Hardwood Happenings

By Chris Souder

I am glad to be able to blog again and what a first topic — UK Basketball — or lack of.

Of course if you have read any of my blogs I was and still am a Tubby fan.  I could say to most UK fans you got just what you deserve but I won’t!  I also listen to these people calling in blaming the program on Tubby.   I will give you my opinion on the whole situation and yes, I am still a UK fan, I will stick with the school and not just the coach — even though I will admit Minnesota is a close second.  I will not be like the Pitino disciples that jumped schools when he returned to Louisville.

Talent Level — I think one of the big gripes is that Tubby left the program with no talent. Maybe his recruiting was not what we think is should have been but if you stop and think it was not as bad as it appears.   What if Azibuke had stayed at UK?  What if Crawford had not wavered about transferring and cost him a year to sit out, what if Morris had not gone pro?  Look how many players he has in the NBA right now!  Morris, Bogans, Azibuke, Hayes, Prince, and Rondo.  You name how many other college teams in that same time period has as many pro players as what Tabby had.  There may be a few, but not many.

Also I will go back to what I said when the heat was on Tubby he averaged 26 wins per season with a tougher schedule than what they are playing now with 6 wins.  You can blame Tubby all you want but lets face it, he would not have lost to Gardner-Webb, San Diego and just may have found a way to beat Louisville — he seemed to have Rick’s number.  They may not have beaten UNC, IU but they would not have lost the way the Cats are getting beat now.

I am a coach so I don’t like to second guess Coach G., but I would like for someone to explain to me what he is doing with Crawford?  If he is in the doghouse can they work their way out through practice?  My point is if he is in the doghouse that is fine, I have players get in the doghouse and they work their way out through practice.  My next point is if he is in the doghouse why does he start and still plays  about 30 minutes or more.  I just don’t understand his pattern -I am not at practice - but if they are not doing what they are supposed to do then by all means, don’t play them. Lately, one guy will play 20 minutes one game and then go the next two games without even getting in the game.  I don’t understand why when we have a one point lead at halftime against UL Coach G. starts back Coury and before he can get Crawford and others in the game we are down 10 or so.

I am willing to give him some time but I am afraid he may be in over his head. I hear he is a tireless worker and great recruiter but will his tactics work at UK where you are constantly under the microscope.  His press conferences are painful to watch and listen to.  I feel sorry for Tom Leach who has to fill air time because he gives one word answers and seems sarcastic most of the time.  Has anyone noticed besides me that when we loses he has this smirk on his face and just says well, we got whipped again.  How long will that answer work?  That would not work if Tubby was here.  I agree he needs time to put his own stamp on the program but he has some strange ways!

He seems to demand a lot from his players at all times and practices are apparently brutal. That is okay,  and he also wants them to be leaders (Crawford, Bradley) but I am a firm believer that attitude reflects leadership. If all the rumors are true and that is as far as I will go with that, then how can he expect his players to buy into what he is selling!!

That leads me to another point: what happened to running a class program?  Tubby was nothing but class and always ran a class program and expected his players to act in the same way and represented the University in a classy manner.  Can we say the same thing about UK’s program this season, starting with the Coach?

Has anyone taken a look at Minnesota?  They are fired up with Tubby and how they are playing!  They took a very good Michigan State team to the wire on the road and have won more games than UK with less talent. I think they are like 12-3!!  What are we??

As far as his recruiting goes, I think he landed Ralph Sampson’s son who was a big time recruit, how did Tubby get him to come to Minnesota if he can’t recruit?  I will bet he will finish higher in the Big 10 than we do in the SEC and we have more talent than Minnesota does.

I guess that is enough for my first blog of 2008 and I hope to hear your comments!  Go Gophers—I mean Cats!

Until next time go out to the Hardwood and see what is Happening!!

I recently received an e-mail from Von Perry, the girls basketball coach at West Carter, and she was asking for some input from other girls coaches concerning Title IX. She states that she recently attended a newly-established Advisory Committee at the KHSAA where the main topic was Title IX. She said that much of the discussion took place in regards to this topic and she posed the question to the association if they had ever polled the coaches on Title IX. Guess what the answer was? You guessed it—NO!!

Coach Perry took it upon herself to poll coaches on their feelings on this issue and to take the results back to this advisory committee. Coach Perry heard back from 82 of the girls coaches across the state, including yours truly. She is currently putting these responses in a packet to be sent to Bridget DeVries, Larry Boucher and Julian Tackett to see how the STATE really feels about this.

Results!

Here are some legitimate responses and questions that we all have:

* Boy/Girl doubleheaders are killing our JV schedules.

* Girls are embarrassed by the crowd leaving after the boys games.

* Why does football not play on Thursday night to allow soccer and volleyball Friday nights?

* Difficulty in scheduling freshman games.

* Girls are getting the leftover officials on prime time nights.

* Attendance at girls games is declining.

* Sunday afternoons should not be considered prime time nights.

* Parents should not have to pick between which child they watch if both are playing on the same night at different locations.

* Gaps are created in the schedule where we may go an extended period between games.

These are legitimate concerns that all girls coaches encounter. Some of the questions I have are as follows:

It would help a lot if they would make prime time nights on Thursday nights instead of Sunday afternoon. I have been coaching girls’ basketball for 11 years and I have never and don’t plan on playing on Sundays. If I could count Thursday as prime time, my scheduling would go much smoother.

I have another question for the KHSAA. Several years ago we played in the LIT in Louisville (about as prime time as you can get) but since it is an away game you can’t count that as a prime time game – I don’t understand that at all!! Why can’t a high-profile game home or away be considered prime time? We have played in the Fifth Third Tournament at Lexington Catholic, probably the most prestigious girls tournament other than the Sweet 16, but yet it does not count as a prime time game.

We are always compared to boys basketball, yet football is not compared to anything — why is that? Title IX is suppose to help when boys sports have more than girls. I am sure that happens and I know it used to happen all the time, but I think we are getting ridiculous with all this. I also don’t like when I hear that a baseball team or some other boys team can’t have certain things that they have worked very hard to obtain, because the girls teams don’t have that kind of money. The way I look at it is there is always opportunity there for a boys or girls team to make money - it is just about how willing or how hard to you want to work to be first class. Don’t punish a boys team because the girls team chose not to work or raise funds for what they want.

Mercer!

I will say that ever since I have been here at Mercer (8 seasons), we have had an outstanding booster club and we have always raised the funds necessary to run a first class program. I do think sometimes what if we were the boys program and we raised these kinds of funds each year and the girls’ team did not, we would not get to spend our money that we have worked so very hard for! Boys coaches — I feel for you! I don’t get it either when some girls teams don’t think they can raise the money. I have coached both boys and girls and let me tell you, girls will work circles around boys when it comes to selling or working a fund raiser. I am not saying that it is like that here at Mercer, but I know it happens at a lot of programs across the state.

I just think if we took a more common sense approach to this it would be a lot better for everyone. We should operate on a need basis verses a want basis. I like to use baseball as a example because it seems to happen a lot in this sport compared to softball. What if a baseball team needs new dugouts and they spend several years raising funds, achieve the money necessary but can’t use it because softball does not have that amount of money? I have a problem with that, because maybe baseball needed new dugouts and were willing to work to raise the money themselves, but the softball team was perfectly satisfied with their existing dugouts. Not only does this not seem fair but it creates animosity between the two programs. This happens in every sport except football, because there is nothing there to compare! Keep in mind these are just my opinions and I can see how boys coaches can get just as miffed as girls coaches.

Back to the way it used to be

I bet if you asked girls coaches when they would want to play their basketball games they would tell you the way it used to be! That being playing on Monday and Thursday nights with an occasional weekend game. Some don’t like Monday games because they force you to practice on Sundays, but the KHSAA can’t use that excuse because they consider it a prime time game day! If you counted Thursday as prime time then you could solve the scheduling nightmare basketball coaches are encountering now.

Did not really pay attention

I really did not pay attention too much to this until last year when my schedule had gaps in it where we might play 3 times in one week and then go 10 or 12 days without a game. This is a killer. The last straw for me was at our last regular season game at Southwestern where we played the PRIME TIME second game. The boys game went into overtime and was very exciting and drew a good crowd. When our game started you could hear yourself thinking, the crowd was so bad. EVERYONE LEFT AFTER THE BOYS GAME!

How is that Title IX rule helping girls basketball? If we had been allowed to play Thursday night, we would have had a decent crowd! Girls coaches could go on and on about this issue, but we will see if the KHSAA listens to Coach Perry and her colleagues or if they turn a deaf ear. I know what my guess is and I will keep that to myself.

Come on Summer Break! Remember, players are made in the off season!!

A lot of people think that high school basketball is over and oh, how that is so far from the truth!! About the only time we are not doing something is from June 25-July 9 and that is the high school dead period. So we basically take two weeks off and the rest of the time is used to get prepared for the upcoming season.

Here at Mercer we have already started getting ready for next season. We began last week with weightlifting and open gym. We will go three days per week until school is out and then we will pretty much go every day until the dead period begins. We currently have about 15 girls participating. This does not include the girls who are participating in a spring sport, but even some of them will show up from time to time.

We also will have our camp for future Titans May 29 - June 1 and our current players help work this camp. From there we will begin a summer league in Woodford Co. for three days, two games per day. Next, we will go to another summer league in Elizabethtown for three days and go straight from there to a league in Pulaski County. Not quite to the dead period yet, we then have a three day camp at Berea College. At that point we will take the state-mandated two weeks off before getting back together and heading to a summer league in Rockcastle County. This will be our last summer league, but we will continue to lift weights the remainder of the summer until school starts.

Let’s review!

From today, April 18, 2007, we will be in the gym and weightroom a total of 14 days and this just takes us to the last day of school on May 18. After that we will be in the weightroom and gym a total of 29 more days up until school starts back at the end of July. We will play right at 30 summer games or so. This does not include the individual workouts that some of these girls choose to do when we are not doing team activities. That is a lot of basketball!! We have put a lot of hard work into this program and believe it or not, this is what it takes to keep up with other programs because basketball is a skill game and skills must be refined.

I really like summer basketball because I try to be a little more laid back and see how kids react to certain situations and different lineups. I can also tell who is working on their own, and who is not. Summer basketball is not mandatory and I don’t call trying to find where everyone is, I want them to enjoy summer basketball and want to come. A lot of kids want or need jobs, but we try to emphasize to them that they are going to work the rest of their life so try and enjoy their friends and enjoy the life of a high school athlete.

Sometimes girls seem to burn out quicker than boys!!

We have noticed that girls tend to burn out or need change around their sophomore or junior year. I think a lot of this has to do with girls maturing faster and maybe a bigger reason is that we tend to bring a lot of girls up during middle school years so by the time they are juniors they have already played four years of high school basketball and are ready for change. I have tried to watch this closer the last several years to keep this from happening, but it is difficult, especially if they are talented and can help our team at an early age, and let’s face it - it’s all about winning!! A lot of girls will also tell you they don’t want to play college basketball, where almost every boy will tell you that they would love to play college basketball. I have a daughter of my own who is reaching that age and I am trying to listen to her to keep her from burning out. She recently had an opportunity to play for her uncle on an AAU team this past winter but opted not to, saying she needed a break. As much as I really wanted her to play, I tried to listen as her dad and not her future coach. I hope it pays off, but only time will tell.

Regardless of whether there is burnout or not, there is no doubt that players are made in the offseason!! From April to October is when you get better, from October to March everyone progresses at the same rate!!

DeMoss?

Why all of a sudden would Mickie decide to hang it up? She took the high road but I guarantee you it had something to do with Billy G. getting $2.3 million and Mickie getting $.3!! I don’t blame her. Barnhardt stated that he tried to talk her out of it but he never said he offered her more money. I feel she was on her way to big things in UK basketball.

I would like to see the coach at Middle Tennessee get the job. He apparently can recruit and has a lot of Kentucky kids on his roster. I doubt they will hire one of the assistants and I would think the state the program is in now, there would be a lot of interest in the job. Why doesn’t UK go after the big fish for this program like they did the men’s? In fact, you don’t even hear anything since she announced she was leaving! Once again it is just women’s basketball!! We often find ourselves saying the same thing at the high school level when decisions are being made.

Next week I may talk some about Title IX and how it is affecting high school girls basketball!!

Go Titans!!

How can you not like what you hear from the new captain of the Wildcat ship? Our Billy (Billy G.) sounds very exciting and maybe just what Kentucky fans are looking for — a true basketball junkie!! How can you not like his passion for the game and his enthusiasm for wanting to be at UK!! Of course he has not won his first game yet, but I can tell he is going to be a crowd favorite or until he has a bad loss or bad recruiting year!! Lets hope this does not happen and lets hope his recruiting ways continue at UK.

Jai Lucas

I do think we have a great chance of getting Jai Lucas now, especially the way Billy G. handled Acie Law. I think Lucas can see himself being another Acie Law. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Patrick Patterson

I don’t think we have a very good chance at him, I think he is Billy D. bound! Lets hope Billy G. can persuade him to come this way.

What he expects!

I really like what he says his teams must do. Play hard, Play smart and Play together. That is simple but very true to any successful team. I have heard that if you do not play hard for him you won’t get a smell, which is the way it should be. Ramel Bradley could really use the second part of playing smart, he does not always make the best decisions but does play hard. I think Joe Crawford may be in for a rude awakening, I don’t think he played hard all the time or he would just disappear. I think Jodie Meeks will excel in his style as will Jasper. I just hope he can pull in a couple good recruits even if he has to go the JUCO route.

Tubby, Pitino and Donovan

Now that we have a new coach, and one that will not ever be outworked by anyone, let’s give Tubby, Rick and Billy D. a rest. Let’s remember the good things that Tubby and Rick did for the UK program and let Billy coach at Florida and make him wish he had taken a serious look at this job. I just hate hearing these call in shows still bashing Tubby or still wanting Pitino or Donavan. The first bad loss UK has next year, I am sure it will be Tubbys fault on all the call in shows. Wish him luck at Minnesota and thank him for the class he brought to the program. Get behind Billy G. in good wins and also in bad losses, which I think we will have next year. Be a true fan and stick with the team and the coach thru good and bad times.

I have been a huge fan of Tubby, but he is gone and it is time to move on and I really like the hire in Billy G. The next few years of UK basketball may be very interesting and exciting!!

Until next week, Go Cats!!

OK, now that Tubby is officially a Golden Gopher is it going to be Billy Donovan?

My first thought is that there is no way that Billy Donovan will make the move to Lexington, but after listening to him after their win over Butler he is at least considering. I do think he also does not want to be a Nick Saban and make a comment that he will later regret. I do think it is going to be hard for him to leave Florida but he does have that Pitino ego that could lure him to Lexington.

He would be my first choice, but I am afraid if we can’t buy him the Alabama version is on! I also think if we can land him we will land Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas; if we don’t we will definitely lose Patterson. I think we have a real good shot at Lucas regardless of the coach. I would not be surprised either to see Jasper transfer somewhere on the West Coast if we don’t land Donovan.

My personal choices

If I were Mitch Barnhart here are my choices in order:

Billy Donovan — I think he would be what all the fans want and would have a longer honeymoon period that any other coach we could get. I also think he would be the quickest fix because of the recruits we are trying to land.

Ben Howland (UCLA) — Why not? From what I hear he does not get paid very well at UCLA so why not take a shot at him. He has definitely put them back on the map and can apparently handle a prestigious program. I have not seen his name on any of the short lists, why not? I would think if he is good enough for UCLA, why would he not be good enough for UK?

John Calipari — I am not real wild about him, but he is another guy that has the ego necessary to handle the pressure of UK. I don’t think his graduation rate at Memphis has been real good and he flirts in the gray area. But lets be realistic, that is what UK fans want — win at all cost and if we don’t get caught he is great. He obviously can recruit, but can he win the big one?

Thad Motta (Ohio State) — This guy is proving that he can recruit and win. Just watching on TV, his players seem to love him.

Tom Crean (Marquette) — I think he is a good coach but not sure he could handle the pressures of UK.

Rick Barnes (Texas) — He can obviously recruit.

This is just a list of coaches that would be on my short list if I were Barnhart. I love Tom Izzo at Michigan State, but he is cut from the same mold as Tubby so I don’t think UK fans would be satisfied with him. I also like the coach at Oregon, Ernie Kent, and Bruce Pearl at Tennessee but I doubt very seriously that UK would hire either one of those guys.

No Pitino on my list

If you noticed I did not include Pitino in my list. In my opinion, he had his opportunity and decided he wanted more fame and money. Not to mention he has a top five team coming back at Louisville and he would not leave the talent base he has there.

It won’t be long until this will pan out, and big blue nation will either be buzzing or there will be a search committee for Barnhart!

On a high school note

Did anyone mention that when LCA won the girls Sweet 16 that, it is now 7 years in a row that a private school has won the tournament. Guess what? LCA only had one senior. I still say until it starts happening in boys basketball it will stay the way it is — because it is just GIRLS BASKETBALL!

I also went to the Friday session of the boys Sweet 16 and it just seems the KHSAA puts more into that tournament than the girls. The atmosphere was totally different and it has been several years since I have been to the boys tournament. Apparently Houchens has given them a pretty nice check so it will stay at Bowling Green as long as they are willing to sponsor, but I have wondered why can’t they host the girls at the same time they do the boys just like the all “A” does. I am sure girls teams would like to play in front of 15,000 fans vs. 1500 fans. Unless the team is from the Western part of the state there is not much fan base there because of the travel time. But once again it is just: GIRLS BASKETBALL!

Let me know your thoughts and your short list.

Go Big Blue!

I’d like to talk NCAA and the state of UK basketball, especially all the rumors flying about Tubby and his replacement. According to some rumors Calipari is the next UK coach. I heard today that Travis Ford was the next man and also the coach from Texas A&M.

Why don’t we wait and watch UK and hopefully they can put it together and make a run. Of course to satisfy most he will have to win it all.

They say he can’t recruit, but this junior class was the number one class in the nation. That is just part of it; they have just not panned out yet and may not, but the season is not over. I will blog more when the tournament gets going.

I have a better topic that is way more important than the NCAA or Tubby and it is basketball! Take a look. Enjoy and we welcome any comments.

Upward Basketball

As I promised my brother when I agreed to this, this week’s article will be about a passion of his for the last 4 years: Upward Basketball. My brother, Greg, attends Harrodsburg Baptist Church. They began the Upward program 4 years ago and saw approximately 165 kids from 1st Grade through 6th Grade enroll in the basketball and cheerleading program. Incredibly, the program has swelled to almost 400 kids participating in basketball and cheerleading and added Kindergarten plus 7th/8th Grade age groups.

So what’s so different about it?

Isn’t this just like any of the other little league basketball program? The answer quite simply: No. For starters, teams are grouped based on skill level which are evaluated per player at the beginning of the year. No “loading up” or recruiting is permitted. Responding to a call made by the referee from a player, a parent, or the coach is strictly prohibited and enforced. (An area we all could use a lesson in — especially me!) Each game has someone from the community deliver a brief devotion at halftime. Lastly, and maybe most surprisingly, the score is not kept in any game. Huh?

Some not-so-wonderful stats

Sadly, a USA Today poll from a few years ago revealed that a staggering 70% of kids polled wished their parents would not come to watch them play. How can that be? After all, isn’t a wonderful part of being a parent going to watch your child play? Ahhh, therein lies the possible problem. It’s not about you — it’s about your child. Unfortunately, many of us parents (me included) dream of our children reaching the athletic heights we were never capable of for whatever reason. So, many times, that (selfish) desire for our children to succeed gets off balance. What’s the new NCAA theme advertised now: “Most likely your child will become a professional in something other than sports” — or something like that. It’s true. In all my years of coaching I have only had 2 players become professionals — only 2 and they played football.

That was a foul!

At one time or another each of us watching a game have exclaimed in varying degrees of emotion what area of play the referee may have missed. Yelling at the official’s has become commonplace. In fact, it’s now become accepted and almost indirectly taught to challenge any ruling. The Upward approach to this is “what does the official represent on the floor?” He represents authority and we are to respect this role. Do we allow our children to object to the call of them doing a chore in our homes? No. Ultimately, the authority in our lives is God.

Every Child is a Winner

Since my brother has been on the Upward staff one of the rules he hasn’t been too crazy about is no score being kept. After all, aren’t there some lessons to be learned from winning and losing and how to handle both respectfully? This changed for him last year. While watching a game once, Greg noticed some interesting things. 1) The kids in this particular game weren’t playing with any less effort due to their being no score kept and 2) Maybe most importantly, the kids weren’t having any less fun from not keeping the score. Again, ultimately God is really the only one that needs to worry about keeping score. Our lesson is to play hard and keep playing hard.

Competition

Lastly, the most frequent statement the Upward staff folks hear as a “knock” on their program is it just isn’t competitive. No score, no debating with officials, no Championship at the end of the season, no MVP’s handed out, no titles period. C’mon dude. How do you have any kids interested at all? Suppose the best way might be to ask the almost 400 kids in it now. However, the Upward Staff answer is simple: the game strategy is to be the most competitive program available to win the soul of your child for Christ there is. Along the way, we’ll play a little basketball, learn a few cheers and have some fun. Not a bad game plan.

Upward Information

If you’re interested in your child participating in Upward Basketball & Cheerleading, contact Harrodsburg Baptist Church at 859-734-2339. Or Chad & Leanna Barnett via email at upwardguy@adelphia.net.

Ok, like I have said this is my favorite time of the year. March Madness! I love it in high school basketball and I also love it in college basketball as well.

UK Basketball

I am still a Tubby believer even though just about everyone in the state is ready to chip in and buy him out and bring in Billy Donovan — who by the way has lost to some of the same teams we lost to and by pretty big margins. Of course he is getting ready for the tournament and it is ok by most UK fans that he lost those.

We lose in very close contests and we don’t have a coach, don’t have talent and all that junk! In Florida, Donovan won’t get much flack for losing to Tennessee and LSU and Vanderbilt, but if he were the coach at UK — watch out. The thing that amazes me is that there is no doubt that Florida has more talent than any team in the SEC — how did he lose these games?

Do I think Florida will make another run? Probably so. Do I think that UK has equal talent to Florida? Probably not. Do I think Tubby is as good a coach as Donovan? Absolutely!

Tubby is now 20-9 (13th straight season with 20 wins) and it is unacceptable to most and I agree that they blew some games they should have won. I think that record is accepted as a good year anywhere but UK, Duke and a couple other places. That is my point, could any other coach in the country handle the pressures of UK basketball.

Of course Tubby has handled all this talk with class and he is correct that he does not have to defend his record to anyone. I don’t agree with Barnhart coming out with the statement he did; he is suppose to back his coaches. Now, he can talk behind close doors, but he should not come out and basically say Tubby better get it together at the end of the season. Of course Barnhart wishes that, so he can get a bonus if Tubby and the team do well. Barnhart’s incentives are silly. If I read that correct he makes the bonus if the baseball team makes the NCAA and not the coach.

Like I said if Tubby leaves UK, there is slim to zero chance that Billy Donovan would come to UK.

Also, did anyone hear Patrick Patterson pretty much say that if Tubby is not at UK, neither would he? I would venture to say that we have blown chances at him and Jai Lucas because of uncertainty in the program. Of course that will be Tubby’s fault.

As you can tell, I will stick with what Tubby stands for and always be a Tubby fan. Do I question decisions he makes? I sure do, but I also believe he is one of, if not the best, bench coaches in college basketball.

Go UK, win some games in the tournament and the bandwagon will get going again!

What about Louisville? I am not a huge Cardinal fan, but wow are they playing good. Playing with a passion and Caracter is an absolute load! They could also make some noise in the NCAA.

My Final Four picks

If I had to pick a Final Four at this time I think I would go with:

UNC
Wisconsin
Texas A&M (this is my sleeper pick)
Ohio State

I do reserve the right to change in a couple of weeks. I also do feel UK will make the Sweet 16 and possibly the Elite 8. Not bad for a team that has a terrible coach and terrible players.

Who would your Final Four be at this time?

Until next week, keep your head up and shoot with confidence!

Next week I will blog on UPWARD basketball program that is doing great things in our community.

It’s that time of year!

It is now time for all the hard work, sweat, tears to be put to good use. It is tournament time and is without a doubt my best time of the year, not only to coach but to watch as well.

All district tournaments get underway at some point next week, where the region will be narrowed down to eight teams. This is the time of year where coaches start collecting and exchanging films getting ready for that win or go home game. The Mercer Titans will begin play Monday night at 8:00 vs. West Jessamine. The 46th district tournament will be held at East Jessamine. You can certainly check amnews.com to get a complete listing of tournament schedules for your favorite local team.

You want your team peaking at this time of the season and playing your best basketball. You want your players to be confident, but also keep in mind that anybody can beat anybody on any given night. Unfortunately we have proven that several times this season! But hey you can throw out the records and starting late Friday night or early Saturday morning we are all back to 0-0!

Things to consider when getting your team ready

There are several things to consider when getting ready for tournament time. How long do we practice each day? Do we give them one last day off? Do we give them a detailed game plan? In practice how much do we go live? We try and get in extra shooting and one of the coaches stays after for anyone who wants to get in extra shooting. These are just a few of the things that we think about and prepare for this time of year.

I will have to say that the girls 12th Regional Tournament will be an adventure to say the least. I really feel that if you can get in it, you can win it! Also from what I have seen the boys region may be as interesting as the girls. Naturally I want the Titans to win it but I would have to say on the girls side that Rockcastle is the early favorite, but there are a host of other teams that are plenty capable of bringing home the hardware! It should be fun and games should be interesting.

Like I said I am not going to make predictions but you can, so let me know who you feel will win each district (45, 46, 47, 4 and then who you feel will win and head to Diddle.

March Madness is here and a great time of year.

Until next week, keep your head up and keep shooting with confidence!

The team that plays together, stays together!

This week in the spirit of Valentine’s Day I will attempt to explain what my wife goes through during a season. First of all my wife, Carmen, has no idea that I am blogging about this subject. Carmen and I have been married for 17 years in August and she has had to endure 17 seasons of basketball and also several years of baseball when I coached that as well.

I am going to be honest, I really don’t know how she does it — especially since we have had two kids and all the demands that they require.

A lot of people who are not real familiar with basketball don’t realize the time element involved. I am sure some people think that we show up on game nights, coach and go home. Just ask Carmen; she can give you a pretty accurate picture of what all is involved. She would tell you that it is not just a October to March deal — it is 12 months with the exception of the two week dead period.

My wife is a third grade teacher who takes her job just as serious as I take my coaching job and puts countless hours into her job. So not only does she have to do her job at a high level, she has to make sure everything is taken care of with the kids and everyday household tasks.

There are a lot of days I have practice or a game or scout a game that they are in bed when I get home. We often communicate through e-mail just to find out who is picking who up and who has practice and what is for dinner and all those things because we don’t have time at home. She keeps the house clean, clothes washed and makes sure the kids have completed homework or if they have special needs for school the next day.

Did I mention that she also tries to support my program and stay on top of our season? I can remember in 2003 when we won the 12th region Championship for the first time is school history the first face I saw was my wife and tears of joy, she understood what it meant to me and was more happy for me than anyone in that gym. She was also there the year before when we lost a heartbreaker in the region finals and she sent my then 4 year old son over to the bench and he simply asked me, with his lip quivering “Does this mean we are not going to Diddle?” For some reason that sent a sense of peace over me and all I could do was smile at him and tell him we will be back next year and we will go to Diddle.

It truly takes a special person to sit around and listen to me gripe and complain about a bad day, practice or game. It takes a special person when I am home and the phone rings off the hook and it is all concerning basketball. It takes a special person when I tell her that practice is over at 5:45 and that I will be home to eat supper and something comes up and I get home about 7:00 and they waited for me to eat. It takes a special person when the season is over and I am so tired that all I want to do is come home and sleep and knowing she has had events happen in her day that she would love to talk to me about but my mind is not there.

If you are going to coach you better have a special someone at home who is going to be there everyday, good or bad! I have been lucky to have that special someone.

Until next week, keep your head up and shoot with confidence!!

On Feb. 12th we will be breaking ground for our new school and as a basketball coach it will be exciting to watch the new gym being built. Based on what I have heard and on visiting other gyms, ours will be very similar to that of Scott County. If you have not visited that gym, it is a beautiful facility.

Once our gym is complete — hopefully in time for the 2008-09 season — I think about what a great tournament we could host. Just think, we are centrally located and, more important, we would have access to 5 gyms within a few miles, four of which will be on the same campus.

I don’t know of any school in the state of Kentucky that will be able to say that. We have enough hotels in the area and restaurants that it could become one of the state’s best.

Now I realize this takes an enormous amount of work and community support in order to pull it off, but just think what it would give back to the community.

Most of the successful tournaments have one big sponsor and then several smaller ones to help offset all the costs involved. The most expensive part is paying for officials. I would propose that is be a boy/girl tournament and involve as many of the local teams that would like to be involved and then invite others from around the state.

So if you invited 16 boys teams and 16 girls teams, just think of the tournament we could have right here in Mercer County.

When I was playing for Harrodsburg in the 1980’s we always had the Fort Harrod Classic (that later changed to the McDonalds Classic) and I always looked forward to that event every year. I also remember several years ago, when the girls program here hosted the Dairy Queen classic that was regarded as one of the state’s best girls Christmas tournaments.

I think we would be doing great to get another tournament going and involve both the girls and boys teams.

Back to the sponsor thing, I know when I look into a tournament for my team I am always looking at what they have to offer. Some of the things I look at are; how many games are you guaranteed, do they offer any hotel rooms or discounted rooms, do they feed your kids and proximity of gyms that you have to travel to.

Like I said, this would have to be a community effort to pull off and could be a great fundraiser for our basketball teams and we all know about fundraising and that if never ends! My basic point is that it takes a lot of money to put on a tournament that people will want to come back to year in and year out and, if you don’t have a good sponsors, you without a doubt lose money.

When would be a good time of year to hold this tournament? Most tournaments are either the week before Christmas or the week after. I prefer the week before Christmas, because you have less threat of bad weather and personally I like to take my team to a tournament once a year that we can spend a night or two, and I like to do that after Christmas.

There are several high profile tournaments before Christmas that could cause us to look at another time, but I think with our location and plenty of gyms in such a close range and if we offered boy/girl tournament we would have plenty to offer to hold our own.

I think we could even get this going before the new school is built and once it is built just add to it. We have three gyms here on this campus and also the gym on the Lexington Street Campus (Harrodsburg gym).

What would you call it? I guess that would depend on sponsors — if you got a big sponsor name it after them. I kind of like going back to when it was first started here and call it the Fort Harrod Classic Tournament. How about “Titan Town Winter Slam.”

Hey just a suggestion, what does anyone else think? What do you think about the tournament idea and what would you name it?

Just a little predicition here: UK 78 Florida 69!!

Ok, I am probably thinking with my heart and not my head, but hey anybody can beat anybody on any give night. Rupp will be rockin’.

Until next week, keep your head up and shoot with confidence!