Confronted by Team, a Spartan Responds

Michigan State's Durrell Summers is one of the most athletic players on his team. Summers is playing his best basketball of his career in leading the Spartans into the Final Four. Before the tournament started, Summers' was dogged by his coaches and teammates for what they described as a poor effort. This article explains how a team meeting helped Summers turn the corner and in turn helped the Spartans reach yet another Final Four. From the Detroit Free Press:

They do not always do things delicately at Michigan State, whether rebounding in bruising fashion or calling out a teammate for playing without enough passion.

Spartans guard Durrell Summers found out that second part after he had been acting as if he were overqualified to play defense.

Summers was benched in the second half of Michigan State’s loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament. Asked if he was worried about Summers’s confidence, Coach Tom Izzo told Michigan State basketball beat reporters, “Confidence has nothing to do with guarding somebody.”

Michigan State’s players were no less blunt at a players-only meeting in which Summers faced a reckoning.

“We all said what we had to say to Durrell, and Durrell sat there and listened and took it like a man, if it was good or bad,” said Draymond Green, a sophomore forward.

Summers can be an explosive offensive player, but he yawned on defense and admitted that he only glanced at scouting reports and rarely absorbed them. He needed Izzo and his teammates to shake him up, and they did, for two days before the N.C.A.A. tournament started.

It was a reordering of Michigan State basketball, which has lost its leading scorer, Kalin Lucas, to injury but gained a star in Summers. A 6-foot-4 junior from Detroit, Summers made 8 of 10 shots and scored 21 points against Tennessee in a 70-69 victory in the Midwest Regional final Sunday to cap a splendid four-game stretch that helped carry Michigan State to the Final Four.

Summers was 1 for 5 in that Big Ten tournament game against Minnesota, but in four N.C.A.A. tournament games, he has made 30 of 54 shots from the field (55 percent) and averaged 20 points a game. He was named the most outstanding player in the Midwest Region.

Lucas, an all-Big Ten guard, ruptured an Achilles’ tendon in a second-round tournament game against Maryland, but now the Spartans are headed to the Final Four with a player who was helping to rupture the team in early March.

“Through the whole tournament, my defense was on a different level,” Summers said. “It actually has been able to translate to my offense; I am so focused in on defense that nothing can break my focus on offense.

“That was a matter of me having to look in a mirror seeing what Coach is asking of me. Coach was telling me you don’t realize how you rub off on other people.”

Izzo was determined not to let Summers skate through. The coach said he had had other players, gifted players, who got away from him without being pushed to their potential. Izzo had no choice, he said, but to push Summers to an uncomfortable edge.

“When you go through a couple of guys like that in the past and it didn’t work out for them, I kind of vowed I’ll never let that happen again,” Izzo said. “Sometimes, people take things casually. And I think a lot of players do. And I’ve probably been harder on him because I think he has more to give. You know, when you have more to give, people are going to push you even harder.”

After the Big Ten tournament, Summers said he started meeting with Izzo and going over ways to increase his value to the team. Naturally, it started with being more devoted to defense. What Summers discovered was that when he played harder on defense, his offense came easier.

On Sunday, he ruined Tennessee with his shooting. The Volunteers concentrated on bearing down on Lucas’s replacement, Korie Lucious, but the Spartans were able to swing the ball toward Summers, who stroked shot after shot. He made 4 of 6 3-pointers, the last one with 2 minutes 47 seconds remaining, giving the Spartans a 69-66 lead. It was Michigan State’s final field goal of the game, and Summers turned to the bench and saw Izzo wink at him as if the player and coach had arrived at the peak together.

“In the beginning, we didn’t understand each other as much,” Summers said. “We talked some things out. We had to. It was tournament time.

“He felt like there were some things I wasn’t doing up to my ability. I eventually saw that. We watched a lot of film together and discussed some things, and I acknowledged that and I have just been trying to be a different player, a different person.”

Duke is Digging in on D

Good article from espn.com on how Duke looked themselves in the mirror and saw a fairly soft team and couldn't win in a grind-it-out type game. What did they do? They changed their mindsets and practice habits:

These Blue Devils like to play defense. And they're really pretty good at it. Good enough, in fact, to just turn the tide on Purdue, the stingiest team in a Big Ten that prefers to score points only on the solstice.

Duke out-down-and-dirtied the Boilermakers, 70-57, to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2004 -- a hiccup by most programs standards, but a Dust Bowl Era drought by Duke's.

Think that's a coincidence?

"Probably not,'' Brian Zoubek admitted. "The reason we're here is our defense.''

The most maligned top seed in this NCAA tournament now remains as just one of two No. 1s to survive to the Elite Eight. Maybe along the way they've even silenced a few critics.

"We're a lot better,'' Jon Scheyer said. "In the past a lot of people said, and it was accurate, that we would have a hard time because we were smaller and too much of an offensive team to win games, especially games like this one. This team now has a lot more toughness.''

The toughness comes in all forms: not blinking when they can't score, outrebounding Purdue by 21, and yes, setting screens that serve as brick walls, a la Zoubek on Chris Kramer.

But Duke has been clamping down on everybody this season. This isn't a flash in the pan cooked up for the tournament; this is a decisive change in scheme.

Mike Krzyzewski has been preaching defense at his teams forever. It just hasn't always sunk in. It didn't always have to. Duke long has been able to mask its defensive inefficiencies with its offensive prowess. This group looked in the mirror and saw a team that could score but wasn't necessarily prolific.

They looked around the locker room and instead of a sea of guards discovered a forest of big men.

More they saw the memories of their greatest achievements stretching further and further in the rearview mirror.

"Why the change? A lot of tough experiences, a lot of losses,'' Zoubek said. "Losses because of our defense. We knew we weren't tough enough on defense and we had to start doing all the little things, the dirty work to get better.''

So the Devils turned practices into rugby scrums. They put on their knee pads, thigh pads, mouth guards and dug deep for the tenacity they knew they were lacking. They played team defense and worked separately, big men at one end of the floor, guards at the other. Regardless of the setup, the attitude was the same -- 100 percent all in.

"We wouldn't have won this game last year, I don't think,'' Singler said. "Now, this is just who we are. We're a more complete team. We can find a way to win.''

Winning Time

“At certain times in the game we just kind of huddled up and said it’s winning time. Pretty much what winning time means for us is we’re going to get down and bite the floor on defense and everything’s going to go through our defense.”

-Durrell Summers, Michigan St.

Why Ali Farokhmanesh Can Really Shoot

Good stuff from Coach Randy Brown. Coaches can check out his website at http://iowapda.com or email at rb@coachrb.com

Ali Farokhmanesh has been one of the most popular college basketball players in the country for his clutch shooting against #1 Kansas in the 2nd round and against UNLV in the 1st round of the tournament.

From Coach RB:

On Tuesday I watched UNI's practice in preparation for their Sweet Sixteen showdown with Michigan State.After an intense 90 minute workout, most of the players left the floor to the locker room.

Two players stayed; Johnny Moran and Ali Farokhmanesh.I watched as they went through a competitive shooting routine with Assistant coach P.J. Hogan.

From six spots on the floor, each player had to make three in a row going at game speed. Then they moved out behind the three point line and shot from six more spots, having to make three in a row from each spot before moving on. They had to make 36 shots, all in a row!

As I watched I noticed three things:

1. Good shooters, like Johnny and Ali, prepare to shoot by getting in a low stance with their hands ready; we call that showing a "window" at IPDA. As they caught the ball, they were in a low stance and ready to shoot the ball quickly. Most players catch the ball upright and it takes time and movement to bend their knees and prepare to shoot. By the time you do this, it's too late to take the shot.

If you like to shoot, learn how to prepare how to shoot!I've never met a player who doesn't like to shoot, but rarely see players who properly and consistently prepare to shoot----which makes no sense to me at all!

2. The workout was competitive and required concentration and toughness. This was following a very intense 90 minute workout so these two guys were very fatigued. They helped and encouraged each other through the workout as good teammates do!

3. 90% of their missed shots were long, not short. A common fault of young players is missing most of their shots short, not long. The reason; see #1--catching the ball low/shot preparation. Even after a tough workout, misses were long not shot. That was very impressive to me and should be something all players strive for.

Why are Ali and Johnny great shooters?

They make extra, competitive shooting when tired, a priority every day! EVERY DAY!

The Grit of the Wildcats

Good article in the K.C. Star about Kansas St. guard Jacob Pullen and the toughness that he brings to his team. Here is a little from that article:

Toughness is winning as often as talent.

“I try to be that,” he says. “I don’t know if I want it more, or it’s the way I grew up, but I think our team is one of the toughest teams out there.”

Maybe you could see Jacob Pullen’s toughness all the way back at 5 years old, as he rode his bike around his family’s Chicago suburb. His Huffy had training wheels when his best friend rode by without. Unacceptable.

“Take ’em off,” he told his dad.

Maybe you could see it a few years later, when he started playing ball in the driveway with his older brothers. They had four and nine years on Jacob, and fouled the little guy mercilessly. Basketball became like hockey, Jacob being checked into the garage, pulling himself off the ground and coming back for more.

“He never cried,” says Jerome Pullen, Jacob’s father. “He’d come in, get a band-aid, a cup of Kool-Aid, and he’s right back out the door to play again.”

Maybe you could see Pullen’s toughness one specific afternoon in that driveway. He was 10, and just took another hard foul that put him on his back. A few plays later and Joe went up for a layup. This time, the older brother ended up on the ground, baby bro looking down with a sparkle.

“No fouls, right?” Jacob said.

Maybe you could see it as a sophomore in high school, when Pullen matched up against Marcus Green, a senior with a scholarship to Purdue. Green made a move to the hoop, got Pullen on his hip and knocked him over before hitting the shot.

Next play, Green got the ball in his hands and a mischievous look on his face. He tried the same move, but this time Pullen stood his ground, took the bump and sneaked in for the steal. Pullen raced down the court, hit the layup and looked at Green in time to see him smile.

“That was me being tough, and also me being smarter,” Pullen says. “That made him understand, ‘This kid’s for real, he can play.’ I felt like it was a big deal.”

Or maybe you saw it during Pullen’s freshman year at K-State. That was Frank Martin’s first year as head coach, and he wore Pullen out. Michael Beasley and Bill Walker were the stars, but Pullen seemed to get most of Martin’s attention during practice.

There were curse words, extra sprints, angry glares, enough that Charlotte Pullen sometimes wondered whether this was the best place for her son. But Jacob always told her, “He’s passionate, mom, just like me.” Pullen listened to what Martin said and ignored how he said it.
The surest sign that Pullen was getting it came against Kansas, when he scored 20 points as the Wildcats ended their 24-game home losing streak to the Jayhawks.

“Guys who aren’t tough and aren’t confident sometimes question themselves when you get on them,” says assistant coach Brad Underwood. “And if you’re like that, you can’t have games like that.”

This is the way of college basketball now. Talent comes and goes, usually quickly and to the NBA. Toughness sticks, and as proof, some point to K-State and West Virginia making the Sweet 16 and Kansas and Villanova falling short.

The Wildcats might be the poster team for this trend. Playing with the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft, they made the 2008 tournament as a No. 11 seed. Playing with more grit than flash, they’re now a top-10 team in the Sweet 16.

“There’s no question,” says Rex Walters, the coach at San Francisco often credited with bringing a hard edge to Kansas during his playing days. “You’re now seeing very talented players, talented teams, losing because there’s teams tougher and more together. You have to have talent, but you have to have toughness.”

Pullen brings that to K-State, and in bunches. In a lot of ways he is the personification of how Martin wants his teams to play: tenacious, gutsy, consistent.

Pullen is good enough to play professionally and may end up as K-State’s all-time leading scorer. But if you ask him what he’s most proud of from the BYU game, he’ll say his defense on star Jimmer Fredette without mentioning the 34 points.

When the Big 12 postseason awards came out, he told his dad about making the all-defense team without mentioning making the all-conference team.

Ask him what he wants people to see in his game, and he uses words like “play hard,” “competitor,” and “toughness.” People inside K-State’s basketball program use a lot of the same language to describe what they want to be.

It’s a good fit for the personality of the coaches there, and a good fit for what plays in college basketball. Much of the talk about what killed Kansas’ season dances around the edges of toughness, and so does much of the talk about what is boosting Kansas State into the nation’s elite.

Talk to five coaches, and you’ll get five different answers on how they judge toughness. One might say offensive rebounding, another free-throw attempts. One might say he wants guys willing to push back, another that he looks for those willing to dive at loose balls with their nose and not just their hands.

It’s impossible not to notice that Pullen shoots the most free throws on the team that leads the nation in attempts and that he always seems to be the first on the floor after loose balls.

Pullen’s kind of toughness is more important in college basketball than ever.

“One-hundred percent,” Underwood says. “It’s our culture. We’re creatures of our culture. When we go to AAU events, the kid who plays the hardest always stands out. Fifteen years ago, everybody played hard, and the kid who didn’t play hard stuck out.

“So now you’re looking for kids who are tough, who work, who can handle coaching. That’s an important part of what we do, to have guys who want to be coached and do things they haven’t been asked before.”

Jacob Pullen takes pride in all of this. He should. Moderately recruited out of high school, his hard work and K-State’s coaching have him positioned as one of the best players in school history.

His identity fits, too. He’s more hard-hat than sun visor, more work boots than dress shoes. He’s the guy who likes to draw the midcourt charge, or jump into defenders trying to draw the foul — physical consequences be damned.

Martin has said his guard is more banged up than people realize, but maybe that’s just the admission price for being the leader of K-State’s first Sweet 16 team in 22 years.

Michigan St. Is Starting To Get It At The Right Time

Michigan State is coming together at the right time after beating Maryland yesterday on a buzzer beater by backup point guard Korie Lucious. Coach Tom Izzo always seems to get his teams to play together and to take ownership of their team at the right time of the year. After a season of ups and downs and players not playing up to potential, the Spartans are starting to understand what Izzo has been urging all year long. This is from the Detroit Free Press:

Attached to the Michigan State locker room at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena is a small room with cement block walls and a black table against the far wall.

At halftime of the Spartans second-round game against Maryland on Sunday, point guard Kalin Lucas sat on that table, his left foot wrapped in ice. He had been told moments earlier that his Achilles tendon was likely torn, and tears rolled down his face.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo would later say that what happened next was one of his "prouder moments" as a coach. One by one, Lucas' teammates lined up to enter that small room. Among them was Korie Lucious, the 5-foot-11, sophomore guard who would become the team's primary ball-handler and director with Lucas out. He hugged Lucas and repeated what many of the Spartans had told the fallen guard: "I got your back. All us here got your back."

A half of basketball later, Lucious was on his back on the court, his teammates and even Sparty, the school's faux-muscled mascot, piled on top of him. Lucious' three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Spartans an 85-83 victory and the school's ninth trip to the Sweet 16 in the last 13 years. But, as Izzo and his players would say later, the team won not because of a single shot, but rather because all the players finally believed what they said to Lucas at halftime.

"It's no secret that if you put us in this situation three weeks ago, we wouldn't have won this game," said forward Draymond Green, whose three-pointer with 20 seconds left was part of a dramatic finish that included four baskets in the final 35 seconds, including two brave drives by Maryland's Greivis Vasquez, all of which could have been game-winners. "It was a matter of us becoming closer as teammates and better teammates to each other. With us doing that you can pull off games like this."

Any discord was buried deep in delirium, and why shouldn't it be?

College basketball remains the realm of the juvenescent, where teambuilding and maturity are not just catchwords. Every team, every kid is a work in progress, even one coached by Izzo, with his long history of driving the Spartans deep into the Dance.

"I don't wan to get too dramatic -- it is the [second round] of the NCAA tournament -- but where this win really ranks high is me having been telling this team a little bit about why you have got to be a better teammate and why you have togetherness," Izzo said.

Summers, the talented but at times undisciplined junior guard, scored 26 points, including 6-of-7 on three-pointers, but his finest moment came when he approached Izzo postgame. "I still got a long ways to go, Coach," he said, and his coach smiled.

------------

In reading an additional article on Sunday in the Detroit Free Press, Summers actually requested a one on one meeting with the coaching staff to clear his mind. Summers has been in Coach Izzo's 'doghouse' all year for not giving a full concentrated effort this year. Even Summers and his teammates admit he has not been there mentally for much of the season. Here is the a little from the article:

"When a player initiates it, it's a big difference," assistant coach Mark Montgomery said. "Durrell wanted to get some things off his chest, off his mind. We sat down and talked about it. He wants to contribute. He knows he is more valuable on the court. His focus -- you could hear it in his voice. You can see it in his body language."

Montgomery said Summers has been a different player since, in "practices, meetings, walk-throughs." He did not have a great game against New Mexico State, missing 10 of 15 shots after a hot start. But as Montgomery said, "he was taking the ball aggressive to the basket, trying to draw contact. He acknowledged coaching. He acknowledged what Coach Izzo was saying. When your head is clear, you hear and think clearly."

Summers said his only real request of the coaches was to "just keep coaching me the way they have," which was like asking a rattlesnake to bite the exact same spot. Summers has not been a very coachable player this season. And maybe that's why he called the meeting: He wanted Izzo to know he still wanted to be coached.

Collins’ four years at KU have seen huge growth and change

This article will make you a huge fan of Sherron Collins. Great stuff about leadership and what it takes to be a great teammate. From the Kansas City Star:

OKLAHOMA CITY Several times this season, Sherron Collins has had to tell the Kansas Jayhawks what they didn’t want to hear.

They were winning lots of games, but Collins didn’t like the way they were winning. Teams that couldn’t sniff their talent level were hanging around for too long in games at Allen Fieldhouse. Collins became fond of saying the Jayhawks didn’t have a killer instinct, which felt personal, because everything about this KU team feels personal to Collins.

During a couple of film sessions along the way, Collins, Kansas’ lone senior, would speak up.

“Hey,” Collins would say, “just listen to Coach. He knows what he’s doing, and we’re gonna get better.”

KU staff members could only nod their heads and thank Collins for making their jobs way easier.

“That’s been big,” says Brett Ballard, KU’s director of basketball operations. “As soon as you do that, you’re opening yourself up to getting killed in the locker room for siding with the coach. That means a lot to a coach when your best player believes in what you’re doing.”

Collins believes because he has experienced how Bill Self’s way can work for him. Because Collins openly trusts Self and the Jayhawks trust Collins, they can more easily trust Self, too. It is a trickle-down effect that helps to explain why Collins, despite his scoring average decreasing from 18.9 last season to 15.6 this season, was chosen a first-team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association on Monday.

There is a special brand of charisma living in Collins that fans can see only in those very public moments when he galvanizes the Jayhawks to get pumped up with him and then punishes an opponent with a back-breaking run. But on the inside, the KU family feels Collins’ gravitational pull every day.

“He can change the weather with his attitude,” says Barry Hinson, the program’s director of external affairs. “When the weather gets stormy or when the game gets stormy, our guys drift to Sherron. I don’t think I’ve been around a player in all my years of coaching that absolutely not only accepts it but wants the moment of adversity.”

At some point, Self told the player that Collins had this power, this magnetism.

“Coach always says I can change the mood of a room,” Collins says. “I got enough to bring the room up, and I got enough to bring it down. That’s why, in practice, I can’t have a bad day. If I’m not feeling good, I still gotta be up and energized and smiling and talking.”

Over his four years, Collins has developed the ability to make those around him feel comfortable. It has been a process. He needed to feel comfortable in Lawrence first, and that took some time. But now, before each practice and game, the kid from the Chicago projects will bring his teammates into the huddle and utter a simple phrase that shows how his outlook on life has changed.

“Let’s have a good day,” he’ll say.
• • •

Anthony Longstreet knew Sherron Collins had it in him. As Collins’ high school coach at Crane High in Chicago, he’d seen the way five seniors fell in line behind Collins when he was only a freshman.

“When he came in the game, magical things happened,” Longstreet says. “Those guys, they connected, they gravitated. He made it happen, and I knew then, this kid is different.”
For Longstreet, Collins’ recruiting process wasn’t about finding a place where his pupil could star. He wanted Collins in a place that would nurture, nourish and eventually unlock this quality that made him different.

Longstreet chose Self, KU and Lawrence, the quintessential college environment, and told Self everything he would need to know about what was inside Collins, the good and the bad. Socially, the kid could be flashing that heartwarming smile and telling jokes one second and become quiet and withdrawn the next. In school, he’d do just enough to get by, but, unlike many kids from his neighborhood, he always managed to get by.

Longstreet also got in touch with Roger Morningstar, a former KU player whose son, Brady, would be rooming with Collins their freshman year. Roger heard about the life Collins knew in the Lathrop Homes project, and while Collins seemed like a well-meaning kid, Roger needed to be convinced.

“You just want to make sure,” Roger says.

Roger remembers the first time Collins came over to his house with Brady. The boys walked in, and the family’s 65-pound dog, a boxer named Mackie, immediately charged Collins.

“Sherron about freaked,” Roger says. “He stops dead in his tracks, runs back into the garage, slams the door and says, ‘Hey man, I can’t deal with dogs.’ ”

Apparently, Collins had been bitten by a Rottweiler as a child and had been afraid of dogs ever since. Linda Morningstar, Roger’s wife, tried to assure Collins.

“Well, you’re going to have to start dealing with dogs,” she said. “We don’t tie the dog up. The dog is a part of the family, and this dog doesn’t hurt anybody.”

Collins wasn’t going to give up the chance to hang out and eat Linda’s cooking at the Morningstars’ house. It was all so new and fun.

So for the next week and a half, Linda put Sherron through dog lessons. Mackie couldn’t be the boss; Sherron had to be the boss. Linda showed him the treat jar and made him stand still while Mackie sniffed his hand. When Mackie didn’t bite, Sherron petted him. Before long, Sherron was giving orders. Sit, Mackie. Shake, Mackie. Roll over, Mackie.

On campus, it wasn’t quite as easy for Self and company to break through.

Collins was not planning on being at KU for four years, and he felt he should have been playing more as a freshman. He seemed like a bright kid, but he didn’t think academics would be as important as basketball.

But Self had already passed Longstreet’s message along to everyone, including Scott Ward, who is in charge of academic advising for the program.

“Coach saw it really early, saw those characteristics,” Ward says.

Collins showed what he could do as a basketball player, becoming one of the most explosive players in the Big 12 as a freshman. But he didn’t let many people in on a personal level. When Collins was a sophomore and center Cole Aldrich was a freshman, Collins seemed downright unapproachable.

“I was scared of Sherron,” Aldrich says. “I was. I would go into the locker room, and he would say something to me, and I was nervous to say something back. … He was just a hard-nosed kid who tried to bully you a little bit.”

Collins bullied his way through an injury-ridden sophomore year and was a key part of two of the most memorable plays in KU’s national title-game victory over Memphis — the steal and three-pointer that cut Memphis’ lead to four and the pass that gave Mario Chalmers the chance to make the three that forced overtime.

Collins experienced adulation like never before. It came from every direction, and, since he was going to need knee surgery in the offseason, he decided he’d come back for another season. That meant more school, but Collins was OK with that.

“His freshman year and maybe a little bit into his sophomore year, there was just a lot going after him,” Ward says. “To keep his head above water, he had to worry about himself. There was a turning point leading into his junior year where he would always say, ‘I appreciate your help. I appreciate you.’ He really had that sensitive side where he does care.”

After two years, Collins was ready to open up, to start giving instead of taking.

“They’ve engulfed him with nothing but love,” Longstreet says. “Not to say he didn’t get love here, but it was the missing element in his life that could bring out that attribute.”
• • •

Junior year, Sherron Collins had no choice but to lead, and his teammates had no choice but to follow. He was the only returning player who had significant experience, and he was glad to bring along the rest of them. He called them his “young fellas.”

It was easy to lead when he was being asked to score as much as possible. He put the Jayhawks on his back over and over on the way to the outright Big 12 regular-season title (they didn’t even win the thing outright in 2008).

Collins’ big moment came on the road at Oklahoma, which was favored to win the league. He scored 26 points and nailed a couple of NBA-range three-pointers. His teammates started to get it.

“Every time we need something,” Hinson says, “he wants to be the answer. If he can’t be the answer, he’ll make somebody else the answer.”

That wasn’t so much the case last season as it would be this season. Collins came back for his senior year because he wanted his mom, Stacey Harris, to attend his Senior Night, and because he and Aldrich — the goofy kid from Minnesota who was once scared of him — had become close.

If Aldrich was staying put, so was Collins.

“When you got an All-American seven-footer that can go and be a lottery pick,” Collins says, “me coming back wouldn’t be a wrong decision.”

The Jayhawks returned their entire roster and added top NBA wing prospect Xavier Henry, the one piece they’d been missing. In the preseason, Self was hounded with questions. How could he find enough touches for everyone on the No. 1 team in the country?

Self never seemed as worried because he knew he had Collins on his side. During the first two months of the season, Collins had one 20-point game, letting Henry and emerging sophomore Marcus Morris get their bearings.

“A guy like Xavier respects the fact that if Sherron wanted to, he could average 25 a game, if that’s the style we wanted to play,” Ballard says. “Everybody respects the fact that Sherron wants to win more than everybody else. How can you not follow a guy like that?”

Collins exploded for 33 and 28 points in wins over Cornell and Baylor when the rest of the team was struggling. But, for most of Big 12 play, Collins’ outside shot was off, so he had to look out for others.

“Sherron’s very aware of what’s going on around him,” Ballard says. “He’s got an ability. He’s able to read people. He knows when they’re up or down. At times, in a huddle, he’ll suggest a play to get a guy a shot, like, ‘Hey, Xavier hasn’t gotten a shot in a while. Let’s do this.’ ”

Collins rarely stops looking out. He has various methods of keeping everyone happy. With his teammates, Collins will initiate horseplay and joking in the locker room. With his coaches and advisers, he’ll ask them how they’re doing instead of waiting for them to ask him like he would have four years ago.

“He’s always worried about you,” Hinson says.

How far has Collins come? Roger Morningstar is convinced. Roger can’t recall an exact moment when Collins sold him on his personal worth, but it happened around a year ago. Roger had watched Collins’ development as a father with his young son, Sherr’mari, how far he’d come in understanding the responsibility.

“Over time, you get to know a kid,” Roger says, “and Sherron’s like family to us. I’ve just seen it. I’m hard. I’m one of those guys, I want to see it and make sure it’s real. Sherron Collins has the ability to make it without basketball. He can communicate, he’s got a heart, he’s got feelings. Like any kid from that background, he just needs an opportunity.”

Now, it is easy for Roger to see why his son and the rest of the Jayhawks march to Collins’ drumbeat.

“Sherron became a believer,” Roger says. “When you really believe and you’re passionate about something and emotional about it, it’s real easy to convey that. People can read feelings, and I think the way Sherron leads is from the heart a lot of times. It’s the real thing.”

• • •

You can’t beat the real thing. That slogan has sold a lot of soft drinks, and Sherron Collins can only hope it’ll ring true for him during his final NCAA Tournament.

“If we don’t make the Final Four, it’d be devastating,” Collins says. “I think we should be there. I was a big part of the 2008 national championship team, but it’s even bigger now. It’ll mean more.”

A lot of people are rooting for Collins, of course. He has already won more games in a Kansas uniform than any other Jayhawk, and he could become one of a handful of KU players to play significant minutes on two national championship teams.

But to the people who have nudged Collins along to this point, his gang of loyal supporters, another NCAA title would only be gravy. The meat and potatoes of Collins’ story could be seen on Senior Night at Allen Fieldhouse, when the young man held 16,000 people captive with his presence and made them feel something.

“Put it this way,” Longstreet says, “if you had been around Sherron sophomore year of high school and left the country and then came back to Senior Night, knowing what you knew about him when he was a sophomore in high school, you would have thought it was somebody else.”

Collins’ speech had Brady Morningstar, who never cries, according to Roger, bawling on the fieldhouse floor. It had Ward feeling a sense of pride when Collins gushed to Self that everything he had promised had come true.

That promise belonged to Self and Longstreet. After Collins’ speech, Longstreet found him in a hallway, and the old friends embraced.

“This is the vision that I had for you, Sherron,” Longstreet told him. “Even when you didn’t see it, this is the vision I had for you.”

Players Coaching Themselves

Good article in the Detroit Free Press on Michigan St. forward Draymond Green. Green is one of head coach Tom Izzo's favorite players because of his willingness to take constructive criticism and be a coach on the floor to his teammates. Green, who is only a sophomore, was given the position of captain by Izzo because of his leadership qualities. Here is a little from the article:

Izzo loves this because he wants players coaching themselves as much as coaches coaching them. Following the Spartans' quarterfinal loss in the Big Ten tournament last week, Izzo sat back in his seat at the postgame postmortem unabashedly beaming at Green's uncompromising assessment of the Spartans' difficulties.

"I've said this a lot, but it's still true," Izzo said. "It's about ownership -- players taking charge and assuming responsibility for their own destiny. Any coach wants players who obsess about winning more than anything else, and Draymond is one of those guys."

Bill Self is One of the Best

Great article from Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star and cnnsi.com about Kansas Head Coach Bill Self. The article has some great stories on how Self got into coaching first as a graduate assistant under Larry Brown and then as an assistant coach at Oklahoma St. Terrific stories to read about:

Bill Self Article

Here are some good excerpts from the article that are good for players and coaches:

Self on Making Plays:

"To me, to be successful you need to respond to whatever the situation calls for. I tell our players that all the time. You win games by making plays. I know that's a cliche, but it's true. You don't win games with the best offense, because sometimes your shots don't fall. You don't win games with the best defense, because sometimes the other team just keeps making shots. You win games by making plays in that moment, responding to that exact challenge."

Here is a little on how Self communicates:

That's Bill Self too. He has an almost pathological need for there to be no misunderstandings. He cherishes confrontation. He demands clarity. He does not mind if his players dislike him -- that's part of the deal -- but he will be sure, damn sure, that they know exactly where they stand at him at all times. They WILL know. Self will gather them together in the locker room, and he will go around the room, and he will say to his players, plainly, directly: "You are too selfish with the ball ... And you don't trust your teammates enough ... And you try to take too much of the credit ... And you will slack off when you start feeling too good about yourself."

"That, to me, is a bit part of what coaching is about," he says. "I mean everybody does it differently. But for me, there shouldn't be any secrets. They have to know exactly what where they stand, what I think about them, what they have to do to become better players, what their strengths and weaknesses are. We have to be clear. If I hear a player say that they don't know where they stand with me, with our coaching staff, that would really bother me. Because I know how hard we work to make sure they know exactly what we think."

David Lighty: Glue Guy

Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated recently came out with his 11th annual All-Glue team. Here is the description that Davis gives for a person that qualifies as a 'glue guy':

A Glue Guy is hard to define but easy to spot. You certainly won't pick him out by reading the stat sheet. He's the guy who sets screens, dives for loose balls and makes the extra pass. He embraces the chance to defend the opponent's best player and doesn't complain that he's not getting enough shots. He is a leader and a good teammate. He has an unusual combination of skills, like a big guy who can shoot or a guard who gets rebounds. And lest you think that tabbing someone a Glue Guy is damning him with faint praise, he also demonstrates at times that he could be a featured performer if called upon. Why does he suppress those abilities? Because that's what his team needs, and it's a Glue Guy's job to hold everything together.

Out of the 5 member 'glue team', Davis chose Ohio State's David Lighty as his captain. Lighty exemplifies everything that a good teamamtes stands for according to Davis:

During his first week of practice as an Ohio State freshman, David Lighty, a 6-foot-5 swingman from Cleveland, was so dominant in a full-court, zig-zag defensive drill that he nearly brought the exercise to a halt. "He was turning the guy over and over. The line of guys going next was all backed up," Ohio State coach Thad Matta recalls. Though it was early in Lighty's college career, Matta sensed the kid could be something special. "I told him right there, 'I've never seen anything like that. If you play your cards right, you could be the best defender who ever played at Ohio State.' " Matta says.

Lighty embraced Matta's challenge to be a great defender while applying a variety of skills to blend in at the offensive end. As a freshman, he played 32 minutes a game by doing a little bit of everything, averaging 9.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists. But it was on the defensive end that he made his mark, especially during the Buckeyes' run to the national championship game, when he showed he could blanket both bigger and smaller players. His signature performance came in the Final Four against Georgetown, when he held the Hoyas' 6-9 forward Jeff Green to nine points on five shots. "I still show clips of that game to teach our guys how to defend," Matta says.

Lighty missed all but seven games last season with a broken foot, but he has come back this season to lead Ohio State to a 24-7 regular-season record, a share of the Big Ten title and a chance at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. He is still not the featured player in Ohio State's offense -- we all know that is Evan Turner -- but he is excelling in all areas of the game, both tangible and intangible. For all of his varied and often unnoticed contributions, Lighty has been bestowed the ultimate honor for college basketball's unsung heroes: the captaincy of SI.com's 11th annual All-Glue team.

Lighty was called upon to produce more in January, after Turner went out with a back injury and Lighty had to assume many of Turner's point guard responsibilities. After his first outing, in which he had 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists in a loss at Butler, Matta said Lighty "literally played nine positions out there." During the six games when Turner was out, Lighty averaged 16.8 points (he scored 30 in a win over Cleveland State), 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists. Having proven the ability to score, many players would continue to seek those numbers even after Turner returned. But Lighty was happy to return to Gluedom, and the Buckeyes haven't lost a step.

"You can't be selfish and win games," Lighty says. "I guess a lot of players come out of high school and want to say it's all on me, it's my ball, but I tried to come in with the mindset to help my team win."

Lighty brings this winning attitude every day. He is the prototypical high-energy guy. Turner recalls a time when the Buckeyes were leaving their dorm for a pre-dawn workout, and while Turner was lying down in a hallway waiting to wake up, Lighty came bounding out of his room and lifted him off the floor. "He's always happy," Turner says. Buckeyes guard Jon Diebler calls Lighty a "loud guy" who "likes to scream and yell and have a good time," while Matta pays him the ultimate compliment by saying Lighty is "the best practice player I've ever had." Adds Matta, "You can't put a price on what this kid does for our team and our program."

Prior to this season, the one hole in Lighty's game was his three-point shooting. He averaged 32.7 percent from behind the arc as a freshman, and in his truncated sophomore season he made just 26.3 percent. Over the summer, Matta issued what sounded like a preposterous challenge: If Lighty could make better than 40 percent from three, the Buckeyes would have a chance to be a great team. Lighty spent countless hours hoisting shots in the offseason, and lo and behold he is shooting 41.5 percent in Big Ten games, which ranks sixth in the league. He is also again one of the top defenders in the conference -- he is ranked sixth in the conference in steals with 1.4 per game -- while averaging 12.4 points (on 49.1 percent shooting), 4.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists. When you're a Glue Guy, a little of everything can add up to a lot.

Badgers focus on ball tussles

Wisconsin has won 4 in a row and is playing its best basketball of the year heading into postseason play tomorrow with the start of the Big 10 Tourney. This is due to, as head coach Bo Ryan puts it, winning the skirmishes. In their win streak Wisconsin has outrebounded their opponent by 10 or more each game. Here is an excerpt from the Journal Sentinel out of Milwaukee:

Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan stresses every day that his players must win what he refers to as skirmishes:
Win the constant battle for position near the basket. Keep your foe off the offensive glass. Out-hustle your opponent to loose balls, including long rebounds that are prevalent with teams that launch a plethora of perimeter shots.

"It's being more attentive and more alert," associate head coach Greg Gard said. "You can do the correct things to block out, but if you don't go hunt the ball down or just don't get it. . . .

"I think we've done a better job of that. They understand that is one of those things we can be good at that doesn't take talent. We need to make sure a large percentage of those (are) ours."

Marion's Breakout Game Helps Lead Dallas to 12th Straight Win

MINNEAPOLIS -- Just when Dallas needed it most, Shawn Marion returned to the high-scoring form that has been absent all season.

That's been the story of this remarkable run for the Mavericks.

Marion had a season-high 29 points and 14 rebounds and the Mavericks stretched the league's longest active winning streak to 12 straight games with a 125-112 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.

"I've done that before," Marion said with a chuckle about his monster line. "That's easy."

What isn't so easy is the unselfishness he's shown this season. Marion has averaged at least 17 points a game seven times in his career, but he has taken a reduced role on offense this season in order to focus more on the defensive end. Marion entered the game averaging a modest 11.5 points a game and had a season high of 18 before Monday night's outburst.

"Every week I tell him how important he is to us and how much as a coach I appreciate what he's done this year in terms of changing his game around," coach Rick Carlisle said. "He's the guy that's made the biggest adjustment of any of the new guys that we've got and it's showing up in wins and losses."

On Monday, it was Marion's turn.

"I want to win," Marion said. "At the end of the day, you have to make sacrifices to win. ... Ultimately, I've done a lot of things in this league and I want to win a championship. I want to leave that as my legacy."

"It's been a true team," Carlisle said. "Somebody's down a little, somebody else picks him up. Guys are competitive. Guys have stuck together, cheering for each other in the games. When you get on a roll like this, those kinds of things have got to happen."

The Power of Unselfishness

From Boston assistant Kevin Eastman:

Two words that never seem to go together or work together are selfishness and winning. On the other hand, when we study the key characteristics of winning organizations we find that unselfishness is of paramount importance. It's a necessary ingredient that enhances other aspects of success in a team endeavor.

So why is unselfishness so important? What does it do to teams? It has been my experience with the Boston Celtics (and in particular, as a coach in our 2008 NBA World Championship run) that unselfishness alone was extremely important for us, but the ways this unselfish attitude created additional advantages for us was also very important to our success.

Below are some by-products of an unselfish approach:

• the sprit of our team was much greater

• the intensity of our play was much greater

• the willingness to move the ball created easier, high percentage shots for us

• it helped us plug holes in our defense; we covered for each other

• it created frustration in our opponents, as the power of the pass can never be underestimated

• it kept us juiced up for the next game (which is very important when you are playing over 100 games in a season); our guys wanted to come to work

• it gave us confidence knowing that we could survive a player's off night because the ball always found the open player (and therefore, the high percentage shot)

• it allowed us the feeling that one guy never had to carry the burden

• it gave us a sense that we could not be beaten because opponents had to beat all of us together -- not just one superstar on his own

• most of all, it gave us a feeling that we wanted to be out there on the floor every night and that we knew it was truly US against the opponent; we knew our backs were covered every minute of every game; simply put: we knew if we absorbed ourselves in the team that we would have a chance to succeed at the highest level!Is unselfishness important? Yes -- important enough that every champion has it as a vital part of its DNA!

The Process Is Important

"You don't just see teams turn it on once the playoffs start, the process is very important. It's like when you go to a boxing match. You don't just step out there and fight. You have to build up and practice by sparring. That's what the regular season is, you have to get ready."

-Paul Pierce

Finally healthy, Hill appreciates game now more than ever

Great story on 37 year old Grant Hill and his tremendous focus and work ethic. From cnnsi.com:

Another season is in progress. It should be his 16th. Grant Hill is sitting in another visiting locker room on another weeknight preparing himself for another game.

"We all have our routine," he said, as he detailed his checklist. "I come over to the arena early, get a little work done on the table with the trainer, Aaron Nelson. Go out and do my shooting routine. Come back in here and get some exercises. Get some heat packs on between 90 and 70 minutes before the game.

"At 60 [minutes], I put my shirt on. I eat my [energy] bar and I watch the game film and take in what they do and just get ready for the game."

He is a 37-year-old small forward for the Phoenix Suns, an old man excelling against younger, more explosive athletes. The wonder is that he does not appear fatigued. The details of the regimen do not bore him. On the contrary: He loves to arrange the entire day around the game that night.

"I usually come to the arena on the first bus," he said. "But if we're at home, a 7 p.m. game, I usually leave the house around 4:15 to try to get there about 4:45.

"It's the whole routine. The routine starts the moment you wake up. Come home from [the morning] shootaround. Eat. Sleep again. When I wake up from my nap, the first thing I do, I turn the heat up to 75 degrees. I turn on all the lights in the room. I don't know why I do it. I turn on all the lights and I open the curtains. I've been doing that as long as I can remember."

He is amazed to still be sitting here, to have another game waiting at the end of another day. Ten years ago, Hill suffered a broken left ankle that would require five operations to fix, including one in 2003 that almost killed him after an infection raised his temperature above 104 degrees. He missed 357 games over the next six years with Orlando, including the entire 2003-04 season. He was supposed to contend for championships with Tracy McGrady and qualify for entry into the Hall of Fame, but all of that receded behind the medical trauma and the pain.

Now, Hill is contributing 30.1 minutes per game and 11.5 points to a Phoenix rotation balanced with a half-dozen scorers in double figures. The Suns cannot win the championship -- small up front, porous defensively -- yet they are a game away from overtaking Utah for home-court advantage in the first round. He has fit in by expanding his range to the three-point line, which isn't easy for a star approaching the end of his career. Over six truncated seasons with Orlando, Hill attempted 40 threes and made nine of them. In three years with Phoenix, he has hit 83-for-236 (35.2 percent) from the three-point line.

"I haven't necessarily shot a lot of them during this season," he said, though he is converting a career-best 46.4 percent of the 56 threes he has attempted. "But I've put my work in, and I just want to get better. Iron out my weaknesses, and certainly that may have been -- or may be -- one of them. But you've just got to work at it.

"And that's the thing I enjoyed this summer: 'OK, let's work on something, let's improve on it, whether I got better or not.' It's just the fact that I'm thinking along those lines and able to put the time in to do it. A lot of guys who came in [to the NBA as rookies in 1994] with me who would love to be working on something for next season. A lot of these guys are done, so I'm very appreciative. Very appreciative."

Here may be the most impressive achievement of Hill's career: Over the last two seasons, he has missed one game. He played all 82 last season for the first time.

He still can't believe he's here, in this locker room, preparing for this night to come.

"I may have told you this before, but I used to laugh at Joe Dumars," Hill said of his early years with Detroit, when Dumars was continuing to play into his 30s. "I would tell him, 'Man, when I'm 34, I'm done.' I was a young kid and 34 seemed so far down the road when you're 21 or 22 years old. And maybe if I'd been healthy all these years and played all these minutes, maybe now mentally and physically it would just be over for me. But I missed a lot. I still love it, enjoy it, appreciate it even more."

When basketball should have been easiest for him, the game played hard to get. He chased it and fell in love all over again.

Facing Big Situations Head-On

Kansas State coach Frank Martin has some good stuff to say in the piece from the Kansas City Star as they gear up to play at #2 Kansas:

Faced with one of the biggest games in program history, most coaches would try to downplay the significance, worried how the added pressure would come down on 18-to-22-year-old players.

Not Martin.

The volcanic coach wants his players to understand exactly what they're facing. Wants them embrace the pressure. Wants them to be ready for the reward on the other side.

Martin has, after all, prepared them for this moment since the day they arrived in the Little Apple, through all those demanding practices, the screaming, those us-against-the-world speeches.

Martin told his players the truth about Wednesday's game because he knows they can handle it.

"Telling them this is the biggest game they've played, why is that negative pressure?" Martin said. "I look at as great pressure, that their hard work has paid off, that they've put themselves in that conversation that something great can happen to this basketball team."

It's not about making things easy. You make things easy, you're cheating them," Martin said. "You've got to make them difficult. You've got to be real with them. You've got to be honest with them. Life is about pressure. If you can't handle pressure, you're going to have a hard life."

Sleepover could be a defining moment for Michigan State

This is an article from the Detroit Free Press about the Michigan State players taking ownership of their team by planning a team outing:

LANSING -- Folks at Michigan State usually have big smiles on their faces when they turn the calendar to March. After all, the Spartans have gone 54-21 during March under coach Tom Izzo since after the 1997-98 season.

Izzo was more excited to discuss what his team did in late February while meeting with the media Monday.

In past seasons, Izzo has come up with something out of the ordinary -- having players wear football pads or smashing game tapes -- that is looked back on as a defining moment in the year.

The players might have created their own defining moment this season Friday when they suggested having a team sleepover at the Breslin Center as a way of coming together before the most important time of year. It was their idea, and everyone -- including Izzo and his staff -- bought in.

The idea emerged from a discussion with players Raymar Morgan, Draymond Green, Isaiah Dahlman and Kalin Lucas while watching film comparing their first game against Purdue this season with film against the Boilermakers from the previous season.

"Like Raymar (Morgan) said, there was no sound on the film and you could see there was more communication and togetherness" on the tape from the previous season, Izzo said. "Draymond said, 'We gotta do something off the wall.' "

Green then suggested the sleepover, but not at someone's house. He wanted to have it on the main court. Student managers, equipment managers, the players and coaches all showed up.
They played video games, checkers, ate pizzas and then went to bed around 2 a.m. in sleeping bags on the hardwood.

"It was one for my book if I ever write one 20 years from now," Izzo said. "I've never seen anything like that. In my high school, we all lived so close together it was like having a sleepover every night.

"Kalin right away jumped up and said, 'Yeah, that's a great idea.' And Zeke (Dahlman) said, 'Yeah, we'll have a tournament of checkers and Xbox and ping-pong.'

"Was it good for us from a back standpoint? Probably not. Was it good for us from a rest standpoint? Probably not. Was it good for us from a togetherness standpoint? One of the great team-building events, and the best part is it goes back to my original thing I've believed in my whole career here: It was a player decision."

And while Izzo loves the fact that people around the department and campus feel excited at this time of year, he wants to make sure his team understands they have to do their part to build on the program's past success.

"I do think we have a good system in March," Izzo said. "I do think our managers get excited in March. They know they're going to have to work more hours and be in there more on film. But, the games are not won by me, the secretaries, the managers or anybody else.

"Players have to realize the respect they gain in March is earned by what they do and not by the guys that did it before them. That is maybe the one factor for this team -- there's a bit of entitlement."