons right here on the blog.  I mentioned they need to stop screaming at the refs and just play.  Tonight against the Bulls Rasheed Wallace picked up a tech, his 11th this season.  Five more T’s and he has to sit out a game. (man that’s a lot of coin racked up in in fines)

The Pistons have been assessed Technical fouls in 10 straight games.

“Have you offered any free anger-management training for those guys?” a reporter asked.

“I’m going to have to sooner or later, because this is getting embarrassing,” Prince said, smiling. “So, I’ll let them know in a couple days.”

You’re damn right it’s embarrassing!  Here’s more from Prince.

“This is what happens when you get a technical foul: Teams make a run, referees start to give them a couple calls here and there, and the next thing you know, we put ourselves in a bad position,” Prince said. “So, Rasheed and Rip will have to realize when is a good time to make that happen and when is a good time not to make that happen.”

That’s right Tayshaun, and if it keeps up, it’s going to cost the Pistons big time.

A few weeks back Eric Musselman wrote about Technical fouls involving the Boston Celtics on his Basketball Notebook Blog.

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

KEEP IT REAL

You here it often about athletes big-timing people after they begin to make millions of dollars; better known as ‘they forget where they come from’.  I would hope that just because a pro basketball player makes a lot of money that they stay grounded and never forget the people that helped them along the way or still respect and appreciate the people they met on the way up.

I came across this piece written by Denis Hamill of the New York Daily News on Stephon Marbury.

Ray Garvey, an ex-cop who used to run the Brooklyn PAL, and who’d coached Marbury in his early teens, introduced me to the quiet, respectful kid on an icy February morning two days before Marbury’s 18th birthday.

Ray Garvey is a cop who just 13 years ago introduced Hamill to Marbury.

At the end of the article, Hamill describes how he bumped into Marbury.

A few years ago I said hello to Marbury in the Knicks dressing room. I didn’t expect him to remember me, but I found it odd that he also didn’t remember Ray Garvey, the PAL cop who’d coached him for several years in “The Garden.”

“I ran into him a few years ago,” Garvey said. “He didn’t have a clue who I was and I’m larger than life in personality and size. Maybe it was too much fame and fortune too young, but it’s like he purposely erased a lot of memories. Especially the ones when he was that sweet Kid from Coney.”

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

THE DETROIT PISTONS

Living in East Lansing, Michigan I get to watch a lot of the Pistons games on Fox. I also have the luxury of reading a few newspapers that cover the team. Everyone has an opinion on what’s wrong with them.  Here are some of the excuses I have heard.

They need more time with the Iverson/Billups trade.

Too old.

Not the right coach.

Can’t win on Sunday’s.

No big man.

And on and on and on…

Here’s how I see it.

They lack energy! They seem to turn it on only when it is convenient.

Rasheed Wallace should get more touches…in the post. (He didn’t attempt any free-throws today against the Atlanta Hawks – the Pistons only had 7 as a team) I don’t care how many 3’s he hits. He needs to be in the post. He can be unstoppable. He has a nice turn-around jumper and his drop-step/up and under move is tough to guard. On the Pistons first offensive possession he took second year center Al Horford into the post and scored with ease.

Rodney Stuckey should remain their point guard. I would bring Allen Iverson off the bench for a spark.

Light a fire under Tayshaun Prince’s ass. I’d love to see him sprint up and down the floor on every possession.  This guy can be one of the top players in the league.

Joe Dumars or head coach Michael Curry need to tell Richard Hamilton and Wallace to simmer down with all the comments to the officials. (I noticed in today’s game against the Hawks, Wallace didn’t have much to say, guess it was on the count of Steve Javie being one of the officials.)

Friday night against the Utah Jazz, Wallace picked up a technical foul which hurt the team. The Pistons lost in double overtime. It’s easy to pick up his voice on television during the action, he is always complaining to the refs.

In this afternoon’s game, Hamilton was ejected with 1:14 to play and Detroit trailing by seven. This is the second time I have seen him thrown out of a game this year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to pull the plug on their season or rip them apart; I have defended them – I’m a coach who is passionate about the game and it bothers me to see a franchise rich in history come out and lose at home to Minnesota, Utah and on the road to the Knicks, Wizards and the Nets. As Mark Jackson would say, “YOU’RE BETTER THAN THAT!”

Earlier this season, the Pistons were able to win in San Antonio and LA (they defeated the Lakers, not the Clippers).

I don’t care what day of the week you lace ‘em up  – you have to be consistent. The Boston Celtics are 25-2, Cleveland is 22-4 and Orlando is 21-6 three teams in the East ahead of the Pistons.

I’d like to see less complaining and whining. The bench needs to show more emotion. Those guys only get off their seats for timeouts and when they check into the game. Back in their championship season, their bench was always standing. The next time you watch the Boston Celtics, check their sidelines during the game; everyone is up pulling for their teammates.

Today in Atlanta the Pistons were down 18 and Fox announcer Greg Kelser said, ‘The Pistons all had their heads down.”

You can’t have that attitude.

Mike Bibby of the Hawks lit them up today with six 3’s in the game scoring 27 points. Iverson seemed to lose him often on defense. Pistons head coach Michael Curry said of Iverson, “Allen likes to ball watch.”

BALL-YOU-MAN!

I’d like to see Will Bynum, Arron Afflalo, Jason Maxiell and Walter Herrmann get more run for Detroit.

Detroit is 14-11, I hope they can turn it around…

-Coach Finamore

hoops135@hotmail.com

JAMEER NELSON

Yeah, yeah, I know – the cat can play.

We all know that, but you know what?  This cat doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

If you’re a hoops fan you recall him leading St. Joe’s to that magical season with Delonte West under Phil Martelli’s guidance in 2003-2004 where they went 30-2 before losing to Oklahoma State in the Elite 8.   Nelson was voted player of the year.

This dude was picked 20th in the 2004 draft!  Point guards taken ahead of him that year were,  Sebastian Telfair, Devin Harris, Shaun Livingston and Ben Gordon.

His career started off slow, but he persevered and worked hard.  I recall reading an article about him during the off-season he grabbed some teammates and worked out hard.

Last night I watched Nelson go off on the Spurs.  Here is a piece from USA Today on their win last night.

Five years after being acquired by the Orlando Magic, Jameer Nelson says he now believes the point guard job is his.

He’s finally comfortable and he’s playing like it.

“I always knew what my role was,” Nelson said. “I’ve just been doing a better job of doing it. Throughout the course of the game you know what to do, having a feel for the game, knowing when to shoot, knowing when to pass and get guys in certain positions.”

24 points on 11 for 18 from the field.  He chipped in 7 assists in 32 minutes of play last night.  The game before against Golden State he had 32.

Everyone is talking about the Celtics and the Cavaliers in the East, but keep an eye on Orlando; they are 20-6.  Coming up they have the Lakers and Hornets, it’s a big stretch to see if the Magic are for real.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY?

That is the question!

You see athletes in all different sports getting into trouble outside of their chosen sport. High School, college and at the professional level. You can log onto any of the websites like ESPN, CBS, Fox, Yahoo, etc. and read about an athlete in trouble.

Seth Davis of SI.com and CBS in-studio analyst has a piece on Eric Devendorf, a guard who plays for Syracuse University. It appears Mr. Devendorf is involved in some sort of police activity at school.

All too often, when a college athlete gets into legal trouble, his coach will justify a decision to keep playing him by reminding us that a person is innocent until proven guilty. That may be true in a court of law, but it’s not the case in the athletic arena. Nobody is entitled to play college sports. When it comes to deciding whether the athlete should play or sit, it falls to the coach to be the investigator, lawyer, judge and jury.

-Coach Finamore

hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!