Basketball Origins

Branch McKracken, iuhoosiers.cstv.com

(first in an occasional series)

In the last post, Michigan State’s Pressure Release Play, I didn’t mean to imply that Michigan State and Tom Izzo made this play up. In fact, it and most of what you see college and pro teams run on both offense and defense has been around a long time. Coaches learn from the coaches they worked with or played for, then copy, use and adapt what they learned. I think it would be interesting (and perhaps interesting to pursue more fully at some point) to know who first made up certain offenses (and defenses), and who had the greatest success and popularized a particular offense or defense.

For instance, I was first exposed to that hi-post, wing-goes-backdoor play when I was an assistant at Harvard. My boss, the head coach, Peter Roby, pulled it out when our wings were having a hard time getting open. (Roby LOVED demonstrating the bounce pass from the elbow; he used to do it not looking, back to the basket [not recommended].) Roby played (captain) for Gary Walters at Dartmouth. (Walters was later to be head man at Providence, and now Athletic Director at Princeton and concurrently, Chair of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.) My assumption always was that Robes got it from him. But from whom did Walters learn it? Well, he played in high school for Pete Carril and at Princeton for Butch van Breda Koff. But Roby also was an assistant at Stanford for Dick DiBiaso who had been an assistant to Digger Phelps at Notre Dame and Digger worked for Dick Harter at Penn. So, maybe it’s a Harter-ism? But wait, Roby also assisted Pete Gaudet at West Point and Gaudet had been on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff at Army and, of course, Coach K played for Bob Knight. Now that I think of it, Knight always, and much to his credit, attributed Branch McKracken the legendary Indiana player and coach from the 30’s for innovation in the game. Was McKracken the original 1-4 man? Hold it! Didn’t McKracken play for Everett Case? And where was Hank Iba during all this? Well, now we’re going way back. Who then is the original innovator, the one from whom most of this emanates? No idea, but the point is little under the basketball sun is new and coaches smoothly pass good ideas from one generation to the next like a baton. That’s it, I’m gonna check Rutherford B. Hayes’ (any relation to The Big “E”?) Inaugural Address and make sure he didn’t sneak something in there about beating pressure for easy scores.

Technorati Tags: PeteCarril, BobKnight, 1-4Offense, GaryWalters

Play-in Game? What?

Someone please explain to me why there is a play-in game? What? Can’t “The (All-Powerful) Committee” make up its mind? What? Can’t tell one conference, “no, you’re not deserving. You didn’t generate enough revenue for us so you can’t pla-ay?”

64 is so much nicer a number than 65. I just got off the line with The Basketball God and TBG says, “forget it, this game is not worthy. I am not telling you who wins”.

So, it’s up to me . . . The Mid-Eastern or the MAAC? It should be easy, Florida A&M, defending national champions and all? Wait, that was the other Florida. Maybe Niagara has them over a barrel? Yes, awash in the glory of their MAAC tourney run, The Purple Eagles drown The Rattlers behind Coach Joe Mihalich (a Philly guy who played for Paul Westhead and coached under Speedy Morris and the legendary Morgan Wooten) and you always go with the Philly guy.

Down Goes Virginia!

Albany Capitol Building, worldofstockphotos.com

The Basketball God and I, surprisingly, come from the same hometown: Albany, NY. Granted, I’ve never heard the Albany area referred to as “God’s Country”, but, I don’t know, real estate has always been pretty cheap there and everyone wants to save a buck.

Ted Sarandis (aka Ted Nation), the Voice of Boston College Basketball, once named me the 2nd best dressed assistant coach in New England. This, of course, is an utterly meaningless appellation and comes from a guy who thinks Louis is the place where Coach Carnesecca lives, and wouldn’t know a haberdashery from a bong. Who did he say was the best dressed? Dave Leitao, presently the head coach at Virginia, formerly (very formerly . . . like late 80s) assistant coach to Jim Calhoun at Northeastern. For this, it’s time for Leitao to pay the price: call it a hometown pick but in the South Region. . . Down Goes Virginia! The Great Danes of Albany U., 13th seed, snarl, snap, maul, haul and shred the 4th seeded Cavaliers. And Dave, c’mon, please don’t wear that orange and blue tie again.

Technorati Tags: TedSarandis, DaveLeitao, VirginiaBasketball, LouisBoston, AlbanyNY

“Humbled By a (Not Entirely Unexpected) Visit From The Basketball God”

Hal Greer, Photos1.blogger.com

I saw tonight that the odds of picking correctly all 64 games (including the play-in game) in the NCAA Tournament is a very large number, like 9 billion times 9 billion (or the number of jumpers Sebastian Telfair needs to take this summer to be able to have a chance of beating, say, Ben Wallace, in a three-point shooting contest). As an example the stat quoters say that if every man, woman and child in the world fills out a million brackets, there’d still by only 1 in a 1000 chance that someone would get it right. So, it seems it can’t be done, you can’t get them all right, unless, of course, you’ve got an “in”, and that “in” gets you a “not entirely unexpected” visit from The Basketball God.

Why me? Aw, heck, that’s a long story and there are many more posts to go on this blog before we get to that. Let’s just say I recite the correct prayers at night, and have been since I witnessed my first Cousy look-away pass, the first Hal Greer jumper, read about Bill Bradley in John McPhee’s “A Sense of Where You Are”. Still, I did not expect to be so chosen.

Revelation Numero Uno: Va. Commonwealth beats Duke in the first round. “Why?”, I nervously ask without looking up from my Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook. Their pressure defense! They forced 170 more turnovers than they committed. What is the record for turnovers by an individual? (Does Quin Snyder hold it?) Greg Paulus is odds-on to break it. Plus, PLUS, VCU shoots threes at over 40%. Coach K’s a good man, was certainly good to me, but he needs a little time off after last summer, righteously.

Technorati Tags: DukeBasketball, NCAATournament, GregPaulus, HalGreer, BillBradley

Stampede at the Garden; Celtics/Bulls report, 03/11/07

Kirk Hinrich, Chicago Bulls, Yahoo Sports Images

Some NBA games just don’t resonate, whether it’s players going through the motions on defense or mind-numbing, poorly executed one-on-one theatrics on offense, it can get pretty bad. That was not the case tonight. One team in particular, and that would be the visiting Chicago Bulls, played as though they had a plan and meant to execute it. They came to town well coached, well stocked, well prepared, and on a mission. The mission being getting themselves right for the playoffs. Though missing all-around hard-nosed hustler, Argentine Andres Nocioni, the Bulls dispatched the Celts rather easily. Low-Ninety something to mid-Seventy something, I think. (I never know the score when I walk out of the building.)

How could the Celtics have won, actually? Pierce and Jefferson combine for 20? No West (concussion), no Gomes (foot sprain)? No points to be had. Green was rookie-ish with turnovers (though he had one dunk that they replayed five times in the thirty seconds immediately after it while the game was still going on!!!- true, it was amazing . . . his head was BEHIND the backboard when he flushed it); Rondo burned out after a great first half; Telfair is so overmatched (why is he not playing Development League?). Where else to get points?

There were nice matchups all night: Rondo/Hinrich; Green/Hinrich; Pierce/Deng; Rondo/Gordon; and the best: Jefferson/Ben Wallace. Gordon really gets low when he d’s the ball. Jefferson strugggled against Wallace’s combination of strength, quickness, smarts, experience.

Here’s my most urgent thought from the game: the Bulls roster is full of players you’d want on your team: Wallace, Gordon, Hinrich, Deng, Duhon, (Nocioni). Wouldn’t you want them?

Two other things:

1) in the post, “The Art of the Outlet Pass”, I mention how some of the great rebounders of the past, Embry, Walton, Russell, Cowens, et al, would actually outlet before they even landed. Ben Wallace had one tonight: ripped, turned his head and fired to Duhon before he even hit the floor. And I bet he heard my shout of approval all the way from my front row balcony seat;

2) the Celts never had one backdoor cut all night; not one. And isn’t that former Princeton great, Armond Hill, in a suit, two seats removed from Doc Rivers?

Technorati Tags: ChicagoBulls, BostonCeltics, ArmondHill

Someone Please Send This to the Celtics Management . . .

Cheerleaders on Crowe’s rugby club get hook

and sign it Arnold “Red” Auerbach.

Technorati Tags: RedAuerbach, Cheerleaders, Celtics

“Out of the Mainstream But Into Their Hoops!” (Part Two) or “John Amaechi’s Big Mistake “

John Amaechi (from The Onion.com/photos)

(John Amaechi. I know. Old news. At this point all thinking people understand and accept and welcome those of a different sexual orientation. The fear seems to have disappeared once the news broke that gays were not, in fact, training suicide bombers on the steppes of Afghanistan.)

John Amaechi should have come out of the closet in high school. That was his big mistake. Not so much for him, he seems to be doing fine. But it cost us. Damn, it cost us! You see, we were recruiting him when I was at Harvard; in fact, I flew out to watch him practice one day at his school in Toledo. The only other college coach in the gym was Bob Knight’s top assistant at Indiana University, Ron Felling. Would Bob Knight have wanted a gay kid in Hoosierland? I don’t know, Knight’ll fool you sometimes. My “fantasy” is that he would not have. How about all the other coaches “after” him? He eventually went to Vanderbilt but quickly transferred; must have been all those homophobes down South. Maybe all the coaches and all the teams across the country who wanted him to come to their campuses because he was bright, personable, articulate, easy-going, big, strong, oozing with basketball potential and gaining skills rapidly would have turned their backs on him because he was gay. That would have been so great, because at Harvard, we would have taken him in a second, welcomed with open arms his intelligent, athletic, gay self and definitely, DEFINITELY, been on our way to the ever elusive goal: Harvard’s first ever Ivy League basketball championship. John, oh John, why couldn’t you have come out sooner?

Technorati Tags: JohnAmaechi, HarvardBasketball, IvyBasketball

“Out of the Mainstream But Into Their Hoops!” (Part One)

I like basketball because in its soul resides the ideal of inclusion. As much as or more than any other sport (that is played with a round ball and a hoop) games are won, success achieved, when players trust one another and come together. Coaches (smart coaches, anyway) devote as much time to the concept of “team” and “trust” and “chemistry” as they do x’s and o’s. In practice and in games, they spread out, screen, cut, work together, move the ball, get the ball to the open player. But they also foster cohesion: “always help a teammate off the floor”; “get your hands together, everyone in here”. High fives, chest bumps, holding hands, crying . . . All that stuff doesn’t work, means nothing, if you’re squeezing someone out. Team defense. Help defense. Players accepting roles and thriving in those roles. I accept you and trust you; you accept me and trust me; we believe in one another. We understand our limitations, put to good use our strengths. Teams lose and win together or risk never find meaning or success. And once again, sport mimics life.

Funny after reading Alex Beam’s column in The Boston Globe today on Mitt Romney’s chances of getting elected given his Mormon faith, comes this worthy article in today’s NY Times:

U.N.L.V. Forward Does Not Lack Family Support

“When the cheering section for Joe Darger is at full strength, it includes his father, his mother, his 18 siblings and his father’s other wife.

They wear red T-shirts, blow on red noisemakers and wave red pompoms. They appear no different from any other group in the U.N.L.V. family section — only larger and louder.

“We cheer for all the players,” said John Darger, Joe’s father. “We like to get a little rowdy.”

John Darger is married to Carollee Darger, Joe’s mother. He is also married to Elizabeth Darger, the mother of eight of his children. He calls himself a polygamist.

His children range in age from 2 to 40, with Joe in the middle at 20. A 6-foot-7 sophomore with spiky blond hair and a feathery shooting stroke, Joe is the most accurate 3-point shooter on the Nevada-Las Vegas basketball team. The Runnin’ Rebels, 25-6 after a 65-47 victory over Colorado State on Saturday, are poised to qualify for the N.C.A.A. tournament next week.

“I think we’re going to be on the road for a while here,” Carollee said. . .

continue here

(Thanks again to Nelson Wang for the head’s up!)

Technorati Tags: UNLVBasketball, Mormons, polygamy,

“Binghamton U. vs Boston U., America East Tourney, 1st Rd. Report (03/03/07)

Corey Lowe
Boston University Basketball Images

Someone asked me after the game if I was surprised BU won. I said, “no, I wasn’t surprised. Everyone knew BU would win”.

I love going to mid-to-low major DI games. Boston’s great for them because BU, Northeastern, and Harvard (RPIs of 207, 171, 185 respectively), although solid teams, and sometimes a level or two better than solid, get no support, no crowds. Therefore, it’s easy, cheap, and eminently enjoyable going to their games. The gyms are tiny and the fans so scarce that you can almost always sit in, say, the fifth or sixth row - optimal - and catch everything: coaches’ calls, the up-close intensity of the defenders, an appreciation of their effort, size, speed, quickness, skill. If you’re lucky, you can even catch an errant pass and take-off out the door with it. Hey, those things are like forty bucks! In these gyms, each smaller than my high school gym, you are in the game. Perfect. Because that’s why you go.

But something happened between the regular season’s games at BU (Boston University, not Binghamton University) and their hosting the America East Conference Championships: they (naturally) moved the games to their gleaming, new, OVERPRICED hockey rink, the Agganis Arena. Instead of hardwood bleachers, your tush gets cushioned seats. Instead of the old FairPlay scoreboard, you got the Jumbrtron that’s bigger than my house. Instead of 10 bucks lighter in your wallet, you’re down 25! Instead of catching bad passes, you’re catching a cold from the draft of 6,000 empty seats. This was two lo-major teams playing a beta version of the big-time in a big-time arena.

Alright, there might have been 2,000 there but the scene just wasn’t as much fun. Binghamton, coached by Al Walker, an assistant at Cornell when I was with the Crimson, jumped on the Terriers, 15-3. Five foreign born players on the Bearcats and the same on the Terriers. No edge there. Binghamton has a 6′9, 260 lb. chiseled dude from Serbia, #44, Miladin Kovacevic, with a shaved head and fat goatee who set 3,000 screens in 20+ minutes. What a career in Ultimate Fighting he has before him! The screens and goatee were to no avail. Terriers (with assistant coach Mike Costello who has coached many NTL clinics and weekend camps) scrapped their way back to 26 all before Binghamton took a 5 point half time lead. Mostly man-to-man for (I so badly want to type BU) the Terriers with some 1-3-1 thrown in to keep ‘em off balance. All man for Binghamton. Twelve point second half lead for the visitors but the hosts answer and pull even and then away in the last five minutes behind one of the heroes of last year’s Massachusetts Divsion One State Champions, Newton North, our local boy, Corey Lowe. The Bearcats poorly defend the dribble drive. BU wins, 62-58.

Couple other observations:

1) Boston University has a freshman guard, Tyler Morris, who was named AE Rookie of the Year. I’d be amazed if at least 1,850 of the 2,000 in attendance weren’t saying to themselves: doesn’t that kid’s game remind you sooooo much of Steve Kerr’s? Very quick jump into a quicker release jumper. Sweet.

2) Because it’s a hockey arena, the closest sideline seats are actually about twenty feet away from the court - a long way! Still, the other Serbian on Binghamton, #43, Lazar Trifunovic (they’re both freshmen) threw a pass, out of the half-court offense, that landed in the third row. He was on the elbow and the pass was to the corner. It took off like Evel Knievel over the Snake River Canyon. It was the most spectacularly wayward pass I have ever seen. I thought, wow, where is that going?

Technorati Tags: AmericaEast, BUHoops, BostonUniversity, BinghamtonUniversity

“No One Like DJ? How About Clyde?”

In the intro to the espn radio interview with Bird re: DJ (”Bird: DJ was more than a point guard”), there is a short piece in which Bob Ryan states that there was no one like DJ, that he played his position like no one before or since. Dan Patrick, the interviewer, brought Ryan’s point up to Bird and suggested Joe Dumars as a comparison. Bird rejected it citing DJ’s duties as point guard.

All that came to mind after seeing Walt “Clyde” Frazier at The Garden last night. (He does radio for the Knicks.)

How about it? Was Clyde’s game comparable to that played by DJ?

1) wasn’t a classic point, but assumed those duties;

2) was a true defensive stopper and game changer from the defensive end;

3) subordinated his game, somewhat, so that others and the team could flourish;

4) rose to the occasion during big (and the biggest) games;

5) fearless and astoundingly effective at taking it to the hoop in crucial situations;

6) not a classic shooting form (that’s for sure), but, similar to DJ, could be counted on to take it and make it if necessary;

7) surprising rebounder from the position.

Technorati Tags: WaltFrazier, DJ, BobRyan, LarryBird