BACKGROUND CHECKS?

Came across this story from the San Jose Mercury News on the need for background checks on coaches.  This is a tough situation.  I do know when an adult (coach) violates a young athlete, they should be banned from coaching for a long time.

>FDU fired their coach Tom Green a couple of months ago Star-Ledger reports and now they have Shoes Vetrone as their new head coach.  Shoes was at Vegas a few years ago.

>Q and A with new Memphis head coach Josh Pastner via the Commercial Appeal. Pastner is one of the best guys in the business!  You will not find a more likeable coach at any level. This is one guy that will never big-time anyone.  He’ll do a great job!

Q: So, how exhausted are you?

A: Well, I will say, every day since being named the head coach, I’ve looked at it as a total gift. Like waking up above ground is a gift of life you’ve been given, being the head coach of the University of Memphis is a total gift, and I have not taken it for granted, not one second of it. I’ve totally enjoyed every day; the highs and lows, the ups and downs, enjoyed every second of it.

But it is exhausting because there’s so much to do in a short amount of time, and when I say exhausting, just the fact that you haven’t had time to stop. But I’m looking forward to, believe it or not, going on the road recruiting (in July) because it will give you a chance … you really can’t do any so-called recruiting other than evaluating. You can’t call coaches, call kids, so it gives you a chance to get your thoughts in order, evaluate, watch kids and think some hoops in your mind, talk basketball with some other coaches and have some time on the road to jot some things down that might need to be done when we come back in August.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

The Road to Success is all about working hard and going the extra mile!

THE COACHING STARTING LINE

(Part 4 in a series on the coaching profession)

For the past few days I have been blogging about the coaching profession.  I have touched on a few different topics Improvement, Work Ethic and Why We Coach.   Every experienced coach has their own personal story on how they entered the business.   Most stories are very interesting.  Next time you are talking with a peer, ask them how they got their start?

Being a Junior College head coach, and someone who didn’t play at the college level and wasn’t part of any so-called ‘coaching tree’,  I will touch on how to get into coaching at the collegiate level…let me warn you, it’s not easy.  I have been around a lot of coaches over the years, I have studied the profession by reading books, articles and attending clinics.  I have also had the luxury of watching others in action.

The bottom line is, hopefully you know someone (it’s not necessary).  But it sure helps.

Back in the mid-90’s when Fran Fraschilla was coaching at Manhattan College I spent some time with him after one of his games at Draddy.   At the time I was the boys freshman coach at Bishop Ford High School in Brooklyn, New York. (Thanks to Dan Pisselli and Ray Nash)  I informed Fran I was moving from Brooklyn to East Lansing, Michigan.   He pulled out his play sheet from the game, and jotted down Tom Crean’s name and phone number.  “Tell Tom I told you to call him.” (To this day, I still have the sheet)

Sure enough, when I arrived in East Lansing I met Tom Crean (he was Tom Izzo’s number one assistant coach).  We hit it off right away.   In 1999 I enrolled in Michigan State Unviersity as an undergraduate student, became a student-assistant coach and been on a great ride ever since.   Crean taught me a lot about the business.  I watched him from afar and up close and learned.

If you want to enter coaching at the collegiate level, you better try and get with  someone who is good.   You better be ready to start at the bottom and have a small pay check (if you’re lucky enough to get paid).  Entering coaching, there is no surefire, direct way.   Everyone has their own story (as mentioned before).   You can start as a team manager and become a sponge.  Learn everything you can about the business.  Maybe you played for a guy in college who is a head coach and he hires you.  Maybe you know someone who knows a head coach looking for someone.   However you get in, it’s a growing process-don’t be in such a hurry to advance.  There are no short-cuts.

Write letters to coaches, pick their brains.  Ask to work their camp in the summer.   Make calls, shoot off e-mails and introduce yourself.  Let people know what your aspirations are.  Attend clinics and try to speak with the coaches after it’s over.   In the beginning of your journey, be prepared to work hard.

If you are lucky enough to get in, don’t be afraid to get down and dirty.  You may have to wipe up sweat off the ground, hand water out to players and rebound for them late into the night.  Look for things to do.

Do what you have to do to get a coaching job, no matter how long it takes.  Be patient.  The impossible dream can come true.  It takes hours and hours of hard work.   Believe in yourself.  Be yourself; don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t do it.  There will be many people along the way that will try and halt your progress; you have to plow ahead.  Stay hungry at all times.  If you apply for a job and get turned down, don’t give up.

Keep in mind George Karl and Phil Jackson coached in the CBA before they got their NBA starts.  Jackson actually had a hard time getting in.   Mike Davis at UAB sold t-shirts out the back of his trunk to make ends meet before he got a break.  I have a friend who worked part-time in a liquor store at night while he was a part-assistsant coach.   You do what you gotta do…

Tom Izzo at Michigan State gave me a great opportunity.  I can never repay him.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

(Next:  Networking)

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL WESTPHAL

Sac Bee sits down with the new coach of the Sacramento Kings Paul Westphal.

On whether he feels like he has something to prove even with his track record…

“To answer that question, I never make it about me. I would never say, ‘I have a lot to prove.’ Everybody always has to prove themselves in this league. It’s a results-oriented league. At the same time, anybody who has ever coached will tell you that sometimes they’ve done their best job and their record wasn’t even that good. But it would’ve been really bad if they didn’t do such a good coaching job. And other times, if you’re really with a good team, it seems like you couldn’t mess that team up. They’re going to win anyways. You might make a mistake, and somebody will make a big shot and win the game and nobody knows, so it’s comical in one way that you can do a good job and people wouldn’t even know it, because they don’t even really have to care. It’s OK. It’s results-oriented entertainment. But if you did your best, and you know you did your best, it’s a cliche, but it’s really true, that’s got to be good enough.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

CONGRATULATIONS

Sean Kearney has been named the new men’s head basketball coach at Holy Cross.  Sean is one of the good guys in the coaching profession.

Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press on the Michael Curry firing.

Interview with Kentucky assistant coach John Robic via The Sports Unit.

Quick thought:  Where and when does the bad attitude start for athletes?

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

WHY DO YOU COACH?

Part 3 in a series on coaching

Do you ever stop for a second to ask yourself, ‘why do I coach’?

Is coaching what you wanted to do when you were a kid?

Remember the teacher asked you at an early age, ‘what do you wanna be when you grow up’?

How many actually wrote down they wanted to coach? I know I didn’t…

The reasons for coaching vary.  Some enter the coaching profession because they enjoy teaching; to me coaching is teaching.  My first boss at the Division one level at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City, New Jersey Bob Leckie once told me that he “was a teacher and the gym is his classroom.”  Good point.

Men’s basketball coaches like Scott Drew at Baylor, Pat Knight at Texas Tech, and Danny Hurley at St. Benedict’s in New Jersey were raised by father’s who were/are coaches.  So they got a taste of it at an early age.  Some people played the game at the high school or college level where they played for an inspiring coach that piqued their interest about the business.   Some have nothing else to do after their playing career’s are over, some want to stay close to the game and some want to give back to the game.

The love for the game is another reason people coach.  Their willingness to share their knowledge.  Their passion for being around the game, being around athletes and their peers also factors into one’s decision to coach.

Dean Smith once said not to chase the money when coaching.  When it gets right down to it, money is a factor, but shouldn’t be the overall reason for coaching.  Prestige and fame are two reasons why you shouldn’t coach.

Maybe someone gets into coaching because their son or daughter play for their local team and the need for coaches is there.   School teachers at the middle school/ high school level join the coaching ranks, some folks even take on jobs outside the school in order to coach high school.

I know some who have been Team managers at the college level with aspirations of coaching and after spending a couple of years behind the scenes decide that is the path they want to explore.

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York I had inspiring coaches that taught me the game.  They took the time to teach me how to play but most importantly they tried to teach me how to act off the court.  It took a while, but their message finally sank in and the ‘light’ eventually went on.

I had the opportunity of working for a great coach at the high school level in Ray Nash.  It was there I met a few college assistant coaches who at the time were recruiting some of our players.  All of this exposure led to getting an opportunity to work at Michigan State University under guys like Tom Izzo, Tom Crean and Stan Heath.   Watching those guys each and every day instilled in me the desire to coach at the college level.

The competition, preparing for an opponent, the ability to lead and inspire an entire team are enticing to coaches.  Watching film, recruiting, working on the court with your players are areas many enjoy; so coaching is their calling.

There are people who want to make a difference in someone’s life.  They want to give.  Now the level you want to coach is all in your motivation-where do you want to go and why?  I know a lot of good high school coaches that can coach at the college level but they enjoy the security they have along with their teaching job.  Plus their lifestyle in their local town, they are content with.  I know guys that chase every job that comes open because they want to keep climbing higher and higher.

To conclude, some feel it’s their calling in life.  To lead, inspire and getting people to places they never dreamed possible.   The coaches who really care about the profession engage their players to be the best they can be.  A coach can be a major influence on someone’s life; just like a teacher, sometimes even more-so.   If you love the sport, love helping kids, want to give to the community, get involved.   You may find the experience  highly rewarding.  Just make sure you get into it/are into it for the right  reasons.

I was sent the following story on coaching by a good friend, Coach Ray Lokar.  Here’s his website

Why They Call You Coach

The small, 14th-century, Hungarian village of Kocs is located on the main road along the Danube between Vienna and Budapest. These two great cities needed well-built, fast vehicles that would carry more than two people over the bumpy roads of the day in as much comfort as was then possible. So in Kocs they began to build superior wagons, carts and carriages.

One of the best of these multi-horse carts was called, in Hungarian, “kocsi szekér” or a “wagon from Kocs”. Its design was so compact, elegant and sturdy that the design spread throughout Europe. The German-speaking Viennese started to call this vehicle a Kutsche, which is how they heard Hungarians saying the name of their little carriage-making town. From Vienna these lively vehicles traveled to Paris and the French, adapting the Austrian word, called it a coche. When it arrived in Rome in Italian, it was a cocchio. Eventually, the English called it a coach. When Anne of Bohemia married England’s Richard II in 1382, she brought carriages from Kocs, Hungary with her to England. Wealthy squires had their servants read to them as they drove in these coaches about the countryside or on long trips into a nearby city.

So the first coaches took very important people from where they were – to where they wanted to go. And many of them learned along the way.

Are we taking kids where THEY want to go? And are we teaching them other valuable life lessons in the process?

Why do you coach?

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

(Next: The Connection-How Do I Get Into Coaching?)

UNFAIR

Michael Curry has been fired by the Detroit Pistons.  To me, this doens’t make sense.  He didn’t have enough time.  I watched the Pistons closely this year; they lacked a lot of passion.  They never bought into Curry’s ‘team’ philosophy.  He talked about hard work early in the season and it seemed like they didn’t care.   Curry will bounce back.

Here’s another poor article on the so-called ‘flawed’ basketball system here in the Land of the Free.  Tom Oates, a writer from the Wisconsin State Journal. A GM from Europe comments on Brandon Jennings.

“Like many of the Americans we see come to Europe, he just doesn’t have a great feel for the game,” the GM said. “No one ever taught him how or when to pass. Speed and athleticism are fine, but I want a point guard who puts the team above their own individual game. I don’t blame the young man for this. He is just the product of a corrupt development system that is ruining American basketball.”

HA! What a joke.  What does this say about their scouting system?  Did they do their homework on the kid?  Or were they enamoured with an ‘American’ player?   A product of a corrupt development system ruining American basketball? Yeah right, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Dewayne Wade, Lebron James…sure, they came from a corrupt system!

The Nike Skills Academy is going on right now across the country in at different venues.  Coaches are there working with players.   Where do these people come up with this information?  Do they research or do they listen to people who know zero about the game.

Shoe companies sponsor teams as they try to nurture relationships with future NBA stars. Agents, flesh peddlers and college coaches flock to AAU games because there are fewer restrictions than there are in the winter. AAU coaches often are basketball know-nothings and coaching wannabes in search of a future payday.

Know nothings?  Durand ‘Speedy’ Walker of the AAU program The Family based out of Detroit is a very good coach. Norm Oden of the Michigan Mustangs is not a coaching wannabe.  The guy has been around for a  long time and looks to help kids who need the exposure.

This time of year these types of stories pop up all over.  The college coaches are about to hit the road on the recruiting trail and players are gearing up to compete.  Like I have said in the past, there are a couple of AAU tournaments in July with nothing the past two months and nothing in August.   They make it out like these kids are playing every day in the summer at some AAU venue.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

THE WORK ETHIC

Part 2 in a series on the coaching profession

If you are a coach, you probably use the word, ‘work’ often with your athletes and when thinking of your job.  The bottom line is, if you don’t work, you probably will not be successful.  More importantly, you have to work hard! Unless of course you come from a rich family and there’s no need to work.  But I bet the person you are living off has worked their ass off to make all that money!  Whether it’s a job, a relationship or a sport, it takes work for it to be successful.

Work is the most used word in athletics; whether you’re a coach or player.  “C’mon work hard!” “Let’s get to work!”.  Since this is a coach’s blog, let’s look at work ethic from a coaches perspective.

There are many sayings, quotes and cliches when it comes to describing work ethic.  You can actually write a book on all of them.  “The harder you work, the more results you will see.”  “Idleness gives you room for doubts and fears”.  And my favorite, “The only place ’success’ comes before ‘work’ is in the dictionary.”  There is Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It”.   You get the picture…

To me, most coaches work hard-just some work harder than others and some put a higher premium on working hard.  One man’s idea of hard work may differ from another.

You always read the stories on guys who show up to their office as early as 6AM and stay until Midnight.  Then you hear about guys who get in at 8AM and leave by 6PM.  I know of coaches who have been successful and only spend 8 hours a day in the office.  I know guys who have been fired that work 14 hours.

Grinders, runts, workaholics, relentless, doer…you hear all the descriptions.

Where does a work ethic come from? Are you born with it? Do you learn it? Is it instilled?

To me, having a strong work ethic is all about your motivation (another Blog entry/topic at a later date).   What do you want to accomplish?

In college basketball, coaches recruit, they work with their players on skill development and of course preparing their teams in practice, watching film and scouting.   It’s not easy.  In the pro’s, it’s more of the same-except for the recruiting and monitoring academics.   Lawrence Frank of the New Jersey Nets is one of the hardest working coaches the sport has ever seen.  I have read articles, spoken to people and have seen it in person.  Frank gets after it.

Guys like Tom Crean, Tom Izzo, Kevin O’Neil and Josh Pastner are all guys who work their asses off.  Crean once told me, “when you feel like taking a nap, write another recruiting note.”

Working hard is doing what has to be done regardless if it takes you 8 hours or 14.    If you work your tail off, anything is possible.  But you have to be willing to work.  Give so much time to working hard; don’t leave any stone unturned.  One of my favorite actors of all time Steve McQueen said, “Hard work is essential to any lasting success.  Don’t let work bug you.”

Your talent is important but not most important.  Your work ethic can make up for it.  Playing the sport doesn’t matter-too many people put too much emphasis on that nonsense.    Frank and Crean did not play college basketball (not even sure if they played high school).  But they work.  They do everything possible to learn their craft; they are always trying to get better.  They outwork you.

Today, make a stand to work a bit harder.  Put in a little extra more time.  See what happens.  The most important thing is to work smart.  Distinguish what’s most important.  Keep getting better at what you do.

My favorite author of all-time Stephen King once said, “Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.  Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it.”

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

(Next:  Why are you Coaching?)

WEDNESDAY NIGHT NOTES

Congratulations to Steve DeMeo who has been hired as men’s head basketball coach at Newberry college.

New York Times on a High School football coach shot and killed…by his former player.

“He embodied the essence of what a coach should be, and that legacy will endure,” Richard Wilkow, executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, said in a statement. “He will be forever remembered not so much for his many wins on the field, but for the exemplary manner in which he coached kids and led the Aplington-Parkersburg  community and school. This was especially true last spring and summer as they rebuilt from a devastating tornado.”

And of course, finally a story on AAU basketball.  They pop up every summer, right around the time AAU tournaments are starting.  The need to go after the game of basketball here in the States.  Yes…once again, I give you an article written by someone from the Wall Street Journal.

By the middle of the last NBA season, as concerns build about his dwindling playing time and rough transition to the NBA, last year’s No. 2 overall pick, Michael Beasley of the Miami Heat, finally conceded a fundamental flaw: No one, at any level in his basketball career, had asked him to play defense. And especially not in AAU. “If you’re playing defense in AAU, you don’t need to be playing,” he says. “I’ve honestly never seen anyone play defense in AAU.”

Michael Beasley played for Kansas State and Frank Martin for one year.  Martin is a very good coach.  Beasley attended six different high schools before arriving in Manhattan, Kansas.  Yes, I said 6 high schools!

The AAU system has its defenders. New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul says that thanks to the AAU, he learned to play the style of the Utah Jazz’s offense when he was 11-years old and credits AAU for starting his development into one of the top point guards in the NBA. He now runs his own AAU team, the CP3 All-Stars in North Carolina.

“Some coaches teach fundamentals, some coaches run and show athleticism. It’s not necessarily a problem because it’s up to you to watch and concentrate,” he says.

Chris Paul!  Not a bum.  Not a scrub or thug.  One of the best character guys in the NBA.  Played at Wake Forest and helped Team USA capture the Gold medal last summer.

This is a vicious cycle that gets nowhere.  You can sit here all night and talk about the good and the bad.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

IMPROVEMENT

We often ask our players/athletes to improve.   Some coaches demand it on a daily basis.   I tell my guys ‘do something every day to get better’.   My thought tonight is, ‘am I as a coach working to improve my team and myself as much as I can’?

Guys like Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Tom Izzo, Jim Calhoun, etc. have been around the game a long time;  I ask,  can they possibly improve on their chosen craft?   Yes, I think they can (and I’m sure they feel that way too).  I’m sure they are always finding ways to improve their team and their current situation.

The coaching profession, (the field we have chosen) is a wonderful vocation.  Every morning I wake up I thank the Basketball Gods (and my wife) that I am coaching.  I am at the Junior College level and you know what, I LOVE it.  It dawned on my this afternoon as I was sitting with some of my players, we were taking them through some academic advising.  I sat there and saw the looks on their faces.  Some were excited, some were scared, some didn’t know what to expect.   I was in a position to help.  Actually, I am in a position to help shape and mold 12 young men who need direction.

Like many, I dream of coaching at the D-1 level.  (I actually spent one season as an assistant coach at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City, NJ during the 2005 season and came one win away from playing in the Big Dance).  In the past I have applied for assistant coaching positions and have been turned down like many other coaches have been.  I have made calls and e-mailed head coaches trying to get a shot at an interview; I don’t always get through, nor do I hear back from them.   I have worked hard the past few years trying to network, and do everything I thought I could to give myself  a chance.  I have written letters to many of coaches looking for a chance.   Like a guy once told me when he was being turned down job after job, “I can’t even get a sniff.”

I will say this…advancing and being successful in coaching is hard.  It’s not easy, because if it was easy, everyone would be doing well at it.

My own coaching journey has been a long and unpredictable one; like other coaches, there have been obstacles, rocky roads and times where I wanted to just give up.   There’s been broken promises, friendships not as strong/sincere as I thought and of course doubt.   There also have been situations I was faced with where I could’ve done things a bit different.

Through this blog and being a head coach, I hear from a lot of coaches who want to climb that unsteady ladder of coaching.  They want to move up.  Make more money, be at a popular place, work for a future Hall of Famer.    I was there at one time too; I always thought of getting someone to call for me and try to get me in on an open job (and believe me, I have a very powerful Ace in the hole).  Even his call didn’t get me a job I applied for a year ago.  I did everything I possibly could to get this gig!

Too many coaches are always looking ahead to their next job (again, in the past I have fallen victim to this crippling disease).  But not any longer.   I have made a promise to myself to do everything I can to make my current team, Jackson Community College Jets Men’s basketball the best team we can be in 09-10.

Instead of wasting time sending my resume to a school because they have an opening or calling a friend and asking, ‘do you know what they are doing’?  I am going to look for ways every waking minute of my life to improve my team and most of all improve myself as a coach.

Instead of writing countless letters and e-mails to people who are in a position to hire me to work an exposure camp so I can help train some of the best players in the country, I am going to work with lesser known and not as  talented players at Carlton Valentine’s camp in Lansing, Michigan.

No more time wasted on an open coaching position at a D-1 school or even an NBA club.   I’m not saying you shouldn’t look, but I know guys that are looking 24-7, and to me, that’s just not fair, to you, your family and your current team/program.   A college basketball secretary once told me, “where you are is where it’s at…”

To conclude, I’m not even close to being in the same league as a Rick Pitino or a John Calipari and I don’t have their wisdom or experience, but I’m in my mid-40’s and have been involved in the great game of basketball for a very long time.   From my experience at the HS, A.A.U. and college levels, I have had the opportunity to spend time with coaches who have valuable and respectable insight;  I have consumed hundreds of outstanding books on coaching; I’ve listened to coaches at clinics and have read magazine, newspaper and internet articles; and oh yes, knowing first hand about what guys do and don’t do to be successful, that is an area I have studied and researched non-stop.

Over the next few days I will give you my thoughts on a few topics in the coaching world…

(Next-Part Two The Work Ethic)

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

The NBA draft is upon us and there are so many mock drafts out there I’m getting dizzy.  I used to read everything written by everyone.   Heck, I recall the 1981 draft being in a hotel ballroom in Midtown way back in the day when there was about 30 people there (me included). No tickets required, no press credential!   I rode the elevator down to street level with Isiah Thomas, Buck Williams and Albert King!

The coverage back then was very small.  The Daily News and Post had excellent coverage but that  was it.  No draft party’s, no interviews, no Green Room, no shaking hands in front of hundreds of fans with David Stern.

Pro Basketball News.com has Eric Musselman covering this year’s draft and I really enjoy it.  Take a look.  He writes a little notebook on his thoughts.  Love the stories of his involvement as a coach.  In particular, this about what his father looked for in a prospect.

When with Minnesota, coach Bill Musselman did not believe in psychology testing. He believed in getting tough-minded players who had good awareness and a high will to win. He believed you couldn’t teach speed but you needed speed to win. He believed 85 percent of the league was equal in talent, so it was important to analyze mental toughness and competitiveness, and determine the mistake vs. the non-mistake player. Who surrounds our superstars is very important. Character does matter.

-Competitiveness

-Tough-minded

-Will to Win

-Mistake vs Non-Mistake player

-Character

Great checklist for players starting at the high school level.  Hopefully coaches can make an evaluation on their current players and see if their guys fit this model.