FATHER KNOWS BEST

Excellent article from the Boston Herald on Jared Sullinger of the Boston Celtics including some great stuff from Sullinger’s father.

“It all starts with character and purpose and getting your head right,” he said. “Like, ‘I’m not getting that rebound to lead the league in rebounding, I’m getting that rebound because the team needs that from me to win.’ Those are two totally different frames of mind, and when kids buy into that and get away from their goals and get into purpose, that’s the only time it opens up their mind to really understand the game.

“It’s, ‘How can I make this team better?’ At that point only will you ever get an IQ. You know, anybody that’s wrapped up in themselves is going to make a very small package.”

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

DON’T TRANSFER – WORK!

Everyone complained about the transfer epidemic this past year in college basketball. It’s also rears its ugly head at the HS level.

Playing time always seems to be the main reason for someone leaving, but not always.

Bob Baptist of the Columbus-Dispatch on Ohio State big man Amir Williams. While sitting on the bench for the Buckeyes, instead of getting upset and transferring, Williams stuck it out, waited his turn and worked harder.

Like many prized high-school athletes, Amir Williams didn’t know what it felt like to sit and watch his team play a basketball game without him. 

“What they were saying about transferring and stuff like that, none of that stuff ever crossed my mind. But it was in everybody else’s mind.”

Williams, 6 feet 11, was a McDonald’s All-American at Detroit Country Day School. When he arrived at Ohio State 15 months ago, there were expectations that he would team inside with Jared Sullinger, who would slide to power forward. But that rarely happened, and Williams said he “hit a rough patch” at one point during his freshman year, in which he averaged 6.6 minutes a game.

“You have to talk them down off the ledge,” Dave Dickerson said, “because things are not coming to them as easy and things are a little bit different from the recruiting process.”

Ohio State coaches discussed the concerns of Williams and his family with them, and Dickerson said Williams’ father was instrumental in convincing his son that if he worked harder, his time would come.

HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM

TWITTER: @CoachFinamore

MONDAY MORNING MOTIVATION

Took in a couple of solid college hoop games on Sunday.

LIU and St. Francis plus Fairfield-Loyola.

Sports Page Magazine.com on The Blackbirds victory 81-78. It was the 22nd straight home win for Jimmy Ferry’s crew.

Stags topped the Greyhounds 68-51.

I grew up in Brooklyn watching LIU and SFC battle every year. It was a fun rivalry between players that attend school just a few short blocks apart.

I also caught some of the Boston Celtics-Chicago Bulls game on ABC. Chicago was without their star Derrick Rose. Boston won the game 95-91. Rajon Rondo recorded a triple-double. 32 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists.  Color analyst, Jeff Van Gundy has some of the greatest quotes in terms of  playing the game.

“The best teams play FOR each other, not WITH each other.”

JVG talking screen-setting…says “Garnett sets great ones and too many guys always looking to slip too early.”

“The people who criticize Garnett for passing too much don’t know basketball.”

“You can’t define chemistry but you know it when you see it.”

Mark Viera of the New York Times on how Jeremy Lin was overlooked coming out of High School. Lin has scored 20 points in 5 straight games…all Knicks wins.

Bob Keisser of the LB Press Telgram on the Long Beach State men’s basketball team. They are 12-0 in the Big West.

Greg Zeck of the Daily Illini on the Fighting Illini’s 3rd straight loss.  Coach Weber blames the turnovers for their problems.

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune on the Fighting Irish and their new role…they are now favorite, not the dog.

Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on the problems with Ohio State.

Mike Baldwin of the News OK on Lon Kruger and the intensity he displays both as a coach and a player.

Roger Rubin of the NY Daily News on an athletic administrator at St. John’s University suspended for selling basketball tickets.

Quote of the Day: ”Jared is a tremendous competitor and I’m a competitor. We’re two of the top players in the league, so sometimes things like that are going to happen, but at the end of the day I have tremendous respect for him and he has respect for me. So it’s not about disrespecting each other, but in the heat of the battle, we just battled with each other.” -Draymond Green on Jared Sullinger

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MONDAY’S MOTION OFFENSE

Michael Periatt of the Lantern on Ohio State getting their revenge on Indiana. Seems like the Buckeyes were amped up for this game.

Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe on Kendrick Perkins going back to Boston. He has a game for OKC vs his former team tonight. Many Celtics fans feel this was a bad move by Danny Ainge…trading away their enforcer.

Blair Kerkhoff of the Sac Bee on the Basketball Education of Thomas Robinson.

Staff writer at the DesMoines Register on Bradley’s win over Northern Iowa snapping a 9 game losing streak.

Washington Post on a guy who made up a story about Bernie Fine.

Quote of the Day: ”Pressure, pressure, pressure. We just wanted to get up in their jock strap according to coach Matta and just stop them from turning the ball from side to side.” -Jared Sullinger

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SUNDAY’S PICK-N-POP

Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star on Indiana beating # 1 ranked Kentucky on Saturday afternoon. On Wednesday, I told a friend, ‘Indiana can win this game’. He called me ‘crazy’. Tom Crean’s a good coach. He gets his players pumped up for games like this.

Chillicothe Gazette on Kansas beating # 2 ranked Ohio State. OSU played without their best player. Nice win for Kansas but with Sullinger, it’s a different story.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta gave Kansas coach Bill Self an early Christmas present Saturday.

The Buckeyes were without preseason All-American Jared Sullinger, who missed his second consecutive game because of back spasms. It wasn’t until that point that Matta finally disclosed Sullinger wouldn’t be able to play against the Jayhawks in a marquee nonconference showdown.

With Sullinger in street clothes, Deshaun Thomas played all 40 minutes for the second-ranked Buckeyes, scoring 15 of his 19 points in the first half in a 78-67 loss to the No. 13 Jayhawks.

“As I told Coach Self when we shook hands before the game, ‘Merry Christmas early,’” Matta said.

Graham Couch of the K’Zoo Gazette on Western Michigan, still winless against D-1 comp. The players seem to have lost their confidence. They play at home today vs Southern Illinois.

Joe Rexrode of the Lansing State Journal on the Spartans win over Gonzaga Saturday night. Tom Izzo’s team took a trip out west to capture a big win over a ranked team.

Bill Koch of the Cincy Enquirer on the ugly brawl that took place during the Xavier-Cincy game. I can’t believe my eyes. These guys were out of control. There should be some serious suspensions handed out.

“I was just saying that it’s my city right here,” said Holloway, who scored 17 points after being held to five last year’s in UC’s victory at Fifth Third Arena. “I’m cut from a different cloth. None of those guys on that team are like me.”

During the brawl, UC’s Yancy Gates landed a punch over the left eye of XU center Kenny Frease, who staggered to the ground, where he was kicked by UC Cheikh Mbodj.

UC coach Mick Cronin said he saw the fight coming and tried to get the officials to call timeout.

“I was trying to call timeout so their players would go to their bench because the game was over,” Cronin said. “I saw them talking to our bench. I saw them. They were talking to assistant coaches. I don’t know who they were talking to, some of their players. I saw it and tried to call a timeout. I had repeatedly asked the officials to stop it.”

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