There’s no ‘I’ in TEAM, but there is an ‘M’ (Meyer), or, No one is inVincible..

I recently finished Buster Olney’s wonderful book on former Lipscomb coach Don Meyer.  I’ve always been a fan of Meyer (never met him) from the time my dad and I were talking on the phone when I lived in Brooklyn.  He said, ‘there’s something really odd going on with the basketball program…i’m not sure how the team is going to do under this new guy (Meyer), but it’s going to be interesting to watch’.  I followed the program from afar, and when we moved back to Nashville, I probably watched the man coach over 100 games.

He is, and was rather odd and off-putting.  He has a perennial scowl and doesn’t appear friendly.  He barked at his players and paced the sidelines like a chained pit-bull.  He also coached basketball at a different level and was watching a different game than I (a huge college basketball fan) and many others ever notice.  Underneath that scowl and bundle of eccentricity was one of the most interesting and humble men I’ve ever read about.   If you get Meyer, you understand how a man can be humble but not weak, tenacious, but not addictive.

Read the book, (and check out a former Northern Dakota player’s book about Coach Meyers* as well).  What the Coach weaves in an almost mystical tapestry of aphorisms and stories is that no one player on a team, no matter how incredible or how untalented is any more or less part of a team than any other player.  You understand that Meyer has influenced hundreds if not thousands of young people to treat everyone as if they were the most important person in the room, no matter their so-called station in life.  You read the testimonials of the men who played for Meyer and you understand that Meyer made them better people (or actually help them understand what they had inside them to be better).

You read about former player’s tragedy and how the Coach and many former teammates traveled long distances to be support their teammate.  Some of the things you read make you think the man is crazy and destructive, but then you realize he’s doing what needed to be done to bring a person down to earth or just to realize how fortunate he really is.

You read about a man who lost a leg in a car wreck and then cancer was discovered when surgery was performed on the leg and how that didn’t begin to bring the man down.  The book is not hagiography or idolatry, but you begin to understand a man of immense faith who didn’t just talk about doing the right thing.

I once heard him speak on what was supposed to be parenting..instead we got time management, the importance of not drinking sodas and the difference between religion and spirituality (first time I heard anyone describe the divergence so well), and how to live properly you live in the moment.  What I at first thought was a rambling collection of odd (and interesting) thoughts became a brilliant lecture on parenting, not because he spoke one word about raising kids, but because he was talking about being healthy on every level.  You take care of yourself, don’t squander your time, and live in the moment and you will be one heckuva parent.

I once saw the man call a timeout with two seconds left in the first half when his team was leading by 28 points.  It was one of the most illogically timed time-outs ever, but like I say, the man wasn’t watching the same game as most of us.  He saw something he didn’t like, and he didn’t want to wait until half-time to discuss the problem.

He wanted to win, but playing well and playing the game correctly, living life well and living it in the moment and living in a state of humility and strength were what he taught.  Once you got that, winning was a brilliant side effect….good parenting was a brilliant side effect.

I really don’t have anything to add to the Vince Young saga that has dominated our city for the last couple of days.  I read about Meyer’s players and how they learned to handle adversity and how to treat others, and it just makes me sad that Young didn’t have someone like Meyer at an early age to channel that incredible talent.  I’m sad that concepts like team and handling adversity apparently don’t mean the same thing to Young as it does to the young men I read about in Olney’s book.

Much more importantly, I realize how I’ve squandered time, have been thoughtless and ranted and raved about my computer not operating quickly enough (among other things).  I think about the anger I’ve expressed towards the people I love more than anything in the world, and I know that none of those people I’ve talked about are perfect, but how fortunate we can be, if we just see what is right before our eyes.

“Happiness begins when selfishness ends”

“A fool despises instruction”

“Do the ordinary things extra-ordinarily well”

“You can measure somebody’s character by how they treat people that can’t do them any good or can’t fight back”

*The book about playing for Meyer is ‘Playing for Coach Meyer’ by Steve Smiley

Olney’s incredible book is ‘How Lucky Can You Be’..it deserves to sell brilliantly..

 

Thudddd…what was that loud noise?

It’s a number ONE ranking clanking to the ground. It’s always a pleasure to beat the Orange in basketball. It’s always fun to see a number one team come into Memorial Gym and leave with their ranking tucked between their legs. But, when it’s the UT crew coming in with the number 1 necklace, it’s the making for a deliriously happy evening.

I got to Memorial early. The Vandy crowd had been asked to wear white..(the game was on ESPN and a sea of white garb tends to stand out). Normally, the students comply, but the older folks, especially the Belle Meade crowd in the padded seats, tend to ignore apparel requests. Not tonight, t’was a sea of white, with a little orange thrown in for contrast.

The noise was nearly deafening 30 minutes before the game even started, and nearly unbearable when the game was underway. Sadly, the referees decided that they needed to demonstrate their mad whistle skills and over-called the game by about half. It’s pretty bad when fans yell at refs for making calls in FAVOR of their team, begging to let the game unfurl naturally.

It’s amazing to me that UT beat Memphis with Chris Lofton largely missing from the game, because tonight he showed how he can carry a team on his back. Some of his shots were launched from a different zip code and somehow parted the nets as if guided by some kind of Naismithian GPS. Luckily for Vandy, Shan Foster had a broader back and managed to carry a foul-ridden Vanderbilt squad to victory.

The refs took both teams out of their rhythm more than once, with excessive whistling. And I’m not saying this as the biased fan (guilty). The refs, like an inept bi-sexual, were bad both ways.

Much more importantly, the magic that seems to permeate Memorial in big games is back in town, thanks to the fans, the wondrous shooting skills of Shane Foster, and most importantly, thanks to the ball-handling skills of Jermaine Beal, the point guard who matched his uniform number with turnovers (as in ZERO). UT’s press was scary good and especially frenetic in the second half. Thanks to Beal, Vandy turned the ball over only eight times…a season low for teams playing UT.

College basketball would still be magical, even if Vandy had lost tonight, but a Vandy win against the number-one-ranked UT Vols makes the word ‘special’ seem banal. Life, it’s of the good…

About last night..the Vandy fan’s dilemma

If you live by the black and gold you can’t really have any kind of sports crush on that Orange team dwelling roughly 200 miles east of Nashville.  A true Vandy fan chortles at the Knoxville police blotter’s daily UT football arrest report.  We may respect their coaches (well, at least their basketball coaches) and the talent that continues to roll uphill (somehow), but we love it when they lose.

Though, last night something different this way came.  Tennessee men’s basketball, unusually ranked as high as their womens team, was playing the number one team in the country: University of Memphis.  And, those very same orange dribblers are going to visiting Memorial Gym this coming Tuesday night to meet the ‘Dores.

Soooooooo, do you want UT to win the game so that they will be number one in the nation when they jaunt into Nashville?  Do you want them to be perched on that throne, so that the Vandy squad can do their usual number on number ONE teams visiting the old home court (see Indiana, North Carolina, and last year, Florida).  It’s a Lot more Fun to dump Number 1 (there may be a better way to phrase that…).

Watching the game last night I was thinking…you CAN root for UT  because then it will make Tuesday night deliriously fun.  Despite the inane comments that the ‘little brother’ wants to rain on the UT victory parade, I’m happy to let UT and their fans revel in the ranking.   It’ll just make it sweeter on Tuesday night.

And before you accuse me of lacking the milk of human kindness, let me just say that I do hope that the good gendarmes and jailers in Knoxville allowed the inmates to watch TV last night. I’d hate for the football team to have missed such a fun game.

The game wasn’t particularly executed well, but it was riveting down to the last drop…dispite the historical exhortations of Public Enemy…You COULD believe the hype.

The King James version, or why sports still matter..

The last couple of days have pretty much reeked.  NIT reeling, Brittney being unfairly lambasted and ultimately resigning, troubles at work that depress me greatly, my friend Ginger in a car wreck, Bush still President..I could go on, but I’d depress myself further.

Normally, I really don’t care about the NBA playoffs.  By this time of the year, basketball should be done with…baseball is in middle-game and walking outside in the evening is a wonderful sport of its own.  But, this season is different.  If you care at all about basketball, you know and appreciate Lebron James, like him and his team, or not.

The NBA finals start tonight.  King James and his Cavaliers face the defending champs, the San Antonio Spurs.  The possible new boss meets the old experienced boss.  I love the threshold seasons in any sport..when a long-standing champ may be on his or her last legs, but hangs on for one more encore in the sun.  Magic Johnson and Kareem against Isaiah Thomas, Joe Frazier against Ali, Nicklaus winning the Masters at age 46…Borg and McEnroe. Those kind of clashes bring out the best..courage, tenacity, leadership and understanding that winning is more than a marker on a scoreboard.

I’m fully aware that not everyone is into sports (d’oh, I live with someone who couldn’t name one Tennessee Titan with a gun to her head), but those of us who do, people like Lebron, the Titans, Vandy (or UT), the Preds, a big series, the French Open finals all bring a lot of us together..the noise of politics and blogflames dissipate and eventually fade.  That bad day at the office suddenly doesn’t seem so important.  Living vicariously isn’t always so bad…bring it ON.

Photo credit 

Will Superman stay in the sunshine? Hint: The odds of pleasing all the blue-grassers most of the time is as futile as trying to catch the wind..

heh heh

HT: Josh Hutcheson

As a staunch Vandy fan, it pains me to say this..

But, congratulations are in order for Tennessee’s Lady Vols and Coach Pat Summitt.   Recruiting Ms. Candace Parker may be one of the most brilliant moves of your coaching career!

If I’m Arkansas, I stop licking my wounds at the reneging of the Creighton coach and offer Coach Summitt millions of dollars to coach my team.  There is no reason in the world why she couldn’t coach men just as well as women..the locker room dynamics might be a bit different, but a good coach is a good coach is a good coach.

One brief shining moment, or, walking the walk..

If you watch the NCAA men’s championship game each year on CBS, you know that they feature highlights of the tournament at the end of the broadcast, with the Luther Vandross song ‘One Shining Moment’ playing under the hoop-lights. Vandy got a lot of face-time in this year’s revue, including the heart-breaking game-winning shot by Georgetown to send the Commodores home. The only good news about this cruel reminder is that Green (the guy who hit the winning shot) is shown to have clearly walked, just like ‘we’ knew he did. Of course I’m totally over the loss*..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B289XlegZY4

You-tube won’t let me embed this…watch the last 15 seconds to see the double pivot walk….THANKS ya blind bastid refs.

*If totally over the loss can be defined as shrinking the bitterness to merely heart-size.

Apparently my crystal ball was broken, or, I’m definitely a false prophet..

The Salem’s Lots Department of Accountability informs me that I need to come clean about some predictions I made a few weeks ago. It seems that I fearlessly predicted that Florida would NOT repeat as the NCAA Men’s basketball champions. D’oh!

On the other hand, I’m still sticking to my prediction that Michael Silence will mention Fred Thompson at least 12,500 times before next November.

What rocks!!*..I’ll take 32-24 at the half..

Vandy came into tonight’s game with Georgetown mighty as a lion, and though their roar subsided, they didn’t leave the first half like a lamb.

I get way too nervous watching the big games that Vandy plays.  I guess the cumulative rooting of 45 years helps make this matter more than it probably should, but I just don’t care.  You know..I just don’t care that I care too much.

I didn’t have Vandy winning this game on my bracket.  I picked with my head.  My heart is beginning to believe that ‘we’ have a chance to win this game.  Yeah we have an 8 point lead at the half, but believe me that 8 point lead can evaporate like support for Mitt Romney if Big Fred makes the announcement.

Georgetown’s nickname, if you didn’t know, is the Hoyas, which roughly translates in Latin to ‘WHAT!.  Georgetown back in the day had a baseball with the nickname of ‘stonewall’.  Some quirky Latin nerd scholar exclaimed ‘hoya saxa’  (what rocks!)after a particularly stalwart defensive play, and at least part of the name stuck.  Oddly, the ‘WHAT’ part stayed and the rock part rolled away…go figure.

Yikes..back to the nervous second half.

The police can’t use DNA testing up there, or, Elmont, stop playing that banjo, climb out of that tree and get to class..

According to THIS article on ESPN.com, Eastern Kentucky had a ZERO percent graduation rate for its basketball team that recently exited from the NCAA tournament. Forty-one Division One schools didn’t graduate any black players, but EKU appears to have the distinction of being an equal opportunity non-dispenser of sheepskins for all players

Our crime-lab SEC partner to the east, The U. of T. (give me a ‘U’, give me a, uh, wait a minute, I think I got it*), had a sparkling rate of 10%. Maryland, UNLV and The University of Memphis all had, at least somewhat, better graduation percentage.

Vandy has traditionally had a good rate, but they weren’t listed in this article. For what it’s worth, Holy Cross goes to the head of the graduating class, with 86%.

Kinda makes you think that the athletes in many schools should be getting paid for their work, considering that actual education doesn’t appear to be a priority.

*My friend Big Orange Michael is certainly a literate exception to this obvious slur of U.T.

Vanderbilt in the Sweeeeet 16, or, I was never worried*

My friend Freddy and I had tickets for the hockey game last night**, so we decided to visit Bailey’s Sports Bar and Grill to watch the Vandy game and eat supper before sauntering over to the GEC Nashville Arena. Here’s some advice, if you stretch your order out and order pretty much every ‘course’ a place like Bailey’s offers, you can keep a table for the entire length of time of a regulation NCAA basketball game including leeeeeeengthy commercials. And yes, we DID tip our waitress generously.

Watching Vandy play yesterday was like watching one of those old cliff-hanger ‘Perils of Pauline’ where our heroine is left at the end of each episode tied to railroad tracks, suspended from a cliff over a howling and infinite abyss, or in the clutches of an eeee-vil villain type. With one difference here – Vandy was in peril pretty much the entire first half.

Washington State’s defense took a cue from the Detroit Red Wing blue-line defense. Somehow they guarded the lane AND kept a hand in the perimeter shooter’s faces. They, unlike their similarly named tournament counterparts (George Washington) had watched Vandy game films. Derrick Byers (the MUST BE ON man), was not anywhere near on. Mortar flew from the backboards after many of Vandy’s errant offerings careened from the basket.

Somewhere, somehow in the second half, it dawned on Byers that THIS was going to be his final game if he didn’t step it up. Foster had also been inconsistent and there was not a chance in hades that Vandy was going to score many points in the paint. I don’t know if Stalling’s encouragement was the equivalent of Popeye’s spinach or if Byers decided to wear his Legion of Justice magic power ring, but we saw the real Byers in the second half and the cruel cruel double overtimes.

It should also be said that Ted ‘Skooooch’ Skuchas played well in the overtimes, along with ‘Red’ Gordon, but truth be told, this team is going as far as Byers is able to lead them.

Georgetown is next. I saw G’town early this year pretty much pulverize the ‘Dores, and even though the ‘Dores have improved impressively,  the match-up, on paper (and probably also on hardwood)  is less than promising. But, I also saw a mediocre Furman team take the ‘Dores down. Things do change, don’t they??

*Except in the first half, the second half, the entire first overtime, and for 4:58 seconds in the second overtime.

** By the way, whooooohooooo for the Predators beating Dallas, and for Voukouns amazing net-working last night, and for Tootoo doing what it takes. According to the Texas papers, Tootoo threw a sucker punch and that was pretty much it. According to ‘our’ coverage, Tootoo was defending himself from the charging Star. Not reported in the Texas online papers I’m reading is the fact that Modano hit Tootoo over the head with his hockey stick during what turned out to be a melee.

Bracketology

I’d just like to state for the record that I have an affidavit showing that I picked VCU over Duke in my men’s brackets. I was never worried (heh).

Unfortunately I fell for the Old Dominion hype and picked them to beat Butler. I also had some leftover admiration for Gonzaga and stupidly thought they’d hobble the Hooosiers (I apparently don’t have much loyalty for the state of my birth).

After one day, I’m 14-2. According to the standings on ESPN and Yahoo (where I have brackets), most of America is doing as well as I am, or better.

Update: Saturday morning. I really didn’t believe in the Ky Wildcats, but for some reason I did believe in the Ar-kansas Razorbacks…d’oh! I do believe West Coast b’ball is way over-rated (cept’ maybe UCLA and Oregon), but I apparently over-rated Ar-kansas late-season surge.

My pick-to-win Kansas is starting well, but my pick to go far, Oregon, barely squeaked by. It should be noted that Texas has amazing talent and a not-so-amazing coach. I’m 27-5 going into second round action.

Absolutely, positively fearless predictions that you can take to THE bank (uh, can you hold that check until pay day?)

1. Florida will NOT repeat as NCAA men’s basketball champ. Too many teams will watch the film of Vandy taking Florida OUT.

2. You are going to hear the name of Kate Middleton so much in the next few months that you will be longing for the pristine early days of Paris Hilton.

3. Katie Couric will not be the CBS Evening News Anchor by mid-2008.

4. Howie Kendrick is going to hit a TON this year for the California Angels.

5. Fred Thompson’s name will be mentioned more than 12,500 times in Michael Silence’s blog before November 2007. Fred Thompson WILL re-register to vote in Tennessee in the next four months.

6. Despite being absolutely the best ‘over-the-air’ show on television right now, ‘Friday Night Lights‘ will be canceled and will not be on the air next season. Studio 60 is gone as well.

7. The Spice Girls will get back together and they will suck inhale deeply just as much as they did before.

8. Bill Hobbs is going to be embarrassed by at least one fellow blogger during ‘Bloggers on the Hill’ day.

9. Spiderman 3 is going to take itself a little too seriously this time around. Nonetheless, I will be a paying customer.

10. Bob Clement will discover bloggers about ten days before the mayoral election.

Is there gold in Sacramento? Are Baptists Davids, and Catholics, Goliath?

Query me this…a decathalon of questions. Warning: Amazing Race spoiler down below!

1. How did Vandy get a six-seed? Lord knows, I love me some ‘Dores, but I was sure they were heading towards a battle with Michigan State as a nine seed. Here’s hoping there’s a 21st century gold strike in the Sacramento area (Vandy men open the NCAA tourney in Sacramento against the father of our country).

2. Do the Baptist Bruins of Belmont have a chance in, er, Hades to beat the second-seeded Georgetown Hoyas? As a Lipscomb grad, I normally don’t root for Belmont, but I was really hoping they’d get an easier first round opponent. Go Bruins!

3. Who exactly is left in the football free agent market to shore up the Titan’s running attack? Isn’t Corey Dillon about a hundred three years old in running back years?

4. How many games into the season will new Cub’s manager Lou Pinella realize that Zambrano can’t pitch every two days and that Ted ‘pictures of’ Lilly isn’t gonna make the northside fans forget Ferguson Jenkins and that if the Cubbies don’t score 9 runs a game they are going to lose a LOT of games? When does his head explode? When does Smiley turn to Frownie? I’ve got game 23.

5. How has Hope Hines faked it all these years?

6. If you have an amazing first line of Kariya, Legwand and Erat that’s been leading the Preds to victory all year, why break it up…even if you did acquire Forsberg?

7. Is there any way to turn up the play-by-play announcer and turn down Dick Vitale?

8. How did Rob and Am-buh lose to the bitch and the midget, the really snotty woman and her friend who happens to be a little person?

9. Wouldn’t it be funny if ‘our’* Japanese phenom had a better year than the BoSux Japanese much-better-paid phenom?

10. If stupid news stories were seeded like the NCAA basketball tournament, would ‘Presidential contenders for the 2008 election’ be seeded higher than ‘Angelina Jolie’s next adoption’?

*our=NY Yankees, my team since 1961…yes, I’m old!

Oh, oh, oh, it’s magic, or, Memorial for the tele-Tubby

Another magical day in Vandy’s Memorial gym, where Tubby Smith brought the Wildcats snarling and ready to go…and go they did, right out the door on the losing end of a 67-65 classic.

During the 70s and 80s, Memorial Gym was known for it’s magical powers enabling the Commodores to steam past opponents who were often better and more talented. The magic really has returned..first the Gators were chomped last week, and then the Cats were de-clawed today.

The student body, still stinging from the $25,000 fine levied after the Gator game for surging the court (or was that ‘augmenting’ the court?), managed to stay in their section after the game. There were some real cops augmenting the rent-a-cops there to help enforce the plea from the PA announcer to PLEASE stay off the court.

All in all..very satisfying.

A couple of notes: 1) I don’t pay to watch officials. I pay to watch basketball. I’m getting really sick of officials stifling the flow of the game by calling ticky-tack out front, especially when massive mayhem is occurring in the paint. I admit watching the game with black and gold tinted eyesight, and it always seems like ‘our’ team gets the wrong end of the zebras, but come on refs…at the very least, a little consistency, please!

2) Has the 3-second rule been abolished? Big #10 for Kentucky had his size 16s in the lane for such a long time I though he was gonna pull out the camp chair and fire up a Coleman stove. The officials appeared to be watching the same game I was, but sometimes I had to wonder..

Go Vandy!

Watching the blue-ish fans leave the arena quickly, I doubt that many were rushing to the Tubby Smith fan club meeting.   I’m wondering if this game is going to lead to a memorial for his Wildcat coaching career…

I told you it was magic, or, if you’re number ONE, don’t be coming into ‘our’ house, or whooooweeee!

I am fully aware that the picture here is fuzzy and not worthy to be blog-mat (blog material, i’m making up words cuz’ i’m so happy), but in my mind, that pic is sweeter than all the See’s candies on the west coast.

If you can’t see the pic clearly, or you haven’t heard the news, Vandy put a whompin’ on the Florida Gators today, 83-70. Florida sauntered into Memorial Gym with their heads high, haloed by their number one ranking. For a few minutes, one would have thought the referees were in awe of the ranking..whatever happened to home cooking, anyway?

The gators left the gym, lips pursed. What was thought to be gator bait, was instead pred-a-tor. The gym was Vandy’s, the crowd was deliriously Vandy, and pretty much every aspect of the game was Vandy’s.

Well into the second half with Vandy holding a 10 to 13 point lead, I kept waiting for an alligator shoe to drop, or for Noah’s arc to ascend, but Vandy kept em’ under control.

Vandy often lives and dies by the three point shot, and today the trey was more than okay. Byers was on fire, and Foster was bananas, both rippling the nets, stringing music. Gator fans tucked their gator tails between their legs, leaving quietly and early when it became obvious that the Gator surge had been short-circuited by an inspired Vanderbilt squad.

When fans rush the court after a game these days, the school is fined and students can be arrested. Vandy will probably have to pay a hefty fine, but from this fan’s perspective, it was worth every thin dime and phat dollar. From what I’ve read, the Chancellor can probably cut a check for the levy, without breaking his banks.

All in all, a sweeeet afternoon for Vandy fans..another ‘ONE’ bites the dust.

Basketball iHajj to basketball jones..

Back in the 1990s when I was a fixture on the Green Hills League baseball fields as one of the fathers ‘helping out’, I knew my place, and I loved my place. I was the dad who would hit grounders to the infielders, warm up the pitcher, shag flies in batting practice and actually pitch in the coach-pitch leagues when my sons were very young.

I did it because my sons wanted to play baseball, I did it because their coaches needed the help, and I did it for me. I love baseball, and quite frankly I wasn’t very good, but I knew enough to help and be of use.

Help being the operative word in the previous paragraph. When my oldest son was ten, the day before, literally ONE DAY BEFORE, the season was to begin, the head coach called me on the phone and told me that he couldn’t handle being a head coach. He was an attorney with some cases that would be time-consuming, and truth be told, he had head coached the same basic team for several years, and frankly the team stunk. The coaches two sons were lousy baseball players in a league where coaches sons were almost universally stars. He asked if I would take over the team. I blanched, panicked, and said, of course, if no one else could be found. No one else could be found.

The year was depressing..totally. I am not a head coach. I can watch a pitcher and tell if his mechanics are decent, but I can’t teach anyone how to pitch. I played a mediocre first base in my one season in Knot Hole baseball. I knew enough to run a ragged practice and I begged groveled enlisted a couple of dads to help me, but sadly, their skills were on a par with mine.

This isn’t a feel-good story with a happy ending. We won one game, and my son began his journey to baseball apostasy during that season. He still speaks to me, and I love him dearly, and I’m pretty sure he loves me, but it is not because of my coaching skills. Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Personally, I longed for the day mediocrity would have been thrust upon me.

I had a distinct deja’ vu’ experience when I was reading my friend Thomas McKenzie’s blog – one of his daughters is on a team whose coach apparently acted out their abandonment issues. If Thomas is to be believed, his basketball prowress and knowledge was a notch or two below my baseball ability….but trust me, READ the Basketball Diaries. He’s posted three so far, and I’m looking forward to the next installment. I’m pretty sure you will too, if you begin the journey here.