CLIFF NOTES

Coach Peterman does an outstanding job at Men’s Basketball Hoopscoop with coaching notes.  Here is a new discussion forum he has started.

This guy has more notes than a 4.0 undergrad!

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

Joe Dumars, former Pistons great and Hall of Famer went back to school to get his degree.  Great job JD!  New York Times has the piece.

“Not having the degree was a void that I simply had to fill,” Dumars wrote in an e-mail message. “My wife has her master’s in education, and we’ve always stressed the importance of education to our two teenage kids. I just felt if I was going to stress the importance of education, I had to show them exactly how important it was.”

In today’s day and age where young athletes like to ‘do their own thing’,  finishing school is a must.  There are so many reasons why you need your college degree.  1-employment.  You will not even get looked at if you lack it.  2-Just like Dumars mentioned in the article – if you are stressing it to your children, you better have one to back your claim up.  I can go on and on but the first two reasons is all you need.

I returned to school at the age of 33 and received my degree and I will tell you it was the smartest thing I ever did in my life (besides marry my wife of course)

IS THERE AN ‘I’ IN TEAM?

Over the past few weeks there have been coaches fired due to their teams underachieving. It happens all the time in baseball, football, basketball and hockey. A team does not live up to management’s or fans expectations – fire the coach.

But a coach being fired is not just limited to ‘team sports’. No, because this morning in the New York Times I came across a story on Jeremy Wariner a 400 meter runner for the USA Track team who cut ties with his coach.

The first move, parting with his coach, Clyde Hart, brought a shock to track and field circles in January. Hart, after all, is widely considered the top quarter-mile tutor in the world. He coached Wariner to Olympic gold in 2004 and previously guided Michael Johnson to Olympic supremacy and the world record of 43.18 seconds.

Did it come down to money or performance?

According to Hart, who coached Wariner at Baylor and then professionally, the move was a monetary decision. Wariner thought he was not making enough money after paying Johnson, who is his agent, and paying taxes, Hart said, and wanted to reduce his annual payment to his coach. Wariner previously paid him 10 percent of his earnings, Hart said, but wanted to cut that amount nearly in half.

Hart declined to take a pay cut.

“I don’t feel I’m a discount coach,” he said. “Jeremy had the best year of his life last year. I didn’t feel like a cut of nearly 50 percent was justified.”

Or was it something else?

Hart also said that Wariner might not have wanted such a strict coach now that he had become so accomplished. Wariner disputed Hart’s account. It was not money or strictness, he said. Wariner said he was concerned that Hart, who is in his 70s, would soon be retiring. Without being specific, Wariner also said, “There’s things I wasn’t comfortable with, and I needed a change.”

-SF

Hoops135@hotmail.com

NEW ADDRESS

Congrats to Steve DeMeo as he was named assistant coach at Central Florida. Steve is one of the good guys. I recall him as a Juco head coach in New York, the guy was all over the place recruiting.  Congrats Steve!

“We are fortunate to attract a quality coach like Steve DeMeo to UCF,” Speraw said in a statement. “He brings an impressive list of credentials and a proven track record to our staff. As the associate head coach at Providence, he helped the program attract several successful recruiting classes. Steve is also a great teacher who brings a wealth of experience to UCF.”

Another good guy John Groce has been named head coach at Ohio University. I first met JG when he was an assistant at Butler.  Good luck John…

VITAMIN WATER

Has anyone tasted this product? It’s unreal…Orange is my favorite.

Good interview with Tom Crean of Indiana via Eric Lacy and the Detroit News.

Trust me when I tell you this – Tom Crean will get it done in Bloomington.

What has your schedule been like on a daily basis? Do you spend more time on certain aspects of the program than you normally would?

A: “I think you have to stay as organized as possibly be with the flexibility to adjust to the changes that come. (Thursday), my staff and I were in basketball camp when we got word of (Greenspan’s resignation). You better be flexible enough to know that great day you have planned will most likely change eight different ways. A lot of times it’s been not being able to sit down on the desk till 8, 8:30, 9 o’clock at night to attack what really needs to be attacked or return calls. I’m way behind. You get so busy that it’s hard to get everything done that you need to. You hope everyone can be patient while you’re going through this. Now that the players are on campus and my family moved (to Bloomington) in the last week, I try to make sure they are the priority every day.”