Meyer wants practice ramped up, no excuses

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Coach Urban Meyer spent last week analyzing every play of Florida's season and came to these conclusions:

It's not the play-calling. It's not the players.

It's not the effort. It's not the energy.

Florida's struggles are directly related to practice. Yes, practice.
Although Meyer has a long list of problems for his offense, which ranks ninth in the Southeastern Conference and 89th in the nation, he attributes all of them to practice. Simply put, poor practices have made the Gators (4-3, 2-3 SEC) imperfect.

"When there's a lack of execution, how does that occur?" Meyer said. "The answer is not to say, 'That guy, that guy, that guy.' Is it because we don't practice it enough? Is it we don't get them in that situation enough?

"We're not into excuses. We're not into, 'This happened because.' It's, 'Fix the issues.' It doesn't look like us out there. It doesn't look like, 'Bang.' We all want that. How do you get that? You recruit it. You develop it. You coach it and you make sure you practice the mess out of it, and that's kind of where we're at."

It's probably not what frustrated Florida fans want to hear. They're calling for personnel changes, blame assessed, maybe even an offensive overhaul. They're expecting anger, finger-pointing, maybe even some promises.

Instead, the Gators believe better practices -- as well as healthier players -- will make a difference Saturday against rival Georgia (4-4, 3-3).

Injuries certainly have been an issue.

Running backs Jeff Demps, Mike Gillislee and Emmanuel Moody are banged up. So are offensive linemen Xavier Nixon and Jon Halapio. And quarterback John Brantley has played with bruised ribs, a sore shoulder and a sprained thumb on his throwing hand.

But the offensive woes have been a problem all season, even when those guys were healthy.

The Gators rank 10th in the league in rushing, eighth in passing and ninth in scoring. They are last in yards per play (5.0), and have twice as many negative plays (58) as touchdowns (26).

The result is Florida's first three-game losing streak since the end of the 1999 season. The Gators managed just two field goals at Alabama, put together two decent drives against LSU and scored a lone touchdown against Mississippi State.

"I don't think anyone wants to lose three in a row," Brantley said. "We're facing some challenges, but we're really going to be able to rise from it. We're sticking together. That's the biggest thing we want to see. We're just going to keep getting better. It's going to turn around."

With more practice, right?

"You practice like you play," center Mike Pouncey said. "It's something that we've been trying to key on this last week, executing a lot better than we've had and finishing. If you practice at half speed, that's how you're going to play. Obviously, we've got to get better in practice."

Meyer partly blamed his revamped coaching staff -- he had to hire four new assistants following the Sugar Bowl -- for practice inefficiency and said those issues were carrying over to games.

"Fundamentals don't improve for a lot of reasons," Meyer said. "No. 1 is you don't practice them at game speed. No. 2 that you're not taught very well. No. 3 is that the player is not good enough. No. 3 is not allowed around here. ... There's no trade or waiver wire. It is what it is, you got what you got, let's get them better and find out what they can do."

"We've obviously had some severe issues here the last three weeks that have been very damaging as far as the won-lost record," Meyer said. "The issue is not finding the blame, but it's finding a solution. That's what we're going to do this week."

Point Guard Duties

"At the end of the day, people want to talk about stats and the numbers. But the most important thing as a point guard, you control the tempo, you control the team. So can you get those guys together and win basketball games?"

-Brandon Jennings
Bucks Point Guard

Durant is changing the culture

Here is a Sports Illustrated article on OKC's Kevin Durant:

Kevin Durant bows his head, raises his hand, and a franchise circles him like a maypole: teammates, of course, but also coaches and trainers, the general manager and assistant general manager, the scouting coordinator and communications director, folks from the video room and the equipment room, guys from the Development League affiliate in Tulsa and undrafted free agents who won't even make it that far. They try to reach the 6'9" Durant's outstretched hand, but no one can, so they settle for the wrist or the elbow or the space around him. They are too tired to lift their arms for long. "One, two, three, family," Durant says, in a haggard breath. "Family," the group pants back, in unison. Then they walk together across the field, over the ditch and up the Hill for the last time.

The Hill, as it is known to the Thunder, is a misnomer. Central Oklahoma does not really have hills, but it does have floods, which require drainage basins the size of parking lots. Run up the side of a basin and you might as well be scaling a sand dune. Twice a week every September, when NBA teams are technically still on vacation, most of the Thunder meet early in the morning at the practice facility, pile into pickup trucks and roll into a brick subdivision alongside a creek in nearby Edmond, Okla. The basin that borders the creek has been covered with grass, lined with sycamore trees and turned into a neighborhood park. The smell of fertilizer hangs in the air. Residents walk their dogs and wonder if summer will ever give way to fall. They look down at their park and shrug at the sight of professional athletes racing each other 60 feet up steep inclines while tossing medicine balls in the sky. "They're just part of our backyard now," says Angela Vaughn, who lives in a house across from the park.

Durant was not supposed to run the Hill this year. Only 21, the silky small forward led the U.S. to its first gold medal in 16 years at the world championships in Turkey, took one day off and was back at the Oklahoma City practice facility before his bosses even knew he was in the country. When he woke on the final Wednesday before training camp—the last time the Thunder would head for the Hill—he only felt like shooting. "Then I thought about it for a minute, and I couldn't do that to my guys," Durant says. "It wouldn't have been fair to them." The Hill does not afford preferential treatment. Front-office executives drop their Blackberries, swap dress clothes for practice gear and run suicides. Entry-level assistants join them. When they are all sufficiently gassed, they head back to the pickup trucks, Durant sneaking a spot in a bed before coaches wisely point him to a passenger seat.

Brandon Roy wants to be a better leader

Tremendous article from Sports Illustrated on how Brandon Roy wants to increase his leadership role:

On the eve of training camp, the Trail Blazers watched film of themselves walking off the floor. They saw how they staggered out of the playoffs in the first round two Aprils ago in Houston, and again last spring against the Suns, as opposing players celebrated around them. Then they were forced to take in a montage of playoff moments that occurred in their absence: Doc Rivers pleading for defense in a timeout, Phil Jackson asking for a stop in a huddle, Steve Nash directing, Kobe Bryant instructing, Kevin Garnett imploring. As Portland guard Brandon Roy listened to each of those renowned leaders, all he could hear were words he never said.

"I kept asking myself, What is the difference between those teams that made the conference finals and ours?" Roy says. "It's not talent. We had plenty of talent. It comes down to leadership. They had better leaders." Roy is the Blazers' best player, their top scorer, the face of their franchise. "But I was also the kind of guy who would leave work at work," he says. "Kobe is the kind of guy who is always thinking, What more can I do to help my team?"

Roy requested that the team arrange a meeting for him this summer with a sports psychologist, and in their first session the psychologist asked, "What do you want?"

"I want a championship," Roy answered.

"Do your teammates know that? Can they sense it?"

"They know I want to win. I don't know if they can sense it."

"They have to," the psychologist said. "Every day, they have to see how much you want it." Roy spoke with the psychologist for 90 minutes, and since then the psychologist has flown to Portland twice a month to see him.

"I thought I was a positive person before, but I realized I actually wasn't that positive," Roy says. "I'd walk past a teammate, and if he'd be down, I would keep going. A leader has to do more." Roy—who at 26 is entering his fifth season in the league—prefers not to identify the psychologist, but he makes it clear how counseling has affected him. He called trainers over the summer to check on the health of ailing teammates. He warned family members that he would be spending more time at the practice facility this season. He asked coaches to treat him like a rookie during camp. And he came up with a plan to integrate injured players into the practice schedule.

Last season Portland had 13 players combine to miss 311 games—even coach Nate McMillan ruptured his Achilles tendon while filling in during a workout—and many wound up commuting between their homes and hospitals. "This team used to be so close, we sometimes looked better than we were," Roy says. "But with all the injuries, guys got separated, divided, worrying about their own situations. We have to rebuild the brotherhood." Roy wants every injured player to stretch with the rest of the team before practice, go off to rehab and come back to join the huddle at the end.

Cliff Lee's Mindset

Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee struck out 13 Yankee hitters over 8 innings Monday night to give Texas a 2-1 series advantage. This quote sums up Lee's maturity and mindset. Most people would be satisfied with their performance and get 'fat' on their accomplishments, not Lee:

"I don't really look too far in the past or too far in the future," Lee said Monday night. "I look at what I can do today to prepare for tomorrow, and so forth. Most of the time, it's just to go out and have fun and execute pitches."

Jeter on Brady

Derek Jeter speaking on what he thinks of Tom Brady:

"I think of a winner, a champion....The [Super Bowl] that stands out the most is the first one he won [2001 versus St. Louis], leading the team down the field when time was running out. You could just see in his face that he remained calm. As a teammate, if you're looking at the leader and he's calm, it rubs off on everyone."

Jeter on Brady staying in the elite class of NFL QB's:

"The only way you can maintain a certain level of play is you can never be satisfied with what you've done. You have to look forward to the next challenge. That's what he's done."

Brady on Mental Toughness

"There's a sign in the locker room about 'mental toughness'. It's doing what you've got to do for the team. That's what we did today and I think it's something we can build on."

-Tom Brady after the Patriots came back down 10 in the 4th quarter to beat Baltimore 23-20 in OT.

Buzz Williams on Toughness

Good article in the Milwaukee newspaper this weekend on Marquette head coach Buzz Williams and his emphasis on building a 'tough' basketball team:

What does toughness mean to Buzz Williams and how does he measure it?

"It is difficult to quantify. When you have 15 players on a team, four or five coaches on a team, how do you quantify in a distinct way what Marquette toughness is?

"One of the things we used last year was we don't want to be just game-tough. We want to be road-team tough. We don't just want to be TV tough, we want to be everyday tough. It is a daily possession-by-possession, minute-by-minute goal of our program, of our team."

Williams bolted throught a catalog of specific basketball aspects of toughness.

"We do want to sprint to screens. We do want to sprint off the screen. We do want to pop our feet when we set a screen. When the shot goes up, we want to take up space, whether we are on offense or defense. Everything we do is battle for space. We never want to give teams space."

Williams started signing a line from a Graham Nash song, "Teach Your Children," performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young- "You, who are on the road/must have a code that you can live by."

His point: "That code is what toughness is"

Toughness for Williams is not merely a function of defense.

"Guys who are tough when they penetrate offensively, their eyes are always on the rim. Their eyes are not on the help side. You have to be tough enough to initiate offense in the channel in a half-court possession. If the pressure applied by the defense is making you go east and west, then you are not tough enough to do what you need to do. We are going north and south.

"It does apply on both sides of the ball, but more importantly it applies to the culture in which we work. It is in practice, in the weight room, in the film session, everywhere, no matter if a ball is included or not."

Boston Celtics Culture

Here are some notes that Coach Steve Smiley set out from this year's Pump Brothers Clinic:

Premiums in Boston Celtics:
1.) Talent
2.) Character
3.) Work ethic
4.) Discipline ourselves to be disciplined
5.) Competitive drive (motor)
6.) Focus

Culture- 7 day a week, 24 hour a day thing

Three Core Covenants
1.) Winning (success)
2.) Personal sacrifice
3.) Accountability to yourself and your team
-Once these are defined, communicated, and understood, then move on to standards.

Standards
1.) Professionalism
2.) No personal agendas
3.) Professional/respectful communication
4.) Thin of "now only"- this team, this year
a. We will commit to making sure everything we do is for the betterment of this team
b. Personal situations will take a backseat to team commitment
5.) One way- commit to the teaching and the system that we have, trusting the coaching, holding ourselves accountable to doing it the Celtic way.
6.) Efficient team
7.) Team of execution
8.) Never have a bad practice
9.) Responsibility
10.) Trust
11.) No excuses

Carroll rings bell 184 times from line

Here is an article in the Charlotte Observer about Bobcats shooting guard Matt Carroll making 184 free throws in a row. Click on the link above to read the entire article. Here is a good excerpt from Carroll about having a routine:

"Shoot as many as you can; the more you shoot, the better you become, plain and simple. You've got to get a routine, no matter what it is. Everyone has a different form when they shoot, a different technique. Whatever your routine, you've got to practice that routine. Don't shoot 50 shots 25 different ways."

Zito is not moping around

Good stuff on Giants pitcher and former all-star Barry Zito, who has been left off the 1st round playoff roster for their ALDS matchup with the Atlanta Braves:

Zito held his own this season. He went 7-4 with a 3.76 E.R.A before the All-Star break, then 2-10 with a 4.70 afterward.

In his final 12 games, he went 1-8 with a 6.14 E.R.A. The Giants started him last Saturday, when they would have clinched the NL West with a victory; he walked home two runs and lasted three innings.

Five days later, the playoffs started without him. Manager Bruce Bochy said that the first thing Zito did after being told he would not be on the playoff roster was to throw a bullpen session, so he could stay sharp if the Giants should need him, in the next round or in case of injury.

"He hasn't blamed anybody", said Giants president Larry Baer, "He hasn't offered sour grapes about anything. People respect that."

"I Had to Be All-In"

Good article from Peter King of Sports Illustrated on the resurgence of Jets RB Ladainian Tomlinson

For 13 weeks this offseason, LaDainian Tomlinson got his mojo back while working out in the pastures of New Jersey That's where Tomlinson spent about 13 weeks this spring, getting his strength and explosion back after nagging toe and high-ankle-sprain bothered him for the last two years.

"I lost a lot of strength in the past couple of years with those injuries, and when you lose strength, you lose explosion," Tomlinson said from a very happy team bus after running for over 100 yards in defeating the Bills 38-14. "So the only way I was going to get back to where I needed to be was to be all-in to the offseason program. I moved to New Jersey and was there the first day of the program and stayed all the way 'til the end in June. If I'd stayed on the West Coast (where is home was), I'd never have been able to build the kind of chemistry I've built with these guys right now.

Nash's Agenda is to make his teammates better

These are some quotes from Doc Rivers about how Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo can learn from Steve Nash. I believe this is from Coach Musselman:

"Every night Steve's agenda is to make his teammates better. And he does it every night. He does it some nights by scoring and passing. Other nights he decides to be a ball mover and does it. But that's what Nash does every single night. He always does that.

The on thing that Rondo can learn from Nash is Nash may not play well every night, but he doesn't have an off night. He has a great mental focus every single night. He does it every night. I've never seen him play in a game where he has no focus or low focus. Young players, in general, are up and down in that."

The Winners Manual

Here are some notes on Jim Tressel's "The Winners Manual"

Part I: The Game Plan

*Everyone in the program receives a winner's manual each year. He is always changing and adding things.

*Took his definition of success from John Wooden

*Two major goal areas: 1.) Purpose 2.) Goals

*Purposes include: personal/family, spiritual/moral, caring/giving

*Too many people define themselves by what they do and not who they are.

*The task for all coaches is to see the sport in the context of their entire lives. Develop purpose.

*There is a huge difference between inspiration and motivation.

*It is hard to get motivated if you don't have a purpose.

*Before you can become champions, you must master the things champions embody.