There are a lot of great basketball stories out there, amazing firsts (1966 Texas Western basketball) and individual accomplishments (J-Mac is hotter than a pistol and if you don't get tears watching this video; you really might not have a heart). One of my all time favorites, however, is the story about the mighty men of Milan. You probably know of them as Hickory or... Hoosiers. Recently, I read the book by Greg Guffey, The Greatest Basketball Story Ever Told about the Milan Miracle squad.
Naturally, I thought this book was a great read but there were some things that really stood out to me about the team and the small town in the middle of nowhere. They had enough talent to make it to state the year before they won it all says something about the squad and the ability to meet and exceed the immense pressure they had and the enormous expectations. The whole town rose and sank with their wins and losses; small school basketball in Indiana doesn't play for the team. They played for their school, previous players, players not even born yet, families, their friends and their town. These towns had bragging rights that went above a day or week; they held onto teams and their wins for years, even decades... heck, in this case, maybe even a century!
Something that really shocked me about the team and community, however, was the amount of athletes they had. I'm not talking small-school really good local athletes that didn't compete at the next level. I am talking, legit, multi-sport athletes that could play in college:
Bob Plump (Real life Jimmy Chitwood, except the whole he doesn't play bball thing) played at Butler and earned 4 varsity letters.
Bob Engel had offers from Xavier and Cincinnati (who later got Oscar Robertson to play there.. fast fact: Milan beat Robertson's team at state when he was a sophomore). Engel didn't play college basketball because he was worried about not being in shape due to a back injury.
Ron Truitt played college basketball at the University of Houston.
Gene White played college basketball at Franklin College.
Ken Wendelman tried out with the Cincinnati Reds and holds/(held?) the Milan long jump record at over 21 feet.
Ray Craft joined Bob Plump at Butler University.
Roger Schroeder played at Franklin College with Gene White.
Bill Jordan also had a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds and then went to Hollywood to make it big as an actor.
Glenn Butte earned a scholarship to play basketball at Indiana University and earned a letter in 1960.
Rollin Cutter joined Plump and Craft at Butler, but had to quit because of injuries.
For those of you keeping track at home, that's 10 kids and 7 played college basketball, another turned down the opportunity and the other 2? Well, they tried out for the Cincinnati Reds. Disgusting athletes in Milan.
I think the biggest part of the book for me was they continued theme on "what it used to be like..." They talk about when they were kids, they talk about the 1 class system, they talk about the consolidated schools, the community, the integrity,
Hard work, determination, kids that didn't have much that thought playing basketball and running for 2 hours was enjoyable and a break from their regular life. They worked tough jobs during the summer and when they weren't working? They were playing basketball or baseball. A big night for them was going downtown Milan. No texting, no video games, no tv, no IPOD's, no cars; just a tight knit group of hard-working friends that had some natural talent. You know that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.. in this case, they had talent and worked hard... a coach's dream.
Reading something like this makes me feel sick about the future of basketball and even kid's today. Do they have it rough? Yeah, but it's a different kind of rough, I certainly wouldn't mind that kind of rough over the days of today. Society brings it on them and parents and kids don't deflect it.
This is a great book; one that I'm going to purchase and read to my son/daughter when they are young and afterwards. Skipping the children's books and going to this, the Pistol Pete and Larry Bird books. They won't have a choice, but to want to play and work hard!
Showing posts with label larry bird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label larry bird. Show all posts
April 19, 2011
March 16, 2011
On the Court For Old Time's Sake.. Basketball DNA
The new school that I work at had a fundraiser last night held by the student council; the undercard was a student vs. student basketball game and the main event was the winning student team vs. the staff squad.
I haven't played "competitive" basketball in over a year and even then it's been awhile. After high school, it was an alumni tournament and some pick-up games at the SHELL in Madison. Now? Even less... every once in awhile I'll hop in our 11-man fast break or Cardinal Pride drills with the middle schoolers but that certainly doesn't count. Even less, I'll play open gym with some of the high school players. And, it was at least a year since I did that last, so I wasn't sure what to expect last night.
The best part being, of course, just because I haven't played much in the last.. oh... 9 years doesn't mean that my mouth has slowed down or is rusty. I'd compare myself to a Larry Bird when it comes down to it. I hit the students with all sorts of trash before the game started. Just basic stuff, "Really? You're going to guard me?" "There's a reason they call me Jimmer J back home." Of course, the weather was overcast yesterday with a chance of rain, which played right into my game. To one kid I said, "Hey, do you know why it's so cloudy? Because tonight.. I'm going to make it rain." Then, ironically, the fire alarm went off to end the school day and I saw the same kid leaving and said, "You know why the alarm went off? I was in the gym heating up for the game tonight." Couldn't have worked out any better.. except that his team lost and he didn't even get to play our team.
Then, of course, the game started and here comes an important question, "Can you change a player's DNA?" All week I had talked about scoring and shooting. I told myself before the game, to set the tone, I was going to come down and get into the lane and score on one of the first possessions. When I get in the gym now I work on my shot, pull-up, and finishing in the lane trying to work on finishing and putting up points.
They got the opening tip, scored and we came back down. I had the ball, got into the lane and... saw a flashing teammate. What did I do? Force up the shot or dish it off to the open teammate? What do you think I did.. if you guessed forced up the shot. You guessed wrong. If you guessed dished it off for a better, open shot.. you were clearly right. I turned ran back down after the assist and smiled. Shooting isn't my game, scoring isn't why I play. I'd rather get into the lane and throw a bounce pass to a backdoor cutter than to go behind the back through 2 guys and put up a bad shot that goes in.
Don't get me wrong, I did shoot.. but barely as I put up about 6 shots in the 24ish minutes I played. Thankfully, I played with a guy that had the DNA to score.. and score he did. But, what makes a player a scorer? What makes a player a distributor? Is it knowing your limitations and excelling at other aspects of your game? In my case, I know it's something that I've always played with.. in middle school our team had a lot of size. I played PG then and my job was to get the ball to our freak athlete or our post player; I didn't have to score. This continued into high school where I played with guys that were built to score.. I played with 2 of our school's all time leading 3-pt shooters and our school's 2nd all time leading scorer, so my job was easy: bring the ball down the floor, pass the ball to scorer, watch the shot go in and win.
Points are only as important as scoring enough total for the team to win. Individual points? Eh.. you need to have somebody that has the basketball DNA to score or to take the big shot. That was never really my game, whether it was a lack of confidence or deferring to others that were more equipped. You can't have 5 guys that have that DNA on the floor at the same time, you have to have guys that know and accept roles. I think that's why I was able to defer so much last night and focus on crashing the boards and finding the open man. I'd done it so long and so many times it was 2nd nature last night. Could I have put up more shots and scored? Yeah, I could have.. would that have been better for the team? Doubtful. My team had a player that had better scoring basketball DNA and was on last night. Why interfere with that?
That is something that players need to realize. Their basketball DNA can change over time, in the right environment and with the confidence and needed skills, but if you play on a team with somebody that has a better ability to score and more of that mentality; it should be easy to focus on other things. Who cares who gets the points? Ball movement, passing, cutting and spacing are as important during the game as who gets the points (and therefore, the accolades). I always say to my team, "Offense will take care of itself. I don't care if you score 0 or 20, you'll contribute your time on the floor in other ways." Thankfully, at middle school, players buy into that more easily than they do in high school. I haven't had any battles of people putting up too many shots or hogging the ball too much; if I did, what would I do? I'd have to make them find that role, make them understand their basketball skills and value what's more important.. the team or the points. Easier said than done.
In case you were wondering, I only hit 2 of those 6 shots.. one beautiful Rafer "Skip to My Lou" Alston floater and a reverse lay-up. A double-double of the Jason Kidd and Magic Johnson variety according to my crowd statisticians with double digit boards and assists. I was like Dennis Rodman on the glass. And don't worry, the teachers won 50-32. Beatdown city.
I haven't played "competitive" basketball in over a year and even then it's been awhile. After high school, it was an alumni tournament and some pick-up games at the SHELL in Madison. Now? Even less... every once in awhile I'll hop in our 11-man fast break or Cardinal Pride drills with the middle schoolers but that certainly doesn't count. Even less, I'll play open gym with some of the high school players. And, it was at least a year since I did that last, so I wasn't sure what to expect last night.
The best part being, of course, just because I haven't played much in the last.. oh... 9 years doesn't mean that my mouth has slowed down or is rusty. I'd compare myself to a Larry Bird when it comes down to it. I hit the students with all sorts of trash before the game started. Just basic stuff, "Really? You're going to guard me?" "There's a reason they call me Jimmer J back home." Of course, the weather was overcast yesterday with a chance of rain, which played right into my game. To one kid I said, "Hey, do you know why it's so cloudy? Because tonight.. I'm going to make it rain." Then, ironically, the fire alarm went off to end the school day and I saw the same kid leaving and said, "You know why the alarm went off? I was in the gym heating up for the game tonight." Couldn't have worked out any better.. except that his team lost and he didn't even get to play our team.
Then, of course, the game started and here comes an important question, "Can you change a player's DNA?" All week I had talked about scoring and shooting. I told myself before the game, to set the tone, I was going to come down and get into the lane and score on one of the first possessions. When I get in the gym now I work on my shot, pull-up, and finishing in the lane trying to work on finishing and putting up points.
They got the opening tip, scored and we came back down. I had the ball, got into the lane and... saw a flashing teammate. What did I do? Force up the shot or dish it off to the open teammate? What do you think I did.. if you guessed forced up the shot. You guessed wrong. If you guessed dished it off for a better, open shot.. you were clearly right. I turned ran back down after the assist and smiled. Shooting isn't my game, scoring isn't why I play. I'd rather get into the lane and throw a bounce pass to a backdoor cutter than to go behind the back through 2 guys and put up a bad shot that goes in.
Don't get me wrong, I did shoot.. but barely as I put up about 6 shots in the 24ish minutes I played. Thankfully, I played with a guy that had the DNA to score.. and score he did. But, what makes a player a scorer? What makes a player a distributor? Is it knowing your limitations and excelling at other aspects of your game? In my case, I know it's something that I've always played with.. in middle school our team had a lot of size. I played PG then and my job was to get the ball to our freak athlete or our post player; I didn't have to score. This continued into high school where I played with guys that were built to score.. I played with 2 of our school's all time leading 3-pt shooters and our school's 2nd all time leading scorer, so my job was easy: bring the ball down the floor, pass the ball to scorer, watch the shot go in and win.
Points are only as important as scoring enough total for the team to win. Individual points? Eh.. you need to have somebody that has the basketball DNA to score or to take the big shot. That was never really my game, whether it was a lack of confidence or deferring to others that were more equipped. You can't have 5 guys that have that DNA on the floor at the same time, you have to have guys that know and accept roles. I think that's why I was able to defer so much last night and focus on crashing the boards and finding the open man. I'd done it so long and so many times it was 2nd nature last night. Could I have put up more shots and scored? Yeah, I could have.. would that have been better for the team? Doubtful. My team had a player that had better scoring basketball DNA and was on last night. Why interfere with that?
That is something that players need to realize. Their basketball DNA can change over time, in the right environment and with the confidence and needed skills, but if you play on a team with somebody that has a better ability to score and more of that mentality; it should be easy to focus on other things. Who cares who gets the points? Ball movement, passing, cutting and spacing are as important during the game as who gets the points (and therefore, the accolades). I always say to my team, "Offense will take care of itself. I don't care if you score 0 or 20, you'll contribute your time on the floor in other ways." Thankfully, at middle school, players buy into that more easily than they do in high school. I haven't had any battles of people putting up too many shots or hogging the ball too much; if I did, what would I do? I'd have to make them find that role, make them understand their basketball skills and value what's more important.. the team or the points. Easier said than done.
In case you were wondering, I only hit 2 of those 6 shots.. one beautiful Rafer "Skip to My Lou" Alston floater and a reverse lay-up. A double-double of the Jason Kidd and Magic Johnson variety according to my crowd statisticians with double digit boards and assists. I was like Dennis Rodman on the glass. And don't worry, the teachers won 50-32. Beatdown city.
February 6, 2011
Well... we made it to State
Middle school sports in Illinois are actually.. impressive. I'm an Illinois basher, living here and being from Wisconsin with deep Packers, Brewers and Badgers ties certainly isn't easy. But, middle school sports do have a leg up in this state for one simple reason.. state playoffs. Most or all (??) middle school sports have state competition and basketball has the whole she-bang: regionals, sectionals and state games.
The middle school I coach at has put together a recent string of state teams in girl's basketball. In the late 1990's the middle school boys team made it a few times followed up with 2000 and 2002 high school (IHSA) championships. The current sophomores in high school won the 7th grade boys 3A state title. The current freshman made a state appearance last year, and now, you can add this year's 7th graders to the list.
Sadly, when we got there things didn't go well. Our opponent was dare I say... en fuego. It didn't help that we couldn't hit sand if we fell off a camel. When the first half was over we had mustered 10 points and they only had... 28. We MADE 2 field goal attempts, thankfully nobody charted how many we missed. We also managed 6 free throws, not bad... until you consider we shot 17 of them! We had multiple, MULTIPLE misses from inside 3 feet. Frustrating. The 2nd half didn't get much better as we'd manage a little run to get it down to 12ish points and then have a weak foul against an AND 1 play, or we'd leave a shooter open and they'd hit a 3 ball.
It was a frustrating game, and one thing that was hard for me the previous years and early this season was to not get sarcastic during the games. At times, I'd get so frustrated with them when they'd baffle me with their decisions. Yesterday, I could see it wasn't because of a lack of effort.. they were just nervous, rattled and up against a buzzsaw. The effort was intense, and I made sure all 14 kids got to be a part of that game for several minutes. (It helps when the game is decided early) I continued to coach through the mistakes and through all of our frustrations reminding them of the little things.. jump stops in the lane, a pass fake, or to be aggressive and take a shot when you're 1 foot from the hoop.
Despite getting run up by 22 (27-49) I was proud of my kids. The thing that sticks out into my mind the most.. is that we're down 22 points with 8 seconds left, a shot goes up and the rebound bumbles off some hands to go out of bounds; one of my players dove full extension into the wall to try to save the ball. That honestly, blew my mind. I was in awe and admiration of that player's effort and intensity. I always tried to coach them in practice and games to play hard, regardless of score... winning or losing. I wouldn't have traded that 2 seconds for a win (hmmm... really??). That play meant a lot to me, more than the kids know.
I could see some of them really get better as the season went along. I reminded them in the locker room, after the game, that this is just 7th grade. It's great to have their name on our middle school gym's wall, it's great to experience that level of competition and to enjoy that stage, but what about the taste of defeat? What about being crushed by 22? Were they happy just to be there one time? Are they going to work hard this summer to get a return trip and a win? What about going into high school? I challenged them to challenge each other; I hope they push each other to be a great team and to not slack off. I brought up names familiar to them.. and to me during my little pep talk, so called "jerks" but winners like Kobe, Jordan and Bird. I told them stories I'd heard about the 3 of them, and how they challenged themselves to work harder than anybody else.. and when they had teammates that didn't work that hard, how they'd challenge their teammates. Sometimes, it's okay to be a "jerk" and to challenge your teammates. Push yourself then push others. That's how we'll get back to state next year.
The middle school I coach at has put together a recent string of state teams in girl's basketball. In the late 1990's the middle school boys team made it a few times followed up with 2000 and 2002 high school (IHSA) championships. The current sophomores in high school won the 7th grade boys 3A state title. The current freshman made a state appearance last year, and now, you can add this year's 7th graders to the list.
Sadly, when we got there things didn't go well. Our opponent was dare I say... en fuego. It didn't help that we couldn't hit sand if we fell off a camel. When the first half was over we had mustered 10 points and they only had... 28. We MADE 2 field goal attempts, thankfully nobody charted how many we missed. We also managed 6 free throws, not bad... until you consider we shot 17 of them! We had multiple, MULTIPLE misses from inside 3 feet. Frustrating. The 2nd half didn't get much better as we'd manage a little run to get it down to 12ish points and then have a weak foul against an AND 1 play, or we'd leave a shooter open and they'd hit a 3 ball.
It was a frustrating game, and one thing that was hard for me the previous years and early this season was to not get sarcastic during the games. At times, I'd get so frustrated with them when they'd baffle me with their decisions. Yesterday, I could see it wasn't because of a lack of effort.. they were just nervous, rattled and up against a buzzsaw. The effort was intense, and I made sure all 14 kids got to be a part of that game for several minutes. (It helps when the game is decided early) I continued to coach through the mistakes and through all of our frustrations reminding them of the little things.. jump stops in the lane, a pass fake, or to be aggressive and take a shot when you're 1 foot from the hoop.
Despite getting run up by 22 (27-49) I was proud of my kids. The thing that sticks out into my mind the most.. is that we're down 22 points with 8 seconds left, a shot goes up and the rebound bumbles off some hands to go out of bounds; one of my players dove full extension into the wall to try to save the ball. That honestly, blew my mind. I was in awe and admiration of that player's effort and intensity. I always tried to coach them in practice and games to play hard, regardless of score... winning or losing. I wouldn't have traded that 2 seconds for a win (hmmm... really??). That play meant a lot to me, more than the kids know.
I could see some of them really get better as the season went along. I reminded them in the locker room, after the game, that this is just 7th grade. It's great to have their name on our middle school gym's wall, it's great to experience that level of competition and to enjoy that stage, but what about the taste of defeat? What about being crushed by 22? Were they happy just to be there one time? Are they going to work hard this summer to get a return trip and a win? What about going into high school? I challenged them to challenge each other; I hope they push each other to be a great team and to not slack off. I brought up names familiar to them.. and to me during my little pep talk, so called "jerks" but winners like Kobe, Jordan and Bird. I told them stories I'd heard about the 3 of them, and how they challenged themselves to work harder than anybody else.. and when they had teammates that didn't work that hard, how they'd challenge their teammates. Sometimes, it's okay to be a "jerk" and to challenge your teammates. Push yourself then push others. That's how we'll get back to state next year.
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