Blue Crew

There's an old story that dates back to the early 90's when Phil Jackson first took over the Bulls.  Being a young head coach (this was his first head coaching job in the NBA), he brought along Tex Winter to provide some advice (Tex is still there I believe).  Anyway Tex called a play late in a game against the Bucks, but MJ basically blew off the play and free lanced a basket and ultimately a Bulls win.  Understand, at this point MJ was still MJ the great player but not the legend yet.
Supposedly after the game Tex took the mercurial MJ aside and chided him for not running the play that had been called saying the iconic "there's not I in team son."  To which MJ shot back, "Yeah, but there is in WIN."
This goes to the heart of sports.  If your good enough, people will put up with you not matter what.  I saw a poster once that had a picture of a pearl and said something to the effect that if you are beautiful enough, people will ignore the fact that your are iritating to the core.  Billy Gillespie learned this the hard way.
I say all this because many people have been consoling themselve by saying things like "I"m glad Cal is gone, he didn't win the right way" or "He was not a nice person and I would rather lose than have someone like him here." This is bunk.  Pure and simple.  I loved Cal, not because he was a good person, not because he loved Memphis, or anything else.  He was a winner.  He won.  He won a lot.  He won often.
He's  in Kentucky, and you know what, he'll win there.  So what do I suggest to Coach Pastner.  Simple, WIN.  MJ understood this.  I don't expect Paz to win at the level Cal did at the end, but I expect him to win at the level Cal did his first 3 years at Memphis.  Losing seasons shouldn't happen.  I have posted that I expect growing pains, and I do.  I expect a step back, but hell a step back from 4 straigh 30 win seasons is expected.  That doesn't mean you all of a sudden start winning 18 games and missing the tournament.
If all the people out there want to console themselves by saying they are glad Cal is gone, fine go right ahead.  I'm not buying it.  I want to keep right on winning.  I like winning.  It makes me feel good.  It makes all of us feel good.  Coach Paz, no pressure, just win baby!

Category: NCAAB

I've got to be honest, when our X-coach announced he was leaving, I was really crushed.  Most of all, I felt as though we where losing our coach in his prime.  You know, we endure this guy's growth only to lose him when he's peaked out.  Sort of like Pau Gasol and the Grizz.
So I decided to find out if in fact we were losing Cal in his prime.  I found out something VERY interesting.  If anything, we may be selling high.  You know getting rid of a high priced veteran just before he starts to really lose steam.
Now for the record, I limited my investigation to the winners of the NCAA tournamet from 1985 on.  This was the year the tournament expanded to 64 teams (technically now it is 65, but for everyone with a real chance it's 64).  Coach Cal will turn 52 prior to the next tournament, so how many coaches 52 or older have won the tournament in the last 25 years.  The answer surprised me.  I figured it would at least be half (12-13), but the reality is that this has occured only 9 times.  For those counting that is only slightly more than 33% of the wins.  I am honestly stunned.  You would think that experience would lead to the ability to handle the tournament, but in fact it turns out that recruiting is more important than X's and O's.
So take a stroll down history lane and look at the coaches who have accomplished the goal of an NCAA championship at 52 or older.  I will give one caveat, Nolan Richardson won his at age 51, but turned 52 prior to the next season.  If you want to count that, then that's your call.

1)  Jerry Tarkanian   1990  UNLV
2)  Dean Smith        1993  UNC
3)  Lute Olson         1997  Arizona
4)  Jim Calhoun       1999  UConn
5)  Mike Kzykevski  2001  Duke
6)  Jim Boeheim      2003  Syracuse
7)  JIm Calhoun       2004  UConn
8)  Roy Williams      2005  UNC
9)  Roy Williams      2009  UNC 

So only 7 coaches have actually accomplished this since 2 coaches did it twice.  Why is this.  Why did Dean Smith never sniff a national championship after the age of 57.  Why has coach K gone almost a decade without a win and 7 years without a final 4.  Only Roy Williams and Jim Calhoun have seemed to find the ability to continue the success post age 57.
Here's another shocker, post age 55 your NCAA tournament winning percentage drops by almost 5% every year.  This is looking at the winning percentages of coaches under the age of 55 vs the winning percentages of coaches 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 etc.  I did look at this with coaches who have at least 1 elite 8 appearence.
The bottom line is that coaches over the age of 55 tend to get old really quick.  So the quesiton is why.  RECRUITING.
This is a dirty, devious, difficult business with lots of traveling and dealing with some really bad people.  Older coaches are really rich and really tired of bad food, bad hotels and really bad AAU or HS coaches with their hands out because they happened to find the next great college basketball players.
Recruiting is a young man's game, requiring a young man's determination to find and lure 16, 17, and 18 years olds, some with an group of "handlers", or AAU coach "looking" out for the young man's best interest.  Yeah Right!
Now I'm not a Cal hater and I think he has a real shot next year, but Kansas is going to be damned good.  Many think they're the best team in the country.  UNC isn't going anywhere, and lots of other teams in the country have a real shot.  If he doesn't do it next year, Wall will be gone, Cousins will be gone, Meeks will be gone, and Patterson will be gone.  Reloading time.  No problem, except it will be.  It might take a year or two.  Next thing you know Cal will be 55.  55 or over has only happened 6 times.  56 or over, 5 times.  You get the math here.
Maybe Memphis really did get lucky, or maybe not.  The truth Tiger fans is that history is definitely on our side.

Category: NCAAB

 After spending the first week of his head coaching career pulling knives from his back, it looks like Coach Paz is starting to flash a little steel of his own.  Glen Cyprien will be the new lead recruiter and recruiting coordinator for the U of M's mens basketball program.  This is the same position he had with former U of K coach Billy Gillespie and he was also the lead recruiter when Gillespie was at both Texas A&M and UTEP.  He was instremental in the recruitment of DeAndre Jordan and is responsible for recently signed Kentucky recruit and top 50 center Daniel Orton of Oklahoma City.

Now this is where the fun begins.  After fighting off Cal over Will Colemand (actually there's some question over this) and losing the battle for Donnel Dodson, Paz seems to have struck back.  Orton has publically said that if Cyprien ends up at another school, he would re-open his recuritment.  So tag your it.  Paz hires Cyprien, whom appearently he's known for a while anyway, to get to Oroton who just yesterday signed a letter of intent with Kentucky and.....yes Cal.

Sooooooooo.........Let's play this out to it's possible conclusion and state some facts.  First, Cal definitely asked Pastner to help him recruit Xavier Henry to Kentucky in exchange for leaving Will Coleman alone.  I have no idea what his response was, but I know Will Coleman is probably coming to Memphis and his coach is not, so that would lead me to believe Cal at least though Pastner said yes and helped Coleman come to Memphis without having to guarantee Miami-Dade head coach Dan Eiselle a position on the staff, which opened up a spot.  Cal has caught MAJOR heat from the local and national media over his recruitment of Memphis signees, and he continues to do so despite his denial to Dan Patrick yesterday.  I even heard a rumor that he made contacts to a current Memphis player, but that is unsubstantiated even for a blog.

With all this in mind and an opening on his staff, in steps Glen Cyprien, who brings a recruiting background and connections to a current big time recruit.  Even better, a Kentucky recruit.  Oh this is just too good.  Why?  Because if Orton asks for his release from his letter of intent to go to Memphis and Cal says no, all hell will break loose, and I mean ALL HELL.  Both locally and nationally Cal will be lamented.  Not that he cares about that really, but it's hard to do all the public things he does if his image is that badly tarnished.  So he would almost have to release Orton to avoid the back lash.  BRILLIANT.  Pastner let's Cal take Cousins (who wasn't coming here anyway) and agrees to "help' Cal get Xavier, who probably isn't going there in exchange for Cal helping Paz get Will Coleman so he don't have to hire his coach.  Then Paz takes that vacancy and hires somebody to steal one of Cal's players.  Damn recruiting is dirty,

The thing Memphis fans should delight in is that Paz has already shown a nack for the chess matches that go on in recruiting, and this is a classic example.  If this works out he will have really pulled rabbit out of his hat.  I mean dang, he will have really made lemonade from lemons, and in the end that's what he'll have to do for a couple of years.

Category: NCAAB

 Unless something changes Willis Wilson will be on the Tiger's staff this season.  Pastner is also loooking at an NBA assistant for his staff as well, but that may have to wait until the team's season ends.  The 3rd assistant will be a recruiter, but the person targeted may not be available until some final decisions are made on the coordinator position.  There are generally two of these which go to people with access to players and can bring them with them.  Dan Eisell of Miami-Dade will get one of the two coordinator positions if he can bring Will Coleman and Darnell Dodson with him, otherwise it will be a JUCO guy out of Oklahoma who can bring a point guard with him.  The other coordinator position will probably go to someone with an agent attachment.  Since everyone has one of these, this is not that uncommon.  Pastner knows the routine and will have a fully staffed recruiting unit by next summer.  2011 class will be his first to bring in since the class of 2010 is already being recurited.

Some of my friends have compared this to what happened in Cincinnati when Huggie left, the truth is that Memphis has a lot more talent than Cincy had, and should be respectable in a lesser conference.  Of course there is a lot that depends on the Juco guys and the Simpkins/Garcia thing.  If the Juco guys come, Dan will probalby try to recurit Beatty, the point guard at Miami-Dade.

Some other interesting rumblings are that Cal asked Pastner to help him recruit Xavier to Kentucky in exchange for leaving the JUCO kids alone.  Now, pardon me while I laugh my ass off here.  I'm not sure what Paz told him, but my hope is that he told him to take the JUCO guys and shove 'em.  He probably didn't but 10 years from now he would.  Which brought me back to my early 30's and the stuff I did then that I wouldn't do now.  I can tell you this, 31-33 where good years, but I didn't really grow until I got into my mid-late 30's.  We'll get a really good chance to watch Josh grow before our eyes.

I want to credit Wolken for some of this information, along with my good friend GP.

Category: NCAAB

 You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you pull the mask of Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with the winningest group of Men's Collgeiate basketball players in the history of the game.  Grievis Vasquez just did this very thing.  By proclaiming that the Memphis Tigers would have a losing record in the ACC he repeated a theory espoused by millions of middle of the road (read mediocre) power conference teams that look at Memphis with equal parts envy and despise.  To be fair Memphis' conference stinks, but I defy Maryland to go undefeated in it.  Sorry Mr. Vasquez you're just not that good.  Not with decent NIT teams giving you their absolute best shot on their own home courts.  Not with every student body in the conference sitting outside for 3 days awaiting your arrival to their campus (Central Florida students started lining up on Sunday for a Saturday afternoon game).  When you're the rock star, you get the full star treatment.  I understand that Maryland doesn't understand this, but I think they will after today.

Now I'm not arrogant enough to think that Memphis is so much better than Maryland that we will win with no problem.  I'm just saying that on paper we are better.  Now as far as the conference is concerned, playing and losing to good teams doesn't make you better.  If that where the case the Grizzlies would be the freaking World Champions.  No, playing and losing to good teams makes you a mediocre to bad team.  That's how you become a 10 seed versus a 2 seed.  For the record I don't think there is any way Memphis would have a losing record in the ACC.  Let's say you replace Miami with Memphis and their schedule.  Are you saying we wouldn't win more than 7 conference games.  I can't name more than 4 teams that we wouldn't be favored against on the road, and more than 3 that we wouldn't be more than a 5 point favorite at home.  Honestly only NC, Duke and possibly Clemson would be able to hang at the Forum.  Sorry Maryland, you guys aren't in that group.  While conference road games are always tough, Maryland, VaTech, Virginia, NC State, BC, FSU and possibly Wake are all not only beatable, but Memphis would be favored in their arenas.

So, while it's highly unlikly Memphis would be 34-3 we would probably still have 30 wins and would have gone 10-4 in conference play.  Wanna bet against me.  Come on Greivis, keep talking.  My grandfather used to tell me something about an alligator mouth overloading your newt's backside.  I guess he never heard of Jim Croce, or Admiral Yamamoto who said that you "don't wake a sleeping giant."

If  Maryland pulls this off then he was right, but I just don't see it.  You don't tempt fate, and dude just stepped all over Superman's cape.  Somebody better get dude a Jim Croce CD, cause my bet is he'll have plenty of time next week to listen to it.

Category: NCAAB