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“From Barack Obama to the Sixth Principle of Zone Offense”

Posted by Steve Bzomowski on February 19, 2007

Barack Obama is the junior senator from Illinois. He’s also running for President. Obama’s wife, Michelle, is the sister of Craig Robinson, two-time Ivy League Men’s Basketball Player of the Year at Princeton and now the head coach at Brown University. Not long ago, Robinson was a teammate of Arne Duncan, now CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (and former standout cager at Harvard AND who worked the NTL Weekend Camp in Lakeside MI in 1999) when they won numerous nationwide “HOOP-It-UP” Three-on-Three tournaments after their respective overseas careers concluded. Arne Duncan, at 6’5″, was so unathletic that to call him unathletic would be generous, but was also so good (think a slinkier Chris Mullin) that his senior season at Harvard in a game at Boston College, he scored 14 straight points by himself. No one else from either side scored; think of that. (After having an eight point second half lead, we blew a breakaway dunk and then blew the game, 87-86.) Many of his hoops were scored from underneath the basket, seemingly coming from out of bounds, or, at least, from behind the backboard. He was and is the finest practitioner of the sixth principle of (The Seven Principles) zone offense that I have ever seen.

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6 Responses to ““From Barack Obama to the Sixth Principle of Zone Offense””

  1. Greg Herr said

    Craig Robinson was a player, I remember with chagrin from watching him at Jadwin Gym and the Palestra. But when thinking about 80s hoops and the 6th Principle, the name that leapt to my mind was the pride of Rutgers, Jammin’ James Bailey. Side to side he’d run the baseline, waiting for the defense to turn their heads and the lob pass to go up. And he knew how to finish. If the pros ran a 2-3 defense he’d have been a hall of famer.

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  2. And, come to think of it, a slew of Orangemen: Derrick Coleman, Seikaly, Stevie Thompson, Red Bruin getting in behind the defense and throwing them down.

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  3. Gordon Vidaver said

    Arne Duncan will soon be Secretary of Education : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/us/politics/16educ.html?hp

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  4. I’m gonna angle for an Under Secretary of Education for Basketball position. What do you think?

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  5. […] crafty, unfettered by any defensive scheme or outside pressure (the top practitioner of what I call “The Sixth Principle of Zone Offense”), teaming with Webster to sweep Penn and Princeton early season in our gym; even pummeled a Pete […]

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  6. […] #44 has got the rare opportunity to make both teams better by making the game better. There will be defense (you gotta have defense); there will be innovation (moves never seen before!); he’ll push the ball up court and share the ball. To make this thing work, we gotta share the ball. I’m lacing mine up! #44 didn’t choose me, but I and a whole lot of other people, all around the world, are on his team. (Each of us is ready to give this kind of effort for this team!) Tip-off is at Noon!!! Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)“Defensive Intensity in a Pick-up Game”C-C-Cold! and GO UNC!NFL Week 1 PicksRandom thoughts on last night’s game […]

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