COACH LOWE LEAVES LITTLE TO THE IMAGINATION WHEN EXPRESSING HIS FEELINGS ABOUT LAST SEASON'S TEAM. COACHES NOT ONLY HAVE TO MANAGE THEIR TEAM CULTURE AND CHEMISTRY BUT NOW MORE THAN EVER THEY HAVE TO MANAGE THE PEOPLE IN THE KID'S "CAMP".
LOWE HAS TWO REQUIREMENTS TO PUTTING TOGETHER A WINNING PROGRAM:
#1: IS THE KID TALENTED
#2: DOES HE WANT TO WIN & CARE ABOUT THE TEAM MORE THAN HIMSELF
I THINK AN IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ADD TO COACH LOWES LIST IS:
#3: DOES THE ATHLETES CAMP (BY CAMP I MEAN AAU COACH, PARENTS, EXTENDED FAMILY, HIGH SCHOOL COACH, NEIGHBOR, ETC.) WANT TO WIN & WILL THEY SUPPORT THE HIGH/LOWS OF THE TEAM AND LEARNING PROCESS.
Coach Sidney Lowe says his players are going to do things his way next season.
By John Delong
JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: June 20, 2008
RALEIGH - RALEIGH - Sidney Lowe has apparently laid down the law to N.C. State's basketball team.
Lowe held his annual off-season media-availability session yesterday, and while he didn't want to dwell on last season's struggles, he made it clear that some things will not be tolerated in the future.
"We had post-season meetings," Lowe said. "They understand me and where I'm coming from. It's going to be my way and that's it. It's real simple. They are players and I'm the coach and they are going to do it my way. If they don't, then they don't want to be here."
N.C. State lost its final nine games last season to finish 15-16 overall, and fell all the way into a tie for last place in the ACC regular-season standings at 4-12. N.C. State had been picked to finish third in the ACC preseason poll and was ranked nationally early in the season.
Throughout the season, Lowe pointed to a season-ending injury to guard Farnold Degand in December as the biggest reason for the team's collapse. Yesterday, though, there was more acknowledgment of internal issues.
Asked how he planned to turn things back around, he said bluntly:
"You go to work. You get back to working. You get guys on the same page and you put the guys out there that are going to do the things you want them to do. There's no mystery to winning. It's real simple. One, you have to have talent. You have to have better players than they have. Two, you have to have guys that are on the same page and playing to win, (who) care more about the team than themselves."
N.C. State loses two key players from last year's team -- forward Gavin Grant, a senior, and center J.J. Hickson, who entered the NBA Draft after leading the team in scoring and rebounding as a freshman. Among the top returnees will be center Ben McCauley and guard Courtney Fells, both rising seniors, forward Brandon Costner, a redshirt junior, and Degand, a rising junior who was lost with a knee injury in December but is ahead of his rehabilitation schedule, according to Lowe.
Lowe refused to say that the Wolfpack had a "chemistry" problem last season. But his response to the question was revealing anyway.
"In my dictionary, chemistry only means one thing and I'm going to stay away from that," Lowe said. "I'll say this. Kevin Garnett went to the Boston Celtics and became the guy. Paul Pierce had been there for eight, nine, 10 years, great player, but he welcomed (Garnett) in. Ray Allen welcomed him in. And they win the NBA championship. If they didn't like him, they didn't want to play with him, chemistry would have been bad.
"That word chemistry that people throw out there, in my dictionary, is only one thing. It's just players not accepting and players being selfish. I'll say it. That's what it is. That chemistry thing, we use it as a broad word, but chemistry is people accepting their roles and playing well.... I'm not going there, but I'm just defining chemistry to me. That's all it is. It's just people accepting their roles."
Lowe said that his comments weren't directed at any specific player. He also spoke of the outside influences, citing the media, AAU coaches, parents and girlfriends as those who had influences on the players and their attitudes.
"As a basketball coach on this level, I think you have to take more control of that and really try to keep them (his players) closer to you and try to guide them," Lowe said. "When I say that, it's not so much the players. It's just people around that have an effect on the players. The players try to do what we tell them to do. It's not the players."
Lowe said that he has seen a new attitude among many of the players returning, and singled out Fells, McCauley and Costner as the core of next year's team. Costner and McCauley, whose production dipped last season, have both worked hard and shown a new commitment this spring. Lowe said that Costner had lost "13 or 14" pounds, and McCauley "maybe eight to 10."
"I'm excited about this year," Lowe said. "These guys, they understand and they are in there working. I think they feel good about what they are doing. I'll say this one thing about last year. No one was more disappointed than we were. That hurt. That hurt those guys. So they want to certainly take care of that this year. I think they show it by what they are doing this summer."
7.02.2008
Future Stars Can Learn From Athletes Fiscal Irresponsibility
I WILL BE PASSING THIS ON TO OUR ATHLETES. REALLY EMPHASIZES IN A SATIRICAL WAY HOW EASY IT IS TO "UN-MAKE IT" AFTER "MAKING IT".
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Updated: July 2, 11:17 AM ET
LIFE OF REILLY
By Rick Reilly
Congrats, newly minted NBA rookie!
Now you've been drafted. Next comes the delicious multimillion-dollar contract. And that's when you must do what most NBA players do: start going through cash like Jack Black through the Keebler factory.
Filing for bankruptcy is a long-standing tradition for NBA players, 60% of whom, according to the Toronto Star, are broke five years after they retire. The other 40% deliver the Toronto Star.
It's not just NBA players who have the fiscal sense of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. All kinds of athletes wind up with nothing but lint in their pockets. And if everyone from Johnny Unitas to Sheryl Swoopes to Lawrence Taylor can do it, so can you! With my How to Go Bankrupt* DVD series, it's a layup to go belly-up!
Ten essentials, just to get you started:
1. Screw up, deny it, then fight by using every lawyer and dime you have. Roger Clemens just sold his Bentley, reportedly to pay legal bills. Marion Jones lawyered herself broke before she finally copped and went to prison. Paging Mr. Bonds, Mr. Barry Bonds.
2. Buy a house the size of Delaware. Evander Holyfield was in danger of losing his 54,000-square-foot pad outside Atlanta, and it's a shame. He had almost visited all 109 rooms!
3. Buy many, many cars. Baseball slugger Jack Clark had 18 cars and owed money on 17 when he went broke. And don't get just boring Porsches and Mercedes. Go for Maybachs. They sell for as much as $375,000—even though they look like Chrysler 300s—and nobody will ever know how to pronounce them, much less fix them.
4. Buy a jet. They burn money like the Pentagon. Do you realize it costs $50,000 just to fix the windshield on one? Scottie Pippen borrowed $4.375 million to buy some wings and spent God knows how much more for insurance, pilots and fuel. Finally, his wallet cried uncle. The courts say he still owes $5 million, including interest. See you in coach, Scottie! (For that matter, why not a yacht? Latrell Sprewell kept his 70-foot Italian-made yacht tied up in storage until the bank repossessed it, in August 2007. He probably sat at home and cried about that—until the bank foreclosed on his house, this past May.)
5. Spend stupid money on other really stupid stuff. In going from $300 million up to $27 million down, Mike Tyson once spent $9,180 in two months to care for his white tiger. That's why Iron Mike's picture is on our logo!
6. Hire an agent who sniffs a lot and/or is constantly checking the scores on his BlackBerry. Those are the kinds of guys who will suck up your dough like a street-sweeper. Ex-Knick Mark Jackson once had a business manager he thought he could trust. Turned out the guy was forging Jackson's signature on checks—an estimated $2.6 million worth—to feed a gambling jones. "And it wasn't like I was a rookie—I was a veteran," Jackson says. The only reason he says he's getting some money back is because he didn't …
7. Sign over power of attorney. What's it mean? Who cares? Just sign! The guy you're signing it over to knows. And while you play Xbox, he'll be buying large portions of Switzerland for himself. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar let an agent named Tom Collins have power of attorney once, and it cost Kareem $9 million before he figured it out.
8. Spend like the checks will never stop. Also known as the Darren McCarty method. Despite earning $2.1 million a year, Red Wing McCarty, who started a rock band called Grinder, went splat by investing in everything but fur socks ($490,000 in unlikely-to-be-repaid loans) and gambling large ($185,000 in casino markers). In other words, a Tuesday for John Daly.
9. Just ball. Don't write your own checks. Don't drive your own car. Don't raise your own kids. Just be a tall slab of skilled meat for others to feast on. Not to worry. It'll be over before you know it.
10. Most of all, set up a huge support system around you. It'll be years before you'll realize they call it a support system because you're the only one supporting it. They're all on full-ride scholarships at the University of You. "Guys go broke because they surround themselves with people who help them go broke," says ex-NBA center Danny Schayes, who now runs No Limits Investing in Phoenix. "I know all-time NBA, top-50 guys who sold their trophies to recover."
See, kid? You can be a top-50 guy!
So order my How to Go Bankrupt series now, and get this empty refrigerator box to sleep in, absolutely free!
*(Only $1,449 plus shipping, handling, service fee, dealer prep and undercoating. Per month.)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Updated: July 2, 11:17 AM ET
LIFE OF REILLY
By Rick Reilly
Congrats, newly minted NBA rookie!
Now you've been drafted. Next comes the delicious multimillion-dollar contract. And that's when you must do what most NBA players do: start going through cash like Jack Black through the Keebler factory.
Filing for bankruptcy is a long-standing tradition for NBA players, 60% of whom, according to the Toronto Star, are broke five years after they retire. The other 40% deliver the Toronto Star.
It's not just NBA players who have the fiscal sense of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. All kinds of athletes wind up with nothing but lint in their pockets. And if everyone from Johnny Unitas to Sheryl Swoopes to Lawrence Taylor can do it, so can you! With my How to Go Bankrupt* DVD series, it's a layup to go belly-up!
Ten essentials, just to get you started:
1. Screw up, deny it, then fight by using every lawyer and dime you have. Roger Clemens just sold his Bentley, reportedly to pay legal bills. Marion Jones lawyered herself broke before she finally copped and went to prison. Paging Mr. Bonds, Mr. Barry Bonds.
2. Buy a house the size of Delaware. Evander Holyfield was in danger of losing his 54,000-square-foot pad outside Atlanta, and it's a shame. He had almost visited all 109 rooms!
3. Buy many, many cars. Baseball slugger Jack Clark had 18 cars and owed money on 17 when he went broke. And don't get just boring Porsches and Mercedes. Go for Maybachs. They sell for as much as $375,000—even though they look like Chrysler 300s—and nobody will ever know how to pronounce them, much less fix them.
4. Buy a jet. They burn money like the Pentagon. Do you realize it costs $50,000 just to fix the windshield on one? Scottie Pippen borrowed $4.375 million to buy some wings and spent God knows how much more for insurance, pilots and fuel. Finally, his wallet cried uncle. The courts say he still owes $5 million, including interest. See you in coach, Scottie! (For that matter, why not a yacht? Latrell Sprewell kept his 70-foot Italian-made yacht tied up in storage until the bank repossessed it, in August 2007. He probably sat at home and cried about that—until the bank foreclosed on his house, this past May.)
5. Spend stupid money on other really stupid stuff. In going from $300 million up to $27 million down, Mike Tyson once spent $9,180 in two months to care for his white tiger. That's why Iron Mike's picture is on our logo!
6. Hire an agent who sniffs a lot and/or is constantly checking the scores on his BlackBerry. Those are the kinds of guys who will suck up your dough like a street-sweeper. Ex-Knick Mark Jackson once had a business manager he thought he could trust. Turned out the guy was forging Jackson's signature on checks—an estimated $2.6 million worth—to feed a gambling jones. "And it wasn't like I was a rookie—I was a veteran," Jackson says. The only reason he says he's getting some money back is because he didn't …
7. Sign over power of attorney. What's it mean? Who cares? Just sign! The guy you're signing it over to knows. And while you play Xbox, he'll be buying large portions of Switzerland for himself. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar let an agent named Tom Collins have power of attorney once, and it cost Kareem $9 million before he figured it out.
8. Spend like the checks will never stop. Also known as the Darren McCarty method. Despite earning $2.1 million a year, Red Wing McCarty, who started a rock band called Grinder, went splat by investing in everything but fur socks ($490,000 in unlikely-to-be-repaid loans) and gambling large ($185,000 in casino markers). In other words, a Tuesday for John Daly.
9. Just ball. Don't write your own checks. Don't drive your own car. Don't raise your own kids. Just be a tall slab of skilled meat for others to feast on. Not to worry. It'll be over before you know it.
10. Most of all, set up a huge support system around you. It'll be years before you'll realize they call it a support system because you're the only one supporting it. They're all on full-ride scholarships at the University of You. "Guys go broke because they surround themselves with people who help them go broke," says ex-NBA center Danny Schayes, who now runs No Limits Investing in Phoenix. "I know all-time NBA, top-50 guys who sold their trophies to recover."
See, kid? You can be a top-50 guy!
So order my How to Go Bankrupt series now, and get this empty refrigerator box to sleep in, absolutely free!
*(Only $1,449 plus shipping, handling, service fee, dealer prep and undercoating. Per month.)
6.28.2008
:07 Seconds Or Less: Book Notes
Author Jack McCallum chronicled the Suns 2005-06 season from the bench from training camp through the playoffs. A few thoughts I noted as I read:
1. D'Antoni & his staff are phenomenal managers of egos and instilled confidence in every player. For instance, when Tim Thomas arrived, D'Antoni tells him he'll never get mad at him for shooting but only if he doesn't shoot. Thomas felt like he was in heaven. In another instance, D'Antoni is lobbying a reporter to "make sure you mention Marion".
2. The Colangelo's and the front office put together pieces and a "lean roster" with solid competitors. They combined their stars with hungry role players with something to prove to teams that cast them away. These were good fits for the Suns such as Eddie House, Raja Bell, James Jones, and Boris Diaw. They were flexible enough to add Tim Thomas late. Everyone could shoot, handle, and play without the ball.
3. They developed their players. Early on, assistant Dan D'Antoni is assigned to take Leandro Barbosa under his wing and you see the development throughout the season.
4. Kwame Brown says they're not a fundamental team and that they just "run a bunch of screen-and-rolls and have such good shooters". The author astutely picks up that Brown doesn't equate movement and spontaneity to fundamental basketball. A sure sign of the times where the basketball game he grew up has evolved into "what can i do with the ball when I get it".
5. If the league norm is considered fundamental then the Suns were certainly different. They played the offensive game based on freedom of movement and decisions on the run as opposed to lining up across from the opponent and running choreographed sets within a 25 by 45 foot half court box. It seems to me that part of what made this work is that they understood the difference between bad, good, and better shots.
6. The suns minimized time as a critical element of the game. They created many more possessions with the idea that they could get more points per possession than their opponent. They were comfortable making decisions of bad-good-better at fast pace but being different they would sucker opponents into making those decisions without the same comfort level.
7. Lawrence Frank said it best: "Playing the suns is like being a passenger in a car going seventy-five miles an hour. When your driving, like they are, you feel comfortable. But when you're the passenger, you're uncomfortable. The trick is how to figure out how to be a driver. But they don't let you do that."
8. Coaches have become more and more controlling in every situation. I credit D'Antoni for having the self confidence in what he believes to play the game differently than what was considered acceptable at the time. He believes in his preparation. For instance, at times his teams will practice under an hour if everyone goes well and he feels good about it. Here's a guy that got fired after 1 year in Denver but comes back and does it his way.
9. The author has a great line when asked if D'Antoni is a genius: "Coaching is at one level the art of repeating almost the same thing over and over so it doesn't sound like the same thing."
10. Don't underestimate the amount of perspiration behind "genius". As the author notes, if u sat with Hemingway as he tried to get it right you would probably say "Damn, that guy rewrites a lot." As he notes, D'Antoni and staff rewrite a lot.
11. D'Antoni on why he plays fast: "most coaches believe defenses are more vulnerable late in the shot clock, that you can get them out of position with a lot of passing. I don't know why defenses wouldn't be more vulnerable before they get set. Thats why we play fast."
12. D'Antoni on turnovers: "people say that when you play fast you'll be a high turnover team. I think you'll be a low-turnover team because you don't throw as many passes."
13. D'Antoni on blowing leads: "people say 'you blew a big lead because you play fast.' Well, hell, did they say that before we got an eighteen-point lead? Playing fast is how we got the lead."
14. D'Antoni on players sitting and learning: "they told leandro barbosa he could learn by sitting behind Stephon Marbury. When I was playing, they told me I could learn by sitting behind Tiny Archibald. Well, guess what? I didn't learn shit, just like leandro didn't learn shit. He doesn't play anything like stephon, and I was about a hundred times slower than Tiny. So how was I going to learn anything?"
15. Alvin Gentry on D'Antoni and coaching: "What makes Mike so good is that he gets to the meat of what he wants very quickly, then trust his players and it took me a bit of time to accept that. NBA coaching 101 says: 'you gotta cover every single thing. And I found out from Mike that you don't".
17. D'Antoni believes coaches must know everything the opponent is going to do and devise a game plan but that the players don't need to know all that. He thinks players can't read and react with too much info.
18. Several times the staff makes the classic debate of whether to try to stop kobe or the other teams star with a team effort or play the opposing superstar straight up and not let anyone else get involved or beat you.
19. D'Antoni on what they do: "Push the ball, dive hard on pick-and-rolls. Keep spaced. Drive, kick, run the floor."
20. D'Antoni gives his half time speech in game 7 of round 1 series versus the Lakers. I think it shows the nature of the beast he fights with his system and represents what he believes. He says, "Every inch of the game, every possession, you have to fight. You can't be, 'I'm up fifteen, I can force a shot now.' 'I'm up fifteen, I can take a defensive possession off.' You can't be that way. You gotta be disciplined enough to go frame by frame by frame. Now, within that, there will be mistakes. But you know what? That's fine. Go to the next frame."
21. Nash on his athleticism: "I'm more elusive than quick, and people confuse the two," he says. "I'm really good on the move, which involves coordination, timing and balance. Once I get going, I can do a lot of things. But I'm painfully bad at explosiveness." Moving, changing gears, and court sense separate Nash. He gives it up on the run and gets it back on the run (via pass or dribble handoff). An interesting concept but think of the suns and usually if i player catches flat footed its going up for 3.
22. Nash makes a point that I whole-heartily agree with: "you hear about so-called tweaners, right, guys who aren't quite point guards and aren't quite shooting guards. what do they usually become? The answer is: mediocre shooting guards." He believes point guards are too an extent born not made.
Terms I liked from the book:
Game plan summary: "Pace. Space. Pass."
Steve Nash: "dribble probe" the defense
D'Antoni's coach in Italy wanted his teams to "sputare sangue" or spit blood
1. D'Antoni & his staff are phenomenal managers of egos and instilled confidence in every player. For instance, when Tim Thomas arrived, D'Antoni tells him he'll never get mad at him for shooting but only if he doesn't shoot. Thomas felt like he was in heaven. In another instance, D'Antoni is lobbying a reporter to "make sure you mention Marion".
2. The Colangelo's and the front office put together pieces and a "lean roster" with solid competitors. They combined their stars with hungry role players with something to prove to teams that cast them away. These were good fits for the Suns such as Eddie House, Raja Bell, James Jones, and Boris Diaw. They were flexible enough to add Tim Thomas late. Everyone could shoot, handle, and play without the ball.
3. They developed their players. Early on, assistant Dan D'Antoni is assigned to take Leandro Barbosa under his wing and you see the development throughout the season.
4. Kwame Brown says they're not a fundamental team and that they just "run a bunch of screen-and-rolls and have such good shooters". The author astutely picks up that Brown doesn't equate movement and spontaneity to fundamental basketball. A sure sign of the times where the basketball game he grew up has evolved into "what can i do with the ball when I get it".
5. If the league norm is considered fundamental then the Suns were certainly different. They played the offensive game based on freedom of movement and decisions on the run as opposed to lining up across from the opponent and running choreographed sets within a 25 by 45 foot half court box. It seems to me that part of what made this work is that they understood the difference between bad, good, and better shots.
6. The suns minimized time as a critical element of the game. They created many more possessions with the idea that they could get more points per possession than their opponent. They were comfortable making decisions of bad-good-better at fast pace but being different they would sucker opponents into making those decisions without the same comfort level.
7. Lawrence Frank said it best: "Playing the suns is like being a passenger in a car going seventy-five miles an hour. When your driving, like they are, you feel comfortable. But when you're the passenger, you're uncomfortable. The trick is how to figure out how to be a driver. But they don't let you do that."
8. Coaches have become more and more controlling in every situation. I credit D'Antoni for having the self confidence in what he believes to play the game differently than what was considered acceptable at the time. He believes in his preparation. For instance, at times his teams will practice under an hour if everyone goes well and he feels good about it. Here's a guy that got fired after 1 year in Denver but comes back and does it his way.
9. The author has a great line when asked if D'Antoni is a genius: "Coaching is at one level the art of repeating almost the same thing over and over so it doesn't sound like the same thing."
10. Don't underestimate the amount of perspiration behind "genius". As the author notes, if u sat with Hemingway as he tried to get it right you would probably say "Damn, that guy rewrites a lot." As he notes, D'Antoni and staff rewrite a lot.
11. D'Antoni on why he plays fast: "most coaches believe defenses are more vulnerable late in the shot clock, that you can get them out of position with a lot of passing. I don't know why defenses wouldn't be more vulnerable before they get set. Thats why we play fast."
12. D'Antoni on turnovers: "people say that when you play fast you'll be a high turnover team. I think you'll be a low-turnover team because you don't throw as many passes."
13. D'Antoni on blowing leads: "people say 'you blew a big lead because you play fast.' Well, hell, did they say that before we got an eighteen-point lead? Playing fast is how we got the lead."
14. D'Antoni on players sitting and learning: "they told leandro barbosa he could learn by sitting behind Stephon Marbury. When I was playing, they told me I could learn by sitting behind Tiny Archibald. Well, guess what? I didn't learn shit, just like leandro didn't learn shit. He doesn't play anything like stephon, and I was about a hundred times slower than Tiny. So how was I going to learn anything?"
15. Alvin Gentry on D'Antoni and coaching: "What makes Mike so good is that he gets to the meat of what he wants very quickly, then trust his players and it took me a bit of time to accept that. NBA coaching 101 says: 'you gotta cover every single thing. And I found out from Mike that you don't".
17. D'Antoni believes coaches must know everything the opponent is going to do and devise a game plan but that the players don't need to know all that. He thinks players can't read and react with too much info.
18. Several times the staff makes the classic debate of whether to try to stop kobe or the other teams star with a team effort or play the opposing superstar straight up and not let anyone else get involved or beat you.
19. D'Antoni on what they do: "Push the ball, dive hard on pick-and-rolls. Keep spaced. Drive, kick, run the floor."
20. D'Antoni gives his half time speech in game 7 of round 1 series versus the Lakers. I think it shows the nature of the beast he fights with his system and represents what he believes. He says, "Every inch of the game, every possession, you have to fight. You can't be, 'I'm up fifteen, I can force a shot now.' 'I'm up fifteen, I can take a defensive possession off.' You can't be that way. You gotta be disciplined enough to go frame by frame by frame. Now, within that, there will be mistakes. But you know what? That's fine. Go to the next frame."
21. Nash on his athleticism: "I'm more elusive than quick, and people confuse the two," he says. "I'm really good on the move, which involves coordination, timing and balance. Once I get going, I can do a lot of things. But I'm painfully bad at explosiveness." Moving, changing gears, and court sense separate Nash. He gives it up on the run and gets it back on the run (via pass or dribble handoff). An interesting concept but think of the suns and usually if i player catches flat footed its going up for 3.
22. Nash makes a point that I whole-heartily agree with: "you hear about so-called tweaners, right, guys who aren't quite point guards and aren't quite shooting guards. what do they usually become? The answer is: mediocre shooting guards." He believes point guards are too an extent born not made.
Terms I liked from the book:
Game plan summary: "Pace. Space. Pass."
Steve Nash: "dribble probe" the defense
D'Antoni's coach in Italy wanted his teams to "sputare sangue" or spit blood
6.27.2008
Offense spreading the floor: The '07-'08 Duke Offense
Here's an article from the Daily Tar Heel about Duke's shift in philosophy this past season to a drive and kick offense. Much of what they do mimics what Mike D'Antoni does and is predicated on spacing & re-spacing.
The afterword to this article is that the Blue Devils finished 28-6. They finished 4th in the nation at 83.2 points per game and had 5 scorers average double figures. Duke was 16th in 3-pointers attempted and 12th in free throws attempts. These stats suggest they were a team that bought into getting to the rack or shooting the 3 while limiting mid-range jumpers. They ended up ranking 50th in the nation in offensive rebounding.
Duke started 4 guards and Kyle Singler who projects as wing. The question is did the personnel dictate the change or did the change in philosophy dictate the change in personnel?
By: Jesse Baumgartner, Senior Writer, The Daily Tar Heel
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Sports
DURHAM - It seems unnatural, as if the basketball court is somehow off-balance.
The open space in the middle of No. 2 Duke's offense begs for something to occupy it, remaining almost untouched as the Blue Devils camp on the 3-point arc.
But, in a nutshell, that space is what defines the lethal Duke scoring machine this year.
After they struggled to find the hoop last year without a true post player down low, coach Mike Krzyzewski has let his team loose on the fast break and built his half-court offense around versatile ball-handlers, shooters and the ever-important perimeter spacing - leading to the nation's third-best scoring average at 85.7 points per game heading into today's throwdown with No. 3 North Carolina.
The observant basketball fan will notice a touch of NBA style in the scheme, not surprising given that Krzyzewski has taken some of the Phoenix Suns' elements from his good friend - and offensive mastermind - Mike D'Antoni, who coached the USA Basketball team with Coach K this summer.
"I think our offense is growing," Krzyzewski said. "It's not exactly like the Phoenix Suns', but there are elements of it, especially the fact that we don't post as much. That's probably the biggest similarity, is they don't post Amare (Stoudemire) and we don't have Amare."
But while Duke lacks a Stoudemire, the team does spread the floor in a similar manner using guard-heavy lineups.
Off turnovers and rebounds, the smaller Blue Devils race down the court and often run players toward the corners rather than the basket to space out the floor.
And when Duke starts its half-court game, the team often puts four, and sometimes all five, players around the perimeter.
"I think the biggest thing was getting comfortable with it," said point guard Greg Paulus, who mentioned Jason Kidd as someone he watched to understand the concepts better.
"But we watched a lot of film on ourselves and on coach's USA team and the Suns. I think that has really helped us with our spacing and creating the type of shots early in the offense that we've gotten all year."
By spreading out the defense so much, Duke gives itself lots of room to maneuver, screen and create openings - particularly from the 3-point line.
For instance, Paulus can get a high-ball pick for his own long bomb or look to kick it back to the screener, who pops to the perimeter. Most dribble drives cause defenders to leave their men and help, but Duke players often maintain their spacing and wait for the open 3-pointer from the kick-out (see diagrams).
This is all made possible by Duke's shooting ability. Not surprisingly, the Blue Devils rank No. 20 in the country in 3-pointers made per game, with nine on 23.1 attempts. Paulus, Jon Scheyer, Taylor King and Demarcus Nelson all shoot .397 or better from the outside.
Both King and Paulus take more than 70 percent of their shots from 3-point land, and even 6-foot-8-inch freshman big man Kyle Singler steps out on the perimeter for more than 40 percent of his field goal attempts.
"I don't really consider myself a post player," Singler said. "I play a lot of outside, too, but I just happen to guard the post on the opposing team."
With the nation's No. 19 best field goal percentage, the Blue Devils also have seen plenty of success from inside the arc, thanks to Nelson and sophomore pogo stick Gerald Henderson, two slashers who take a minimal amount of 3's.
While the spacing helps the shooters, it also gives Nelson and Henderson - the team's best one-on-one players and leading scorers - lots of room to get to the basket themselves, allowing Duke to supplement its outside shooting.
And when the Blue Devils do miss, the paint often is free for offensive rebound chances because the defenders are leeched to their perimeter-hugging counterparts.
"It gives me lots of lanes to actually rebound a long miss or a floater or something of that nature," said pseudo-big man Lance Thomas, who ranks No. 3 on the team in offensive boards.
While the game plan can have its downfalls, such as 21 percent 3-point shooting in the loss to Pittsburgh, the Blue Devils already have ridden the free-wheeling Spatial Express to 19 wins and three 90-point games in their last five.
"Our offense has run pretty well," Krzyzewski said. "The more we do it, the better we're going to be at it."
The afterword to this article is that the Blue Devils finished 28-6. They finished 4th in the nation at 83.2 points per game and had 5 scorers average double figures. Duke was 16th in 3-pointers attempted and 12th in free throws attempts. These stats suggest they were a team that bought into getting to the rack or shooting the 3 while limiting mid-range jumpers. They ended up ranking 50th in the nation in offensive rebounding.
Duke started 4 guards and Kyle Singler who projects as wing. The question is did the personnel dictate the change or did the change in philosophy dictate the change in personnel?
By: Jesse Baumgartner, Senior Writer, The Daily Tar Heel
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Sports
DURHAM - It seems unnatural, as if the basketball court is somehow off-balance.
The open space in the middle of No. 2 Duke's offense begs for something to occupy it, remaining almost untouched as the Blue Devils camp on the 3-point arc.
But, in a nutshell, that space is what defines the lethal Duke scoring machine this year.
After they struggled to find the hoop last year without a true post player down low, coach Mike Krzyzewski has let his team loose on the fast break and built his half-court offense around versatile ball-handlers, shooters and the ever-important perimeter spacing - leading to the nation's third-best scoring average at 85.7 points per game heading into today's throwdown with No. 3 North Carolina.
The observant basketball fan will notice a touch of NBA style in the scheme, not surprising given that Krzyzewski has taken some of the Phoenix Suns' elements from his good friend - and offensive mastermind - Mike D'Antoni, who coached the USA Basketball team with Coach K this summer.
"I think our offense is growing," Krzyzewski said. "It's not exactly like the Phoenix Suns', but there are elements of it, especially the fact that we don't post as much. That's probably the biggest similarity, is they don't post Amare (Stoudemire) and we don't have Amare."
But while Duke lacks a Stoudemire, the team does spread the floor in a similar manner using guard-heavy lineups.
Off turnovers and rebounds, the smaller Blue Devils race down the court and often run players toward the corners rather than the basket to space out the floor.
And when Duke starts its half-court game, the team often puts four, and sometimes all five, players around the perimeter.
"I think the biggest thing was getting comfortable with it," said point guard Greg Paulus, who mentioned Jason Kidd as someone he watched to understand the concepts better.
"But we watched a lot of film on ourselves and on coach's USA team and the Suns. I think that has really helped us with our spacing and creating the type of shots early in the offense that we've gotten all year."
By spreading out the defense so much, Duke gives itself lots of room to maneuver, screen and create openings - particularly from the 3-point line.
For instance, Paulus can get a high-ball pick for his own long bomb or look to kick it back to the screener, who pops to the perimeter. Most dribble drives cause defenders to leave their men and help, but Duke players often maintain their spacing and wait for the open 3-pointer from the kick-out (see diagrams).
This is all made possible by Duke's shooting ability. Not surprisingly, the Blue Devils rank No. 20 in the country in 3-pointers made per game, with nine on 23.1 attempts. Paulus, Jon Scheyer, Taylor King and Demarcus Nelson all shoot .397 or better from the outside.
Both King and Paulus take more than 70 percent of their shots from 3-point land, and even 6-foot-8-inch freshman big man Kyle Singler steps out on the perimeter for more than 40 percent of his field goal attempts.
"I don't really consider myself a post player," Singler said. "I play a lot of outside, too, but I just happen to guard the post on the opposing team."
With the nation's No. 19 best field goal percentage, the Blue Devils also have seen plenty of success from inside the arc, thanks to Nelson and sophomore pogo stick Gerald Henderson, two slashers who take a minimal amount of 3's.
While the spacing helps the shooters, it also gives Nelson and Henderson - the team's best one-on-one players and leading scorers - lots of room to get to the basket themselves, allowing Duke to supplement its outside shooting.
And when the Blue Devils do miss, the paint often is free for offensive rebound chances because the defenders are leeched to their perimeter-hugging counterparts.
"It gives me lots of lanes to actually rebound a long miss or a floater or something of that nature," said pseudo-big man Lance Thomas, who ranks No. 3 on the team in offensive boards.
While the game plan can have its downfalls, such as 21 percent 3-point shooting in the loss to Pittsburgh, the Blue Devils already have ridden the free-wheeling Spatial Express to 19 wins and three 90-point games in their last five.
"Our offense has run pretty well," Krzyzewski said. "The more we do it, the better we're going to be at it."
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