Mechanics of the Jump Shot

Article in the Kansas City Star about the mechanics of the jump shot. Shooting coach and former NBA assistant Hal Wissel talks about the six steps to successful shooting:

SIGHT. Focus the eyes on the basket, aiming just over the front of the rim. It’s important to watch the basket until the ball reaches the hoop. But don’t follow the flight of the ball — this helps eliminate distractions.

•BALANCE. Foot position is the foundation of a shooter’s balance and keeping his or her head over the base (feet) controls balance. A shooter should spread his or her feet to shoulder width and point the toes straight ahead. Pointing the toes aligns the knees, hips and shoulders with the basket. The toe on the back foot should be aligned with the heel of the shooting side. A shooter should flex the legs at the knee, because it gives power to the shot.

•HAND POSITION. It’s important to start and finish the shot with the shooting hand facing the basket — i.e. behind the ball. Keep a relaxed hand position, one that forms a natural cup, enabling the ball to contact the pads of the fingers and not the palm. The shooting hand should be turned toward the basket, behind the ball, with the index finger directly at the ball’s midpoint. The ball should be released off the index finger.

•ELBOW-IN ALIGNMENT. Keep the shooting elbow in, because this will align the ball with the basket.

•SHOOTING MOTION. The initial force and rhythm for the shot come from a down-and-up motion of your legs (Remember that 7-year-old?). Start with the knees slightly flexed. Bend the knees and then fully extend them in a down-and-up motion. The legs and arms work together — as the legs go up, so do the arms. Direct the arm, wrist and fingers straight toward the basket at a 45- to 60-degree angle, extending the shooting arm completely at the elbow. The final force and control of the shot comes from flexing the wrist and fingers forward and down. Release the ball off your index finger with soft fingertip touch to impart backspin on the ball and soften the shot.

•FOLLOW THROUGH. After releasing the ball, keep the arm fully extended with the index finger pointing straight to the basket. This will help the ball avoid turning away from the hoop. The palm of the shooting hand should be turned down and the palm of the balance hand should be turned up.

How can I help my teammates?

LeBron James on 60 Minutes Sunday with Steve Kroft:

But of all the weapons in James' basketball arsenal, he thinks the most powerful may be his brain. Asked what the strongest part of his game is, James told Kroft, "The way I approach the game mentally. I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed. Because I'm always thinking about, 'How can I help my teammates become better?' I've always approached the game that way, ever since, I mean, I was a kid."

Bulls' Kirk Hinrich acknowledges difficulty of being a reserve

Good article recently in the Chicago Tribune on Bulls veteran Kirk Hinrich. Hinrich, who has started the past several years at point guard for the Bulls. However, when the Bulls drafted the talented Derrick Rose with their #1 overall pick, Hinrich was out of the starting lineup. Although it has been a tough transition on him, he has handled it all with class & a team first attitude:

"Kirk is a starter in this league," guard Ben Gordon said. "He's handled [coming off the bench] well, and that just shows what kind of pro he is. It says a lot about his character."He's still a very, very good player, regardless of the circumstances. He's not going to complain. He's going to do his job every day."

Hinrich has started just two games this season after starting 96.7 percent of his games in his first five seasons. For the first time this season, Hinrich dropped his guard about the difficulty of accepting a reserve role.

"It's been challenging at times trying to stay with it," he acknowledged. "I've been playing well but in somewhat limited minutes."It's a different mind-set coming off the bench. You try to bring energy and give your team a lift. As a starter, you know you're going to play more minutes, and it's more getting off to a good start in both halves and finishing games strong. But if you play long enough in this league, you probably have to be able to do both."

Hinrich said Rose's ability and humility have helped him accept his role.

"Derrick is a heck of a player," Hinrich said. "It's also been easier to handle because we've been playing so much better. When the team plays together and we execute and play hard, it definitely makes it easier."

Executives, teammates and others around the team acknowledge Hinrich's more assertive leadership this season. That has afforded Del Negro the luxury of knowing Hinrich won't create waves over his new role."

He's a pro," Del Negro said. "It's not about personal accolades. It's about understanding what's best for the team. He works as hard as anybody. I knew he'd be prepared because he always is."

Focus, work ethic sends Michigan State to Final Four

Big time performance from Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans yesterday in their 64-52 win over top seeded Louisville. I posted last week about how Coach Izzo stated that he thought his team was starting to 'get it' in terms of how to be winners. A couple of articles from espn.com and the Detroit Free Press show the mental preparation that the Spartans took into Sunday. According to the coach and players the victory started at their shootaround yesterday morning:

At 10 Sunday morning, the Michigan State basketball team reported for its walkthrough in a basement ballroom of the downtown Hilton.

What the Spartans showed their coach in that room was a monumental focus on the mission to reach the Final Four in their home state.

"They were locked in like they were in the army," Tom Izzo marveled. "I felt like saluting them.
"I went from worrying about things to leaving there saying, 'We're going to win the game.'"

Said freshman Draymond Green:

“We had a walk-through this morning,” freshman Draymond Green said. “Coach told us, ‘I can see it in somebody’s eyes when they’re ready, and I think they’re ready to play.’ And he could see it when we walked through the door before the walk-through, that we were gonna win this game.”

Senior captain Travis Walton was instrumental in helping his team gain the right mindset going into the game. His leadership has been noted in this blog before and continues to impress me everytime I read something on him:

Credit for taking Louisville forward Terrance Williams out of the game goes largely to Walton, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Despite giving away 6 inches, the rugged senior guard declared to his coaches Friday night, "I got Williams."

"The job he did on Williams was incredible," Izzo said.

If the Spartans had lost, he would have become the only four-year player in the Izzo Era not to have reached a Final Four -- a streak he did not want to see end on his watch. Michigan State staffers said Walton single-handedly demanded that his teammates approach this game with total focus.

"I had pressure," Walton said. "Seniors had pressure. Our underclassmen had pressure to deliver this last class and get them to the Final Four so Coach can go on the road, anywhere he goes, and say ... 'You know what, I know you watched the Final Four on TV, I know you dream about going there. If you come to Michigan State University ... we're going to get you to a Final Four.'

"And now he can say that to every person, look them in the eyes and not have to say, 'There was one player I did not get [to the Final Four].' ... Thank you, Coach, and our coaching staff."

Communication, discipline, leadership helping the Nuggets

Very good inside look at the George Karl and the Denver Nuggets this week by Ian Thomsen at cnnsi.com. Nugget teams of the past few years were known to put up lots of points and give up tons as well. This year, the coaching staff is focusing more on the defensive side of the floor. Come playoff time, George Karl felt that they didn't have an identity defensively to go deep into the playoffs. Here is a look at the turnaround, which hasn't always been a smooth ride:

1.Going back to basics: Over the previous two seasons in Denver, Karl had focused on developing a passing-game offense aimed at creating gaps to attack the basket. He won't try making that a priority again. "I learned a lot, it was a good experiment, I'm glad I survived it," Karl said. "But there's no question I'm better when I coach the game from the defensive end of the court. My staff is more comfortable when I coach from the defensive end of the court, and deep down inside most players have a trust in that end of the court."

When his Nuggets lost in the first round last season for the fourth successive year -- having won three playoff games in that span -- Karl and his longtime assistant Tim Grgurich agreed on a new way forward: Return to the old system, based on the aggressive trapping defense that dates back to his long run of success with Gary Payton in Seattle.

"I remember the next two or three days [after the playoffs]. We said, 'We've got to go back to the old way,' '' Karl said. "There's too much freedom and openness to coaching offense. The discipline and the toughness and the soul of the game come from the defensive end of the court most of the time."

Karl understands why people say he didn't appear to be plugged in over the last couple of years: He was thinking his way through the game instead of reacting to it.

"So much of coaching is the trust and passion that the team feels from you, and if you're faking that over a 100 games a year, they find that out," Karl said. "I'm not sure I was faking it, but the last couple of years I was confused. When a problem came up, I didn't know how to address it based on my experiences. Now I think I'm back to feeling much more comfortable on how to attack a weakness that we've developed or a situation that has arisen."

2.Embrace discipline: "We were at Grg's camp [in Las Vegas] the first week in August and he said, 'Not only do we have to go back to the defense, but we've got to go back to touching our players and telling these guys that we can still win,' " Karl said. "Because the cloud in Denver was, We're done. No one thought we could win. Everybody predicted the doom."

Each of the assistant coaches reached out to players over the summer.

"I went to Nenê the second week in August, I had dinner with him and his fiancee," Karl said.

"He said some hard things to me, I said some hard things to him. Nenê has never been a guy who went to the gym until he had to. I would say within a week [of that dinner], he was in the gym five days a week from August on.

"Grg went to Dallas -- I think twice in that time -- to talk with Kenyon [Martin], and he talked about how we can't have the nonsense that we've had. And Kenyon bought into that. In our first team meeting, Kenyon stood up and said, 'I have been a problem, but I'm not going to be a problem anymore.' "

Both Nenê and Martin have had resurgent seasons. Nenê is averaging career highs of 14.6 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 60.3 percent, and Martin is playing his most minutes since the 2004-05 season.

3.Call it like you see it. "In the NBA we do not coach enough," Karl said. "We manage. We attitude-adjust, we call the league office, we talk to agents.

"I tell Pop [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] all the time, 'Pop, you coach different than we coach. You have a no-nonsense, low-maintenance superstar.' How many of them exist? When you have a disciplinary problem with Melo Carmelo Anthony and you have an injury here and you have a dysfunctional personality on your team, that's not coaching; that's managing. The more that we have to manage what I call the de-energizers of basketball -- selfishness, non-commitment, not playing hard, attitudes in the locker room -- you're not coaching."

"Melo and I are now at the stage where I can talk to him about everything," Karl said. "Sometimes I do it with [the help of] Chauncey [Billups], and there are still the sensitive areas of shot selection and selfishness and commitment to defense, where sometimes it's easier to be with an assistant or do it through a video. But I would say Melo and I are at the stage now that whatever the headache is, even when he's [angry] he can bring it to me, and when I'm [angry] I can bring it to him. Before we always kind of walked around, holding back."

"I went to Chauncey and Melo in a couple of instances [this season] and said, 'You've got to take this off my plate. You've got to police this team. You've got to take responsibility.

4.Import leadership: The Nuggets were already committed to a new (or old) approach when they dealt Allen Iverson to Detroit in November for Billups, a blockbuster trade that enabled them to eventually limbo underneath the tax threshold even as their team improved -- a most improbable dream in this recession-based league.

"I'm blessed, for the first time in a long time, of having [leadership from a player like Billups]," Karl said. "Sam Cassell was my leader in Milwaukee. Now, come on, Sam's kind of crazy. Sam believes the right stuff, but he doesn't present it on a daily basis. Chauncey presents it on a daily basis. He reminds me a lot of Nate [McMillan] when I had Nate in Seattle, and I didn't know how valuable Nate was because I was still a young coach. People ask me at the clinics, 'Who was your most favorite player you ever coached?' And I say Nate McMillan, because on a daily basis he brought winning and leadership to [our] locker room and to [our] court.

"Chauncey does that. He makes your words be listened to. And when you're coaching five or six years with a team, that's important. Because they get tired of hearing my stories and my repeats and my desires and my demands. But Chauncey has kind of lifted that up."

"There is going to be a surprise team. And what I don't want [my team] to do is throw away the opportunity because of not knowing what it takes. Because we don't have the mature toughness that a Utah might have. We do have a lot of talent that we can throw away five possessions or 10 possessions and make it up, but that's not how you win big. And too many times I say, 'OK, we won, and yeah, you didn't play those first five minutes -- but this is not how you beat L.A. This is not how you beat Houston in Houston. You don't do it this way.' "

Work ethic takes Young to higher level

Sam Young of Pittsburgh is one reason the Panthers are playing today in the Elite 8 against Villanova. Young's relentless work ethic has pushed Pitt all year long. This article on espn.com tells the story of Young's passion and work ethic:

Stories of Young's devotion to his craft are legendary around Pitt. People talk about the nights he slept on an air mattress in the gym after hours of shooting alone and how he would blow off social gatherings on weekends to find a pickup game on campus. That tunnel vision didn't just begin in college, either.

"This is a guy who'd be at school at 6:30 in the morning working out or at the gym," said close friend Chris Howard, Young's teammate at Friendly High School and now a guard at South Florida. "When he was at Hargrave, there'd be times we'd call each other and be on speakerphone while we were doing push-ups.

"He's not one of those guys you're going to see in the club. Sometimes he'll call me and say he's going to movies, and I'll joke around and say, 'Who are you going with? Who's the girl?' And he'll say, 'I'm going by myself.' That's the kind of focus you've got to have until you get to the place you want to be."

The Evolution of Leo Lyons

Article recently in the Kansas City Star about the maturation process for Missouri forward Leo Lyons, who has helped his team each the Elite 8 with a victory last night over Memphis. It has not always been easy for Lyons, who has admitted he was lazy when he first arrived at Missouri and didn't like being coached:

He despised getting yelled at. And Mike Anderson yelled at him constantly, every day, screamed that he was lazy, shouted that he was in the wrong place, howled that he was not going to play unless he started working. No coach had ever yelled at Leo before, not at any of his four high schools, not his freshman year at Missouri, not ever. Maybe they were afraid to yell at him, afraid to lose him. Leo Lyons was a sensitive soul. He had a long body and a light shooting touch and big basketball dreams, really big dreams, but there was something soft about him, too.

“People let me do what I want,” he says plainly.

Anderson saw a player who did not go to class (Anderson suspended him for missing classes), a player who made bad decisions off the court (Anderson suspended him again for missing curfew in the well-chronicled incident at Club Athena) and a player who did not always think first. (Anderson suspended Lyons again after he was pulled over for driving with his lights off and other traffic violations were discovered.)

Anderson also saw a player who was a bit too goofy (One game he forgot to wear his jersey under his warm-up jacket), and a player who brooded after being yelled at. (“No, he did not respond too well at first,” Anderson says.)

Most of all, though, he saw a player who not only did not play hard but did not even seem to realize that he was not playing hard. (Anderson benched him repeatedly for it.)

“Leo’s a good young man,” Anderson says. “But young men have to learn how to be men.”
Anderson smiles.

“It took a little bit longer with Leo.”

When the season ended, Lyons declared for the NBA draft, but quickly realized that he would not get drafted high enough and decided to return for his senior year. And almost immediately he saw that something had changed. He noticed how hard his teammates were working in the summer months. He heard them talking about putting together a season they would always remember.

Then, Mike Anderson asked him to be one of the team captains.

“People look up to you, Leo,” he would remember Anderson saying.

And suddenly he felt … different. He had never been asked to be a leader before. That’s not to say that everything went perfectly after that; it only works that way in the movies. Lyons still had his good moments and his bad ones. He still found himself on the bench listening to Anderson’s soliloquies about keeping his head in the game and playing hard.

But his good moments were sensational. He scored 30 against Baylor, grabbed 15 rebounds at Colorado and in a three-game Big 12 stretch, he made 28 of 29 free throws. He took over games for brief stretches.

“The thing that has impressed me is how much better he has played on defense,” Anderson says. “He has really put his heart into that.”

“The hardest part to me is that you have to make those second and third efforts,” Lyons says. “You’re used to seeing guys who make one hard effort on defense. But we feed off each other, you might have to make five efforts in one defensive play.

“It took me awhile to learn that.”

Lyons may have had the most complete game of his career against Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He scored, rebounded, defended, handled the ball. He left his teammates talking about how far the Tigers can go in the tournament if he keeps playing like that. He left Cornell coach Steve Donahue in awe.

“A senior like that, plays at a great pace, very skilled, yet tough,” Donahue says. “When he misses his shot, he has the ability to chase it down. He does it against all competition. That’s what makes him really good.”

And what did Lyons think of his game? “I’ve played like that before,” he says. “But I’m just so much more mature now. That’s the difference.”

Villanova turns up defense on Duke

By this time of the year, the teams that play great defense are still playing. As I posted earlier this week, Villanova is thriving on great team defense as was the case last night in their 77-54 victory over Duke in the Sweet Sixteen:

"That's the best I've seen all year," said Henderson of teams defending him. "Different teams attack it with help side and I do anticipate somebody else coming at me to take away my drive. But they did the best I've seen this year. It was every time. It was tough for me to get my own shot."

"We talked all year how good this team could be, but everybody really did lock in on every possession," Wright said. "We've had a guy get tired and miss an assignment. We've had 12-point leads and relaxed. It's happened to us in a lot of games. We had a lead against Marquette and relaxed. We had a big lead against Louisville and relaxed. I'm trying to get them to understand what will make them a great team."

Izzo thinks Spartans are 'starting to get it'

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is happy about the way his team is playing:

"I've been seeing little things over the past week that's telling me that maybe they're starting to get it."

As this article in the Detroit Free Press states, nothing pleases a coach more than the players "taking ownership" of their tournament destiny:

"I've always maintained that you must have players coach themselves," Izzo said. "That was what stood out about the great teams we had here in the past. They didn't have to worry about me yelling at them, because it got to a point where Mateen (Cleaves) or Antonio (Smith) would do it. They have to police themselves, keep themselves in check."

During practice last Tuesday, Izzo was unusually quiet. The players knew he was upset with their poor performance days earlier in the Big Ten tournament. They expected the customary chorus from the four-letter aria. But Izzo merely observed. And that made the players angry.

Had he given up on them?

Had he figure what's the use?

But that was Izzo's plan: to see how the players would respond.

He got the reaction he sought. The players were the vocal ones, calling out one another for a blown defensive assignment. The normally soft-spoken Kalin Lucas upbraided senior captain

Travis Walton for not being in the right spot in an offensive set.

The players were more vocal in the huddle during time-outs against the Trojans. They didn't wait to be asked for input. Lucas told teammates that he would get them the ball where they needed it -- and they had better stick the shot!

"It was fun to see Kalin," Izzo said. "He really went at some people. He kept saying, 'Let me have the ball, and I'll get people a basket.' That was the first real time he's kind of talked like that. He wanted it. That was a big plus."

Walton gave Chris Allen a verbal lashing following a lazy pass that resulted in an easy USC lay-up in the second half that seemingly shifted the momentum in the Trojans' favor.

"This was one of our best communicating games," Walton said. "We were constantly talking about where we needed to be. And what needed to be done. Coach would still get on us, but there were times when he didn't have to because we were getting on each other about not making mistakes."

After his poor pass, Allen returned to the bench and wrapped his arm around Izzo, assuring him that he got the message.

"We're starting to gain more confidence in each other," Allen said. "We can say what needs to be said to each other because we're all committed to winning."

Villanova sends their message early and often

Article from espn.com on how Villanova set a physcial tone early in their game last Saturday against UCLA. There was nothing dirty or malicious in their intent, they just wanted to play hard.....


Twenty-six seconds in, Darren Collison drove to the hoop. Scottie Reynolds met him at the door, knocking Collison hard enough to bloody the UCLA guard's lip. Collison walked away with a smile. Reynolds stood his ground.

Three minutes in, Josh Shipp drove to the hoop. Dante Cunningham met him at the door, slamming Shipp to the ground. Shipp walked over to ask the official about the severity of the foul. Cunningham stood his ground.

Four minutes in, Corey Fisher went end line to end line. Nobody stopped him. The Villanova sophomore spun in the lane and directly to the hoop, sending a rainbow layup into the basket.

The score was 9-6, but Villanova's message to UCLA was abundantly clear: You're not on the West Coast anymore.

Maybe Scottie didn't score a lot of points, but that first play, that set the tone for us," Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

Honestly, if I'm out there and a team is that forceful from the jump, not even worrying about fouling, just going out there like it's a free-for-all, I'm like, 'Whoa, whoa,'" Cunningham said. "I think it would be hard to get your bearings back."

For Villanova, which will head to its fourth Sweet 16 in five years, there is more to this victory than just embarrassing UCLA. When Wright arrived eight years ago, he built his program on defense, offering up offensive freedom to his players in exchange for defensive intensity.

He established an Attitude Club, in which players are awarded for hard-nosed plays like taking charges and diving for loose balls. Players will tell you winning Attitude Club at the end of the season means even more than finishing as the team's highest scorer.

But in February, the Wildcats forgot who they were. Villanova still won, but the Cats fell a little too in love with their offense, scoring 94, 102 and 102 points in succession -- and worse, giving up 91, 85 and 84.

So when Wright gathered his team before this game, he challenged them to play "40 minutes of Villanova basketball," coachspeak for an entire game of withering defensive pressure.

"We had gotten away from that," associate head coach Pat Chambers said. "We were scoring all these points but that's not who we are. That's not who we want to be. I think we really recommitted ourselves before this game.

We wanted 40 minutes."

The Making of a Leader

Good article this morning on Charlotte Bobcats guard Raymond Felton. Felton, in his 3rd year with the Bobcats, is coached by NBA legend and renouned point guard coach Larry Brown. Here is a little from the article:

“Just trust me.”

It was that simple and that complex when Raymond Felton met with his coach about 10 games into this season. The Charlotte Bobcats had started 3-7 and the offense was the least productive in the NBA.

Coach Larry Brown was riding Felton hard, as is his habit with point guards. Felton didn't mind that; he considered himself lucky to have a former point guard for a coach. He just needed to make sure Brown understood something.

“Just trust me,” Felton recalled telling Brown. “I'm going to play hard every night. I'm going to do what you want me to do. But at the same time, let me be me.

“I told him, ‘Push me to be better because I want to be better. And I want to make the team better.' Everything just worked out.”

That doesn't mean Felton never errs. Sometimes he shoots too much or throws the ball away or forgets to get a teammate enough shots. But Brown gets it about Felton's intentions.

The statistics aren't dramatically different; his points (13.7 per game), assists (6.8) and shooting percentage (40.8 percent) are roughly the same as last season. But point guards aren't easily defined by numbers; it's a nuanced position that is more about making hundreds of decisions each game in real time.

To Brown, a point guard is there to serve others; to keep them involved and organized. If you happen to score some points along the way, that's more a bonus than an objective.

To be a point guard, you have to be a leader, and Felton wasn't situated to be either until this season.

“The leader of your team has got to be either a guy who can be an All-Star or the point guard,” Felton said. “Without the ball in my hands, I wasn't the leader. Having that ball in my hands at clutch time, to make a play, that gives me the confidence that I can lead these guys.

“To talk to them, to yell at them if I need to, to demand something from them, and have them say, ‘OK' instead of giving you a look that says, ‘Hey, who you talking to?'”

To pull that off, Felton had to prove he was a good decision-maker. When it comes time to make those hundreds of choices each game,there's a balance to be struck between technique and psychology.

“There are 20 things going through your head in any one possession,” Felton said. “A shot's missed, there's an offensive rebound. New shot clock. You see someone open. Do you pass it or not?

“You don't want your teammate (thinking) ‘He won't pass me the ball!' But you also don't want coach yelling at you because he's thinking, ‘We haven't scored in a while and we have a new shot clock. Yes, he's open, but run a play to get a better shot.'”

Brown loves that Felton is more conscious of those calculations.

“Is he a perfect point guard right now? No, but I think his progress has been dramatic,” Brown said. “He's got to continue to recognize when guys haven't been involved, when they need to get a shot. He's got to be a more consistent jump-shooter, to make people guard him honest.

“But he loves to play. And he wants to learn.”

A coach on the floor

Four years ago, Jon Scheyer's mother called his high school coach one Saturday morning with some unusual news.

“Jon is going crazy,” coach Dave Weber said Laury Scheyer told him. “He's writing a letter to every kid on the team.”

Glenbrook North, Scheyer's high school, had completed its regular season the night before and was heading into the playoffs. Scheyer wanted to win a state title and was leaving nothing to chance.

He typed out individual letters to each teammate, instructing them on the roles they needed to play for the school to win a title.

He wanted Zach Kelley to rebound and score inside.
Scheyer's backcourt partner, Sean Wallis, needed to be a leader and hit shots. Scheyer told Malik Valliani he needed to become a good passer.

“His leadership is incredible,” Weber said. “You can talk about it, but it was so natural with him.”

That's why it seems so natural to Weber that Scheyer is thriving at Duke after being moved from shooting guard to the starting point guard spot Feb. 19. The point guard is supposed to be the leader and steadying force for a team, and Weber said that role fits Scheyer perfectly.

With Scheyer claiming most outstanding player honors at the ACC tournament, Duke seized the league title Sunday.

Before his move to the point, Scheyer was averaging 13.1 points a game. Since the move, he has averaged 20.2 points in nine games. Eight of those games have been wins for Duke (28-6), which will meet Binghamton (23-8) in a first-round NCAA tournament game at about 9:40 p.m. Thursday in Greensboro.

“I like having the ball in my hands,” Scheyer said Tuesday. “I feel like I'm not going to make bad decisions with the ball.”

Since Duke has moved Scheyer to point guard, Krzyzewski has seen that one of Scheyer's best assets is his ability to stay cool under defensive pressure.

Scheyer usually makes the smartest, most conservative play possible with the ball. That doesn't get him a ton of assists (he's averaged 1.9 the last nine games), but it helps Duke keep the ball.

“We really haven't done anything in the tournament, and many people don't expect us to (this year),” Scheyer said. “And for us, in high school it was the same thing. And the main thing I want to get across to my teammates is that we can win, and I believe we can.”

It's all about the team with this guy

It has been a tough year personally for Duke point guard Greg Paulus. The senior who was a 3 year starter up until this year has seen his playing team decrease with the rise of quicker guards Nolan Smith and Elliot Williams.

It is rare to see a 3 year starter get to his senior year and be a role player who played only 10 total minutes in the 3 ACC Tournament games. It is even more uncommon to see a player like this remain a great teammate. From the New York Times:

When Duke won the tournament title, no player in the team picture had a bigger smile than Paulus. He had the championship trophy in front of him, a senior’s prerogative.

He does not sit at the end of the bench; he is usually the first player next to the coaches and the first one up to greet a player walking off the floor with a hand slap. He sits on the edge of his seat, absorbed in the game.

“It’s sincere,” said Steve Wojciechowski, a Duke assistant coach and former point guard for the Blue Devils. “Greg is one of the all-time best guys we have had in our program. He’s the guy you trust your kids with, and give the keys to your house, or keys to your car.”

Elliot Williams, the freshman guard, said he goes to Paulus after practice looking for tips and insights. Paulus shares three seasons of lessons.

“Elliot is doing a great job for us; he’s really helped out our team,” Paulus said. “He is so long and athletic, and he can really put ball pressure on. He’s a good athlete, and we need him to keep playing well.”

“I’m thinking about the game for 40 minutes,” he said. “We need everybody to win. It’s been different guys to step up and help us win games. I’m not the exception. I need to be ready.”

If you get to the foul line, you win games

Article in the N.Y. Times today on Connecticutt's ability to draw fouls and get to the free throw line. A philosophy for coaches is that they want their team to make more free throws than their opponents attempt. Not only are they getting to the foul line, but they are also keeping their opponents off the free throw line, committing the fewest amount of fouls out of any tournament team:

When it comes to fouls in college basketball, not all teams are created equal. And this season’s UConn team has been called for fewer fouls than any other (12.1 a game in the regular season) while getting fouled more than most (20.6).

That foul differential of 8.5 is far larger than any other team’s. It allowed UConn, the top seed in the West Region of the N.C.A.A. tournament, to shoot an average of 14.5 more free throws a game than its opponents.

“Every game we’re coming in, we’ve got 8 points built in the bank on foul shots,” Calhoun said in a phone interview on Sunday. UConn averaged nearly 10 more points a game on free throws, actually. “That’s unusual. But it’s a great advantage.”

Seven of the past eight national champions have had differentials of at least 2.6. (The exception was Kansas last year, at 1.1, which beat Memphis — 2.7 — in overtime.) Only 11 of this year’s tournament teams have differentials that high.

“Ours is, without question, a concerted effort to try to get fouls,” Calhoun said. “For example, if one of our kids tries to take the ball to the rim and avoids the foul by trying to scoop the ball, we would be all over him. We want him to initiate contact. Nine times out of 10, around the basket, if you’re trying to complete a shot, the call’s going to go against the defensive player.”

The more the ball moves, the harder it is for the defense to rotate

Article in the Charlotte Observer on how Boris Diaw's passing is rubbing off on his teammates. In a “me-first” league, Diaw is a “you-first” player. He will pass up a relatively open 15-footer to find a teammate with a no-look hook pass for a layup. “We had 32 assists out of 44 baskets made,” Diaw said. “That's really good.”

Said Coach Larry Brown of Diaw: “He can play every position. He thinks pass-first. He sees things you can't teach. … He hasn't seen a pass he doesn't like. And it's gotten contagious with all those guys.”

Said Diaw: “We had a couple of plays tonight where we had four passes – just swinging the ball. It was like ‘The (defensive) help is coming, the help is coming,' but at some point it just can't come anymore. And then somebody is wide open for a 3 or a layup. That would be it for me.”

For the Boston Celtics, they know that an inability to 'pop the ball around' cost them a game at Milwaukee recently:

“I talked about that at halftime (Sunday) because it was evident just watching Milwaukee,” Ray Allen said. “They moved the ball and didn’t care who got the shot, and it forced our defense to shift a lot. When we pass the ball, we get good shots and we make the defense work. At halftime, we had more turnovers than assists, and I sat in the locker room and said, ‘Fellas, this is our negative trait when we lose games. We have more turnovers than we have assists.’ When we have 25-30 assists, that’s when we win games.

Krzyzewski works his magic again

Despite an up and down season, Duke captured another ACC Tournament crown yesterday by defeating a tough Florida State team. The personal goal for Coach K this year was to live in the moment, to enjoy the process rather than taking it for granted. Said Krzyzewski:

“I think the kids would tell you, too, our whole staff, we've been really energized the whole time, really positive and enjoying it – enjoying it but working hard.”

Tough losses against North Carolina, Boston College, and a 27 point loss by Clemson really tested Coach K and his players.

“That's just who coach is, a competitor,” Duke forward Kyle Singler said. “Even when we were taking losses during conference play, it was all about getting better during the season. We wanted to play as well as we (could), but our main focus was on getting better and being at our best at the end of the season.”

Jay Bilas on Shooting

Glue Guy- Stanley Burrell

From the 2008 all glue team, Stanley Burrell. A big reason Xavier reached the Elite 8 last season:

Three years ago, Stanley Burrell, a 6-foot-3 guard at Xavier, scored 12.7 points per game, making him just the third freshman in school history to lead the team in scoring. As a sophomore, Burrell raised that average to 14.4. Last season, it was 12.4. Now, however, Burrell is scoring just 9.9 points per game for the Musketeers, the fewest of his career. So he's having an off year, right?

Wrong. Burrell is having a great year -- and for all the right reasons. He has curtailed his penchant for careless passes. He has kept his emotions in check while still infusing his team with energy and leadership. He has honed his instincts for figuring out just what his team needs from him and then delivering it. Most of all, he has made himself into arguably the finest perimeter defensive player in the country. Earlier this month, he ended the conference season as the runaway choice as the Atlantic 10's defensive player of the year.

Heading into the regular-season's final weekend , Xavier was ranked eighth in the AP poll, its highest ever ranking this late in the season. The Musketeers have already set a new school mark for wins. With five players averaging double-figure scoring, the Musketeers have been an exemplar of teamwork and balance, and Burrell has stood out for his willingness to do whatever it takes to help his team win -- even if it means scoring less.

In other words, he has been the ultimate Glue Guy.

Burrell is a fitting standard bearer to carry the torch of the All-Glue captaincy. His role as defensive stopper has not come easily. According to Xavier coach Sean Miller, during his first three years Burrell took only one charge. So far this season, Burrell has 10. Miller did not explicitly ask Burrell to take on this role. Burrell simply sensed it needed to happen.

"As a freshman, he was lost on defense," Miller says. "He didn't feel comfortable taking charges. He'd just get out of the way. Toward the end of last year, I asked our team who was going to be our defensive stopper next year, and he just took it personally. Now, he's defending at the highest level I've been around for a perimeter guy."

There are an awful lot of prominent players who have mysteriously lost their shooting touch while being guarded by Burrell this season: Dayton's Brian Roberts (12-for-32 shooting combined in three games), Indiana's Eric Gordon (4-for-12), Tennessee's Chris Lofton (3-for-12), Cincinnati's Deonta Vaughn (3-for-11), LaSalle's Darnell Harris (2-for-9) and Virginia's Sean Singletary (5-for-12). After holding Rhode Island guard Jimmy Baron to two points on 0-for-7 shooting on Feb. 18 (he came into the game averaging 15.3), Burrell said, "I'm coming out to try my best and throw a shutout every night."

"I just want to do whatever it takes to help the team," Burrell said in November. "If it's guarding a guy one night and really trying to shut him down, or just coming out and being aggressive and looking for my shot or coming out the next night looking for my teammates."

Burrell is such a tireless worker outside of practice that Miller has had to ask him to dial back his individual work so he wouldn't wear himself out. Yet, he continues to wear his emotions on his sleeve. That was apparent last week when he ripped the league's coaches for not putting a single Xavier player on the league's all-conference first team, even though the Musketeers won the A 10 by three games. "This league is pathetic," Burrell told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "You've got the best team and nobody on the first team all-conference team? It's ridiculous. ... Those guys decided to be here and play team ball. And they get left out for that? For being unselfish? It's not right, man. I don't care what I got. That defensive player of the year? That's my team award."

Glue Guy- Travis Walton

This guy is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I posted an article a week ago on Michigan State guard Travis Walton. Walton is an all-glue guy member and is what every coach dreams of out of a player. I found this article from the Grand Rapids Press after Michigan State defeated Purdue on Sunday:

EAST LANSING -- With its first Big Ten championship since 2001 already secured, a true sense of urgency wasn't necessary Sunday by Michigan State in its regular-season finale against Purdue:

The Spartans were the top seed in this week's Big Ten tournament even before beating the cold-shooting Boilermakers, 62-51.

Unless they do a complete flop in Indianapolis, they will be no worse than a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

But simply going through the motions Sunday wasn't captain Travis Walton's style. Never has been. No matter the circumstances, which is why Walton offered some terse, fire-up-the-troops comments at halftime.

"Trav brought it all (today), and it was the players' commitment at halftime that was bigger than any speech I gave," MSU coach Tom Izzo said. "That was all because of Trav and his speech.

"I always say a player-coach team is a lot better than a coach-coach team. Walton is the only guy I know who cannot score a lot of points and be a difference maker in a game. He was a difference maker in our locker room this time."

For lack of a better description, Walton has become Tom Izzo Jr. during his four years in East Lansing. When he speaks, which is rare in public, he commands complete attention from his teammates. When he plays his patented lockdown defense, the other Spartans pick up their defense.

Walton helped MSU force the Boilermakers into 6-for-32 field-goal shooting in the final 20 minutes for a miserable 18.8-percentage.

"Sometimes, when the coaches are getting on everybody, Trav will say the same thing to us. But it's how he relays it," sophomore guard Durrell Summers said. "That's the sign of a true, legitimate team leader.

"We were sluggish in the first half. That's when Travis said 'enough was enough' at halftime. That's when he reminded us that we're all hungry for more. That we have bigger goals ahead of us."

Walton scored just two points against Purdue. But it's all the little things he did -- three steals, three rebounds and two assists -- that to add to his leadership qualities and defensive skills, that make him a complete package.

It is his dedication to winning, which is a similar trait that made Mateen Cleaves special as a Spartan.

"You need somebody that puts winning above everything, and is tough enough to deal with it," Izzo said. "And you need a coach on the floor. That's all Trav."

At halftime, Walton told his teammates their first-half play was unacceptable.

"I just talked about how they were outscrapping us a little bit," Walton said. "It looked like the same thing down there I wasn't going to have that happen at home, and especially on our senior day," Walton said of MSU's 72-54 loss at Purdue on Feb. 17.

"Nobody wanted this final regular-season win as badly as me. Not even our other three seniors. For us to win the championship by four games was even bigger than three games. To tie the school record for most Big Ten wins (15) was too important to me. But we have more to get done."

Glue Guy- Garrett Temple

Another member on Seth Davis' all glue-team:

To opposing guards, however, Temple is simply a royal pain. With his size, his long, spindly arms, his lateral quickness and his intellect, he has fashioned himself into one of the most lethal perimeter defenders in America. Just ask Duke's J.J. Redick, who scored 11 points on 3-for-18 shooting while being guarded by Temple in the third round of the 2005 NCAA tournament, when Temple was a redshirt freshman starter on the Tigers' Final Four team. Temple has also shut down such big-time scorers as Texas A&M's Acie Law (four points) and Tennessee's Chris Lofton (two). Last week, as the Tigers scored their two most important wins of the season, he forced Florida's Nick Calathes and Kentucky's Jodie Meeks to shoot a combined 2-for-14 from three-point range as the Tigers won both games. No wonder he was named a defensive All-America last season by Collegeinsider.com.

Temple has been a four-year starter at LSU, but for the last three years he has played point guard. This year, new Tigers coach Trent Johnson switched him to small forward so 6-1 sophomore Bo Spencer could play the point, but Temple remains an invaluable floor general. He leads the team (and is ranked fifth in the SEC) in assists with 4.1 per game and he is first in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (2-to-1). He is also fourth in the league in steals (1.86), he averages 4.5 rebounds and he's making 84.1 percent from the foul line. That should tell you Temple is capable of scoring more than his current average of 7.2 points a game, but since he plays with two of the highest-scoring players in the SEC in Marcus Thornton and Tasmin Mitchell, Temple knows his job is to get those guys open shots, not take a bunch of his own.

Temple is just as impressive off the court. In 2006, he was named a member of the SEC's academic honor roll, and last May he graduated from LSU with a degree in business administration. He is currently pursuing a graduate degree in business. That has endeared him to LSU's first-year coach, Trent Johnson, who was hired away from Stanford partly to rebuild the program's academic standing. "I'm not the kind of person who pays lip service to academics," Johnson said. The new coach likes smart players, and he is smart enough to recognize a high-quality glue guy when he sees one.

"He has good leadership, and it's real. It's not phony," Johnson said. "He's at peace with who he is. He's a very secure person. When Garrett speaks or asks a question, he knows what he's talking about. That's good leadership."

Overcoming Tragedy

What a story about Duke guard Nolan Smith.......unbelievable

Glue Guys

Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated comes out with an All-Glue Team every year in college basketball. These are the players that do all the litle things, many of which go unnoticed, that help their team succeed. This year he chose J.T. Tiller (pictured above-right) of Missouri as his captain of the team. I will be posting several of Davis' glue-guys over the next several days. These guys symbol all that is right with college basketball:

The Atlanta Celtics are one of the most glamorous programs on the amateur basketball circuit, which is why Mike Anderson, then UAB coach, watched them play many times during the summer of 2005. But instead of locking in on mega scorers, Anderson instead found his gaze drifting toward J.T. Tiller, a 6-foot-3 guard from Marietta, Ga., who was drawing scant interest from other high-major schools. "He was one of those kamikaze guys who did all the little things that add up to winning," Anderson recalls. "He played so hard and gave everything he had, and he had a huge impact on the game just from a defensive standpoint. Most guys don't get after it defensively during the summer, but this kid had no ego. He was all about winning."

Though Tiller is not technically Missouri's point guard, he is ranked in the top 10 of the Big 12 in both assists (3.6 per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.33-to-1). Tiller is also arguably the league's best perimeter defender. He is ranked second in the conference in steals (1.89) and has shut down many of the Big 12's biggest scorers.

Every coach asks his players to do the subtle, unglamorous things that don't show up in a box score, but Tiller is one of those rare players who specializes in doing just that.

There are just so many intangibles he brings to the table," Anderson said. "He's the catalyst for a lot of things that take place, whether it's blocking a shot, deflecting a pass, getting loose balls, taking a charge, making a pass that leads to an assist. Then you throw in his character, he's a good student, he's become a good leader. He's just all about winning."

"I thought of myself as a defensive player coming out of high school. I thought that would be my way out," Tiller said. "Everybody else wanted to be the offensive threat, but I felt like for me to be seen I had to be the defensive guy stopping those offensive-minded people. I thought coaches would like that hard-nosed style."

As for the Tigers' postseason prospects, Tiller is trying not to look too far ahead, but he knows full well they will only go far if they stick together. That, he knows, is his responsibility. "I believe we can go far as long as we come with the right mindset," he said. "My role on this team is to be a leader on the court, be a high-energy guy and do whatever I have to do to propel this team to the next level. I'll take that role any day as long as we're winning."

'The Butler Way'

Good article this morning in the Chicago Tribune on the Butler men's basketball team, who despite being a 'mid-major' have made 8 NCAA tournament appearances in the last 12 years including 2 Sweet-Sixteen appearances.

So what is 'The Butler Way'? According to Matt Howard, who turned down several major schools such as Purdue, Indiana, and Xavier so he could be a part of Butler's program, it's all about accountability.

"It's just being accountable on every possession," said sophomore forward Matt Howard, voted Horizon League player of the year. "We feel like each guy has a job to do on every play, and you count on teammates to do that job every single time.

"The other thing is playing unselfish. You never let the 'me' get over the 'we.' It's so important, and that's a big part of what we do."

Says coach Brad Stevens:

"You just concentrate on recruiting the right people to represent you, not only on the court but in the classroom also," Stevens said. "There are values we try to adhere to, and you want people who are willing to think and work in terms of those values."

Bob Knight on Shot Faking

Establishing the Disposition to Dominate

The Orlando Magic, with a 45-16 record, have the third best record in the Eastern Conference. However, they have been labeled by many as 'soft' for not being able to beat the more physical teams in the conference; Cleveland, Boston, and Detroit. Coach Stan Van Gundy (pictured left) has talked to his team about their perceived status as a 'finesse team'

"The mental toughness will give you the physical toughness," Van Gundy said. "If you're hanging in the game, competing, you'll do what it takes to win. But when you start getting beaten down mentally, then you don't."

Defense wins Championships

"I tell them, 'You guys want to win championships? You want to win big? You want to play at the next level? You want to win now? You've got to defend,'" Howland said. "And that's your constant, night in and night out. Great teams play good defense in any sport. Period."

Bob Knight Discussing Oklahoma

Memphis Shot Fake

Coach Knight breaks down UNC defense

Championship caliber teams focus on the little things

Article in the Boston Hearld on how newly accquired Celtics guard Stephon Marbury is adjusting to playing on a championship-level team:

As Marbury spoke, he still was breathing hard even though he’d been on a diligent workout regimen all year. But this was, he was realizing, quite different. This was Celtics abuse.

“Oh yeah, but it’s good,” Marbury said, summoning the energy for a brief smile. “It was a hard practice today defensively. Defensively this team is amazing. They work at it. They get after it. That’s what it’s about. That’s why they won the championship.”

For now, the road is not smooth for someone anointed as a star/savior in all his other basketball stops.

“I know I’m going to have hiccups,” Marbury said. “Adjusting to these guys is difficult because they play at a high level. It’s not a level where I’m used to. I haven’t played at this level. I’ve never played at a championship level before, so for me, adjusting my style of play, adjusting how I prepare . . . it’s all the same as far as going in with a mind-set, but doing things the way they do things is (what’s) very important.

Paul Pierce offered a knowing nod.

“Even though it was just one day, I think he got a chance to see how we practice, how we get in here early, get our shots up, how we lift the weights - our preparation,” he said. “I think that’s key. A lot of teams, when you’re not winning, you know, the preparation and doing the little things isn’t there. But when you’re a championship-caliber team, you start looking at all the little things from the time you get in the gym to practice and the things you do after. I think him and Mikki (Moore, who is also newly acquired) are starting to see that.”

"Talent is Overrated"

Good research into why the world class athletes are who they are. The research that is presented indicates they are not born with the world-class skills but they have out-worked everyone else in their given field.

Travis Walton's defense makes difference in Spartans' success

Examining Travis Walton's game-by-game statistics is not the best way to measure his contribution this season. A better way would be to look at the stats of those players the Michigan State senior guard has been assigned to defend.

"We've put him on a variety of different guys from 6 feet to 6-7," coach Tom Izzo said. "But he's got that one intangible that not many people have anymore. He's just got toughness, and that's why we recruited him. We thought there was something missing in our program and we needed a bulldog -- another (Mateen) Cleaves-type guy who would get after it."

"You'll always have your star players, but you also have to have that guy that's gonna play defense, that's going to do all the little dirty things that your star player's not supposed to be doing," Walton said.

Izzo said MSU was lacking the "blue-collar guy" that he liked during the early 2000s, and Walton appeared to be the type to fill that role.

Since Walton's arrival, Izzo has been so impressed by his leadership on and off the court that he made Walton a co-captain as a sophomore. Walton is the third three-year captain in Izzo's tenure.

From the start of his senior season, Walton has been forthcoming about his goals. He frequently has mentioned how much he wants to win the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year Award, but is aware that anyone's chances to win individual honors correlates heavily with team success.

Illinois coach Bruce Weber spoke highly of his player, Chester Frazier, as well as Walton during Monday's Big Ten teleconference.

"They're both guys that have accepted their roles," Weber said. "It's not easy in this day and age to say, 'Hey, I'm a defensive stopper.' It's not cool to be a defensive stopper. You want to be a go-to guy, a three-point shooter, a dunker or something like that."

Reigning defensive player of the year, Purdue's Chris Kramer, is in the same mold. Purdue also is 1 1/2 games behind first-place MSU.

"Those three guys -- it's kind of funny that the three leading teams in the league all have one of those kind of guys," Izzo said. "Maybe that's why we're all in the same boat."