He'll do whatever it takes

VCU guard Joey Rodriguez's high school coach Reggie Kohn on his toughness:

“Whether it was a real game or just three-on-three, Joey was willing to dive headfirst into the bleachers. For a guy his size, you have to be tough. He has that willingness to fight for every possession and for every ball. His mind-set is ‘if there’s a loose ball, I’m getting it 100 percent of the time.’ Whether he has to push you into the bleachers or tackle someone. He’ll do whatever it takes.” -

Attitude adjustment sets Butler on another magical Final Four ride

Great article in the Chicago Tribune about how Butler overcame a tough losing streak during the season through a change in their overall attitude:

Butler's frustration mounted so high that Stevens sensed the need to do what good coaches do. He let his players take ownership of their team in a way necessary for it to grow. But before turning over the meeting that changed their season, Stevens told everyone he needed to improve too. That's when senior Zach Hahn actually shouted at his coach. "I had had enough at that point and yelled, with a few choice words, 'It's not about what you guys are doing, we've got to be better,' " Hahn said. "

Everybody agreed.

" Everybody agreed that a team built on attitude needed an adjustment and that the mid-major powerhouse had developed a major ego problem.


"We kind of got the big head a little bit," Mack said. "We had to get people back to doing things we'd been doing."

Butler hasn't lost since.

"Our whole thing when you come to Butler is it's not about you," guard Ronald Nored said. "The focus is sacrificing everything for your teammates, your school and each other."

Butler Way isn't just an access road in front of some academic buildings. It's the aw-shucks, almost corny method Stevens has used to attract fundamentally sound players and build a program special enough to be the first non-power-conference school to reach back-to-back Final Fours since UNLV in 1990-91.

"It's not brain surgery," Stevens said. "You can buy a book, you can read about it. People know what the critical components of success are. Everybody in every business and every industry talks about values, mission and vision. The key is holding to them."

The line at the souvenir store inside Hinkle Fieldhouse snaked out the door. One older couple made sure to remind me that the Milan High team immortalized in "Hoosiers" lost in the 1953 Final Four the year before winning the state title. That's the script they see their Bulldogs following this weekend. On the court, as players met the media, fans of all ages took pictures and sought autographs considered priceless in a state that loves God, corn and basketball — not necessarily in that order.

"One of our core principles in our locker room is humility," Stevens said. "If you don't have that, you're not here. You've got to respect everybody."

Somebody mentioned to Stevens that he has gained enough respect to be compared to Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams. It's deserved praise but dangerous too. Around here, they would take losing Stevens harder than losing to VCU.

"That's nice for people to say, but like I tell our team, 'You're only good if you're good today,'" Stevens said. "We also say, 'You're good if you play good. You're great if you do that every day.' "

It would be great for college basketball if Butler won it all playing by these rules, especially in a sport where so many coaches make their own rules.


When Stevens reflected on the pivotal Youngstown State loss, he remembered telling Howard that the three-game losing streak would be "the most valuable thing you took from Butler."

Stevens also recalled the cartoon his coach at DePauw University, Bill Fenlon, sent to encourage him through the rough patch. It's an image of a dejected superhero sitting alone under a palm tree on a deserted island. The thought bubble read, "Oh, yeah, I can fly."

"That was kind of the way we were," Stevens said. "We had the ability but we were down. We weren't far from being good. It's easy to get caught up in the negatives, but they didn't. That is the most rewarding thing about this team."

Clint Hurdle positive on the Pirates

New Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is taking over the Pirates with many wondering why he would put himself in such a tough situation, being that the Pirates have been one of the least winning teams in the MLB in the last 20 years. He has taken on the task with lots of energy and enthusiams. Here is a little from an espn.com article: Hurdle has charged his entire coaching staff with this mission: Bond with these players. Do whatever it takes to forge a connection that keeps this entire locomotive steaming down the same track. "I'm not talking about a Kumbaya campfire thing," Hurdle quipped. "We just want to make sure, from a coaching standpoint, we don't have any 'oh-no' coaches here. And by that I mean, we've all had a coach in our life where, when you saw this guy coming, the first thing you thought was, 'Oh, no. Here we go again.' We want to open up the line of communications where they see us walking up to them and they go, 'I wonder what he's got for me today.'"

Poise & Great Communication

Here is an excerpt from a New York Times article on Butler coach Brad Stevens: "Sometimes we'll be in the huddle during a tight game and look up at coach Stevens and he's just so calm," senior Zach Hahn said. "You wonder 'How's he doing that?' But it definitely has an effect on everyone else. We don't get rattled easily." Butler sophomore Chase Stigall said Stevens is a master of motivation, with an ability to mold his style to fit different players. When the Bulldogs were on a three-game losing streak in February — something unheard of for many of the players on the current roster — Stigall said Stevens didn't panic or do anything desperate. He just did what he does best, communicate. "He has a different way with every player," Stigall said. "When he's tuning into a certain player, he has a different way of treating each guy. He knows that my high school coach was a yeller, and he knows that I can be yelled at and that's how I respond the best. Other people can't respond to that — and he knows it."

Leader of the Huskies

"I'm just trying to do the best I can do. Whether it's scoring, talking, getting their confidence up or giving an assist, I'm just trying to do whatever is possible to enhance this team."

-Uconn guard & 1st Team All-American guard Kemba Walker after his team beat San Diego St. to advance to the Elite 8

It Always Starts With Defense

"We have a lot of confidence. When our mindset is right on defense, we seem to work harder on offense. When we're not as focused on defense, it kind of leads to our offense. We just go through the motions. So it always starts with defense."

Bulls forward Luol Deng after the Bulls beat the Hawks last night

Shot Selection

Quote from Arizona forward and All-Pac 10 player Derrick Williams on efficiency:

"Just think about it. If you're shooting 20 times a game, of course you're going to score at least 20 points. But I want to get to the free-throw line, not take bad shots, just be the most efficient player I can be. I only need to shoot open shots."

Says Arizona Head Coach Sean Miller:

"I know it sounds too good to be true when you're talking about a kid who is as talented as he is and as good of a kid as he is," Miller said. "But that's what makes him a special kid.

"It's easy to coach your team when you have your best player on board."

When Things are Hard, They Don't Pass the Blame

“Our kids acted this season like I wish our society wouldact. That means that when things get hard, they don’t pass blame. They don’t run away from it. They don’t roll their eyes. They don’t quit.”

-K St Coach Frank Martin on his team fighting through a midseason slump to reach the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.

Butler All-Access

Looking for guys who have "gotten over themselves"

"We get guys who want to do their job and go home and aren't impressed with the hoopla. One of the keys is to bring in guys who have gotten over themselves. They either want to prove that they can play in this league—or they want to prove nothing. They fill their role and know the pecking order. We have three guys who are the best players, and everyone else fits around them."

-Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs Head Coach

Outwilling Your Opponent

"I think what wears opponents down is, you can't get him to slow up. He's gonna try to outwill you. We talk a lot about that with our team. If you're really good you can outwill another team.

"Kemba is probably the personification of that. ... You know what? If I could have every player find what he finds, then we wouldn't even be talking about us not being the Big East champion or winning the national title. It's the greatest gift a player can have."

-Jim Calhoun on UCONN's Kemba Walker

Bill Self on Toughness

From the Kansas City Star:

Self defines tough basketball as staying focused in the now, chasing every rebound or loose ball with two hands, remembering to play defense with your head and feet when the other team’s in the bonus, things like that.

“And even when we played poorly, we guarded and we rebounded,” Self says. “That’s usually the toughness stats that show up the most.”

Summer Two-A-Days help Rose & Friends Turn Potential Into Polish

LOS ANGELES -- St. Monica High School sits near the corner of Lincoln Blvd. and Washington Ave. in Santa Monica, an intersection of potential and stardom. There is nothing inherently impressive about the St. Monica basketball gym -- "It's pretty small," said trainer Rob McClanaghan, "and a little grimy" -- except for the NBA players who walked through the doors last summer and kept coming back.

Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love arrived at St. Monica last May, full of promise, but still in need of polish. They had just finished their second season in the pros. Rose made the All-Star team. Westbrook wowed in the playoffs. Love was not even a full-time starter yet.

They worked out six days a week at St. Monica, McClanaghan putting them through full-court and half-court game simulations, peppering them with hypothetical questions: "How good do you want to be? You want to be an All-Star? You want to be an MVP? You want to be a champion, or lose in the conference finals?" McClanaghan's assistant was a 3-foot black football pad he used to punish the players so they would not forget what it feels like to rush into a power forward.

The group trained twice a day, once at 9 a.m. and again at 6 p.m., in their white T-shirts and practice shorts. Sometimes they came straight from photo shoots still wearing makeup. When McClanaghan tried to give them one Sunday evening off, they showed up anyway. When other NBA players stopped by and went half-speed, the regulars told them to stick with the program or drop it. "The intensity was unbelievable," McClanaghan said. "Russell would do something great and you could see Derrick and Kevin telling themselves they would do even better. It became their gym."

As the summer wore on and word spread, coaches in Southern California went to St. Monica just to watch. Former Lakers general manager Jerry West made an appearance. What they witnessed were three young players preparing each other to take one simultaneous leap into the elite. "We put so much pressure on those workouts," Rose said. "You felt like you couldn't miss a shot in there."

While Love and Westbrook had their own summer to-do lists, Rose built a jumper almost from scratch. A transcendent driver, Rose rarely used to take outside shots because he could easily race to the rim, with his Iversonian crossover. But as opposing teams sagged off him, he found fewer driving lanes, and grew frustrated that he could not make defenses pay. He shot 26.7 percent from three-point range last season, and on the rare occasion that he let fly, his release was low and his arc flat. The ball invariably smacked the front of the rim. McClanaghan told him, "If you can just get to 39 or 40 percent, where guys have to respect you, it will be over."

McClanaghan lifted Rose's release point, gave him the mantra "no short shots" and made him hoist upward of 1,000 threes a day at St. Monica. Rose's practice percentage ticked up, from 60 to 68 to 72. It became clear that defenses were not going to sag off him anymore, but to take advantage of openings he had to throw himself into big men as often as he slithered around them. "I spent a lot of time getting hit by that pad and trying to finish off it," Rose said. By initiating contact instead of avoiding it, Rose has already attempted and made more free throws than he did all of last season.

He has also identified yet another way to expand his game. He plans to spend this summer developing post moves. He already knows the perfect workout partners and the ideal place.

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From cnnsi.com

Staying Even-Keeled

"I think his approach has been pretty even-keeled, and I think that certainly helps him. Doug's not one that is going to get too disappointed in himself for too long when things aren't going right, nor is he going to pat himself on the back for very long when things are going well.”

-Creighton Coach Greg McDermott on his son Doug earning Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year & Player of the Year