WHY WE PLAY

“I think we both value offensively skilled players.  We both work hard at the defensive end, but I think we both really emphasize playing with a purpose — passing and shooting.”

-Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said about her team and UConn.

THURSDAY’S THINK TANK

Wednesday night I watched the New York Knicks crush the Orlando Magic.

New York played without Jeremy Lin and Amare Stoudemire.

Since Mike Woodson has taken over as head coach, the Knicks are 8-1.

Marc Berman of the NY Post on the incredible night for the Knickerbockers which had Carmelo Anthony a +33 and Dwight Howard a -31.

SF Gate Blog on Ray Lewis and his motivational talk to the Stanford men’s basketball team.

Bill Koch of Cincinnati.com on Mick Cronin head coach of the Bearcats wanting to play more up-tempo next season.

Mike Hunt of JS Online.com with his piece on Don Nelson who’s going into the basketball Hall of Fame.

“It’s a great honor to cap my career,” Nelson told ESPN. “I’ve had a great time and a great life coaching basketball.

Congratulations to Danny Manning; he’s been named the new head coach at Tulsa.

Felisha Legette-Jack was fired 2 weeks ago from Indiana…I’m just finding that out now.

Hoops135@hotmail.com

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MONDAY MORNING JUMPERS

Checked out some late night hoops Sunday with Cal-Stanford on Fox. Gus ‘Rise n Fire’ Johnson and Steve ‘Knockdown Jumper’ Kerr had the call. During one stretch of the game Kerr said he didn’t know how you gauge toughness. Didn’t he play with Michael and Mario Elie?

Dick Davey is an assistant coach at Stanford.

I love the Missouri Valley Conference. Watched Indiana State and Evansville last night. Excellent game. Larry Bird’s alma mater pulled out the victory in OT, 90-81. The Purple Aces mascot is very cool.  Speaking of the MVC, Ben Simons of Drake played 53 of 55 minutes Saturday night in a triple overtime win over Wichita State.

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune on the Fighting Irish beating UConn on the road. It’s ND’s third win in a row. To this point, Mike Brey is my Big East Coach of the Year.

“The last four minutes is winning time,” Jerian Grant said. “That’s the time when you have to make plays for your team in order to get big wins and that’s what I had to do.”

Nick Baumgardner of the Ann Arbor.com on the Wolverines loss to Ohio State. Michigan played the first 37 minutes of the game without a FTA.

Taylor Bern of the Las Vegas Sun on the Rebels being in the driver’s seat. I don’t like it when people say, ‘it was an ugly win‘. To me, that makes no sense. A win is a win!

“We know we always need to get better,” Dave Rice said, “but we found ways to win two important games and now we’re back fighting for a conference title again.”

The Sporting News on former Western Kentucky University head coach Ken McDonald says his relationship with athletic director was strained.

“I don’t want to act like I got a raw deal,” McDonald told the newspaper. “There’s a business part of this, which I completely understand. My focus on the disappointment is because of the talks that we had and everything that went on in the spring.”

Quote of the Day: “I came here to get a good education and to play basketball. Sitting out last year was tough; I’m not going to lie. But I have worked hard to get to where I am now, and I am determined — we all are — to finish strong.” -Jeff Jones, Rider University basketball player.

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HANG TIME

Mike Breen doing the play-by-play on ESPN  for the Syracuse-Stanford game Friday afternoon at Madison Square always says the game is a “physical game.”

Johnette Howard of ESPN on Grinnell College player who scored 89 points in one game. Click here to see the video of the edits put together by coaching staff.

Orlando Sentinial on UCF beating UConn this afternoon.

“It ‘s a huge win for our school,” UCF coach Donnie Jones said. “…Right now, I’m really happy for that as well as our kids.”

Thursday night while watching Fairfleld-Arizona State the Stags had a 5 on 4 advantage on offense and Len Elmore, ESPN analyst said, “You can’t get any better numbers than that.”

Another classic from Elmore, the former Power Memorial Panther; ”The longer it takes you to get untracked, the deeper the hole.”

I’m reading Harvey Araton’s ‘When the Garden Was Eden‘ and his story on Earl Monroe-Bill Bradley when they played against each other in North Philly during the summer is a classic.

The Washington Post on Bernie Fine. His home has been searched.

Authorities involved in a sexual-abuse investigation of Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine carried out a search at his home Friday but declined to comment on what they were looking for.

New York State Police spokesman Jack Keller said troopers were called to assist the U.S. attorney’s office at the search. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak said he “can’t confirm or deny” an investigation.

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TALENT vs TEAMWORK

William Rhoden from the New York Times on Talent and Teammate. This is an interesting piece by a writer who has been around the game a long time. I have always enjoyed Rhoden, I find his writing compelling.

Anyone looking for a deeper meaning to Monday’s national championship game between Butler and Connecticut need look no further than one simple truth: there is no substitute for talent.

Rhoden is dead on. But without teamwork, you have no chance at all. Let’s get one thing straight, don’t take anything away from UConn and their ‘team’; I watched them share the ball and help each other on defense not only during the NCAA tournament but how about their 5 wins in five days during the Big East tournament? Sure talent got them through but teamwork was just as important.

Butler’s assistant coach was already talking recruiting after the loss to the Huskies; it’s what you do as a college coach once your season comes to an end. Matter of fact, you have no games left on your schedule, so now it’s all about recruiting.

“We need to try to get a couple of guys who can play anywhere in the country and then surround them with great role players,” Shrewsberry said.

“Being on these runs will help in that area, where we can stretch out in different parts of the country, and even internationally.”

Recruiting will get better for Butler, no doubt. Brad Stevens, Butler’s head coach can now walk in any high school gym or attend any AAU tournament and right away the players and parents will know who the guy standing in the corner is and where he’s from. The players will not have to squint to get a closer look at his logo on his polo shirt.

But make no mistake, we watched many talented teams fall the past few weeks in the NCAA tournament (shoot, we even witnessed it on the women’s side with UConn and Stanford falling). I still think it’s teamwork that’s important. Sure talent is necessary; but with hard work, you can put yourself in position to be the champ and to beat a more talented team.

Former basketball coach Bob Knight once said, “Good players make themselves good; great players make the players around them better.”

hoops135@hotmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: @CoachFinamore