One Shining Moment -

Georgetown's Backdoor Game

Great Stuff!

Peyton Manning's Competitive Fire

Article from Peter King during the Colts Super Bowl practices:

I want to give you a couple of examples of what makes Manning tick, and what drives him to be so good, from what happened in the Colts' Super Bowl practices.

There are two things I saw last week that I'll never forget.

I had the good fortune of seeing the Colts prepare for the Super Bowl last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the Miami Dolphins' training facility. Each Super Bowl week, the Pro Football

Writers of America assigns one of its members to cover each team's practices, to report for all the press the basics and some color of the workouts. After each practice, I wrote about a 600-word dispatch, which was distributed in the press center.

Last Thursday, the CBS pre- and in-game crew, including Dan Marino, watched most of practice, and I led my report with one of the guys Manning admires, Marino, watching him work at his old practice fields. The last thing the Colts do every Thursday is the two-minute drill, first offense versus first defense, and here's what I wrote in the PFWA pool report:

Manning had a little of the clutch Marino left in him at the end of the two-hour, nine-minute practice, conducted with crowd noise piped in from speakers on the sidelines. On fourth-and-10 with nine seconds left in the two-minute drill that closes every Thursday practice for the Colts, Manning, working with the first-team offense, drilled a perfect 23-yard touchdown strike to backup wideout Aaron Moorehead in the back of the end zone.

"Peyton practices like that every week ... like it's the Super Bowl,'' said coach Tony Dungy at the end of practice. "It rubs off on the entire offense. This is about our 20th week of practice, and I think the defense stopped the offense once or twice all year. When they stop them, we give out game balls.''

A Colts safety, and I don't recall whom, took his helmet off and slammed it to the ground. This was big stuff, really big to the Colts, on both sides of the ball. As Manning walked off the field after the practice Thursday, I intercepted him and said: "What a great drive to watch. Pretty intense," I said.

"Yeah," Manning said. "I wanted it. Wanted it bad."

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This type of attitude is one reason why the Colts were Super Bowl champions. The competitive spirit and drive to excellence every single day seperates the contenders from the pretenders.

Bird on Basketball

These are just a few comments from Celtic great Larry Bird:

*Championship teams are built on concrete defense

*Defense is floor burns, bruises, and jammed fingers. It's a skill with no scoreboard. It is hard work with no headlines. There is no good reason for a player to work hard on that end of the court, unless, he wants to win more than anything else

*Winners win. They do because they are different from the rest. They push themselves past the point of pain and exhaustion. They do whatever needs to be done to grab a victory from a challenger. And they don't really know why. There is just a fire inside them that pushes them past the limits of their energy and ability.

*Mentally defense is tough. You have got to use your mental toughness to constantly push your body around the court so that it says no to your opponent. No, I'm not going to give you a good shooting position! No, I am not going to let you drive around me! No, I am not going to let you get rebounding position on me! No, I am not going to let you do what you want with the ball!

*A defense works better when it communicates. So help out your team and communicate.

*You may only play basketball at the high school level. But, if you can truly say that you became the very best basketball player that your God-given talent would allow, you have accomplished as much as an NBA superstar. You have performed to the limit of your potential. And that's what a winner is all about.

NBA TNT Fundamentals with Carlos Boozer on POST MOVES

NBA TNT Fundamentals with Dwight Howard on REBOUNDING

NBA's leading rebounder, Dwight Howard

NBA Fundamentals Bruce Bowen on Man-to-Man Defense

San Antonio Spurs veteran Bruce Bowen discusses one on one defense

Great Comback Story

Great story on a 37 year old college wrestler that has overcome many obstacles in his life, including drug addiction.....

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8836514752312121623

Coach Dan Hawkins Website

Great stuff for both coaches and players:

http://www.coachhawkins.com/blog.htm

Notes on Magic Johnson

Notes from one of the most enthusiastic players in NBA History: Magic Johnson



* Magic was always in better shape than anyone else. He could play all day long. He loved to play with the worst players to prove he could beat anybody.

*Used the summer to do things he wasn't comfortable with

*One year Coach Pat Riley asked Magic to score more points next season. He asked if that was ok with Kareem, the most focused player he has ever seen. Kareem agreed. The answer was posting him up more

*He made the game easier for everybody. It may have cost him shots early in the game, but it helped the team.

*When Kareen was injured in Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals, Magic knew he had to take over and play center. He knew that the other team couldn't hold him in the post and he could match up defensively and they could keep the tempo very fast and win. He sat in Kareem's seat on the plane to tell teammates, "Never fear, Magic is here!" The Lakers, led by Magic's 42 points and 15 rebounds (while playing center) won the finals.

*Magic would swing the ball to teammates to get them involved early in the game. This spread the defense for later in the game. If his teammates were hitting, this opened the game up for Magic to destroy his defender 1 on 1.

Your Best Effort

Your Best Effort

From "Stuff" by Dick DeVenzio

What excuse do you give yourself for not doing your best every play of a game or every drill in practice? Have you ever considered a coach could watch you play, even on a night you score 20, and he could tell you dozens of things you never bother doing?

Undoubtedly there are many things that you should do that you don't. But if you really want to be a good player..if you strive to do the little things consistenly, there won't be any doubt in anyone's mind what kind of player you are. People may not say that you are great or wonderful or fantastic, but coaches will do better than that. They will say YOU CAN PLAY.

There is not higher compliment in the game.

John Wooden - Poem

NBA Fundamentals: Shane Battier - Taking a Charge

Energy from the Bench

Ronny Turiaf- Heart and Soul of the Lakers

His stats will not impress you but Laker forward Ronny Turiaf brings an energy level that has helped the Lakers to one of the best records in the Western Conference. With the addition of Paul Gasol, the few minutes that he already had will become even fewer. However, that will not change his spirit and enthusiasm. Here are some excerpts from an article on nba.com


Luckily for both the Lakers and Turiaf, it looks like they made the right decision as the forward has flourished under the leadership of Phil Jackson, providing an energy level that is unmatched in the NBA.

“I was just talking to one of my teammates the other day,” said Turiaf. "I wasn’t doing my job as far as the energy guy and stuff like that and he was like, ‘Ronny, it’s your time to shine right now, it’s your time to get us pumped up.’ I really enjoy doing that. I really appreciate the way my teammates look at me.”

Wherever Turiaf goes, he is all about spreading the love—and if his contributions on and off the court in his few years in L.A. offer any indication, the Lakers have joyfully returned the forward’s giant bear hug.

With 71 games to go this season, Turiaf knows he will be relied upon to instill his contagious enthusiasm and work ethic into a young, impressionable Lakers squad. Luckily for him, it is a role he has been fine-tuning his entire life.

“I’m just going to go out there and do what I have to do—playing hard, doing the same thing I’ve been doing off the bench, trying to be opportunistic, block shots and stuff like that,” said Turiaf. “Nothing has changed in my role.”

“Overall, I want to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Ronny, you’ve done a better job, you’ve improved yourself and your teammates. Your coaching staff and your fans are looking at you like you’re a true part of this team where you really feel like you belong.’ That is what I want to feel like at the end of the year,” Turiaf said.

For a man that has lived in many countries, Turiaf has never had trouble belonging. In the process, it looks like he has finally found a lasting home with the Lakers.

Weekend Split

Another wild weekend of Metro Conference basketball as the Titans went 1-1 losing to Millard West 51-49 and bouncing back to defeat Millard North 65-59. Friday night was a tough one as we only scored 14 points in the first half. As they have all year, the boys showed some toughness by storming back to tie the game after being down 11. Unfortunately, we came out flat in the first half and just ran out of time. Hopefully we learned that you can't come out flat for 2 quarters and expect to win in the Metro. Congrats to Millard West.

Saturday was a big test for our team to see what kind of toughness we had. For the most part, the players responded very well and beat a much improved Millard North team by 6. The effort and attitude were much better on this night compared to Friday night.

We finish next week with Millard South on Friday followed by Omaha South on Saturday. The Titans are 14-6 right now yet there are many improvements to be made before districts!

Champions don’t look at it as a sacrifice. Champions choose to live as champions.

CHAMPIONS BECOME CHAMPIONS BECAUSE THEY DO WHAT CHAMPIONS HAVE TO DO!

Great Offensive Videos

Good thoughts on shooting from Ray Allen.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IPuD8bGdts&feature=related

Richard Hamilton moving without the ball (this one is very good)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwqzC2sTKzI&feature=related