A great piece written by Terry Foster of the Detroit News on Detroit Titans forward Nick Minnerath.
“I was taking everything for granted,” Minnerath said. “After a long time of you realizing your life is going nowhere — I was 19 years old and I felt my life was over — I realized I had to make a change or I was going to regret it.”
Hoops135@hotmail.com
Twitter: @CoachFinamore
ATTENTION
Why do people say and write things just to get attention? Whether they are behind a keyboard or behind a microphone, I don’t ever recall hearing and reading so much bad material in my life as of late.
HALF-COURT
What is up with all this shine about 3-on-3 basketball? We’ve been playing 3-on-3 for a long time. It’s a great way to play the game, learn the game and compete. Seems like the IOC is looking into adding it for the 2016 Olympics. Why not? They have 2-on-2 volleyball.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Maya Jones of the Detroit News on the University of Michigan and their new women’s basketball coach. Read about her transition from St. John’s to Ann Arbor. Family is important to her.
MOVIN’ ON
Scott DeCamp of MLive on Ramsey Nichols, a high school basketball coach going from Jackson to Kalamazoo Central.
Is It The Shoes?
Forbes on LeBron James and his new kicks coming out. They cost $315. Ouch!
HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM
TWITTER: @CoachFinamore
We opened the 2011-12 season last night with a win over Battle Creek Lakeview, 74-31.
After 3 weeks of practice, we came out with a ton of energy and solid defense. The guys shared the ball and executed like we had planned.
Big conference game coming up Friday against Jackson High School. They are well coached. Have to keep getting better…
Tom Markowski of the Detroit News on the sad news of former River Rouge point guard Brent Darby who passed away at the age of 30.
Brent Darby, who led River Rouge to Class B basketball titles in 1998 and ’99, died Tuesday. He was 30.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Darby’s brother, Corwin Jones, said Darby had experienced problems from blood clots for more than a year, and they were the cause of his death.
Darby graduated from River Rouge in 1999 and played four seasons at Ohio State before graduating in 2003. He played professionally in Spain and Italy before returning to Michigan. His last season in Italy was 2009.
Lamonte Stone, an assistant at Bowling Green, coached Darby in high school and was an assistant at Ohio State during Darby’s senior season.
Stone said Darby had a history of heart problems.
“After he got done playing, that’s when it started,” Stone said. “Last year, we (Bowling Green) were in Detroit for a tournament at U-D (Detroit Mercy). He got rushed to the hospital then. I remember he was in bad shape. They weren’t able to control it.”
DesMoines Register with Northern Iowa crushing Iowa 80-60. Chalk up another big win for the MVC. UNI made 11 three’s on the game while Iowa shot 1-12 from distance. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery was ejected with 4:47 to go after drawing his second technical. Iowa shot 3-9 from FT line, UNI 29-33.
Tom Dowd of the Staten Island Advance on Wagner beating Hofstra 58-43. The Seahawks are 7-2 on the season. Danny Hurley doing great things.
Arizona Republic on the Arizona Wildcats basketball coach Sean Miller suspending a player.
Washington Post via the AP on Ben Howland suspending Reeves Nelson for a second time.
The coach said the latest suspension continues a trend of “very disappointing behavior” by Nelson, who didn’t play in the second half of last weekend’s loss to Texas. He was laughing on the bench as some fans chanted his name and the Bruins lost by 10 points.
“His behavior on the bench Saturday was totally against what UCLA basketball and our program stands for,” said Howland, who met with Nelson on Tuesday.
Asked what they discussed, Howland said, “That’s a difficult situation, a sensitive thing.”
Forward David Wear said, “In general, I don’t think that’s something that you want to do. You don’t want to be laughing when your team is losing.”
The Daily Illini on male practice players…for female sports. I have heard of women basketball teams doing the same thing. Does it help?
The use of male practice players has become a common practice in women’s volleyball. The men’s game is faster and much more physical than the women’s game, and so practicing against that style has become vital to compete on the national level.
“The girls were used to playing against guys,” Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said. “I think for the guys it was different because all of a sudden they have a lot more responsibility.”
In a sense, they are part of the team and have to go through the same process as any Division-I athlete.
“Because they are going to be practicing with a team, they have to be eligible to do so,” Assistant Athletic Director of Compliance Ryan Squire said. “So they would have to go through the same protocol that any other student-athletes would have to do.”
Hoops 135@hotmail.com
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachFinamore
Terry Foster, a writer from the Detroit News recently composed an article about the decline of basketball in the State of Michigan.
Here’s something Foster wrote concerning the draft.
From 1988-91, the state of Michigan was a player in the NBA, having 13 players selected in the first round of the draft.
But over the past seven seasons, Michigan has become a non-factor.
Only two players have gone in the first round.
The Michigan pipeline nearly has run dry.
Hold on Mr. Foster, fire your research guy!
At the bottom of this story he lists players from the State of Michigan that have been drafted. He forgets about three players from Michigan, drafted in the first round. One, Al Horford, an NBA All-Star and 2 time NCAA champion. Foster also missed on Wilson Chandler, another very good player who was the New York Knicks pick in the 1st round in 2007. Mr. Foster, see Grand Ledge and Benton Harbor please.
What’s worse is why does Foster harp on “getting drafted”? Charlie Bell, from Flint, who wasn’t drafted has made a fine living playing in the league.
Getting drafted is not the most important thing in basketball. What’s more important is working hard, getting better, being a good teammate and never giving up. It’s about sticking to a goal. It’s about graduating from college and exploring all options when college is complete. The D-League, CBA, and overseas are three avenues basketball players can try.
Young basketball players today should learn about the guys that came before them who were not drafted but kept on striving. Players like, Chris Crawford, Anthony Roberson, Darvin Ham, Ira Newble, Desmond Fergusan, Jermaine Jackson, Brent Scott, Manny Harris, Carl and Charles Thomas, Ray Weathers, Desmon Farmer and Nate Huffman. All Michigan-born who played in the NBA.
Making a living at something you love is a blessing. Playing overseas is a wonderful way to enjoy life. You can see other parts of the world, play ball, make money, try different foods and most of all, still have a chance to play in the NBA.
Instead of worrying about ‘getting drafted by an NBA team’ why not concentrate on working hard, getting good grades, and not putting all your eggs in one basket. There’s other options in basketball besides, ‘getting drafted’.
Foster also omitted another player from the State of Michigan that was drafted in the first round, JaVale McGee. I guess because he was never a superstar, he doesn’t count, huh?
Someone should also tell Foster that Morris Peterson’s first name is not Maurice.
Look around, we live in a negative society. The media knows their material sells when they write and talk about everything that is wrong. You never hear anything about the positive things people do. When it comes to sports, it’s even worse. Our kids are working hard on and off the court. There are coaches in this great State at the High School, AAU and Junior College level that sacrifice a lot for our kids. Not getting drafted by an NBA team is not the end of the world.
hoops135@hotmail.com
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachFinamore
OK News.com on men’s head basketball coach Jeff Capel at the University of Oklahoma discussing the state of his team.
“I haven’t been successful this year,” he said during the postgame press conference. “It’s one of the worst jobs — the worst job I’ve ever done.
“I haven’t been able to push the right buttons.”
The right buttons! Pushing the right buttons. We all have buttons that need to be pushed, right? Well here’s an interesting take in the article from Capel.
“There’s a sense of entitlement with some young kids. … Kids don’t fear anything. They don’t respect anything.,” Capel said. “But it goes back to me. I’ve done a poor job. I’ve always felt one of my strengths was being able to figure out what buttons to push, how to get best out of guys. I haven’t been able to do that this year.
“It’s been frustrating. Frustrating to me, frustrating for people to watch. It’s embarrassing. I’m ashamed.”
Coach Capel holding himself accountable but also breaking it down about today’s players.
There needs to come a time when players motivate themselves by pressing their own buttons and put what’s best for the team ahead of themselves.
Detroit News on senior forward Raymar Morgan. The article talks about how Morgan has played during his time in East Lansing. Interesting quote from Coach Tom Izzo on ‘pressing buttons’.
No matter what the senior forward does the remainder of this season, he will leave behind more inquiries about his game than answers. MSU coach Tom Izzo still seeks ways to bring out Morgan’s immense talent more consistently.
“Maybe I haven’t found the right button,” said Izzo. “Maybe there are no buttons.”
“The less determined and the less motivated weed themselves out.”
-Chuck Daly
-Coach Finamore
Hoops135@hotmail.com
