Sunday, November 18

Bob Gottlieb returns from College Exhibition Tour

Every year, each NCAA D1 team is allowed to play 2 exhibition games.  Its just like a regular season games, with a normal paying crowd, officials, cheerleaders, the whole enchilda.  The difference is that they are considered practice games and do not count in a team's record.

Some coaches will play foreign teams.  Years ago when teams brought their National Olympic teams to play here during the exhibition season, they were very strong teams.  Now however, they are mostly club teams, and they are not very competitive, for the most part.  Some teams will still play foreign teams, if they have been a significant help to them in recruiting, or if its a tradeoff to a group like Basketball Travelers.  

Basketball Travelers will arrange a foreign tour for an American College Team in August, with everything completely paid for.  No expenses to the college.  The coach gets an extra two weeks of practice with his team before they leave and they get a half dozen games in August of additional experience for the following season.  Its also a paid vacation for the coaches, their wives and the athletes, who all get to see Europe for a couple of weeks, at no cost.  Its also considered a plus in recruiting.  Coaches can tell prospective recruits we are going to Greece, or France or wherever, the summer of your sophomore year.

On the other hand, the university is then obligated to play a European Club Team chosen by Basketball Travelers for 5 straight years, at a cost of $10,000, paid to Basketball Travelers.

Other teams may also opt to play an in state D2 team for public relations reasons, which helps the D2 team put badly needed money in their coffers.  However, normally, they are not very competitive.  By far, most schools opt to play Exhibition Teams of former college players.  As a result, there are any number of regional teams that have sprung up in all parts of the country.  The Pump Brothers have cornered the market.  With the power of Sonny Vacarro and Adidas behind them, they had 6 teams and over 70 games this year, and they simply laugh their way to the bank.

With all the exhibition teams throughout the country trying to put together teams that can be competitive.  Firstly, the best of all the players not in the NBA are in Europe making very good money.  That could range from $2000/month to several hundred thousand dollars for the season.  With the CBA tryouts occurring about the same time as the exhibition season unfolds, that takes the next level of players off the table.  Then with the new NBA sponsored National Basketball Development League's tryouts also running concurrently with the exhibition season, it becomes difficult to find players good enough that are not already playing for quality money, and that are not already committed to one of the other exhibition teams.

Assuming you have put together 9 or 10 pretty doggone good players, willing to play for $125/game, over an 8 game schedule, winning is another issue.  For the most part, its very rare that an exhibition team can beat a major college basketball team for several reasons.  Firstly, you only get 4 or 5 days of practice to play against teams that have been together for not only weeks, but in most cases have 2/3 of the team back from the previous year and have a great deal more chemistry than an exhibition team that has never seen each till several days before their first game.

Secondly, to play 8 game sin 14 days is an incredible challenge, from a conditioning point of view, especially since you are playing teams that are well rested and playing a maximum of 2 exhibition games each.  Lastly, the officials, in many cases, simply will not let you win.  They are assigned by the conference office of the team you are playing, and your opponent is one of their boys, so to speak, and in many cases, they simply give every benefit of the doubt to the home team, whose coaches evaluation, may be crucial to their continuing to officiate in that conference.

This is out second year on the exhibition circuit.  Last year we beat San Diego State 83-82, but easily could have won several others, if not for some very questionable calls in the last 5 minutes of several of the games.  This year, we had very good officiating till the last 3 games of our trip.  In each case, it was only one of the three officials that seemed to really hurt us, but it does not take but one to really make it impossible.

game # 1  Saddleback JC

We started out with a game with the #1 JC team in California, Saddleback J.C. of Mission Viejo, CA in Orange County..  They were loaded, especially in the backcourt.  Their guards were excellent, especially their outstanding point guard who recently committed to Utah State.  In the second half we broke open a close game to move out ahead by 17 points.  However Saddleback fought back within 3 points, before we pulled ahead again to win by 8 points.  However, the win was costly, as our outstanding point guard, Clive Bentick, who averaged 15 ppg for Canisius and was a 3rd team All League Player, broke his foot and had to leave for home in New York City to have the foot operated on.

Kamran Sufi, 5'8" and former starter at St. Marys, scheduled to be the back up, had to step in and play the entire game most times.  At times Kamran played quite well.  At other times, it was a little much.  Kamran was also my assistant coach, and as such was an invaluable help.  I coached him as far back as in 6th grade, when I formed an outstanding 12 and under AAU team, for my son Doug.  Kamran played the #3 man in those days.  Our starting point guard was Tarik Turner, who later grew to be 6'5" and started for St. Johns in the Big East.  My son Doug was only in 5th grade, so he backed up Tarik, at the time.  Charles O'Bannion joined us for the Nationals that year.  He later grew to 6'5" and became a superb college player for UCLA.  He played well for us but did not start either.  In succeeding days, we will describe the trip on a game by game basis.

Game #2  BWBA vs. Loyola of Chicago

Background to the game:

Loyola is coached by former UCLA Head Coach Larry Farmer.  Larry not only coached at UCLA, but also was a very good small forward starter on several of their NCAA Championship teams under the legendary John Wooden.  Larry has long been considered one of the most popular and well liked athletes to ever play for UCLA.

Bob Gottlieb and Larry Farmer go way back, some 25 years.  I first got to know Larry when he was an assistant coach at UCLA.  The well respected powerful Bruin booster Sam Gilbert and his wife Rose, became a second family to many of the Bruin basketball players, none more so than Larry Farmer.  They loved Larry like he was their own, and Larry in turn referred to them to this day, as Momma and Poppa G.  The Gilberts truly loved Larry and a good many other of the kids that came through UCLA, during the Wooden Years.  They had twin silver gray Mercedes.  Sam's license plate read Poppa G. and Rose's read Momma G.  

Sam Gilbert is an amazing story in itself, one that deserves its own day in the sun.  However, it regard to the role he played in Larry Farmer's life, it must be noted that he not only was the single most prominent basketball booster, but he also headed up the committee of business leaders at UCLA, that raised approximately $5 million dollars each for minority students' scholarships.  Consequently, he had a direct pipeline to not only J.P. Morgan, the well respected Athletic Director, but also Chancellor Young.

As such, he began to make noises that with all the great black athletes that had brought so much acclaim to UCLA in basketball and helped them numerous NCAA Championships, it was shameful that they had never had a black assistant coach.  After several years of intense lobbying, Sam had them hire Larry Farmer as the first black assistant coach.  Some years later, he used the same leverage to force UCLA to hire a black head coach.  who else but Larry Farmer.

Larry Farmer actually did a solid job at UCLA as Head Coach.  At one point, at Sam Gilbert's suggestion, he interviewed Bob Gottlieb for a position on his staff, but for whatever the reason, it never came to fruition.  At some point, however, UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis decided to fire Larry Farmer.  Sam Gilbert, who was no one to cross, was livid.  he embarked on a one man campaign to create a groundswell of support for Larry.

He hired students to carry signs, "We love Larry" throughout the arena at UCLA home games, and called in favors from some of the key sportswriters in town to write positive stories about Larry Farmer.  he pulled out all the stops, including going directly to Chancellor Young.  When it was over, Peter Dalis had no choice but to offer Larry a new 3 year contract extension, with a nice raise.

However, the new contract included several caveats that were hard to swallow.  It included the provision that he had to fire his staff and hire both Walt Hazzard and Jack Hirsch, who were also both former UCLA greats, who were coaching as a team at Chapman College, a D3 program in Orange County.  Larry and Walt had never had a good relationship and to have he and Jack Hirsch forced on him, and to have to fire both of his loyal assistants, whom he both liked an respected, was too much.  Larry reluctantly turned the extension down and resigned.

He later resurfaced as the head coach at Weber State in Ogden, Utah for a few years and now is trying to resuscitate a once proud Loyola of Chicago program that once won the NCAA Championship under George Ireland.

There is a great George Ireland story that used to be popular.  George built the Loyola program with mostly New York City kids, among them All American Jerry Harkness, who led them to the NCAA Championship.  Loyola was a small Jesuit school on the Northside of Chicago with a relatively small campus and even smaller gym.  When he would bring kids in from New York, he would take them on a tour of Northwestern's magnificent campus in nearby Evanston, letting them believe that it was Loyola's campus.  The first time they actually saw Loyola's campus was when they started school in September.

The Game:

Although we had practiced for 5 days, and had a scrimmage game against a very fine JC team, the first half against Loyola was a disaster.  Kamran Sufi just fell apart at the point.  he was nervous and unsure and looked as if he had never run a team before.  Much of it was nerves, because he had been a starter at St. Marys and had led the WCAC in assists and steals for a couple of years.  The entire team played awful.  We had 18 turnovers in the first half alone.  That is way more than a good team makes in an entire game.  Edmund Saunders our 6'9" power forward who had been a 2 year starter at UCONN never would set up so we could run our sets, and consequently we fell behind by 20 points in the first half.  To add to our problems, just as we were beginning to get straightened out, Durelle Brown, 6'8" from Manhattan College, who had averaged 19 ppg for the Jaspers, picked up his third foul and had to sit down.

At halftime, we got things reorganized, and reviewed with Kamran, the basics of getting a team into its half court offense.  We came back out and began to play much better.  We began fighting our way back into the game and actually got it to within 7 points when Durelle Brown fouled out, and we fell back out of reach, and we ended up losing by over 20 points.  it was sort of embarrassing to have us look at times like we never had a single days practice, but Larry was very gracious as we met after the game.  It must also be pointed out that Loyola played very good defense and must be given credit as well.  They should be a much improved team this coming year.

Game # 3  Mississippi State

We left Chicago and flew to Memphis where we rented vans and drove to Starkville, MS, about a 2 hour drive.  Starkville is a college town, where the social fabric of the community revolves aroung Mississippi State's proud athletic teams.

They have always been a consistent powerhouse in the well regarded SEC Conference.  Some people think its the strongest collegiate conference in the country from top to bottom, in both football and basketball.  This is the conference with mostly state universities, which means they have major recruiting advantages, especially within their own state.  This is the conference with Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina etc.  Prior to this game, I had a 2-0 record with SEC teams, having beaten both Auburn and Vanderbilt when I was the Head Coach at Jacksonville, in the 70's.

Kentucky was playing Miss. State in football on Saturday afternoon, and we were playing the Bulldogs Saturday night.  Hotel were sold out anywhere near Starkville, so we stayed in a very nice Best Western, about a half hour drive form Starkville.  All throughout the SEC, hotels any where in shouting distance are sold out on football weekends.  It is the biggest social event of the fall, and people drive in from all over the state, many in their huge, magnificent RVs and make an entire weekend of it.

As it turned out, we were staying in the same hotel as the Kentucky football team.  Dennis Johnson, one of my former players, from Kentucky, who played for BWBA at the adidas Big Time Tournament several years ago, is one of the starters at defensive end for Kentucky.  He is considered the 3rd best defensive end in the entire USA by the NFL draft experts.  It was great to get to see him and spend someone time reminiscing.  

He is 6'8" 250 and could easily have played for Kentucky in basketball, as well as football.  Not only that but he is an exceptionally great young  man.  he played for his dad in high school football.  His dad now works for the University of Kentucky Athletic Department in an administrative capacity.  His older brother also starts at nose tackle.  Dennis was chosen USA National Defensive Player of the Year in high school, his senior year, by USA Today.

The people of Mississippi were incredibly hospitable.  The people at the hotel and the managers and waitresses at the restaurants were so refreshingly nice, that it stood out like a sore thumb.  Had some great catfish, all you can eat for $9.  They brought me an entire good sized fried catfish, and when I was done they brought me another.  The eggs at the local Waffle House for breakfast were obviously raised nearby, because you could taste the freshness, that you cannot possibly get when you live in California or New York.

Mississippi State had a very nice large Arena on campus, and they were loaded talent wise.  Their point guard Derrick Zimmerman had a 40" vertical jump, and they had designed plays to throw alley oops to him.  Tim Bowers, their fine sophomore guard, who was Miss. High School Player of the Year two years ago, and who played for BWBA, started at the off guard.  His mom and dad were there and they were very gracious and happy to see me.  They had several 7 footers including Marcus Campbell, from Georgia, who was very impressive.

The Game:

We changed the lineup and went to playing all 3 of our big guys together, to better match up defensively and on the boards, and opened the game and looked like a totally different team.  We actually led 32-30 when Durelle Brown got in foul trouble for the second consecutive game.  When he sat down, we fell behind by 13 points at halftime.

The second half we got right back in the game and were right there, when they pulled an old trick, I have not seen in 20 years.  While Durelle was running down court in transition, looking back at the ball, one of their guards stepped in front of him and took a charge at mid court.  It should have been a no call, as it had no affect on the play, but the refs did call it as Durelle ran over their player, and they both fell to the floor.  It was his fourth foul, and Durelle got up angry as he could have been seriously hurt and expressed his anger to the official, and he was given a technical foul, which counted as his fifth personal foul.  Durelle fouled out with 14 minutes to play and had scored 13 points in just 17 minutes.

We simply could not play without Durelle.  He meant that much to us.  Though Edmund Saunders had a great game, scoring 33 points and 9 rebounds, we fell out of the game and lost 110-89.  With only one true point guard on the roster after Clive Bentick left for home with his broken foot, you would be surprised how many volunteers I had who said they could play the point.  

In this game, I tried Keyon Smith, a 6'3" wing from Hartford University at the point, at his urging, and when Kamran Sufi asked out of the game in the middle of the first half, I tried Keyon at the point.  He got stripped of the ball three straight times, and it was obvious, he could not play the point.  Not only did he get stripped, but we went from a small lead to down 10 before I knew what happened.  I also tried Matt Langel, our solid off guard from Penn.  He said he played point guard in high school, but he also showed an inability to settle down and get us into a half court offensive without forcing things.

With only 5 days of practice and a couple of games under our belt, I am still learning who can do what, and who I can rely on at either end of the court and on the boards.  It was equally obvious that some of our best offensive players were poor defenders.  It was also obvious that we were a much better team playing all three front court players at the same time.  This improved our athleticism, our defense and our rebounding.

Ron Bruton, our 6'7" 3/4 combo forward from Southwest Missouri State was becoming an extremely valuable part of the team.  We played Ron off the bench against both Saddleback and Loyola behind our starting inside duo of Durelle Brown and Edmund Saunders and he really did not play overly well.  he also seemed unsure of himself and seemed to play without the self confidence you would expect.

Nevertheless, his attitude and effort was always there, and when I decided to start him to get more size and athleticism on the court, he just began to blossom.  Though not really a scorer, he played unselfishly and had good all around athleticism.  He ran the court well, was an excellent finisher around the basket, especially in the open court and gave you a legitimate effort on the defensive end.  He was recommended to me as an all conference defensive player and first class rebounder and in al honesty, he was not as good a rebounder nor defender as I expected, but he was tremendously valuable in a lot of ways, and my kind of player and person.  It started at Miss. State, but every game from that point on, he played better and better.  Furthermore his confidence soared, and he became a very important piece of whatever we accomplished.  

Ron told me he lived with his grandmother and uncle.  I asked him if his mother was alive.  He said she was in jail for murdering her husband.  I asked about his dad, and he said he had no idea where he was, and that he had never been part of his life.  I was a little numb hearing him tell me that.

I loved coaching Ron Burton.  He is a terrific young man. He was highly coachable on the court and a pleasure to have on my team, off the court.  He has his college degree from Southwest Missouri State and I am sure he will be a success, on the court or in the business world.  I would do anything to help him.  I had met any number of kids like Ron Burton, in my 35 years of coaching.  I have never ceased to be amazed at how some truly wonderful, remarkable young men have come out of some very difficult family circumstances.  When it was all over. everyone on the team liked and respected Ron Burton.

Overall, I was very pleased with our improvement.  Whereas, I was embarrassed how we played vs. Loyola, I was very proud of how we played against Mississippi State and I told them so.  There was no question we were improving significantly.

Game #4  Northern Arizona

Background

Northern Arizona is located in Flagstaff, Arizona, about a 2 hour drive from Phoenix.  Its only about an hour or two from the Grand Canyon, which is one of the most remarkable tourist sites in the USA.  Northern Arizona had been a dominant basketball program under Ben Howland.  They not won their conference tournament, but played awful tough in the NCAA Tournament.

As a result, he was hired at the University of Pittsburgh where he has rebuilt that program in a very short 3 years.  Mike Adras was Ben Howland's lead assistant coach and he has directed the program since.

Flagstaff has an altitude of 7200 ft., which can be a significant problem for teams coming up to play from sea level.  They normally play their games in a domed stadium/arena that is used for both football and basketball.  I am told that they have a big sign a the edge of the court reminding the visiting team that Flagstaff's altitude is 7200 ft..  Our game would be played in their old gymnasium on campus, as the dome is still set up for football.

Years ago, when I was the Head Coach at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, we were scheduled to play Denver and the Air Force in Colorado, a day apart.  I was told by our soccer coach, that the altitude does not bother for the first 48 hours, but after that its a major problem.  Sure enough, we flew into Denver, had a good practice and then played a superb game, but two days late in Colorado Springs, we were paralyzed with fatigue, seven minutes into the game.

Consequently, instead of going directly into Flagstaff, we stayed the first night in Phoenix.  Arizona State had arranged for us to practice at their gym on Sunday, but I cancelled practiced.  A year ago, the first year I had a college exhibition team, I found that our biggest problem was fatigue.  Fatigue was not just from paying 8 games in 12 days, but also from traveling all day on planes and in vans.  It seemed in half our games, we simply did not have our legs.  This time, we had our legs in every game except the first half against Rice.  I attribute that to my canceling most practices on the day off we had between several of our games.

The game:

The next day we drove to Flagstaff and played a whale of a game.  The game opened up and Northern Arizona showed us about as well executed a motion offense as you will see anywhere in the country.  A year ago, playing Wisconsin, we had the same problem covering their off the ball screens and movement, and we did not get a handle on it till the second half.  Here we adjusted early on and it seemed to contain their structure quite well, with the exception of our inside defense and rebounding.

They were a tenacious offensive rebounding team.  For the game, they out rebounded us 43-25 and their two inside players seemed to have a field day.  Ryan McDade had 19 points and 10 rebounds and Brian McHugh had 19 points (9 for 9 fga) with 11 rebounds.

Northern Arizona led 42-37 at the half.  However in the 2nd half, we scored 51 points, shot 65% from the field and came from behind to win 88-83 in a very exciting hard fought game.  Altitude was not a factor at all, as I had suspected.

Durelle Brown our 6'8" from Manhattan College, had a superb game.  He had 36 points including shooting 4/7 from 3 point range.  Matt Watts chipped in with 18 points and 7 assists and Ron Bruton had 19 points and 6 rebounds.  Actually the game turned when I switched Matt Watt to the point guard.  Matt became a very difficult matchup defensively for their point guard and we became a much more explosive unit with Matt at the point.  Matt actually did a superb job at running the half court offense and the game turned when he went to the point with about 12 minutes to go in the game.  

Durelle Brown

If  I had to choose our MVP and our most popular player, it would be Durelle.  He is a big strong and talented #4 man who is a scorer, both outside aas well as at the block.  Durell is probably 240 lbs, but moves well for his size and is a superior 3 point shooter.  He is not only a shooter but a superb shot maker, in every respect.  He does need to improve his defense and rebounding, but he is a major league scorer.

He led Manhattan College to its resurgence under Bobby Gonzalez, averaging 19ppg his senior year.  many thought he should have been MVP of the league, which featured IONA, Niagara, Canisius etc.  He is from Hartford, CT originally.  When I brought his name up to college coaches in the East, everyone mentioned what a super kid he is.  When it came out to determine roommates at the hotels, Edmund Saunders and Keyon Smith, both of whom had grown up with Durelle in the Hartford area playing AAU ball together, argued for 20 minutes, who would get to room with Durelle.

Durelle had already briefly been to Europe on a 2nd Division team and was very disappointed in the quality of competition.  I introduced him to Harry Brown, an agent whom I had coached with years ago at Quinnipiac College in New haven, CT.  I trust Harry implicitly.  Last year he did a very good job in placing Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma State.  Adrian played for my exhibition team a year ago, and needed assistance in getting placed.  I introduced him to Harry and Harry placed him Hungary at $3000/month.  Adrian had a very good year over thee and this year Harry got him a job in Switzerland at $7000/month.

As I thought he would, Harry got Durelle a job in Argentina, and he left this week for Buenos Aires.  

Game # 5  University of Wisconsin at Green Bay

Background:

This game brought back a lot of wonderful memories.  From 1975-1980, I was the Head Coach at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.  Other than the weather, Milwaukee was a wonderful place to live.  They say they have two seasons in Milwaukee, Winter and July.  For most of the winter, it stays between 5 degrees and -5 degrees Farenheit.  Jane and I used to jog in the mornings before work.  We could not jog without wearing hooded facemasks, it was so cold.  

On the other hand, it was a great sports town.  They loved their Packers.  Marquette, in those days was one of the hottest programs in the country, year in, year out, under the great Al McGuire.  They won the NCAA Tournament one year, Al McGuire's last as a Head Coach before he retired.  Rick Majerus, the outstanding coach at Utah, was a young assistant at Marquette.  Rick's father was a very well respected labor union leader in Wisconsin.

I took over a downtrodden NCAA D2 team that was 8-18 the previous year and  that had just gone D1.  There was no money left in the recruiting budget as it had all been spent.  The VP told me to do whatever it took, but do not waste any money.  He would find the money somewhere.

I got on a plane the next day and to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic for the Central American Basketball Tournament, and then flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Houston, Macon, New York, Owensboro, KY, Chicago and then back to Milwaukee.

Two weeks later, I brought in 6 kids for an official paid visit and signed 5.  Two years later, we were 19-8 and had the best record in the school's history to that point.  The VP kept his word.  He found the money ($5000) out of my next year's recruiting budget, so instead of $8000, all I had was $3000.

In January of my second year, when we opened the season 8-0, including a big win over a well regarded Gonzaga team, the Athletic Board proposed they eliminate basketball scholarships in order to be in compliance with Title IX, regarding funding for Women's Athletics.

Though a temporary compromise was worked out, in my fifth year, they did eliminate scholarships and moved to NCAA D3, where they stayed for 10 years until a new Chancellor came in and restored the program to D1 status.

We lived in really neat older home in Whitefish Bay, a suburb of Milwaukee.  The schools and social services were second to none.  Our home was over 100 years old, but it had a beautiful backyard with apple and pear trees and a beautiful lawn and manicured terraced garden.

Last year, I brought a similar college exhibition team to Wisconsin to play the Badgers in Madison.  However it was one of the games we did not play well.  Wisconsin was coached at that time by the very successful Dick Bennett.  When I was the Head Coach at UWM, he was the Head Coach at Wisconsin Stevens Point.  We played one year in Milwaukee.  They led by 10 at the half and we came back to win by a single point.

Green Bay is often referred to as Title Town USA.  It is a city of about 100,000 people located about 90 miles north of Milwaukee.  Whereas Milwaukee is quite cold in the winter, it gets very little snow.  Green Bay, on the other hand is located in the "snow belt", and like Minneapolis, Cleveland and Syracuse, once the snow begins in November, it stays all winter till it thaws in the spring.

Wisconsin is another one of those areas in the country like Iowa, Oklahoma, Mississippi, where people are so much more down to earth and clean cut.  Its so pleasant and refreshing form the way people are in the large metropolises.

UWGB plays their games in the Civic Center which seats about 7,000.  Its a wonderful place to play.  When I coached UWM, UWGB was the #1 ranked D2 program in the country.  Dave Buss was their Head Coach.  We played them twice, home and home, and each time, lost a heartbreaker by one point.  Construction has already begun on the new Green Bay Civic center, which will be located adjacent to the present facility.

Though we had played at UWGB, I had never been to their campus.  The day of the game I went to meet Mike Heideman, their fine head coach.  We had talked a number of times by phone, and he was gracious enough to schedule us, so I wanted to meet him and spend some time with him, and get to know him a little.  It turned out , he had been at UWGB 16 years, the last 8 as a head coach.  Their campus was gorgeous.   It was spread out with all modern looking buildings spread over rolling green hills.

Edmund Saunders:

We did have a light practice before the Green Bay game.  Edmund Saunders again presented a major problem in practice, as he had previously done in both practices and games.  He was not a bad kid, but he was probably the most difficult young man I have ever coached in my 35 years of coaching.

Edmund has a world of physical talent and potential.  he had played 18 minutes/g as a sophomore on UCONN's National Championship Team, and had started the last two years, averaging 11 ppg and 7 rebs.  He was a big time defensive rebounder and a tremendous finisher at the rim.  He was strong, with good toughness, but he really would not allow you to coach him.

He had no idea how to post up and work for position so you could get him the ball.  He would not front the post and was a soft defender inside and we were repeatedly hurt inside with opposing inside players just having their way.

In practice, it was hard to get your offensive timing down, because if anything did not go his way, he would pout and stop playing and walk around.  He was a major distraction in many ways.

At UCONN, despite being a Prop 48 and not being allowed to play his freshman year, he graduated on time.  as such, he was granted the year of eligibility back and could have played at UCONN this year, but Coach Calhoun decided not to bring him back or allow him back, take your choice.  When we played Loyola, the assistant told me they had Edmund at the NBA Camp for the top high school players in the country, and they sent him home the second day.  Edmund told me he left ABCD Camp the second day also.

I had several talks with Edmund.  After the Mississippi game, I made a number of phone calls and had a very capable replacement in Anthony Flood from Sacramento State, who wanted to fly in and take his place.  However the cost was prohibitive without sufficient advance purchase.

At the practice before the Green Bay game, he acted up so bad, I stopped the practice and said, in front of the entire team, Edmund, tomorrow we will be flying through Chicago.  if you are not happy, I will arrange to send you back home to Hartford.  That seemed to shock both Edmund and the entire team.  Edmund played a solid game against Green Bay, and then an outstanding game against Miami of Ohio, and in front of the entire team, he thanked me for not sending him home.

Edmund is really a good kid away from the pressures of basketball.  He is bright and personable and was really well liked by his teammates.  Most of the time we all just ignored his outbursts, knowing, well, that's Edmund.  His coaches at UCONN tell me he was tremendous with the younger kids at their basketball camp last summer.

I told Edmund if he would ever let me really help him with his game, he could earn a lot of money in basketball, maybe even at the NBA level.  But I also told him, that I doubt he will ever let either Bob Gottlieb, or any other coach really help him.  He does not understand there is a price of hard work that most all of us have to pay to get to the top of any profession.  Either that or he is simply unwilling to pay that price.

The rest of the way was not necessarily easy or the way that I would want it, but we survived each other, and when it was all over, we parted friends.  I wish him nothing but the best, but what a shame to waste all that talent and potential.

The Game:

Green Bay was extremely well coached.  All of the teams we played were well coached, but Green Bay was particularly impressive.  They were very much an undersized team, playing a 5'11" point guard and a 5'8" off guard, with a 6'4" small forward and somewhat undersized posts as well.  But boy they could play.  They ran the same beautifully well executed motion offense that we saw against Wisconsin the year before.  We adjusted fairly well by switching their off the ball screens and movement.  

We trailed at the half 48-36 shooting only 39% form the field and getting beaten badly on the boards.  Coach Heideman asked us to play mostly zone the second half, and though we started ini a 2-3, then later went to a 3-2, they handled everything well till we began matching up with their fronts.  With the offense in front of me, and BG calling the plays, we slowly crept back into the game.  We shot a superb 55%, the second half and actually led by 4 points with the ball with 40 seconds to play when our point guard Kamran Sufi mishandled the ball, forcing a turnover twice in a row, with our never getting a shot at the basket.  They hit a three, and then a short jumper to win by one point 82-81.

Durelle Brown had another superb game with 26 points and Matt Watt adding 16 including 4/8 from 3 point range and Ron Bruton had 12 points and 7 rebounds.  One of the big differences from the first couple of games was keeping Durelle Brown in the game, and avoiding or minimizing his foul trouble.  Overall we played well, but this was a game we should have won and just gave away.

Game # 6 Miami of Ohio

Background:

Charlie Coles is the Head Coach at Miami of Ohio.  Charlie and I go back to 1963 when we were both just out of college.  I had been a part of Ohio State's basketball program and had played on the freshman team with NBA Hall of Famers, John Havlichek and Jerry Lucas, and Bob Knight as well.  I had earned two Junior Varsity letters, but not a varsity letter, but I loved the game.  In the off seasons and summers, I always put together outstanding AAU teams, and both played and coached them at the same time. 

I had some great times, great memories and great friends from those days.  In the summer, I always put teams in both the famous Rucker Tournament in Harlem, where I was the only white guy in the league, for about 5 years.  People in Harlem treated me great.  I played in every outdoor schoolyard in Harlem for years, trying to make myself into a big time player.  I would drive into the city every day in the summer, when I was home from college, and first stop at the courts at 114th St. and Lenox Avenue.

Frankie Townsend, the best 5'6' player that ever lived was always there.  We would play there for a coupl of hours and then we would take 5 guys in my car, and start to make the rounds, at 135th Street, at "The Pit" at 147th and 7th Avenue, and usually "Battleground", up on Amsterdam Avenue and 156th St.  We would play all day and drink cokes and have flavored ices from the vendors with their pushcarts, where ever.

The first year in Ruckers, I was put on a team run by a guy named Foothead.  They called him that because his head was shaped like a foot.  Holcombe Rucker was alive then and he put me on the team.  He was nothing more than a parkee.  He worked for the City Recreational Department running a park at the projects at 127th St. and 7th Avenue.

They had several Divisions within the tournament.  I played in the College Division.  In the Pro Division, a number of NBA stars played, and it was there that I got my first glimpse of Wilt Chamberlin live.  It was amazin watching him.  He was so big, he would not block shots, so much as just go up and catch them in mid air.  Also got to see Jackie Jackson, the 6'4" leaper from Virginia Union, a black school in Virginia.  He could be the highest jumping player I have ever seen.  They say he could take a silver dollar off the top of the backboard.  Man he could jump.

The next year, I put my own team in the Ruckers Tournament College Division, as both a player and coach,  We won it both years only to be beaten in the playoffs each year.  I also put teams in the well regarded Tournament held at Hickey Field in Rockville Center, Long Island.  Played against Billy Donovan's father for years at Hickey Field.  Averaged 15 ppg at Boston College with a two hand jumper from behind his head.  he was a terrific shooter and a super guy.  What a job his son has done at Florida.  The only year we won the Championship of the big tournament at Hickey Field, Larry Brown was my starting point guard.  

They were great times and great memories.  In Ohio, after my senior year, the biggest AAU Tournament of the Year was held annually at Sebring, Ohio.  I always played and coached on all s in those days.  We had terrific teams and it was great fun.  We won the Wheeling Tournament in West Virginia.  In the finals we beat a team made up of mostly former players from the University of West Virginia.  West Virginia was a top program in those days.  Jerry West, to mention just one, played at WVU.  I still have that team trophy in my living room and its gigantic.  

We lost in the first round of the Sistersville West Virginia Tournament and got the trophy as the Best Team to lose in the first round.  The other team flew in Howard Komives, the leading scorer in the country from Bowling Green, who later played 10 years in the NBA.  I guarded him.  I scored 19 points and held Komives to 48.

For Sebring, I brought in two top flight guards.  Tal Brody, 6'2" All Big Ten from Illinois and a 2nd round NBA draft choice was one guard.  The other guard was Charlie Coles 6'1", then the All Conference guard at Miami of Ohio and now the Head Coach of Miami, and a member of their Basketball Hall of Fame.

The rest of the starters were 6'7" All Conference Charlie Dinkins, also of Miami of Ohio, Jim Doughty 6'4" forward and Captain of the Ohio State Buckeyes, and Barry Clemens, 6'8" shooter deluxe, from Ohio Wesleyan, who went on to a 10 year career in the NBA.  I was the backup guard as well as the head coach.  It was quite a team.  We did well and lost in the semi finals to an excellent AAU team called Joe's All Stars of Akron.

Tal Brody was drafted in the 2nd round of the NBA, but chose to play in Israel for world famous Macabi Tel Aviv.  He became the best player to ever play in Israel.  He played his whole career there.  He met and married an Israeli gal and still lives there and is the most revered former athlete in Israel today.

The game:

Miami of Ohio has been to the NCAA tournament the last five years.  The year they had Wally Szerbiak, now a star with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami went to the NCAA Regional Sweet 16.  Its a well regarded program and Charley Coles is though of as not only a terrific coach, but an even better person.

We almost lost Charlie several years ago, when he collapsed on the court during a game.  Charlie suffered respiratory failure and was taken by ambulance to the hospital, whee he underwent open heart surgery.  His health is back and he is doing just great.

Miami was a very athletic team.  They were trying to bring along a first year point guard Julian Johnson, who was Ohio High School player of the Year, but who had had to sit out the previous year as a prop 48.  At half time we trailed by 8 points.  However, we played an unbelievable 2nd half.  Shot 66% for the half and had Drew Cooper come off the bench to score 26 points and hit 5 straight threes in the second half to almost single handily beat the redskins.  We actually led by 17 points with 4 minutes to go, and had to hang on to win by 10.

Drew Cooper :

Drew got to play such an important role because his dad drove over from Louisville, to see the game.  drew had told me his dad was coming to the game and that his dad had only seen him play twice in 4 years of college at Assumption.   Drew had been averaging about 14 minutes per game and struggling to find a niche with us.

He had averaged 18 points per game for Assumption, which was remarkable itself, in that he had not played at all in high school.  His high school coach, whom he is now close to, cut him from the team, in tryouts.  However, he attended a Blue Chip Showcase in spring of his senior year and caught the eye of some talent scouts, and they recommended him to the coached at Assumption.  They flew him to campus in Worcester, Massachusetts, worked him out, and offered him a scholarship.  Drew not only had a good career in college, but had averaged 40 points per game in Germany, playing professionally in their Division II, last winter.

Anyway, I moved Drew up in the rotation ahead of Matt Lange, to give him a meaningful shot of playing time, with his dad and 8 other friends from Louisville in attendance.  Low and behold, he came of the bench and hit a couple of shots in the first half.  In the second half, with about 16 minutes to go, still trailing by about 10, I sat our leading scorer Matt Watts, who was struggling defensively, and brought in Drew, and he just caught fire.  Drew Cooper had 20 points in the second half alone.  Everything we did just fell into place and we put together close to a perfect half to beat a very good team.  It was a very satisfying night and every player got a $25 bonus and Coach Gottlieb bought the entire team dinner. (Normally every player is paid $125/game plus per diem)

Matt Langel:

Unfortunately, Matt Langel, a 6'4" shooting guard from Penn, only got to play 6 minutes.  He had been averaging about 24 minutes per game, but with Drew and the team playing so well, Matt just did not get significant minutes for the first time.  that night, Matt came to me in a very nice respectful way and told me he had decided to go home.  We all tried to convince him to stay, but he had his mind made up.  He was a solid player who was a terrific shooter.  He had been a starter at Penn for most of his career.  For us, he had been a starter from Day one, but though he had not played poorly, he was not productive, in the sense that he would play 24 minutes, and get or take only 4 shots.  I was very disappointed he decided to leave as he was a first class young man and a fine player.  We all tried to change his mind to no avail[.  That left us with just 7 players for the final 3 games.

Game # 7 Lamar

Background:

Lamar is coached by Mike Dean.  Mike came to Lamar two years ago from Marquette where he had enjoyed tremendous success.  Originally Mike had coached with great success at Siena when he was brought in to revitalize the once proud Marquette Warrior program.  I coached at as the Head Coach at UWM (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee) 1975-1980 during Marquette's heyday under the legendary Al McGuire.  They won the NCAA Championship during my tenure at UWM.  more than that, Marquette was a top 5 program every year for about 10 years under Al McGuire, playing before 84 consecutive sellouts at the Milwaukee Arena.  That was before the beautiful Bradley Center was built where both Marquette and the Milwaukee Bucks now play.

Rick Majerus was just a young second assistant on the staff, in those days.  He was always well liked and well thought of, but in a different way.  His dad, who has since passed away, was the most powerful labor leader in the state.  Rick was a walk on at Marquette as a player.  He never really played much, but he was a student of the game and Al subsequently hired him as a young coach for his staff.  Long time trusted aide Hank Raymonds was the top assistant.  Both later became a head coach at Marquette.

Al McGuire was one of a kind.  They threw away the mold when he retired.  He was the street smart New York City kid who was the younger brother of Dick McGuire.  They both played at St. Johns.  Whereas Dick was an outstanding playmaker who not only played in the NBA for over 10 years, but was one of the top point guards in the league for many years.  He later became the Head Coach of the Knicks for several years and is still employed by them as a college scout.

Though the brothers were extremely close, they were as different as night is from day.  Whereas Dick was a quiet almost painfully shy personality, Al was a tough, brash, wise cracking Irish New Yorker, with limited basketball skills.  However, he was street smart and tough as nails and he carved out a decent NBA career as a defensive stopper and moved on to become one of the all time great college coaches and the most popular sports personality to ever work the city of Milwaukee.  When he retired, he would have won the Governorship hands down, if he had chosen to go into politics.  He was also one of the most incredible men I have met in my lifetime.

When I got the Head job at UWM, I asked for a meeting with Al.  I asked his advice and he could not have been more gracious.  He was incredible, unique, personable, incredibly sharp in how he could cut to the chase.  He understood what was really important and did not get bogged down in the day to day stuff.

He scheduled brilliantly.  He would open with about 8 straight home games, of which 5 or 6 were bunnies or sure wins.  One year he played 14 home games before he ever went out on the road.  This gave his team a chance to gain the kind of self confidence and cohesiveness it need to go out on the road, in a total hostile environment of 15,000 crazies, and still play with the poise and confidence it took to win under those circumstances.

In those days the NCAA bids would come out on March 1.  He would take two of his toughest road games and schedule them on March 3 and 5, after the bids came out.  He was the last coach to actually turn down an NCAA Tournament bid, because he was unhappy with the seeding they proposed for Marquette.  Instead he accepted an NIT bid and brought the Warriors to Madison Square Garden, which was also home for him, and won the NIT.

If you can believe it, he hardly coached at practice.  Hank Raymonds ran his practices.  Sometimes, he would not even attend practice.  His final year before he retired, and the year they won the NCAA Tournament, he only attended 17 practices the entire year.  As a matter of fact, they left for the Final Four in Atlanta, he did not attend their final practice in Milwaukee.  I know that for a fact because I was on the same plane as Al McGuire to Atlanta to the Final Four that morning.

Come game time, however, there was no question who the boss was.  They were super well coached in every respect.  hank Raymonds had them prepared and Al was the best game coach in America.  He had that fell that all the outstanding coaches have to have.  His teams were tremendous defensively, not only in the half court, but their overall athleticism tore up most opponents with a withering full court press.  Offensively, they were sort of plain Vanilla, but they beat you to death on the offensive boards and had super talent.  Al McGuire was the best Head Coaching Recruiter of his time.  

Al owned New York City from a recruiting standpoint, his last ten years or so.  From the great point guard Butch Lee to Bernard Toone he got any one he wanted.  He also dominated Chicago.  Bo Ellis, now the haed Coach at Chicago State, was the #1 player in the USA.  Mothers just loved Al.  Once Al came into the home and went into the kitchen with his mom, Bo never had a chance.  Doc Rivers, now the Head Coach of the Orlando Magic, was another great one he lured to Marquette as was Maurice Lucas, who went on to a tremendous NBA career.

Al told me, don't get involved with the players personal problems.  Its a waste of time.  When a kid comes in and asks for an appointment to see him because he has some problems, he says fine.  I will see you in my office at 7 am.  Al says, the kids not going to show, and neither am I.  Now if he shows, then you know he has a serious problem and I will set another appointment.  How is that for upside down logic.  Its a street way of looking at things, but brilliant in his analysis of what is really important and what is really a waste of his time.

Al McGuire was a man's man.  He had a core of very close friends behind the program and in the community.  In later years, Rick Majerus became like another son to him and I am sure Al could not be more proud of Rick and his great success at Utah.

Hank Raymonds took over after Al retired and the program continued to be successful, program no longer had Al's personal charisma.  Rick took over most of the recruiting and though they continued to recruit well, the day of defining the best player in the country and and automatically signing him were over.  There was only one Al McGuire.  Eventually Hank retired.  Its been a long time and I do not remember the sequence of coaches but eventually Rick was brought back to be the Head Coach after very successful coaching stops 

Rick did not have an easy time at Marquette as the Head Coach primarily because he got crossways with the media.  When you are young, that is easy to do, as I did at Jacksonville.  When your team is not playing well and they write things that tick you off, even if they are totally wrong or unfair, its crucial that you ignore it and treat them with respect.  They have the pen and if you tell them what you really think of what they wrote, they will not forgive you and it will color every thing they ever write about you.  A coach must be above it,  Smile and handle it professionally and with aplomb, so to speak.  Let your team and it s play, speak for itself.  As they begin to jell and have some success, the press will acknowledge it and give you the credit.  If you do not handle it this way, no matter how well the team plays, they will never give you credit and they will make your life miserable.

Rick eventually tired of the battle and resigned and took an assistant coaching job with his close friend Don Nelson, then Caoch of the Milwaukee Bucks.  Rick eventually got back into college coaching and has become one of the top 5 coaches in the USA and a certain Hall of Famer some day.

At some point, Kevin O'Neil was brought in to be the head coach at Marquette.  he had been a terrific recruiter at Arizona for Lute Olson, and he began to recruit quite well at Marquette.  However, he left for Tennessee as soon as he began to have some meaningful success on the court and Mike Dean was brought in from Siena.  Mike had a terrific run at Marquette.  They once again became a Conference USA power, and they gave the best teams in that conference, Cincinnati and Louisville fits, every year.  I think they swept Bob Huggins and the Bearcats one year. 

Mike Dean came very close to recruiting our son Doug.  Mike and Doug bonded extremely strongly during the recruiting process.  Mike went out of his way to make Doug feel that not only could he help Marquette win, but that Mike would do everything in his power to help Doug realize his dreams as a player.  It was a very difficult decision for Doug and it went down to the wire between Marquette and Oklahoma State.  

Mike Dean came out to not only watch Doug at BWBA, but came into our home for an official visit.  On his way home he wrote a beautiful 6 page hand written letter that touched not only Doug but Jane and I both.  Doug made an official visit to Marquette and liked it a great deal.  It became a very difficult decision and right up until the day Doug signed, I could not have told which way he would go.

Eddie Sutton invited Doug for an official visit to Stillwater and Doug loved everything he saw there.  It became a very difficult decision and we left it up to Doug.  Doug felt Marquette had an excellent program, however, OSU had several super freshman in Desmond Mason and Joe Atkins and a big time soph in Adrian Peterson and they would be there with Doug.  He thought they had a real chance for national honors.  He knew the respect I had for Eddie Sutton as a coach and his credentials speak for themselves.

In the end, he opted for OSU and in most ways, it was an excellent choice.  Mike Dean and Marquette would have been an equally excellent choice.  Mike Dean is a special kind of guy.   He is genuinely a terrific person, a man's man kind of guy..  To this day, we are friends.  Even though Doug committed to OSU, he still considered our other son Greg for a position on his staff, which not very many coaches would have done.  He was one of the first to schedule BWBA for an exhibition game and we have had a wonderful competition and experience playing Lamar, each of the last two years.  We have played them tough, but have not beaten Mike yet.  After the game we always join him for dinner at his favorite Italian Restaurant in Beaumont, and Mike picks up the tab for everyone. his whole staff included.  I was real pleased when one of the best athletes I was representing two years ago, Ben Jacobson, a 6'7' forward from Omaha,  chose to sign with Mike Dean at Lamar.

The Game:  

Lamar opened in a full court press and played a Paul Westhead all out fast breaking type of game.  It was racehorse basketball. end to end.  It was our 3rd game in 3 nights in 3 different parts of the country and 6th game in 9 days,  Even though we played a superb 1st. half and led 53-49 at halftime, it was fool's gold.  Eventually the pace of the game wore us down.  At the start of the second half, we came out flat and Lamar's Head Coach Mike Dean, came off his full court press and began mixing up his half court defenses.  They still pushed the ball on both made and missed field goals.  The tempo and the mixing defenses got us out of any offensive rhythm.  We hung in there and fought the entire way but lost 107-104.  Matt Watt, our leading scorer for the trip had 38 points to lead the way.

Matt Watt  

Matt is a 6'3" off guard with a tremendous amount of offensive talent.  he played at San Diego State some 4 years ago and led the Aztecs in scoring, averaging 19 ppg.  Mostly a slasher in college, Matt has improved his outside shooting greatly and is now a first rate jump shooter form most anywhere on the court.  he has NBA 3 point range and can put it on the floor and get his own shot as well.  He is wiry but athletic and explosive.  Matt has played professionally in Mexico for a few years.  

Game # 8 Rice

Background:

Rice is a beautiful campus located in Houston, Texas.  It is a very high academic school, one of the very best in the Southwestern part of the USA, much the way Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Duke are in their respective parts of the country.  For the first and only time on the trip, we did not have to fly to the game, as Lamar was only about a 90 minute drive up the road in Beaumont.

Marty Gross is the lead assistant at Rice and he has been at Rice for 12 years.  Marty and I go back some 29 years.  Originally, I met Marty Gross when he came to Basketball Camp at Kansas State the summer between his junior and senior year in high school.  Marty lived in Yangton, South Dakota and I was the Assistant Coach at K-State.  That summer at camp, Marty was the starting point guard on the team in camp that I was assigned to coach.  He played very well.   

The next spring, when I became the Head Coach at Jacksonville University, in Florida, I remembered Marty and offered him a scholarship to JU and Marty accepted.  Marty was always a great kid and a very talented player.  He subsequently graduated JU and later served JU as an assistant coach for over 10 years, under several different head coaches.

Over the years, we have stayed in touch and our playing Rice, was a great chance to spend some quality time with Marty.   Marty was one of the most eligible bachelors in Houston till a few years ago.  Though they do not have children, they have a wonderful home.  Marty's wife was back home in Beaumont with her family for the weekend so I never got to meet her. However, I was able to spend some time at his house Saturday night, after Marty and I has some Gulf Coast Oysters and Catfish at one of  the best seafood restaurants in that part of town.

The Game:

Rice was the only game where the total pace of 8 games in 12 days showed badly.  We were a tired team and just did not have it, right from the start of the game.  Rice was a very well coached team, and they took it to us defensively, and we struggled at the point guard position handling their full court one on one pressure, and then could not make an open jumper, a layup or a foul shot.  In short, we just did not have it physically.  we fell behind by 25 points in the first half.  the second half, we played much better and fought back, but we were never really in this game form start to finish.

Game # 9 Arkansas State

Background:

Arkansas State is located in Jonesboro, Arkansas.  They play in a first rate coliseum that seats about 8,000 people.  When I was the Head Coach at UWM in the seventies, we played Arkansas State and beat them in Milwaukee.  This is the second consecutive year we played them on the exhibition circuit.  A year ago, we led by 5 minutes to go and got a couple of real bad calls and lost our momentum, and dropped a close game.

Arkansas State is coached by Dennis Nutt.  Dennis is about as classy an individual as there is in coaching.  He is from the most famous family of  coaches in the Southwest.  One of his brothers Dickie Nutt is the Head Basketball Coach at Southwest Texas and his other brother is the Head Football Coach at Arkansas.  Their dad was a well regarded football coach at the Arkansas School of the Deaf.

Assistant Coach Charlie Finsky and I have known each on the recruiting trails for over 20 years.  He was close friends with one of my assistants at UWM, Irv Leifer, now the Head Basketball Coach at Santa Paula H.S. outside of San Diego, CA..  The game was scheduled through my relationship with Charlie.

The Game:

A year ago, Arkansas State was in a rebuilding mode, trying to assimilate 9 new players into the program.  This year they had most of their key players back and it was very evident in how much better they executed everything they did, at both ends of the court.  Arkansas State has a 7'0" senior who started as a freshman at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, but for whatever the reason, transferred to Arkansas State and he is really good.  I will be surprised if he does not make the NBA.  He is a first rate shooter is the low post and out to the short corner.  He has added a spin move in the low post and he is a very good shot blocker.

We struggle early on, but got a surprisingly strong contribution from Keyon Smith.  Keyon came off the bench and scored 9 points in the first half and put us right back in the hunt, but their pressure bothered us at the point and they had excellent depth and won the game going away.

Keyon Smith

Keyon is a 6'3' wing from the University of Hartford.  He averaged 13 ppg as a senior on a team that struggled under a new coach trying to rebuild.  Keyon's dad is a very successful and well respected high school coach in Connecticut.  He also coached an AAU team for many years and Edmund Saunders, Durelle Brown and Keyon, were all good friends and had played with and against each other on the AAU circuit since they were in 8th grade.

Keyon is a wonderful kid.  I enjoyed having him a part of the team very much as I enjoyed his company and his personal warmth.  On the court he struggles mightily.  It seemed like it was a case of him trying too hard to show what he could do, instead of just letting the game come to him.  Consequently it was hard to justify meaningful minutes for him.  The team never seemed to jell when he was on the floor.

Off the floor, Keyon had a kind of innocence, and he took a unmerciful verbal joshing from everyone on the team including me.  His temperament remained playful and warm, though he probably could have kicked th stuffings out of any two or three of us at one time.  He was naturally a very powerfully built athlete and he did have talent.  

He wanted to play so badly, but he just could not seem to go out there and play without getting the ball stripped, or driving into a crowd and forcing up a bad shot.  Finally, in the Arkansas State game, we were down about 15 points in the first half and not playing real well, and I just though, what the hell, he deserves to pay some, so I put him in there and would you believe it, he scored 9 points in the first half and led us beck to tie the ball game in the first half.  I should have started him the second half, but chose to go back to our starters, and it was probably a mistake.

Was Keyon, finally settling down.  If we had another 8 games, would he have begun to be a consistent contributor.  There is no question, his play would have merited increased playing time if we had another game.  Keyo is quite a young man.  Great attitude, fun to be with and someone who will be a success in life, even if its not the NBA.

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Thursday, October 25

Doug Gottlieb signs to play in Israel

Rather than wait on some maybes with the ABA 2000. the new CBA or the NBDL, Doug accepted an offer of a solid financial package to play for Maccabi Raa'nana in suburban Tel Aviv.  The team finished 5th in the well respected Israeli Professional League, 1st. Division, and also competes in the best league in Europe, called the Euro League.

Most foreign teams compete in at least two leagues.  Normally they will play one game/week in their own national league during the week, and a second game each weekend, in an international league. 

Maccabi Tel Aviv has always been one of the elite teams in the Euro League, and last spring won the Euro Leage Championship, which is equivalent to the Championship of all of Europe.  However last week, they were upset by an excellent team from Poland.  This was an incredible win as no team from Poland has ever beaten Maccabi Tel Aviv, or probably any other high quality European Team.

All teams in Europe are allowed 2 foreigners.  However, Doug will compete as an Israeli and become what is known as a Boseman Player.  This means that he will have an Israeli passport, which he is entitled to, since he is Jewish and living and working in Israel.

Americans of Italian descent, normally can become an Italian Boseman.  This is true of any athletes who are of descent of a particular country.  What this means is if a team hires a Boseman player of any kind, they can compete with 3 foreigners, in essence, since the Boseman player does not count as a foreigner.  Since Americans normally are the best players, this is a tremendous competitive advantage and makes the Boseman player that much more valuable.  Normally it means a much bigger contract, than he would normally command.

Doug's mom Jane and I were not really in favor of his going to Israel to play, at this particular time, for obvious reasons.  He agonized over the decision, and asked our advice.  We told him it was a very difficult decision, and there was no right or wrong decision.  We emphasized it was his decision, and that we would support him either way.

His 4 hour Sports Talk Show on the #1 radio station in Oklahoma (The Sports Animal) was a huge success and the Program Director told him he had a job any time he wanted.  he also filled in for Todd Wright in Bristol, CT for two nights on his Late at Night 4 hour show on ESPN Radio, while Todd was on a mini vacation.

As a new Boseman, he has to wait until until Nov. 14th, before he is eligible, under Israeli League Rules.  He has been practicing for 10 days with the team, and feels they seem quite pleased with him and he is looking forward to getting back in the saddle.

This past summer, he led the Team USA to the Maccabiah Games "Gold Medal", and after hitting 7 three pointers in the last two games, was voted  MVP of the entire Tournament.  Team USA trailed Team Israel by 9 points at halftime of the Gold Medal game, but Doug led the charge back, and hit two huge three pointers in the 2nd half and flawlessly led the team to the big win.  

He played for Herb Brown, older brother of Philadelphia 76er Coach Larry Brown.  Herb is a former NBA Head Coach, and was recently named to Maurice Cheeks' new staff, as an Assistant Coach with the Portland Trailblazers.

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Wednesday October 24

BWBA Exhibition Team Fall 2001

Bob Gottlieb has worked his tail off to put together a highly competitive College Exhibition Team.  There was nothing easy about as so many of the quality players that are not in the NBA are playing in Europe or overseas.  Many of the others have been invited to camp by the new CBA or the NBA sponsored National Development League (NBDL).  These are the top minor leagues in USA Professional Basketball.  The ABA 2000 will start its second season Dec. 26, so its a little premature for them.

Of the players left, there are a great many other exhibition teams that compete for the remaining pool of players.  We pay the players $125/game and will play an 8 game schedule, plus all expenses.

Schedule

Nov. 1             Loyola of Chicago

Nov. 3            Mississippi State

Nov. 5            Northern Arizona

Nov. 7            Wisconsin at Green Bay

Nov. 8            Miami of Ohio

Nov. 9            Lamar

Nov. 11          Rice

Nov. 12          Arkansas State

Our players come from all over.  Last year we had mostly players from the Midwest, however this year, a significant number of our team will come from the Northeast.

BWBA Exhibition Team Fall 20001 Roster

Edmund Saunders          6'8"     power forward     UCONN               averaged 11 ppg and 7 rebs/g

Durelle  Brown                6'9"     center                   Manhattan          averaged 19 ppg and 5 rebs/g

Matt Langel                   6'5"      wing                     Penn                     4 yr starter/scored 1200 pts

Clive Bentick                  6'2"      point guard         Canisius              averaged 15 ppg/3rd team all league

Keyon Smith                  6'3"      wing                     Hartford              averaged 13 ppg

Ron Bruton                    6'6"      power forward    S.W. Missouri   averaged 8 ppg and 8 rebs/all conf. def.

Kamran Sufi                  5'10"    point guard         St. Marys             led league in steals and assists

Matt Watt                     6'3"     wing                      San Diego State  averaged 19 ppg his senior year

Drew Cooper                6'5"      3/4 combo            Assumption        averaged 18 ppg/he is a scorer

Seven of the players flew in from the Northeast, Atlanta and Louisville.  Clive Bendick flew out of JFK in New York.  The plane was delayed and when he got to Phoenix, his original connection was gone, so they put him on another flight from Phoenix to Orange County (John Wayne Airport), and he arrived, some 3 hours late.

Our 3 Connecticut kids flew from Hartford to Chicago, and it too was delayed, so when they got to Chicago, they missed their original connection.  They were put on a later flight and arrived several hours late at Orange Count, but there bags did not.

Fortunately, they arrived on the next American flight from Chicago, the next day at 11 am.  It meant we had to move out first practice back several hours, because two of the three had their sneakers in their bags, that missed the flight.

Seems like a good group.  All nine are players and will all play significantly.  We seem to have great team quickness.  The kids seem very bright and picked up the heart of the offense in one practice.  When starting point guard Clive Bentick, suffered a slight foot sprain, on a fast break, when no lone touched him, I ended the practice, right then and there, after 2.5 hours, and wished I had ended in somewhat sooner.  We got ice on it right away and did not let him lace it up tighter and continue to play on it.  That is when the real damage is done.

I also was pleased with the overall practice, and decided to cancel the evening practice.  This would also benefit Clive's foot.  Instead, I introduced the entire team to In and Out Burger for lunch.  For those of you outside of Californian, its the best fast food in California.  Everything is cooked fresh to order and the prices are delightful.  I had a fully loaded hamburger, fries and beverage, for a total of $5.38.  Not too bad.

We too everyone to see "The Last Castle" with Robert Redford.  Its an A+ movie that everyone enjoyed.  Also recommend Denzel Washington's latest, Training Day.  It was griping from start to finish, and also rates an A+ on the BG Movie Ratings.  As an aside, we walked out of Zoolander several weeks ago.  BG Movie Ratings of D-.

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Wednesday October 17

Eddie Sutton (son Sean) and Jerry Tarkanian (son Danny)

What do they have in common other then both are outstanding college coaches who may both be in the Hall of Fame someday?  Both have their sons coaching with them as their first assistant.  Both men hope the programs are in good enough shape when they step out in a few years that Oklahoma State and Fresno State administration will readily embrace their sons to take over.

Both programs appear to be in excellent shape, and both are the likely successors to their highly successful fathers.  Interestingly enough, both Sean Sutton and Danny Tarkanian played for their fathers and were excellent point guards on very god nationally ranked teams, when their dads were coaching Kentucky and UNLV respectively.

Jerry Tarkanian is taking it year by year as to when he will retire.  Eddie Sutton was talking retirement a couple of years ago.  However with several excellent years recruiting, back to back, he seems content to put off retirement talk for the next 5 years or so.

Though John Thompson JR. never coached with his dad.  Instead he choose to serve his apprenticeship at Princeton under Pete Caril and then Bill Carmody.  When Carmody left for Northwestern, Princeton turned to the son of the legendary  Georgetown coach.  

He did a whale of a job last year considering Spencer Gloger, Ivy League Freshman of the Year had transferred form Princeton to UCLA and their best player, 6'9" Young decided to give up basketball and signed a lucrative baseball contract.  Despite that, Princeton still finished atop the Ivy League. John Thompson JR. is now starting his second year as the Head Coach at Princeton.

Rollie Massimino hired his son Tommy at UNLV,  Tommy was a super well liked young assistant, but when dad moved to Cleveland State, young Tommy decided to go into private business.

Tommy Penders JR. coached with his dad at George Washington University till he stepped down a year ago.

Bobby Knight has hired his son Pat Knight as his top assistant at Texas Tech.

Though he has never coached with me, my oldest son Gregg, is a very well thought assistant to Steve Fischer at San Diego State, starting his third year on the staff.  prior to that he was the first assistant and head recruiter for Tommy Abetamarco on his staff at Sacramento State.

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Tuesday October 16

Spencer Gloger update

Reliable sources in the Ivy League (a Head Coach at another school in the  league) told me this week, that he was told by the Princeton coaches, that Spencer packed up and took a plane back to California and will try to get back into UCLA, that it was all a big mistake.  Did he attend classes at Princeton?  If he did, he would have to sit out another year at UCLA.  At least two other sources in Orange County had told me that his younger brother Jeff, who is a freshman at UCI, had told them that Spencer was burnt out on basketball, and just might attend Princeton and go to class, and not play basketball.  Who knows?  Probably not even Spencer.  Its a shame, because he is  a nice kid.  Where is his dad in all this?  Who knows.  Stay tuned.

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Friday October 5

Spencer Gloger leaves UCLA and returns to Princeton

In a most startling twist to the Spencer Gloger saga, Spencer left UCLA and returned to Princeton where he will have to sit out another year, before he can play for the Tigers, under 2nd year Head Coach John Thompson Jr..  What is really weird, is that Spencer originally committed to Princeton in high school, but then changed his mind and decided to go to UCLA in mid May, but when UCLA got a relatively late commitment from All American forward Jason Kapono, Spencer changed his mind in the middle of the summer and decided to attend Princeton, where he had an outstanding freshman year, averaging 13 ppg, and earning Freshman of the Year honors in the Ivy League.

Then in the subsequent summer of 2000, he decided to transfer to UCLA after all, only to have to red shirt as a transfer from one D1 school to another.  Now he will have to sit out a second consecutive season, and he will forfeit one full year of eligibility, as all NCAA athletes have only 5 years from when they enter college, to complete their 4 years of eligibility.  

Would you further believe he has since contacted UCLA people and asked to come back, again.

The sad truth is that Spencer is a really nice kid, but his dad is a royal pain in the ass.  I can just see him calling Steve Lavin and wanted to know if Spencer was going to start.  I can just hear John Gloger asking, well how much is he going to play.  I can just hear him trying to tell Steve Lavin, how Spencer is really better than Kapono.

The truth is, Spencer is a very good player and a terrific kid.  If his dad would just shut up and leave Spencer alone, he would have played significantly at UCLA or Princeton.  Kapono will probably leave after this year for the NBA Draft and Spencer would probably eventually be a starter at UCLA.  He certainly would be a starter at Princeton.

Would you believe Spencer played approximately 5 minutes per game as a junior at Santa Margarita H.S.  

Going way back, Spencer's older brother Brad, played for BWBA in the summer going into his senior year.  At my urging, Head Coach Armand Hill of Columbia University came out to look at Brad, and fell in love with him and recruited him successfully.  Brad was an extremely smart, tough small forward at 6'5", who was a very solid prospect, with excellent grades.  His dad drove the financial aid people a little nuts.  Armand Hill was a first year coach and he wanted Brad badly, and the school wanted to please their new young coach.  In the end they hammered out a financial aid deal that was satisfactory to both sides.

Would you believe Brad Gloger developed an assortment  of serious leg injuries that required several surgeries and never played for Columbia.

Nevertheless, John Gloger was very appreciative of my assistance, and he enrolled both of his younger sons in the Branch West Basketball Academy.  At that time, Spencer was going into 10th grade, and Jeff Gloger was to be in 8th grade.  Spencer was a big 6'2" wing in those days, and Jeff was real small for his age, but like Brad, they had excellent basketball instincts, and were extremely smart players.

Both boys came regularly.  I always thought back then, that Jeff had the potential to be the best of them.  John Gloger, to his credit, always thought that Spencer would be better than Brad.  Spencer was on the varsity at Santa Margarita that year as a sophomore, but hardly ever played.

Santa Margarita has an outstanding program and head Coach Jerry DeBusk is one of the top high school coaches in Southern California.  His philosophy is to keep the young players who show potential as starters in the future, with the varsity, even though they rarely get to play, as opposed to letting them pay with the JV and get that playing experience.

While he sat on the varsity bench, he came to BWBA every Sunday religiously, as did younger brother Jeff.  Gradually Spencer began to improve.  He improved his shooting, his range, his ability to drive and finish, and learned spacing and moving and playing without the ball.  By the spring, he was ready to play for BWBA in AAU tournaments and did well.  Collecting money from his dad was always an adventure, but as he liked to say, in the end, he always paid.

Being aware that having two boys in the program was quite costly, I always allowed the 2nd child of a family to pay half the monthly fees.  John Gloger of course had his own ideas.  The next fall, he proposed to pay for one boy's monthly fees, and have each son attend our Sunday workouts twice a month, or in essence share one membership.  I turned that down.

Spencer came every Sunday for the most part, and by now he was almost 6'5" and would have started at most schools, but Santa Margarita was loaded and Spencer played behind some seniors.  That he did not start was understandable, but that he only played 5 minutes per game was hard to understand.  nevertheless, he continued to improve under my guidance and by spring, he was ready to play for BWBA's #1 showcase team.

Every year for the last 10 years, most everyone on BWBA #1 has signed a D1 scholarship.  His dad kept me on the phone for hours and constantly badgered me with was he going to start, and how much was he going to play.  Spencer played with us all spring and had a real good spring.  He played behind two very good players in Nate Hair who signed at USC and Mike Stowell, who signed at Utah State.  But Spencer played a great deal and definitely showed signs of being an excellent Ivy League prospect. 

I contacted all the Ivy League schools including Princeton, and Davidson and a good many other high academic D1 programs and they were all looking forward to seeing him pay in Las Vegas at the adidas Big Time Tournament.  His dad was aware of DeBusk's policy of keeping all of his kids together, in the summer, rather than allowing them to pay with AAU teams.  He was aware of how this had hurt some of their excellent players in the past like Dennis Keane.  Coach DeBusk has since changed and allowed his top players to play for AAU teams, even in Las Vegas, in recent years.

However, at that time, he insisted they play all summer with the high school team.  John Gloger kept saying that Spencer would play with BWBA.  I told him, he needed to sit down with Coach DeBusk and work it out or it was not going to happen.  John kept putting it off, so I really was not counting on Spencer.  Finally John called to say he had worked it out and Coach DeBusk had agreed to allow Spencer to play with both BWBA and Santa Margarita in the adidas Big Time Tournament.  That was not what I had in mind, but reluctantly I agreed.

We get to Las Vegas, and the first game, we had a big win and Spencer played very well.  That night his dad called to say that the next day there was a conflict.   BWBA and Santa Margarita were scheduled to play at back to back times, and his dad felt that would be too much, so Spencer would not be playing with BWBA that day.

I told his dad, John, if Spencer does not play with us tomorrow, then he is through with BWBA for the rest of the tournament.  He did not play with us the next day and he was dropped from the team for the balance of the competition.  Spencer had an excellent tournament with his high school tea.  He was now a senior and a full time starter and all the Ivy Leagues and teams like Davidson and Richmond began recruiting him hard.

Spencer continued to grow and by the time December rolled around, he was pushing 6'7".  Now with all the skills of an off guard, he was now a big wing, and he proceeded to have a monster senior year.  He committed to Princeton, but the father drove all the coaches nuts in the process.  Princeton and the Ivy League do not honor the National Letter of Intent.  Consequently, schools like Oregon and UCLA now were starting to recruit him  

Spencer averaged over 23 ppg and was chosen Orange County Player of the Year.  In the big full page writeup of Spencer, there was not one word of the role Bob Gottlieb and Branch West Basketball Academy played in his development.  His dad called and wanted Jeff Gloger to play for BWBA that spring.  he told me he was planning to move Jeff to Capistrano Valley H.S., so there would be no problem with Coach DeBusk allowing Jeff to play with us in the summer.

I turned John down and told him if there is so little appreciation for the extensive role I played in Spencer becoming so very special, then I had no interest in working with Jeff.  John was relentless.  He refused to take no for an answer.  At least twice, he would not let me off the phone to the point where I just hung up on him, and I never hang up on anyone.  I had enough of John  Gloger.   Now John can drive Steve Lavin and John Thompson nuts..

Youngest brother Jeff did transfer to Capistrano Valley H.S., where he played off the bench till his senior year.  he too was a late grower.  Now almost 6'5", he became a good solid combo guard and nowis a freshman on full scholarship at UCI (University of California at Irvine).

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Wednesday, Oct. 3

Matt Jameson  6'2' point guard of Miami (Ohio) update

Matt was one of Bob Gottlieb's first clients.  Matt was a 4 year starter at point guard for Newport Beach Harbor H.S. in Orange County, California.  He averaged 17 ppg and 7 assists/g as a senior but as of graduation day in June of his senior year, he had no scholarship offers, and was planning to attend Tulane University in New Orleans, and try to walk on the basketball team.

I had met his parents briefly, the previous December, at a high school basketball tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center.  We talked about my services, but at that time did not appear overly interested.  In June, I called his dad, and asked what Matt had decided to do, and when he indicated that he thought Matt would try to walk on at Tulane, I asked If I could stop by the house and talk to the family.

We met and talked, and they decided to retain my services.  We put together a tape of portions of some of his best high school games, and began to fell out coaches as to who might still be looking for a point guard this late.  Surprisingly, we found a handful of D1 programs that still had a scholarship available, and would consider a point guard.  Films were sent.  Most everyone liked him but wanted to see him live.  So Matt decided to play in Las Vegas with BWBA at the adidas Big Time.

He played in our backcourt next to Jason Erickson, from Anchorage, Alaska, another very fine combo guard, who would subsequently turn down San Diego State, Santa Clara and a number of others to sign with Montana State. Matt Jameson had a very fine tournament.  Princeton saw every gam