Monday, August 13

Tom Amberry   The 7 Steps to Success in Free Throw Shooting

Tom Aberry is a friend of Bob Gottlieb and BWBA.  At the age of 71, Tom Asberry  broke the world record by making 2750 free throws in a row, and quit only because a game was about to start.  Tom is a retired podiatrist (his business card is in the shape of a foot) who lives in Seal Beach, CA.  In the early days of BWBA, Tom came every Sunday night to work with our athletes, on a side court, whiledrills were being conducted on the main court.

He has appeared on the Jay Leno Show to demonstrate his expertise, and also frequently appears at local tournaments to put on a half time display of his skills.  He never fails to amaze.  He will go out there in front of a packed house, and slip in an easy 50 in a row, without breaking a sweat.  NBA teams have brought him in to work with their payers and he has lectured at Michael Jordan's Camp in Santa Barbara.

Tom Amberry incorporates the physical and psychological aspects of free throw shooting, fully aware of that pressure plays into the process.  He emphasizes developing a routine, and doing the same thing every time, is essential.  

Here is Tom Amberry's 7 steps:

1.  Feet square to the basket.

2.  Bounce the ball 3 times with the inflation hole up.

3.  Put your thumb in the channel (grove), your third finger pointing at the inflation hole.  Use same grip every time.

4.  Elbow in.

5.  Bend your knees.  The depth of the bend controls the distance.

6.  Eyes on the target.  Not the front rim, not the back rim, but the middle of the basket, using the full 18 inches          for the 9 inch ball.

7.  Shoot and follow through. 

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Sunday August 12

The Clint Newsom Recruiting Miracle

Clint is from Enid, Oklahoma, the same town that produced Mark and Brent Price.  Enid is a good sized small city in Western Oklahoma and home to Phillips University.  Clint was a 6'1" off guard who graduated from Enid H.S. two years ago.  he averaged 18 ppg on a good team, but had no scholarship offers, so he enrolled at Oklahoma State as a regular student.

At that level, they really do not have tryouts for the team.  All NCAA D1 schools have a maximum 13 players on scholarship and usually they will carry several walk-ons as practice players.  Usually, these walk-ons are either recruited or worked it out with the coaching staff prior to the start of the school year.

Clint did not really know anyone on the staff at OSU, and though he really wanted to play in college, he simply had to start college like thousands of other former high school athletes and forgo his dream of playing college basketball.

However, this spring, while home on vacation, he ran into one of his friends in Enid, Landon Ray.  Landon had just finished his senior year at Chisholm H.S. outside of Enid, but they knew each other because Landon had originally attended Enid H.S. but transferred to Chisholm his junior year.

Landon told him what Bob Gottlieb's BWBA Recruiting Assistance Service was doing for him.  His dad had retained Coach Gottlieb, and Landon had over a dozen schools very interested in recruiting him.  Clint had now grown 2 inches since high school and was now a full 6'3" and really missed playing.  Landon suggested Clint have his dad call Bob Gottlieb and see if he would be interested in taking on helping Clint, even though he had not played in two years.

Landon, by the way, ultimately signed at Cal Lutheran, a very good NCAA D3 program in Thousand Oaks, CA.  Landon was not only a very good 6'3" off guard, but he was a 4.0 gpa student.  Though they cannot give athletic scholarships, Cal Lutheran wanted him badly enough, that he was granted approximately $25,000 in academic scholarship, out of a total cost of $28,000, so his dad only has to pay approximately $3,000/yr.  This will save his dad over $1000,000 over the next 4 years.

Using his high school films to show college coaches, Coach Gottlieb began to call around to coaches all over the country, at the NCAA D3 and NAIA D1 levels.  A number of coaches began to show a sincere interest, especially Art Wilmore, Head Coach of Christian Heritage, a very fine NAIA program in beautiful San Diego, that went to the NAIA Final Four in Tulsa, this past spring.

He liked the film of Clint, as a 6'1" high school senior and decided he would make Clint a priority.  Other schools began to also show quite an interest.  However, Coach Wilmore was set to run a basketball camp in San Antonio and he invited Clint to work the camp.  This would give them both a chance to get to know each other and for Wilmore to see Clint play in person.  Wilmore had one of his starters also working at the camp, and he was voted the team's best defender.  Clint just tore him up in the counselor games at night.  Coach Wilmore was impressed to say the least.

He had the Newsom's apply for federal financial aid.  The Newsoms are a middle class family, so its not as if they wee going to qualify for a ton of federal aid, which is based on need.  Wilmore offered Clint a full scholarship.  That is, everything that was not covered by the federal financial need based aid, would be covered by the school by an athletic scholarship and all the family would have to pay would be books.  Clint took a visit to their beautiful campus, loved it and committed the day after he got home and talked to his family.  He will have 4 years eligibility, as the NAIA does not have a 5 year limit to complete 4 years of playing, and his family will save close to $100,000.  What a wonderful story.

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Saturday August 11

Doug Gottlieb     MVP/Gold Medal     Maccabiah Games     Israel

Every Jewish kid in America dreams of playing in the Maccabiah Games, other wise known as the Jewish Olympics.  The USA Basketball Team in the unlimited age division, had always had good teams, but they had never won it.

Leading up to the games, there was much controversy, with all the terrorism running rampant, parents and athletes alike were very concerned about the safety issue,  The games were almost cancelled.  Jane and I had gone 4 years ago to enjoy Israel as tourists and to watch Doug play.

They had a very good team, and were ably coached by Herb Brown.  Though they badly beat Great Britain in the pool play, they were upset by them in the semi finals and had to settle for third place.

This time Larry Shyatt, Clemson's outstanding coach would be the coach, but he resigned, understandably, and the committee asked Herb Brown, if he would coach the team again.  Herb accepted and of course he immediately called Doug.  Doug at that time was waiting to hear whether he would be invited to the Laker summer league team, and he was concerned in his own right about whether it was a good idea or not.

Herb understood and said he would get back to Doug.  When Herb got back to Doug, he said half the team would only go if Doug went.  By then, Doug knew there was a conflict between his Laker schedule and the practices in Philadelphia, and he would have come late on his own and not be able to fly on the team plane with every else.

He told Herb, if Herb could get permission from the committee, he would come to Philadelphia for four days of practice, and then fly to Israel by himself, as soon as his commitment to the Lakers was over.  Herb indicated he would have to run it by the committee.  Herb got back to me and indicated the committee turned him down.  Everyone had to go on the team plane and they could not make an exception.  I asked Herb if he minded if I talked to the head of the committee.  He said feel free to.  He gave me the phone number and I called and we talked for 30 minutes.  

When we finished, he agreed to make the exception for Doug, as long as Doug could be there for the opening ceremonies.  He then called Herb Brown and said, "Do you really want this kid that badly?"  Herb said "absolutely".  As it turned out, even though Doug left 2 days before the Lakers were done with the summer league, he missed both the opening ceremonies and the first game.

Every one, including Herb Brown indicated that Doug played great.  He has always been a big game player.  Not only did he hit 4 three pointers in the semi final game against France, and go 10/14 on the foul line for the tourney, but in the finals against Israel, with the referees making things very difficult, USA trailed by 9 points.  Doug however played a spectacular second half and hit 3 three pointers, several of them huge, and finished with 10 points and 10 assist and brought home the first ever Gold Medal for the USA in that division. 

 In the words of Dave Jacobson, father of Ben Jacobson, the 6'7" forward at Lamar, who was the leading scorer, it was a no brainer that Doug was selected the MVP.  Doug provided the leadership, experience and mental toughness that he has always had.  Herb Brown indicated he was proud of all the kids.  Said they were an absolutely great group to work with.   As parents, Jane and I were so very proud of Doug and happy for the entire team.

Doug has always enjoyed playing for Her Brown.  He is an outstanding coach, formerly the Head Coach of the Detroit Pistons in the NBA.  Actually, the player Doug reminds me of in his style of play, and leadership and toughness, is his brother Larry Brown, when he was a player.  I do not know if Herb would agree with that, but I do feel that way.

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Friday, August 10

Doug Gottlieb with the Lakers

Doug had a terrific experience with the Lakers at the Summer Pro League in Los Angeles played at Cal State Long Beach State's arena "The Pyramid".  The Lakers flew him from Philadelphia where he practiced with the USA Maccabiah Team for 4 days and put everyone up at the Hilton Hotel, around the corner from their offices and workout facility.

Tex Winter had gone to bat strongly for Doug in their staff meetings.  He had seen films of Doug at Oklahoma State where he led the NCAA D1 in assists, and had also seen films of him playing for BWBA at the Pro Summer League the previous summer, and on  the BWBA Exhibition Tour in Fall 2000.  BWBA played  against the likes of Wisconsin, San Diego State and Wichita State, etc. and Tex felt strongly that they ought to bring him in to take a good look at him, especially with the new zone defenses coming in and Doug being such an outstanding passer.

They practiced twice a day for 3 days and began playing.  Unfortunately, they had 3 point guards in camp, one being Mike Pemberthy who had played with the Lakers the entire previous year and Joe Crispin, who just graduated from Penn State.  His younger brother started at Penn State with him last year, but has transferred to UCLA where he will red shirt this coming year.

Jim Cleamons, Lakers assistant was the Head Coach and Frank Hamblin, another full time Lakers assistant assisted Jim and Tex did not sit on the bench, but he attended the practices and sat at the scorer's table, next to the coaches, during the games.

Both Jim and Frank did an outstanding job.  They are not only good coaches, but have great people skills and Doug enjoyed working with both a great deal.  Jim had orders from upper management that they wanted to take a long at Pemberthy as they needed to know if they wanted to offer him a new contract, and if so, for how much and for how long.  Their scouting staff was also high on Crispin, and they wanted to take a long look at him and Doug was to get what was left.

The first game was against the Vancouver team that recently moved to Memphis.  The Lakers played well and Doug got in for just a couple of minutes, but with the game on the line.  He had an outstanding defensive sequence against Will Solomon, the point guard form Clemson, who led the ACC in scoring.  

The game was on the line, with less than two minutes to go and the Lakers leading by 1 point.  Memphis had the ball and they ran Solomon low to come off either a single or double screen, depending on how he read the defense, to catch and shoot a jumper, a la Reggie Miller, and Doug just physically beat him up and was just too strong and too tough minded, and Solomon could not break free to catch the ball.  They were forced to go away from Solomon thought the play was obviously called for him

My wife Jane and I also got a kick out of another sequence, this time on offense, when Doug brought the ball down to initiate the offense and they were over playing Medvedenko, the 6'10" Russian who also played with the Lakers all of last year.  Doug, now fluent in Russian after having lived and played in Russia for 6 months, yelled out to Medvedenko, in Russian, go back door.  He was the only other payer on the floor who understood Russian other than Doug, and sure enough, he went back door and Doug hit him with a beautiful pass which he converted into an easy basket.

The next night they played the Clippers, and they had 3 of their top players on the floor most of the game.  Darius Miles was terrific.  It was easy to see that he will be a superstar in a couple of years.  All he needs is a consistent outside shot.  He is a point forward type, not a power forward.  He is incredibly athletic for someone 6'9".  He just explodes by people in the open floor or in the half court and his finishing shots are a sight to behold.

Quentin Richardson 6'5" forward also played most of the game, and I was not very impressed with him.  Keyon Dooling, the 6'4" point guard played with the Clippers last year, who is well regarded, also played and he gave both Pemberthy and Crispin fits.  Neither is a very good defensive player and Dooling penetrated at will and the Clippers led the entire game, often by as much as 10 points.  Pemberthy turned his ankle in the first half, so Priskin played a great deal.  

Neither Pemberthy nor Crispin pass well, nor are they true point guards, but they are both very good shooters with exceptional range.  The Lakers system, the well known triangle offense does not really require a true point guard.  Doug is a far better defender and playmaker than either of these two, but he is no where the shooter they are, though he is a damn sight better than people realize.

Doug played almost 4 minutes at the end of the second quarter, and did not do anything special, but he did not hurt the team either.  The second half was a different story.  The Clippers had full control of the game and tempo and Dooling was giving Crispin fits.  The Clippers led by 4 with 3 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter when Doug went in and played the next ten consecutive minutes.  He not only totally shut out Dooling, but he hit an NBA 3 pointer and led the team to a comfortable 10 point lead, when he sat down with 3 minutes to go.  You can be assured, Jane and I were very proud of him.

The next night they played Kiev, a professional team from Russia.  Pemberthy did not play, so Crispin started and played 22 minutes and Doug came off the bench and played 25 outstanding minutes.  He finished with 8 points, including another 3 pointer, 7 assists and 1 turnover and had a ball.

The following night, Pemberthy was back and this was Crispin's last night as he was leaving, and Doug never got in the game.  The following morning they had a game at the Lakers practice facility against Jody Gardner's free agent team, and Doug started and played the entire game, and in Jody's words, he never saw Doug play better in his life.  He played well, defended well and shot well.  Two days later, hoping to now get some meaningful minutes, he was called aside by Coach Cleamons and told, upper management brought in another guard named Long and that they wanted to look at him, and that Doug would not be dressing again.  Though Doug was obviously deeply disappointed, he handled it with class and we were very proud of him.  Those games were filmed professionally, and we will in time have those highlights on this website.

So Doug left for Israel, where he already had missed both the opening ceremonies and the first game, but both Coach Herb Brown (Larry Brown's older brother and Philadelphia 76er assistant coach) and the players welcomed him with open arms.  Tex had been at the morning practice game, and he too seconded Joedy' remarks that Doug had indeed played very well.  It was a great experience, and when I ran into their general Manager Mitch Kupchek at the Double Pump Best of the Summer AAU Tournament, I thanked him very much for giving Doug the opportunity.

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Thursday, August 9

BWBA - solid summer at "the adidas Big Time" and "Best of the Summer"

As in the past, BWBA sponsored 3 teams at the Adidas Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas and the Best of the Summer Tournament held at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.  As usual, Bob Gottlieb coached the BWBA Showcase Team called BWBA Orange.  Doug Gottlieb, who played with the Lakers this summer on their summer league team in the Summer Pro League, coached both BWBA Purple and BWBA Red in Las Vegas, and Kamran Sufi, former outstanding point guard at St. Mary's and assistant coach at Mater Dei H>S., coached them at the Best of the Summer.

With just 3 days to prepare, and players form all over the USA, BWBA Orange started slow losing the first day twice to two good solid teams.  Both games were winnable.  Poor team defense and inadequate guard play really hurt.  However, adjustments were made and from that point on, BWBA Orange was a force the rest of the way in both tournaments.

Instead of playing both point guards simultaneously, we turned to a bigger lineup, and much better team defensive approach, and beat a good Team Carolina 92-43.  They had lost the previous day to Indianapolis Metros 44-43, and the Metros beat BWBA Orange 68-65.

Once in the playoffs, BWBA Orange had a solid win before running up against the Chicago Fire.  They were one of the top 5 teams in the USA.  Their point guard has already committed to Duke, and their front line looked like they played in the NFL.  BWBA Orange fought back to tie at 73-73 with 3 minutes left, before they got two straight questionable offensive foul calls that took the ball away and put them on the foul line for easy points, followed by a very difficult walking call on a wide open dunk by BWBA, and the game was gone.

scores:               BWBA Orange  69     BWBA Orange  65    BWBA Orange  92   BWBA Orange  87  BWBA Orange 75                         NY Ravens         79     Indy Metro          68    Team Carolina  43   Tri County         79  Illinois Fire       84

BWBA Orange was 4-1 at the Double Pump Best of the Summer Tournament despite losing its two top guards to injuries.  Without both, they had two thrilling come from behind wins by 1 point each.  The last one was over the Ft. Worth Lions.  They had beaten the Long Island Panthers in Pool Play at the Adidas Time Tourney and the Panthers won the whole thing.  They also had one of the top point guards in the USA in Devon Williams, who was being recruited by Georgia Tech and a number of other heavies.  

BWBA trailed by 10 points with a 1:30 on the clock and came from behind to earn a big time win, at the buzzer.  David Schroeder, Player of the Year in Idaho, from Salmon, ID, led the comeback with 19 pts including 2 big time 3 pointers, and rising sophomore point guard Enrico Tucker from San Diego had 10 points in the last 5 minutes, including the game winner.  We are awaiting a call back from Phil Bryant to be able to list the scores.

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Wednesday, August 8

Pump N Run upset at both Adidas Big Time and Best of the Summer

Every year, David and Dana will tell any one who will listen, that they are loaded and no one can touch them.  Every year they suffer one disappointing loss after another.  Their close friend and mentor Sonny Vacarro has promised to sponsor a tournament for nothing but Double Pump sponsored teams.  That way, they should have a solid chance to have one of their teams finally win a tournament.

This summer, they not only had 6'10" JR Padgett, whom they have called the best big man in the West, but added martin Iti 7'0", and had Nic Conan Medlay 6'7" forward from Maine who has committed to Maryland, and Brad Bruchman, a 6'7" forward from Austin Texas, who is being recruited by the likes of UCLA, Texas and Louisville.  Though their back court was not quite as prolific, they still had very good players like Brandon Rohe 6'3" who has been offered by Georgia, and a point guard that UCLA is looking at.

After beating 3 patsies in their pool in Las Vegas, Pump N Run were upset by Sheriff Rick Isaacs's highly athletic H Squad.  Pump N Run led by 10 points with 3 minutes to go, but fell apart against a withering press and their own poor shot selection to lose to a talented but frustrated H Squad 84-81, that had lost all 3 games in its pool play.

Pump N Run returned home early again to play in their own Double Pump Tournament, but once again were upset by a team of lesser talent and actually got blown out 76-48 by St. Louis Gateway.

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Tuesday, August 7

Bob Gottlieb runs into Daniel Bobik of BYU (a very special young man to BG)

Ran into Daniel working out at Marv Marinovich's training center this week.  Daniel is the 6'6" off guard from Newberry Park who came back from his mission last year and played a significant role off the bench for BYU as a freshman.  In the NCAA tournament game, in 18 minutes, Daniel scored 13 points and shoed why he has a great chance to start this coming year, as a sophomore.

Daniel is very special to Bob Gottlieb, not only because Daniel played for BWBA in high school, but because I recruited his dad Ralph Bobik to Creighton University in Omaha, and coached him his freshman year in 1970.  Freshman were not eligible to play varsity and Bob Gottlieb was the Head Freshman Coach as well as the Head Recruiter for Eddie Sutton and the Bluejays. 

Ralph played at Rim of the World H.S. in Rim Forest, California, a real small school in the San Bernadino Mountains.  I flew to California originally to look at one of Ralph's teammates who had expressed an interest min Creoghton, but came away more impressed with Ralph.  He was a tremendous passer for his size and was an extremely smart payer with very good basketball instincts.

He was 1st Team All State at the small school level, and our main competition was BYU, Washington, Idaho and Air Force, as I recall.  We had a tremendous year recruiting, ranked 15th in the USA and Ralph was a big part of the puzzle.  We also signed Jim Pietro, a 6'0" point guard from Pittsburg who played in Sonny Vacarro's famous Dapper Dan game, which was the equivalent of the McDonalds All American Game today.  Jim is a dentist and lives in Omaha.  

Ted Webben from Ohio State Champ Dayton Chaminade. His sons have played baseball for Creighton.was a 6'6" forward who also went on to start for 3 years and averaged about 16 ppg.  His two daughters have earned D1 basketball scholarships.  

Gene Harmon was the most highly recruited of the bunch.  He was a 6'6" forward from Schuyler, Nebraska who played QB in football and was a powerful wing who could really shoot.  His dad was a minister, and he went on to start 3 years and averaged 17 ppg and was drafted by the NBA also.

Ralph came to Creighton as a 6'5" combo guard, and grew to 6'7" his freshman year at Creighton.  He went on to have an outstanding career, starting all 3 years on the varsity and averaging 17 ppg as a senior.  He was frafted in the nBA in the 5th round and played in Europe a number of years.

Marc Mirsky, a 6'0" combo guard from Chicago and Wayne Heinrich 6'6" forward from Edin, Illinois, filled out the group.  Wayne turned down Kansas to sign with us.  He had made a decision to sign with Kansas, and I asked Eddie Sutton, to let me fly to Illinois and have once last chance to visit with Wayne, his family and coach.  I flew in spent most of the day at the high school, and then had dinner at Wayne's house.  the next day he signed with us at Creighton.

The following year, I gave them another equally good recruiting year including Dave Brookins 6'8 240 lbs from Indiana, who started all 4 years and averaged 20ppg as a senior, Wayne Groves 6'8" from New Jersey, Dave Anderson 6'5" point guard from Omaha, Dave Terek, 6'5" off guard from Mt. Lebanon, Pa and Charles Taylor, a 6'5" guard form Indianola, Mississippi, who had a 4.0 gpa and also became a 4 year starter.

These two classes back to back enabled Creighton to win over 20 games, in back to back years and go to the NCAA Regionals.  Coach Sutton then moved on to Arkansas, where he got a tremendous financial package and a commitment form Frank Broyles, the AD, to renovate their facilities, and they soon became a national powerhouse that ultimately went to the Final Four, led by the great Sidney Moncrief, who later went on to a super NBA career.

He now is a corporate in house attorney living in Newberry Park.  Within the last two year, Ralph came down with a serious case of Prostrate cancer, but he had surgery and appears to have regained his full health.  Daniel has an excellent chance to start at BYU this year, as both guards graduated.  They do have 6'5" guard Mark Bigelow back from his mission.  Mark was Freshman of the Year in the conference for BYU, before he went on his mission, but it usually takes some time for the mission rust to wear off after two years of relative inactivity.

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Monday,  August 6

Will Mater Dei have a freshman start at QB

Mater Dei H.S., one of the top 5 football programs in the USA, over the last 10 years, may start a freshman at QB, for only the second time in its history.  Talked to Marv Marinovich, nation's #1 trainer of elite athletes, and he indicated that Jason Forcier, 6'1"  175 lb  incoming freshman QB, may earn a starting position even though he is just coming into 9th grade.  Jason has been training under Marv's tutilege for the last 6 months, not only to enhance his overall strength and explosiveness, but also working as his personal QB coach.  

As an aside, the first and only other freshman to start at QB for the Monarchs, was Marv's son Todd Marinovich, who also started for USC as a freshman, and later was a #1 draft choice of the Oakland Raiders and played in the NFL for a number of years.

The really interesting aspect of Jason Forcier is that he lives in San Diego, and will take a 6:45 am train to Santa Ana every day.  The trip is about 1:15 minutes one way.  I admire his dad.  He wants his son to have a chance to play with and against the best and also get great coaching, and the Mater Dei football program has annually produced great players and outstanding teams.

It reminds me of when I had to take an apartment in Tustin, about 5 miles from my house, while my wife Jane stayed in our house in Orange, CA, so that our youngest son could attend Tustin H.S. and play under Tom McCluskey.  Tom is now the Head Coach at neighboring Foothill H.S., also in Tustin.  He not only is a superior coach but a gem of a person.  it cost me $6000 for the apartment for a year, but in the long run, it was worth it.

If your child was a violinist, you would want him or her to take lessons from the best teacher of violin, wherever he or she is.  If you can afford and can handle the logistics, you ought to do it.  In choosing a college, if you want to study Chemical Engineering, you choose a school with a quality Engineering Program. 

 It should be no different in choosing a high school.  What if the high school in your district, not only has a weak basketball program, but the coach is an  abusive sort, or has a problem with alcohol.  What if your son is an outstanding player in an up tempo game, but the coach at the local high school wants to walk it up and play games in the 40's.  What if your son is a strong armed quarterback with a bright future, and they run an option offenses that calls for an athlete at QB, not a quality passer.  You should have a right to make a good decision for your child.  I salute Mr. Forcier.

Sunday, August 5

adidas Big Time Tournament                BWBA

BWBA sponsored 3 all star teams at both the adidas Big Time Tournament and the follow up Best of the Summer Tournament run by the Double Pump INC. at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles.  In addition to a nucleus of Southern California athletes, BWBA included 2 outstanding rising juniors from Alaska, two from Oklahoma, three from Canada, three from Florida, one from Colorado, one from New Orleans,  and one from Maine.

Alaska

1.     Ray Schafer      6' 10"  Wasilla H.S.          Wasilla, AK                                                                                                 2.     2.   2.     Chris Devine    6'  6"    Chugiak H.S.,        Eagle Rock, AK (Anchorage)

Wasilla is considered the third largest city in Alaska.  God simply does not make better people than Ray Schafer.  Ray is a year away from becoming the next great payer to come out of Alaska since Carlos Boozer.  His dad is also 6'10" and Ray has not yet begun to mature physically, so logic indicates that he will still grow several inches this coming year.  In all my 35 years of coaching, I never had a better young man to work with.  His attitude, his work ethic, his people skills are something his parents shold be exceptionally proud of.  However, if you knew his dad, you would know the apple did not fall far from the tree.

His dad came down with Ray, the week preceding our start of practice so that Ray could train with Marv Marinovich, and he could film the workouts and bring as much of the training techniques back to Wasilla, so Ray could maintain the program year round.  Ray started slow adjusting to the level of competition and quickness.  We moved him from the "Showcase Team" (BWBA Orange) to one of our other teams, so that he could maximize his playing time and get his confidence.  

He began to play extremely well, playing under Doug Gottlieb, and so we moved him back up to BWBA Orange at the Pumps, and he begin to contribute significantly there also, and showed signs that he is really going to be special, in the not so distant future.

Chris Devine 6'6" is the third Chugiak H.S. youngster we have had.  Jay Lewis 6'2" point guard signed at Wichita State, and now has transferred to Angelo State, and Jason Erickson 6'2" point guard who signed at Montana State, where he was Freshman of the Year in the Big Sky Conference last year.  

Chris played with BWBA Purple throughout both tournaments, coached by Doug Gottlieb in Las Vegas amd Kamran Sufi at the Pump Tournament.  He will definitely be a "Showcase Player" for BWBA, either this fall or next spring for sure.  He has great instincts for the game.  He is extremely athletic, can handle the ball, is a very good driver, can rebound and defend. 

 He is also a decent medium range shooter but needs to increase his range and arch on his shot.  He is a tremendous offensive rebounder and has a knack for the game you cannot teach.  He will be a mid major D1 at the very least.  He has grown 2 inches since December and probably will grow some this coming year.  Chris also is a coaches dream, in terms of attitude and overall work ethic.

Canada

1.     Shawn Stewart     6' 5"     White Rock Christian H.S.          Vancouver, BC                                                       2. 2.     Zack Hogan         6' 4"      White Rock Christian H.S.       Vancouver, BC                                                             3. 3.     Nate Nowak         6' 6"      Steverson H.S.                              Vancouver, BC

BWBA had 3 kids from Canada.  Shawn Stewart 6'5" rising junior from White Rock Christian H.S. in Vancouver, has a chance to be very good.  He has a scorer's mentality, both inside and out, but needs to improve his overall athleticism to take advantage of his skills and instincts.  Shawn needs to get quicker, faster stronger and jump better.  He is only a junior, so he has all this coming year to work at it.  He also was a fabulous kid to work with and have around with a delightful personality and disposition.  Shawn made the top 20 all star game at the West Coast All Star Camp 2nd Session.

Zack Hogan is a 6'4" senior combo guard from White Rock Christian H.S. in Vancouver.  Zack played for BWBA Purple and is a very athletic, solid, slasher who is a superior defender and decent shooter.  He needs to put significant time into improving his range and consistency on the perimeter.  If he does, he has an NCAA D1 pair of legs and could get recruited at that level..  Great kid with a consistently pleasant disposition and attitude.  An asset to anyone's program.

Nate Nowak 6'6" 230 graduated senior, played for BWBA Red and is a solid NCAA D2 or D3 power forward.  Nate's greatest asset is his toughness and willingness to bang.  His has good low post scoring moves and is a good rebounder with solid grades. (2.7 gpa and 1040 SAT score)  He is hoping to get recruited based on his play this summer with BWBA and Coker College, coached by Dan Schmolzer, a solid D2 program in South Carolina, is trying to work out an acceptable financial aid packege, as is North Park of Chicago, coached by Rees Johnson, a former assistant of Bob Gottlieb at UWM in Milwaukee in the 70's.

Oklahoma

1.     Jonathan Bluitt        5'10"     Bishop McGuiness H.S.          Oklahoma City, OK                                                                2.     Michael Honeycutt  6' 4"      Booker T. Washington H.S.   Tulsa, OK

Jonathan Bluitt was without question BWBA's outstanding player on BWBA Orange.  Everyone  on the team had moments of exciting outstanding play.  Everyone on BWBA Orange will be an NCAA D1 scholarship player in time.  However, when we went up against the Chicago Fire, which I consider one of the true elite AAU teams in the USA, Jonathon literally carried us on his back.  

BWBA came from 10 pts down in the 2nd half to tie at 73-73 with 3 minutes left, when we got three tough calls back to back that literally took the ball out of our hands and put them on the foul line for an easy 6.  The Fire was led by Shawn Doherty 6'2" point guard delux, who has committed to Duke.  They also had a 6'6" wing shooter, who shot the lights out and 3 big time 6'8" physical frontline players.

Jonathon had 26 pts and 10 assists and hit any number of tough jumpers off the pick and roll and mixed that with breaking into the heart of their defense with dribble penetration, and dishing off for uncontested dunks.  He suffered a bad hip bruise early in the tournament and played hurt most of the rest of the way, and finally had to miss our last 3 games because the pain was just too severe.

Jonathon also was a very special kid.  I literally loved coaching him and just being around him.  he has a wonderful way about him.  Treats everyone with respect, is fun to kid with, and has the heart of a lion, on the court.  He is the Oklahoma Player of the Year this past year as he led Bishop McGuiness to its 4th straight State Championship.  He averaged 20 ppg and 10 assists.  

He signed at Oral Roberts but fell one point short on his ACT score and was ticketed to go to Kilgore J.C. when Doug suggested him to me.  I indicated that if he preferred to go to Prep School, he would be eligible for the summer tournaments. Furthermore, i pointed out he would have 4 years of eligibility after Prep School, and that they specialized in assisting an athlete in preparing for the standardized tests.  Oral Roberts graciously released him from his Letter of Intent, which means any one can recruit him for the following year.  

Jonathon has blazing speed and quickness and is a superior full court defender on the ball.  He is a very good medium range jump shooter off a pick and roll and is a very good finisher on his slashes to the hoop.  With continued improvement in his 3 point shooting, and improved decision making on his penetration, he is without question, a high major who can play any where in the USA, at the highest levels.

Michael Honeycutt is a 6'4" post player in high school trying to make the transition to a wing player.  Michael is a strong tough, hard nosed and physical athlete with a 3.5 GPA and a 29 ACT score.  Michael played a meaningful role on Booker T. Washington's State Championship teams these last two years.  He is planning on gray shirting this coming year, in hopes of improving his perimeter skills and decision making and earning an NCAA D1 or D2 scholarship.

He will train under both Bob Gottlieb and Marv Marinovich this year, and attend Irvine Valley J.C. in Irvine, CA, taking less than the NCAA minimum 12 credits, so he will not be considered a full time student, and his 5 year NCAA clock for eligibility, will not start.  He will attend classes and practice regularly with the junior college team, work out daily with Marv Marinovich to improve his overall athleticism and explosiveness, and work under Bob Gottlieb at the BWBA Academy on weekends.  He will live at Bob Gottlieb's house during his stay in California.  

Matt Hermes, 6'4" wing from Chicago, just graduated from IUPUI in Indianapolis.  He finished his senior year as the best player in their program and was a 3 year starter.  He was the first athlete to gray shirt and train under BG and MM and earned a D1 scholarship. He had a career high 28 pts. vs Valporiso.

Colorado

Ryan Katz                                  6'2"     off guard                    Smokey Hill H.S.           Denver, Colorado

Ryan is an outstanding 3 point shooter with excellent range.  He is a solid complete #2 gd who had excellent physical toughness and is a 3.5 gpa student with good board scores.  He played well for BWBA Red and will be a well recruited NCAA D3 player.

Florida

1.  Gibran Washington           6'2"     combo gd                    Mandarin H.S.               Jacksonville, FL                               2.  Tron Griffen                        6'7"     power fwd                   Mandarin H.S.               Jacksonville, FL                          3.  3.  Danny Bell                           6'4"    wing                             Jackson H.S.                 Jacksonville FL

Gibran Washington  is a strong, physical, explosive scoring guard who also ia a good solid playmaker.  He was one of the BWBA athletes that drew the most interest from college coaches at the Big Time.  Holy Cross, Davidson, Furman, Richmond, SMU and Weber State all will offer and Northwestern has also showed considerable interest.  Gibran is a 3.7 gpa student and the son of Al Washington, former Otterbein NCAA D3 All American in the 60's as a power forward.  Dad is VP of Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Jacksonville for the last 20 years.  Plays for the well respected Terry Whittaker at Mandarin.

Tron Griffin is a big strong physical inside player who can rebound and score with his back to the basket.  Has surprising speed when he decides to turn it on and is a good solid low major #4 man.  Georgia State showed an interest at the Double Pump "Best of the Summer" Tournament.  He is a terrific kid, sort of a gentle giant, who is being raised by his grandparents, and raised very well.  He is also playing football, but basketball is his #1 love.

Danny Bell is a 6'4" slashing wing who can really finish.  He is strong and explosive going to the hoop.  He is a well regarded football prospect as a corne back and safety and may well opt for the gridiron.  Only a rising junior, Danny needs to improve his defense and outside shooting and is a 2/3 combo type.  Very good person.  Enjoyed his participation.  Has to improve his grades.

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Saturday, August 4

adidas Big Time Tournament Part II

                            How did the top Southern California Traveling teams do

H Squad:      "New Sheriff" in Town stumbles

Rick Isaacs, Director and Head Coach of H Squad, who ha been proclaiming there is a new Sheriff in town (out with the old and in with the new) found out its not as easy as it looks.  Having done a good job putting together a group of talented inner city Los Angeles kids, they proceeded to lose all 3 games in their pool at the adidas Big Time Tournament, before upsetting the highly regarded Pump N Run team.  They finished 2-4 for the tourney and then went to Oakland for a tournament up there and went 2-2 there.  This despite their being together the entire spring in a number of AAU tournaments, as well as the Slam N Jam League.  They did beat a BWBA Showcase team that had been together for 2 days in a scrimmage game prior to going to Las Vegas, so Rick still feels it was a super successful summer.  if he can beat BWBA and the Pumps, he is happy.

Rick's program basically is for the inner city type kid.  He has done a wonderful job for these kids.  Many of these kids have grade problems.  Rick has personall arranged for them to get scholarships to Prep School.  Many are from single parent homes.  Rick has been a father figure to them.  He personally has funded his teams.  However he is a strong candidate for Nike or adidas sponsorship, as he is a genuine factor in the recruiting of a number of the better LA athletes.

Rick gets carried away with how good his kids are, but most AAU coaches do, including yours truly.   However nobody does a better job of helping his kids get recruited than Rick.  He thoroughly enjoys interacting with college coaches from all over the country.  He is a good friend, and should be congratulated on how far his program has come in a short time.  However, beating the better teams in the country is another story.  There is a lot involved.  It ain't that easy.

adidas Big Time Tournament H Squad Results:

Gateway BBall (Missouri)     79          H Squad                             66

Alabama Ice                            68          H Squad                             58

Michigan Mustangs             78          H Squad                              75

H Squad                                  84          Friends of Hoop White    79

H Squad                                  84           Pump N Run                      81

SoCal All Stars                      87           H Squad                             82

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Friday,  August 3

adidas Big Time Tournament

Another summer is past, and the smoke is just beginning to clear.  All the anticipation, all the excitement, all the highs of winning, all the lows and despair of losing.  There were 350 teams approximately, with a great many very good teams, but no great teams, in my judgment.  The talent is so well dispersed nationally.  The traditional powers that adidas funds and supports are very strong every year, and should be.  They usually can dominate the talent in their area and all tend to have several high majors, surrounded by a cast of low majors.  They are not only talented, but highly athletic and physical.

The "Big Time" Tourney is far and away the best showcase of high school talent in the USA.  Larry McKay and his staff need to be congratulated.  It is a highly organized, well run event.  Unlike many of the other AAU type tourneys and showcases, they use outstanding college or high school varsity level officials, so there is very little problems with coaches as the respect for the referees seems to be automatic.

The games are played at 13 different sites throughout Las Vegas.  All venues are high school gyms, each of which has two gyms.  All of the high schools built in the last 15 years in Las Vegas, seem to be built to a single architectural plan.  They are all modern, spacious campuses, among the nicest in the USA, and all have beautiful gyms that seat approximately 3000.  

The gyms are well kept and the playing surfaces all glow as if they have just been refinished yesterday.  Its very first class.  Unfortunately, they choose to play half the games in the auxiliary gyms at each site, and they are just practice gyms with very limited seating, and the only drawback from what is a totally first class operation.

What is not generally known is that the tournament is organized so that the top 64 seeded teams all get to play at the two main gyms.  (Green Valley and Durango)  In addition, all these teams automatically get into the main open tournament bracket regardless of their pool play record.  

This is done because the college coaches would like to see the top players and teams compete against each other, rather than have them all be in separate pools, and not have any meaningful competition until the 2nd or 3rd round of the open tournament.  All other teams, must finish 1st in their pools to get into the open tournament.  All other teams, after pool play, go directly into consolation type tournaments.

What this all means, is that if you are not on a major travel team that is one of the seeded 64 teams, your exposure to college coaches is very minimal.  Your team likely will be playing in one of the other sites, which will attract only a handful of coaches normally, whereas at Green Valley and Durango, there easily could be 500-700 major college coaches in attendance at most of the games.  If you play on an AAU team that does not go to the "Big Time", forget it.  get on a team that does.

This year's tournament was won by the Long Island Panthers.  They beat the Tim Thomas Players form New Jersey 84-73.  To show how balanced the better teams were, the Long Island Panthers lost two of their three pool play games.  They lost to the Ft. Worth Lions 66-61 (BWBA Orange beat the Ft. Worth Lions in the Double Pump tournament without their two starting guards who were hurt).  They also lost to the Huntington Park Warriors form Pennsylvania 83-67 in pool play.

In subsequent days, we will give you how all the Southern California major AAU teams did, and also review the Double Pump "Best of the Summer Tournament".  Meanwhile there are two major AAU travel Team Tournaments coming up in September, which will attract hundreds of college coaches for a last look at players to offer scholarships to in hopes they will sign in November.

August is a "dead month".  That means college coaches cannot view prospective student athletes in competition off campus at all..  September is the next "live recruiting period".  October and November are dead months.  Very little active evaluation of athletes is done these days during the basketball season, while playing for their high school teams.  Therefore, the next chance to be truly be seen by college coaches after September will be in March and April after the season.  Approximately 80% of all scholarships are given out and accepted in November.

BWBA will sponsor three travel teams in both the Belmont Shores Tournament held at Lynwood High School the weekend of September 15th, and the Double Pump Fall Classic will be held at Loyola Marymount the weekend of September 29th.  These are the best exposure tournaments in the Western USA in the fall.  

Any athletes wishing to be considered for one of BWBA's outstanding teams, call Bob Gottlieb at 714-997-0380.  Only athletes that are starters on their high school varsity teams, and legitimate college prospects at the NCAA level will be considered.  You do not have to be a D1 player to be considered, but you must be a true college prospect.

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Last Updated: Thursday, October 18, 2001 9:03 AM