Greatness

"Greatness is not about someone who has the ability to be great. "Greatness shows up when someone might not have that ability but finds a way to succeed. They outwork their opponents, they outhit their opponents, they outfight their opponents. They want it more. Don't give me the guy who's supposed to be all-world and you've got to try to talk him into something. Give me the guy who has maybe just enough talent to be on the field but thinks he's great, and who's willing to do whatever he can do to contribute, to make his team better. That's what I want. Now trust me, I want some talent too. But give me the right type of talent."

-Mike Singletary

Togetherness is Everything

Kevin Garnett on last season's Celtics team and what he expectst this year:

“Togetherness is everything,” he said. “I think we lost a little bit of that through the course of a year. It’s human. It’s always going to happen. But for the most part you learn from it and you move on.

“I think last year did one thing for us. If anything, it humbled us. I think it showed that team is everything - no one or two players can get things done. I’m eager to see how we come in, our minds and how we are in camp and everything. This is all bonding. I’m eager to see what this looks like.”

Chandler gives Bobcats a strong voice in the middle

Good article today on newly acquired Bobcat center Tyson Chandler. Chandler has already made his mark on the team by the way he communicates with this teammates:

It's my nature - I'm vocal, I'm going to speak out. I feel like (by being vocal and candid), it's going to make everybody gel. I think with me, it's always constructive criticism, but I have a passion for the game and wanting to win."

Says veteran guard Raja Bell:

"It definitely helps if you have someone who can quarterback (the defense from the center position) because he's the only one who can see the whole floor from under the basket. For him to give us an audio of what's going on, when you can't see it (coming), helps tremendously."

Chandler considers himself somewhat expert at low-post defense. He expects to share that knowledge.

"I wouldn't be doing Raymond (Felton) any favors if I wasn't telling him about something he's doing wrong defensively," Chandler described. "And Raymond wouldn't be doing me any favors (by not speaking up when) I'm letting Amare (Stoudemire) or Dwight (Howard) go for 30 on me and I'm playing lazy.

"It's about holding each other accountable to win. That's the ultimate goal and that's what I'm trying to bring here."

NU's Lee has a ball, just keeps rolling

Ron Brown calls it “rubber ball resiliency.”

“When you squeeze it, it pops back into shape,” the Nebraska tight ends coach said.

Consider Saturday to be Zac Lee's rubber ball bounce back.

The NU junior quarterback, fresh off the worst performance of his young career, rebounded with a sharp outing Saturday during Nebraska's 55-0 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.

It was light years from his 11 of 30 and two-interception showing against Virginia Tech. His 238 yards on 15 of 18 passes tell part of the story. The way he handled himself in getting from one Saturday to the next tells another part.

“The thing about Zac is that he's got so much resiliency,” Brown said. “He has a tendency to not let things get to him.”

Lee said he did almost everything the same this week, other than maybe a little more film work. After two NU wins in which he amassed 553 passing yards and six scores, the struggles at Virginia Tech were a reality check.

He said during the week he just “focused on ball,” while trying to move on and have a short memory.

“Mistakes are going to happen. Bad things are going to happen,” Lee said. “You've got to deal with it, move on and learn from it and make sure you don't repeat it.”

The guy who may have seen Lee's resiliency the most this week was backup quarterback Cody Green. The freshman said there was a “new notch” in Lee since the loss to the Hokies. He was the first one there and the last to leave. There was a different determination in everything he did.

“You could tell he just had a look in his eyes,” Green said.

There was little evidence of the highly publicized thumb injury on his non-throwing hand. Lee brushes it off as a nonissue.

But it was one of the things guys noticed as he fought past his first dose of disappointment, Green said.

“People saw the battle in him because he kept fighting,” he said.

And Brown says Lee isn't the only one. The veteran coach went as far as to say he has been “very impressed” with the way the Huskers as a whole have dealt with adversity.

“They came out Monday and they got after it,” he said. “I love the way this football team has responded in the last year and a half. We have really learned some great things about not sitting around pouting. We've had short memories. We've been able to come back from some tough losess and come back the next week and play well.”

And Green said the guy he shadows on a daily basis is the undeniable leader of that group.

“He's running the thing now,” Green said.

Rigorous Off-Season Gave Revis His Edge

From the Ny Times:

Before Darrelle Revis shut down two of the N.F.L.’s top receivers to open this season, before he entered the discussion for the league’s top cornerback, he went to Arizona and trained like a boxer preparing for a championship bout. There, he found sweltering heat, marathon workouts and the personal torture chamber that is Will Sullivan.

Sullivan is Revis’s off-season coach. They meet at Fischer Sports in Phoenix, where Revis works on strength and conditioning for four hours each morning and trains on a field for three hours every afternoon, alongside pros like Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb.

This was two-a-days before two-a-days, Sullivan joked.

“He wants the punishment,” said Diana Gilbert, Revis’s mother. “Just to see how much he can endure.”

Revis arrives in Arizona in late June, when many of his N.F.L. counterparts relax or take vacations. Everything with Revis and Sullivan is a competition, be it basketball, video games or training, filled with jawing back and forth.

But this year, as Revis sought to become the best cornerback in football, the training took on added intensity.

Revis came with a goal sheet that included, for the first time, earning top honors at his position.

He brought a list of opposing receivers he would be shadowing across the field under the new defense installed by Coach Rex Ryan, with film on each.

Sullivan and Revis broke down that film together, then went about preparing for each receiver on the field. They fine-tuned Revis’s footwork, focused on his weaknesses, discussed receivers like Atlanta’s Roddy White whom Sullivan had trained.

Sometimes, after seven hours of training, the two headed to the basketball court, where they engaged in one-on-one games that lasted hours without water breaks.

“I’ve been training Revis since he was a junior at Pitt,” Sullivan said. “He’s always been focused. But this year, he took it to a different level.”

Before Revis heads to Arizona, he spends one week with his family outside Pittsburgh. When he leaves, he shuts off most contact with the outside world, turning down tickets secured by his agent to award shows, finding a singular, obsessive focus.

To that end, his family has noticed a newfound maturity in Revis as he begins his third N.F.L. season. Diana Gilbert said her son had tightened his inner circle, dropping bad influences and keeping those who spoke truthfully and kept him grounded.

None keep Revis more level than his uncle, the former N.F.L. defensive end Sean Gilbert. After Revis shut down New England’s Randy Moss on Sunday, Gilbert told him, “Two games down, 14 left, you still stink.”

When Revis entered the league, among the first advice dispensed by Gilbert was this: Do not believe all N.F.L players have heart, because they do not. Ultimately, the game comes down to will.

“There are two ways to deal with the pressure,” Gilbert said. “You feel it. Or you apply it. I ask him every day. ‘Which are you doing?’ I want him to go after their best player, and I want him to take his will.”

Wise beyond his 24 years, Revis has matured on the field, becoming smoother in his footwork transitions and quarterback reads, as he increases his awareness.

The Jets have bestowed the nickname Shutdown upon Revis, and on the NFL Network last weekend, Deion Sanders ranked Revis among the top three cornerbacks in football.
This came after Revis shadowed Moss and Houston’s Andre Johnson. With help on both players from his teammates, Revis held Johnson to four catches for 35 yards and Moss to four catches for 24 yards, and Revis intercepted a pass against the Patriots.

Most instructive, though, were those receivers’ numbers in the games in which they did not face Revis. Johnson tallied 10 catches, 149 yards and 2 touchdowns in the second week. In the opener, Moss caught 12 passes for 149 yards. They call this the Revis Effect.

Revis possesses a rare combination of speed and strength for a cornerback, built in part by those training sessions in the Arizona heat. Revis played Moss physically, bumping him at the line, jamming his routes, even sitting across from Moss when both players were on the bench.

“If he went to the bathroom, I went, too,” Revis said.

Moss and Johnson played down the impact of a cornerback like Revis. Both said all cornerbacks received help from safeties, or other cornerbacks, and Moss even went so far as to suggest he could play cornerback in the right defense.

Regardless, the Jets’ defense has yet to allow a touchdown in eight quarters, and Revis may be the single most important piece of Ryan’s system. He stands alone on what teammates have started calling Revis Island, matched up each week against the best receiver on the opposing team.

Of course, Revis studied all of them back in June and July. Sullivan reminded him of that Monday morning, via a text message that read simply, “Who’s next?”

Bobby Gonzalez notes

Notes from Seton Hall head coach Bobby Gonzalez:

*You can't be good at everything. Pick 2-3 things (maybe 4) to answer the question "What are we going to hang our hat on?"

*It's not how much you know, it's what you can convey to your players

*We don't always run the best stuff, we don't always have the most talent, we don't always play as smart as we should, we don't execute nearly as well as we'd like, but one thing I demand is that we play harder than the opponent.

*Teach with the bench. After all these years it's still the best disciplinary tool. The worst thing that can happen to a kid that truly loves the game is to sit down. This is the best way to get a kid in line.

*It's more important to coach attitude every day than X's & O's. Teach your players to maintain eye contact, how to dress, how to have a proper handshake, how to be respectful.

*Kids will respect you for disciplining them. They secretly like that you hold them to higher standards than they hold for themselves.

*Best thing you can do for a kid is to take the time and work with them on their game.

Making practice into game situations

“The quarterback position is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical,” Brees says. “I try to simulate the game as much as I can in practice and visualize every play and every defense we could see. In essence I’m playing the game over and over so that no matter what situation happens, I’ve already played it and can anticipate what will happen.”

An Undrafted Rookie From Rutgers Plays His Way Onto the Jets

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Jamaal Westerman, a Jets rookie linebacker, has only had time to stock his new locker with the basics: practice uniform, seven pairs of shoes, two sticks of deodorant and white helmet, a green mouthpiece stuck in the facemask. At least he has a locker.


Westerman survived Coach Rex Ryan’s final roster cut Saturday to become the only free-agent rookie to make the team. Ryan loves free agents — 18 undrafted players are on his roster — because they tend to have the same no-frills, gung-ho attitude as Westerman.


“There’s really no time to sit back and admire anything,” Westerman, a former Rutgers star, said this week. “The season hasn’t started yet, so what is there to admire? I just want to keep working hard, be consistent. As soon as I sit back, things will take a wrong turn.”


His approach has served him well during a career that was launched playing pickup football as a third-grader on the streets of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.


The last 10 months, though, have been especially daunting. Early in Rutgers’s 54-34 victory over Pittsburgh on Oct. 25, Westerman tore his left biceps while sacking quarterback Bill Stull. Westerman was told later in the week that he needed surgery. Although he could barely turn his wrist, he played the last three regular-season games, helping Rutgers overcome an unexpected 1-5 start with seven straight victories.


He missed the Scarlet Knights’ bowl game because he had surgery. When he resumed working out at the TEST Sports Club in Martinsville, N.J., Westerman’s repaired left biceps had atrophied and was six inches smaller in circumference than his right biceps.


“His determination and his mental approach were incredible,” said Brian Martin, the president of the club and Westerman’s personal trainer. “He did everything to the letter. He’s intelligent and focused. The N.F.L. was his dream. He worked very hard, and maybe more important, he was smart in the way he worked.”


There was another hitch: Westerman, who had 26 sacks and 141 tackles as a three-year starter at Rutgers, was 6 feet 3 inches and 255 pounds, a bit too small to continue playing defensive end. His future was at linebacker, a position he had not played since high school.


And Westerman had played 12-man high school ball at Notre Dame Academy in Brampton, Ont., where he had moved with his mother when his parents split up after he played one year at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, a football powerhouse.


Westerman worked with Martin on his footwork. He took yoga classes to increase his flexibility. No one selected Westerman in the N.F.L. draft, but Ryan had told Westerman he was interested in signing him as a free agent.


Ryan’s roster is packed with undrafted players; four of them are defensive starters. Bart Scott, a linebacker who made the Baltimore Ravens as a free agent from Southern Illinois in 2002, signed a six-year contract with the Jets that could be worth $48 million.


“He’s versatile, he's coachable, and to me, the No. 1 thing about him is that he’s fearless, and you can’t be afraid to fail,” Scott said of Westerman. “He’s relentless. It’s like looking into a mirror at myself. I know the things that were going through his mind, and he’s earned it. Nothing’s been given to him — and it’s not like he made a team with sorry linebackers.”


Three Jets linebackers were former first-round draft choices, and another, David Harris, was picked in the second round. Vernon Gholston, a first-round pick last year who had an underachieving season, will replace Calvin Pace, another first-rounder who is serving a four-game suspension for violating the N.F.L. policy on performance-enhancing substances.


Although he was playing a different position than he did in college, Westerman had two sacks in the preseason, including one of the Eagles’ Michael Vick in a 38-27 Jets’ victory Sept. 3.


“He had those characteristics we talked about,” Ryan said Tuesday. “He loves to play the game.



He certainly has enough athletic ability to play in this league. He’s got a great temperament. He’s smart. He’s a passionate guy. He’s doing a good job on special teams. He had to earn it. Here’s a free agent who earned a spot on this roster.”


Chansi Stuckey, a wide receiver who is Westerman’s new next-door locker-room neighbor, said Westerman stood out among the training-camp long shots. He played so well in the preseason that Gholston said he had no idea Westerman was coming off surgery.


“You see a scar on his arm,” Gholston said, “but with most guys, you don’t know if it happened last year or 10 years ago. He’s one of those guys who looks like he wants to get after the football.”


Westerman, listed as Harris’s backup at strongside inside linebacker, will probably play mostly on special teams Sunday, when the Jets open the season at Houston.


“I don’t think the transition is finished,” Westerman said. “I still feel like I’m learning something every day. Wherever they put you, you want to do your best. That’s the thing. Whatever role they have me in, I’m going to try to succeed at.”

Leadership Thoughts from NFL Quarterbacks

Really good article by Peter King of Sports Illustrated on NFL quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer, Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, and Matt Ryan. King asked them various questions on what it takes to be the leader of the team. Here is a couple of quotes:

Question: What about toughness?

Ben Roethlisberger: I don't think toughness is when a quarterback says, "I'm going to run somebody over." Toughness is playing your worst game of your life but not backing down. You don't want to sit on the sideline. You want to stay in there and win. You down, down 21 points and the defense is getting through in every single way, and you throw three interceptions. Staying in that game, keeping your head up, trying to drive your team down the field when everything's going wrong- that's the kind of toughness I want in my quarterback.

Question: Think back to big moments or big games. How does your stomach feel?

Aaron Rodgers: When I was a point guard, I wanted the ball in the last two minutes. When I was a pitcher, I wanted the ball in the last inning. That's why in the big moments in games, I'm not tight. Those moments are why you play.

Roethlisberger: I love that. I want the ball. Our defense does some amazing things, but I want to have the ball, and that's the way I've always been playing sports.

Curry gets a jump on NBA conditioning

First round draft pick & college All-American Stephen Curry is getting ready for his rookie season in theNBA. His trainer is making him run sprint after sprint, dribble backward and forward, then run three quarters of the court and make 10 NBA-range 3-point shots in a row. Of course, if you miss, you start over.

“This is what it takes,” said Curry, a lottery pick by the Golden State Warriors this summer. “You've got to go to training camp at the top of your game and not use it to get in shape.”