12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

I have been receiving a lot of emails about topics ranging from recruiting, to scheduling, to injuries, to the state of the league, etc. etc.. so during the Christmas break I will address a different topic each day in order to give as much insight into the program as possible. These updates will start on Tuesday the 16th and appear regularly into the New Year. I hope you will enjoy.

TWELFTH DAY (Finally!)

Question: Will the team be staying any part of the summer in Worcester like they did last year?.

Answer: Right now the guys are talking about coming up again in June as they did last year. Since we can't work with the guys in the off season, I generally leave it up to the team to decide. The one big benefit is that it gives the incoming frosh a chance to get to know the veterans better and to work out in the weight room. The logistics are not easy though because of us not having summer school on campus, and housing has to be secured off campus. In addition a lot of the upper classmen look to get internships as they near graduation and quite frankly I believe that should take priority.

ELEVENTH DAY

Question: In terms of the off-season, is it important for your kids to play games or do you emphasize other aspects of off-season training? Basketball is hard on the body, so there must be some premium on reducing the amount of actual play, while still refining your skills and fitness, in the months of April to September.

Answer: After April 25th, we are not allowed to do skill work any more with our players per NCAA rules. During the off season we do a lot of work on footwork, shooting, ball handling, and one on one work with our guys, both before the season starts and after the season ends through the April 25th date. We are not allowed to work with our players over the summer, and generally I do not encourage our guys to play in summer leagues, because too many bad habits on both ends of the floor are often the result. In addition I feel that this is the time to work on their strength, flexibility, and offensive skills, while also giving their bodies a break from the pounding that the game inflicts on their joints.

When our guys come back for the summer we encourage their "playing" to be of the one on one, two on two, or three on three variety, and to limit the duration, but not the intensity.

TENTH DAY

Question: How does your schedule get put together each year, and how is your schedule shaping up for next year?

Answer: There are usually three major factors that influence our schedule, but now a fourth has become important with the severe economic downturn affecting all colleges and sports programs.

The first determinant of scheduling is to avoid missing class time. At an academically challenging school like Holy Cross it is simply a priority to miss as little class as possible. Some fans and alums forget that our guys not only want to get a great education, but also get the best grade point average possible, in not only a very competitive school, but also a very competitive post graduation job market.

We have had the opportunity to play in tournaments that would have been great exposure for the program, but were simply too close to mid terms or finals, and involved multiple days of missing class. We therefore have to pass. Other games involve multiple plane flights there and back which also increases missed class and we have to pass. We don't charter, so getting to games has to make sense.

The second determinant is the length of our final exams. Our first semester final exams go from a Friday through the following Saturday. Plus there are reading days three days before exams start, in which there are review sessions and study groups that meet for preparation. Exams knock out 12 days of December for scheduling. Throw in 3 days for Christmas, and you are left with only 15 days you can schedule in December.

With our league only having 14 conference games we have to try to schedule 15 non conference games in basically 35 days. This is really difficult because schedules have to "fit" with your opponent and this often just doesn't happen. We have tried to play Villanova the past two years and the dates just didn't work. There are countless other examples. Conferences with 16 or 18 conference games have it much easier because of the reduced number of games they have to schedule. Plus it is imperative that your local games that you play every year take the first priority. If you ask any coach in our conference they will tell you that having to schedule 15 non-conference games in a 35 day window is a nightmare.

The third determinant is competitiveness. You need to play a competitive schedule that also allows your students to see home games. This means scheduling yearly home and home with local schools as well as trying to schedule other mid major teams within reasonable travel distance. Some fans are concerned about playing "name" teams. If this means going on the road to play guarantee games, then they are almost exclusively mid week, as most of the BCS schools are committed to TV games on the weekends during non conference. This again involves trying to get two teams whose schedules fit. Often really difficult. Personally it doesn't matter what the name on the jersey of our opponent is, but rather does playing that opponent present the opportunity to help us get better. People who think only good basketball is played in the BCS conferences, and you have to play those games to see good basketball, are usually more concerned with "bragging rights" at the work water cooler than supporting their programs.

The fourth determinant is now travel costs due to the economic downturn. This year we were scheduled to play in the pre-season NIT, but are now out and will schedule added guarantee games instead. Our athletic department like all college athletic departments has to reduce costs. Men's basketball is the only team in the athletic department that has the ability to increase revenue significantly by playing guarantee games. This year we are trying to play three or four in order to increase revenue and support the non revenue sports in the Department. Though it obviously will make winning very challenging, it will provide some needed help as we move through the downturn. We are also trying to schedule more local teams to cut down on travel costs.

I hope this gives insights into the challenges of our scheduling and how we go about trying to meet them. Always try to remember that at a school like ours our players are students first, and that that priority will always take precedence.

NINTH DAY

Question: You have stated in the past that if you have to play freshmen at this level you are in trouble. Does the performance of RJ, and Devin, your two freshmen this year, make you rethink that hypothesis?

Answer: No, not at all. The key part of the hypothesis is HAVING to play freshmen. Early in the year with all the injuries we Had to play Devin and RJ a lot of minutes and the results weren't very pretty. See all those 20 turnover games.

There is so much adjustment for freshmen to make at this level, that force feeding, because of necessity, usually results in loss of confidence, and a lack of trust on your team, because guys can't depend on freshmen to do the little things that result in consistent winning. The best scenario for freshmen is to work them into a rotation, and let them learn, without the pressure of having to be out there, when they are screwing up.

Show me a team that HAS to play freshmen and almost always that team will be very inconsistent. Obviously Devin, and particularly RJ had outstanding freshmen years. However RJ really started to develop, and become consistent, after some of the injured guys returned, and he could relax, learn and play.

Also we had five seniors on this team. They were selfless, understood what it took to win, and were some of the best leaders and mentors you could ever ask for as a coach. If you ask RJ and Devin they will tell you how much that helped them.
I seriously doubt that without the presence of our seniors either one of them would have enjoyed the success they did, and our team would not have kept developing like it did.

So I still believe that if you HAVE to play freshmen large minutes at the mid major level you are going to be very inconsistent at best.

EIGHTH DAY

Question: How much does the scouting services ratings play in developing your recruiting targets and making your decisions on who to recruit?

ANSWER- We use early ratings in the sophomore or junior years to try to identify potential recruits. After that, very few rating services actually see players we recruit more than a couple of times. So ratings are really meaningless. Fans often get worked up over ratings and stars, but they are really not a very good predictor of success at the college level once you get past the top 175 players. Tom Konchalski of HSBI, and Clark Francis of HOOPSCOOP, do the most thorough job of evaluating players that we would recruit.

Since academics plays such an important part in our recruiting, we have to spend a lot of time making sure the student athlete will be a good fit in this type of environment, and we have to try to get transcripts and testing from the high schools, which is often a tedious process. That's why the new NCAA ruling eliminating the April event evaluation period is really going to hurt our league in particular. We identified a significant numbe of prospects during this period and then used May and June to gather all the academic info for admissions. Now we will be forced to evaluate in July, which means we will have to wait till late August or September, when schools reopen to get the academic materials. This is going to delay our ability arrange official visits, and therefore will make early signings more difficult.

SEVENTH DAY

Question: Are there any issues facing Patriot League Basketball that us fans should be aware of?

ANSWER- Well the biggest immediate issue is NCAA legislation regarding the April Evaluation period, that would eliminate college coaches from attending AAU tournaments. The rationale is that we should not be attending these events because kids that play in them, often leave on Fridays and if the event involves significant travel, often don't get home till late Sunday night or even Monday. These kids are obviously missing class, and thus the NCAA feels we should not be encouraging this with our attendance. The issue for our league is that this was the period we would use to make decisions on the basketball ability of possible recruits. It is really difficult to get out and see kids play at their high schools during our seasons for obvious reasons. After identifying possible prospects, we would then use the month of May to gather all the academic information to take to our admission departments. Since the schools in our league require stricter admission requirements, this is a really important period to see if these prospects we liked in April are recruitable. If this period is eliminated we would have to identify prospects in the July period. Since most high schools are closed in July and August, getting this information would be very difficult, and push the recruiting process back, making early signings more difficult. One of the first questions recruits ask is are you offering a scholarship. Obviously for schools in our league the answer is determined by admission decisions and we need to provide transcripts, testing, and course schedules to admission offices for that decision to be made.

At our fall meeting all eight coaches in our league went on record that this legislation would materially affect our ability to recruit, and we our asking our schools to vote for an override when the final vote comes up in January. There are other ways to insure that these AAU events would not take students out of class. No games on Friday, and no games starting after 2pm on Sunday. Also a mileage limitation that would insure tournaments are more local. Kids are going to play in these tournaments simply because the AAU teams use this time to set their rosters for the July evaluation period. If we can attend, but only those tournaments that have restrictions like those above, we can affect positive change, and still evaluate in a time frame that allows us to gather the academic information necessary to start the recruiting process.

SIXTH DAY

Question: Has the new three-point line had any effect on the college game?

ANSWER- It's still early in the season and I don't have any hard statistics, but from watching a lot of games on TV and following scores in the papers, it seems that 3 point shooting percentage is down a little and scoring seems to be down a little also. The rationale for moving the line back was that it would extend the defense and open up the middle driving lanes and post play. However, it seems that more teams are playing some type of zone or sagging man to man, and the middle is clogged, and possessions are longer. Where before you had to honor even the average shooters at the old line, I think that with most teams you only have to honor one or two at the new line. There are always exceptions of course, and things may change as players get more accustomed to it.

The other rationale for moving the line was to bring our players closer to the international line thus better preparing them for international competition, and on this we'll have to wait and see if it has any effect.

FIFTH DAY

Question: What are the things you stress the most in coaching your team?

ANSWER- The principal theme we stress is that to be a good team and reach maximum potential, the players must do the things that make the whole better than the sum of the parts. Every player has the ability and obligation to add value to the team. This includes practice, where your team gets better and develops its mental and physical toughness. It involves games, where everyone has the ability to accomplish the little things that most often determine whether you win or lose.

In keeping with this philosophy, I developed a "Circle of Opportunity", which every player who has gone through the program has had as their guide in their adding value to the team. The "Circle" is divided into pie pieces which consist of the following: Block Outs, Offensive Rebounds, Ball Pursuit (pursuit of rebounds and loose balls), Charges Taken, Deflections, Transition Defense, Closeouts (stopping dribble penetration to the middle of the floor), Shot Contests, and Playing with Emotion and Confidence (collective will). We recognize that players will make mistakes and therefore have set a goal of 70% for our players and team to achieve. Every single player can add value by committing to the Circle in practice and games. I tell our players every day that if they commit to the Circle it will not guarantee victory, but it will guarantee they will have the opportunity for victory, no matter who or where they play.

The first thing I love about the Circle is that no one on the team can make the excuse of "I'm not capable of doing that coach". The second thing is that when you consistently do these things better than your opponent, you win. The third thing is that, through the use of film, you can objectively evaluate a players value to the team and his commitment to winning. There is objective accountability rather than subjective judgment about how a player performs. I always tell our guys that I don't control their playing time. They control their playing time by their commitment to the Circle.

What is telling is that your best players are usually the most committed and consistently achieve the goal of 70%. A great example is Tim Szatko, whose vertical jump was measured in centimeters, not inches. Despite this lack of jumping prowess he is third all time in Patriot League rebounding(783), because he blocked out at over 80% and also was great at pursuing rebounds at over 80%. Another example is Kevin Hamilton, who led every practice in deflections, and is the all time steals leader in HC and Patriot league history.

The circle is our basketball Bible and it has served our program, and our players very well, in helping make the whole better than the sum of the parts.


FOURTH DAY

Question: If you could ask Santa for something for your team this Christmas, what would you ask for?

ANSWER- Well the simple answer would be good health. To be more specific, it would be the opportunity for Pat and Alex to get back to where they could contribute on a regular basis, and have senior years they could remember with some satisfaction. No one outside the program will ever realize how hard, and to what lengths these two guys have gone to, in order to play and represent the school and the program they love.

When they started their careers there was no doubt in my mind that they would both wind up as two of the 10 best players in the conference their junior and senior years. Both made the all-rookie team, and Pat was Rookie of the Year his freshmen year. What I didn't realize then, was what tremendous leadership qualities they would develop over their careers. Unfortunately, as we all know, Pat has been sidelined with foot problems and a broken wrist, and Alex has been sidelined with severe bulging disk issues the past two years. They are both so passionate about playing and helping their team win, and it has been heartbreaking to come to the realization that it just may not happen. The thing that frustrates them most, is they know that before their injuries last year the team was 7-1, after them 8-13, and what a difference they could have made this, their senior year.

I have been asked so many times this year how much the team misses them. My answer is that any time you lose the head and the heart it greatly affects the body. There is no doubt that their absence means we lose five to ten points on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. They are two huge "glue guys" who make everyone around them better. The fact remains that we need to keep getting better without them, and if Santa does grant my wish, and they are able to play some, we will be that much better.

I do know one thing. If I was starting a business, these are two guys I would want working with me. They Are Winners, who are passionate, totally selfless, and totally loyal. Now they need to get a little lucky.

Also a very Healthy and Happy Christmas, and Holidays, to all The Cross fans, and their families out there. The difficult times will make us appreciate the good times all the more. I just hope everyone continues to appreciate the quality of the young men in this program, who continue to do their very best, through difficult circumstances, to represent their school with heart and class.

THIRD DAY

Question: Since you started coaching what are the biggest changes that have affected the game?

ANSWER- Taking the bottom out of the peach basket. Oh that was the year before I started. Actually for me this is pretty easy to answer. The shot clock. The three point line. The physicality of the players and the game itself. Video tape and computerized video editing. SHOT CLOCK: this created more offensive possessions but what it also did was put a premium on defense that could contain, and make people work on each offensive possession. The end of the four corners offense as a primary weapon. THREE POINT LINE: opened up the spacing of the floor by making defenses extend. Created more driving, and opened up low post play. Once it came in, it eliminated the type of game you saw in the Villanova-Georgetown NCAA championship game, where Villanova's defense started at the foul line. PHYSICALITY OF THE PLAYERS AND THE GAME: go back and look at some film of NCAA games in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's. The majority of fouls that were called back then would be totally ignored by refs today. There was little or no off the ball contact allowed. Offensive post players could run the floor and just post up where they wanted in the low post, where today they are bodied and chucked off the low post, at every opportunity. All the weight training, has made the players bigger, faster, stronger. The size and athleticism of the players has created a lot of "natural" contact that would have definitely been called fouls back in the above mentioned period. The "Bad Boy" Detroit Piston championship teams that took physicality on defense to a new level in the NBA, filtered down to the college game, and the college refs. The result is a totally different level of physicality, and as a consequence, lowering of team scoring.

VIDEO TAPE and COMPUTERIZED VIDEO EDITING- At a pre-season Basketball Tip-off get together in NYC this fall, there were a lot of players from the 70's teams, and also some recent basketball alums. At an after Tip-off get together at a local watering hole, I had mentioned that some of the proceeds from our golf tournament were going to update our computerized editing system. This led to a discussion of the fact that the guys from the 70's era never watched film, and opponent preparation consisted of "this guy can shoot, this guy can't" and a basic summary of a teams offense and defense.

When I was with the Knicks in the late 80's the use of video in terms of preparing for an opponent was starting to take off. We still had to go the VCR to VCR route in terms of making splices, and I remember nights where we would go back to the hotel room after a game, stack vcr on top of vcr and make splices until 3am, so we could show them to the guys the next day. The use of video tape eventually worked its way down to the college level.

Then in the late 90's computerized video editing came along. This revolutionized scouting and preparation. Now you could prepare splices and edits right after the game and watch them on the plane or bus home. You could give each player his next opponents scoring areas, what sets were run for him, and just as important, where he was not effective. Offenses and defenses could be broken down and prepared for in great detail, and game plans could be developed that were really non existent before the computer. It is no surprise that the scoring averages of teams in both the NBA and college started dropping dramatically and defensive schemes took on more and more importance.

Today our players watch about 4 hrs worth of film and splices in preparing for an opponent. The coaching staff spends about 100 hrs watching film for an average prep. We bring the computerized editing system on the road with us and even show film at the walk-thrus. I often joke that we should know what kind of tooth paste an opposing player uses, or even more important if he doesn't brush. We actually break down the percentages of a player scoring going right vs left when he shoots. There is often a huge difference in percentage. See Dwayne Wade when we played Marquette in the NCAA's.

People often complain how most players can't shoot anymore and how teams score in the 60's and 50's on a regular basis. I've got a news flash for everyone; it's called defensive preparation enabled by computerized video editing. Pat Flannery and I used to talk how the way both our teams defended, was the big neutralizer when we played teams that were quicker and stronger than ours. I tell our guys that the defensive plans we develop don't guarantee you'll win those games, but it guarantees you will have the OPPORTUNITY to win them. That opportunity simply wouldn't be there without great preparation. In my mind this has changed the game as much as anything. Players can't just "play" anymore, they have to compete mentally, as well as physically. It also means they have to keep working individually to "layer" their game, to eliminate weaknesses. This involves a lot more dedication to getting better than in the past. The players that don't, get left behind, way behind. It's another reason you can't automatically project high school scoring and shooting into college.

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