Living in the Moment

Forward Abby Wambach of USA Soccer:

"I was nearly brought to tears just thinking about how surreal this all seems," Wambach said after scoring the deciding goal to lead the USA into its first Women's World Cup final in 12 years with a 3-1 victory against France.

"I feel like I have to give all of myself and more of myself in order to secure wins, and of course I am willing to do that," she said. "I feel like I have to make sure I don't regret a moment. I want to smell what the stadium smells like. I want to breathe in all of this experience, because who knows if I'm going to get another shot in four years? Who knows if I will be healthy? Who knows, who knows?

"These moments are rare, these feelings are extreme, and I just hope to keep it going forward, and if we can get that win on Sunday (in the final), you will see the happiest human being on the planet."

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

Last Opportunity

"Any time you're approaching the last opportunity in anything you do, you want to maximize your experience. If someone is going to beat me, they're going to get my best shot."

-Ben Hansbrough, Notre Dame Shooting Guard

Intensity & Toughness Look Like...

Good article from TeamArete on what intensity and toughness look like on the basketball court.

Intensity Looks Like

*Beat the ball down the floor in transition and conversion.
*Rebound position every shot—back, space, pinch on free throw.
*Play defensive in a stance.
*Help and then recover.
*Help the helper.
*Close out with hands above shoulders.
*Dive on loose balls.
*Protect the ball when you have it.
*Rip through on pivots—strong with the ball.
*Chin rebounds.
*Meet every pass.
*Change direction and speed on cuts.
*Take a charge.
*Steal passes that are thrown too far.
*Sprinting from spot to spot in practice.
*Contest every shot.
*Ball Fakes.
*Deflect passes.

Toughness Looks Like

*Verbal response and applause for good plays (regardless of shirt color in practice).
*Encourage a teammate after an error or a missed shot that was a good shot.
*Help a teammate up off the ground.
*High fives and back slapping.
*Huddles on the floor.
*Never criticize a teammate.
*Bench stands when a player leaves the game.
*Acknowledge a player being substituted for in practice as he leaves the floor if you are also on the sideline.

Running straight through the wall

Although Kobe Bryant won't admit he is tired after a long year with both the Olympics and the grueling NBA season, there is little doubt that his body is feeling fatigued. However, Bryant won't even yet tired enter his thought process:

"I'm aware of bouncing back after a tough loss," Bryant said Wednesday. "Hopefully we can do it again. As far as me hitting the wall, so what if I did? I didn't, but so what if I did?"

"What does it mean if you did?" asked reporter Ken Berger.

"It means nothing because I'll run straight through it."

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."

Better practice, better Bluejays

Story out of the World Herald today on Creighton Basketball and their improved work ethic in practice recently. Whether they bring the consistency everyday remains to be seen:

Dana Altman has long been an advocate that perfect practice makes perfect. That's one reason the Creighton coach has told anyone who would listen the last couple of months that his basketball team wouldn't overcome its inconsistent ways until it started getting more consistent in practice.

Altman acknowledged after Wednesday's 79-68 win over Drake that he has seen some improvement in his players' approach to daily drills. Several players also said they sense a greater devotion to practice.

"Guys are going a lot harder, guys are showing up earlier and staying late after practice to get it done," guard P'Allen Stinnett said. "The attention to detail, and the focus during practice is a total 180. A lot of times, Coach would have to tell us not to walk from drill to drill."Now, guys are hustling from drill to drill.

Guys are picking each other up, we're talking to each other more in practice and in the locker room. We're just getting along much better. I don't know if that comes along with the winning, but it's definitely much better."

No player understands Altman's expectations better than Dotzler, the senior guard from Bellevue West. He said there's still room for improvement in practice.

"At times, we've done a better job and guys are working hard," Dotzler said. "But Coach wants consistency, and if we're going to make a run at this thing, we still need to be more consistent in practice."

Defense powers UCLA

There is a reason UCLA has been to two consecutive Final Four appearances and are poised for a run at three in a row. All the right things are being said from the players and coaches about the importance of defense. Not only are they talking about it, they are putting it into action: Here is some from an L.A. Times article this morning:

Don't ask Ben Howland about the way his team lit up the scoreboard.Don't ask about the dunks and the fastbreak layups, the three-point shots.

The UCLA coach would rather talk about something else.

"I know it's boring -- I apologize -- but it's the truth," Howland said. "It all starts with our defense." (This is after UCLA put up 97 points)

The 97 points Saturday were the most scored by a Howland team in a Pacific 10 Conference game, yet even the players talked about finally understanding the effort their coach wants at the other end of the court.

"To be honest, there's no magic trick to what we've been doing the last two games," guard Darren Collison said. "We just raised our level of intensity on the defensive end."

They believe a simple equation -- turnovers equal easy baskets -- has pushed the Bruins (17-4 overall) back into a tie for first in the Pac-10 standings with a record of 7-2.

If nothing else, two big wins has brought life to a team that was licking its wounds after a loss at Washington only a week ago.

"After the Washington game, Coach told us we had to have the best practice we've ever had," center Alfred Aboya said. "That's what we did. After that, he said we had to keep it up every day."

"Everything that we tried in past games when we weren't winning or were winning by five, 10 points, we weren't getting enough stops," Collison said. "When we get a lot of stops, we get a lot of good things."