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DECEMBER 19, 2006 Stadium fails to live up to billing Page 1 of 2

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Dan Bickley The Republic Dec. 17, 2006 12:00 AM

It's been a rough year for the new stadium.

The grass won't grow. The retractable roof has been benched. And people who saw the Rolling Stones still aren't sure what they sound like in concert.

Alas, the acoustics from an eight-track player in a 1972 Gremlin surpass the sound quality inside this building, a post-industrial colossus full of girders, beams and exposed concrete.

Look, I love the exterior of University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. It's unique, shining and stunning. It's wonderfully communal, with one of the best tailgate areas in the history of beer swilling. But the interior is a joke. And not at all what we thought we were getting with our hard-earned tourism dollars.

At its core, football is about character, and part of that means dealing with the elements. This applies to the players and the fans, and to seal out elements for collective comfort is to test karma and anger the football gods.

The Bears and the Packers play in open-air stadiums, in cities that get bitterly cold. They have won Super Bowls. The Lions and the Vikings have shut the roof and won nothing.

In the NFL, the weather must be in play. From the Ice Bowl to the Fog Bowl, many games become classics simply because of the playing conditions. And barring a strange heat wave or freakish rainstorm, the roof in Glendale should be open for all day games starting in November.

After all, the aging Keith Richards didn't mind the roof being open, and his circulation is hardly what it used to be. Now that's character.

Pathetically, the Cardinals are choosing the path of least resistance, which is what bad franchises do when small pockets of people complain, even though the Cardinals went to great lengths to explain sun patterns and high-glare areas to new customers.

Problem is, bad franchises don't have replacement customers waiting on season ticket lists. And after all those years of empty bleachers, the Cardinals don't want to anger anyone they have on the hook, especially the customers who were sold on a comfortable fan experience.

Doesn't matter. These roof controversies should've ended with Curt Schilling. Instead, another retractable roof is another game-to-game proposition, and another very expensive joke. All we know for certain is that the roof will be open before the , when an Air Force parachute unit drops onto the field as part of the pregame ceremonies. And then it'll close again before kickoff.

Meanwhile, there's the matter of this cow pasture they call a playing field. All over the Valley, playing fields are green and lush. According to witnesses, you wouldn't believe how good the field looks at Sun Devil Stadium. But in Glendale, the http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentral.com/arizon... 12/17/2006 Stadium fails to live up to billing Page 2 of 2 expensive field-in-a-tray is growing more sporadically than a Chia Pet.

Granted, the field looks worse than it feels under cleat. And, hopefully, it'll look better today than it did last week, when the stress of three football games in 30 hours left but a few splotches of grass between the 20-yard lines.

But if the field doesn't look significantly better today, then we've got big problems. The clock is ticking, and aesthetics are very important this time of year, especially with two bowl games coming down the pike.

While the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority is seeking long-term remedies and improvements, some thorny issues remain. What if the grass never grows in that tray? Must we send the high school games back to Tempe? Must we pass another referendum to buy field turf?

For now, the sports authority seems confident that the tray technology is sound. They claim a strange phenomenon has sabotaged the football season. It seems when the field-in-a-tray comes rolling into an air-conditioned stadium for two days in September and October, the grass begins to think it is winter when it is not. And then it goes to sleep or something.

The sports authority is working feverishly trying to solve the problem (before the BCS wonks get wind of it), and either way, grass hasn't gotten this much attention since Woodstock. It seems almost certain that new sod will be required for the Fiesta Bowl, as well as the traditional field overlay (more new sod woven into existing grass) for the BCS title game. Which means the owner of some lucky turf company will have some extra spending money for the holidays.

If it helps any, the Cardinals will be done with the field come Sunday night. They close out their season with two road games. And from the botched Tillman tribute to Denny's "Monday Night Meltdown," from the naming rights controversy to the Roof and Grass fiasco, the honeymoon at home didn't last long at all.

Reach Bickley at [email protected] or (602) 444-8253. Check out his blog at azcentral.com.

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Football Playoff Gets Push From Two College Presidents

By Curtis Eichelberger

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- 's disputed method for deciding a national champion is facing a new set of critics - - two prominent college presidents.

University of Florida President Bernard Machen, whose football team is playing Ohio State University for this year's title on Jan. 8, and Florida State University President T.K. Wetherell, are pushing for a playoff tournament instead of a single game.

Their clout may give added traction to the annual calls for a playoff. The two schools have participated in a combined eight title games and won three championships since 1993.

``A playoff is inevitable,'' said Machen, 62, who hasn't yet drafted a detailed plan. ``The public strongly favors a playoff, but university presidents are in denial about that. They just don't see it. Whatever the format, I believe we need to get ahead of it and create the system rather than responding to the external pressures.''

Under the current Bowl Championship Series system, two teams are selected for the title game using criteria such as poll rankings resulting from votes by sportswriters, coaches and former players and administrators. Four other games match teams that finish near the top of the BCS rankings. The system, created by six of the most powerful football conferences and accepted by the others, has sponsored a title game since 1998.

Most other college sports champions are determined in a playoff, men's most famously in the so- called March Madness tournament, which fields 65 teams and lasts three weeks.

Florida's 73-57 victory over UCLA in April's championship game was watched by 12.3 million U.S. television households.

TV Money

More than prestige is at stake with a football playoff. The schools are turning their backs on as much as a 60 percent increase in television and sponsorship money by not adopting a playoff system, said Kevin O'Malley, a college sports consultant in Tampa, Florida.

New York-based News Corp. pays about $85 million a year for the right to televise four of the five BCS games, including the title game. And Walt Disney Co.'s ABC pays about $30 million a year to show the , which is the fifth BCS game, O'Malley said.

``Fans are already familiar with the playoff format, and interest would build more each week as teams fell to the side,'' O'Malley said. ``The title sponsorship for the championship game, it would go through the roof.''

A football playoff would generate excitement akin to the NFL's or the championship, said Jack Myers, chief executive of the Myers Reports Inc., a New York-based media research company.

Super Bowl

The ' 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in last February's Super Bowl was watched by 41.6 percent of U.S. households with televisions, and 30-second ads sold for $2.5 million. Last January, the University of Texas's 41-38 win over the University of Southern California for the BCS championship was seen by 21.7 percent of U.S. television households, and 30-second ads sold for $800,000.

``A and championship? That's a franchise you would want to own,'' Myers said. ``If they developed it, over three to five years, I could see advertising revenue increasing 30 percent.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=aqszRK5jhMEY 12/19/2006 Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page Page 2 of 2

The challenge Machen and Wetherell face comes from college presidents concerned about lengthening the football season, lost class time and an impression that they are sacrificing education for money.

``I don't think we need another game now that we have a 12- game season,'' said Ohio State University President Karen Holbrook. She said she agreed with Myles Brand, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, who said in September that college presidents want to emphasize regular-season games and don't want a ``tournament sport.''

Back to 11 Games

Wetherell, 60, said he's still developing a plan to discuss with NCAA leaders next year. He said he may propose returning the football schedule to 11 regular-season games and rescheduling the Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls to make room for the early rounds of a playoff. Each bowl would rotate hosting the national championship.

Wetherell said schools will eventually be forced to create a playoff to satisfy the public's demand for a clear champion. Critics of the BCS system say lesser-known programs like Boise State University, with a 12-0 record this year, stand little chance of competing for a title.

``At some point, people are going to get sick of it and demand a change,'' Wetherell said. ``Boise State is undefeated and they have no shot at the title.''

Machen said presidents meet in March and that he will have playoffs on the agenda.

He, too, said the bowls will need to be rescheduled to accommodate a playoff. He said he'd talk to other presidents before backing a specific plan.

Neal Pilson, a consultant to the Rose Bowl, presented a plan in 1994 for an eight-team playoff when he was president of CBS Sports.

``We argued that it would create greater viewership and public interest in college football, but they were afraid of over-commercialization,'' Pilson said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in Washington at [email protected]

Last Updated: December 19, 2006 00:11 EST

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=aqszRK5jhMEY 12/19/2006 Another example of the NCAA's common sense Page 1 of 3

Posted on Fri, Dec. 15, 2006

COLLEGE BASKETBALL INSIDER

Another example of the NCAA's common sense

By WENDELL BARNHOUSE Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Alabama’s Jermareo Davidson is another example of the NCAA showing common sense and compassion. If this keeps up, the organization will be nominated for a humanitarian award.

Early in the college football season, the story of Clemson’s Ray Ray McElrathbey earned the NCAA kudos. After an apparent , the organization allowed a trust fund established for the donations that came in to help McElrathbey raise his younger brother, Fahmarr.

Davidson’s story is more tragic. His brother, Dewayne Watkins, is recovering from a gunshot wound to his head suffered in on Nov. 7.

Davidson and his girlfriend, Brandy Nicole Murphy, visited Watkins in his Atlanta hospital a few days later. During that visit, Watkins lost control of the SUV she was driving in downtown Atlanta. She was thrown from the car and died of her injuries on Nov. 12.

A 6-10 senior forward who was on pace to graduate in May, Davidson missed class time and study sessions.

“It was like trying to live a normal life when things weren’t normal,” Davidson told the Mobile Press Register.

Any student without the hyphenated “-athlete” designation would be able to withdraw for the semester to regroup during a time of trauma.

NCAA rules dictate to maintain eligibility, a student-athlete must pass a minimum of six credit hours each semester. Davidson’s first semester is an academic loss. A strict reading of the NCAA rule book would make him ineligible.

Jon Dever, Alabama’s director of academic services for intercollegiate athletics, found an NCAA rule that deals with the kind of tragic circumstances confronting Davidson.

Thanks to that rule, Davidson was allowed to withdraw from the fall semester but will retain his eligibility for the second semester.

Happier holidays, Jermareo. And for this year, we’ll refrain from placing a lump of coal in the NCAA’s gilded stocking.

Open shots

Granted, it was just one game. But LSU’s lack of strategy and tactics in Sunday’s overtime loss to Texas was shocking.

Glen “Big Baby” Davis missed 12 of 20 shots — and far too many were 15-foot jumpers. If you’re 6-9, 290 and quick, how in the name of Naismith are you not operating around the basket? If a player like Davis takes 20 shots in a game, he should score 30.

And the Tigers’ final possession was a classic example of poor coaching. LSU coach John Brady called a timeout with his team trailing by a point. We can only assume he diagrammed a play of some sort. Instead, Garrett Temple settled for an NBA-range 3- pointer that fell short.

One of the reasons the Washington-Gonzaga series apparently ended with last Saturday’s game is that the Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar and Zags coach Mark Few have made the rivalry personal.

Both schools have gone to closed practices because the coaches of each team believe the media (Seattle covering Washington and Spokane covering Gonzaga) have been serving as spies.

Amazing. Two coaches who apparently believe reporters know enough about basketball that they can serve as surreptitious http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/16251453.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp 12/17/2006 Another example of the NCAA's common sense Page 2 of 3

scouts. (And would any coach be dumb enough to base his game plan on a reporter’s scouting report?)

Sharing the moment

North Carolina coach Dean Smith said becoming major college basketball’s leader in coaching victories meant more to his former players than it did to him.

Smith’s record is about to become Bob Knight’s record. And one of Knight’s former players has been studying the calendar.

“I can tell you I’ve been looking at the schedule and trying to predict when it might happen just to see if there’s any way I can get down there,” Iowa coach Steve Alford, an All-American at Indiana when Knight coached there, told the Los Angeles Times. “Just so I could be a part of it because of how much I respect him and how much he’s meant to my career, not just as a player and coach but as a human being.

“What he got out of me as a player, I’ll never be able to thank him enough for that. Getting into coaching, no one has spent more time trying to help me, whether it’s breaking down my practice tapes, breaking down my game tapes or always being a phone call away.”

Scheduling philosophy

Oakland — the team based in Michigan, not California — plays at UCLA on Saturday. Oakland coach Greg Kampe had his reasons for scheduling the Bruins.

“I want our kids to play against them, feel that toughness and yell at them that that’s how UCLA does it and they went to the national championship game,” he said. “And, I’m a traditionalist. I’ve always wanted to take a team to Pauley Pavilion.

“I hope Coach [John] Wooden is there. I won’t go up and talk to him or anything but that would be the ultimate experience, to compete on the same floor where Coach Wooden coached.”

Dribbles

It has been nearly 45 years since Cincinnati beat Ohio State in the 1962 national championship game. It was the Bearcats’ second consecutive national title and the fact it came against The Ohio State University galled the Buckeyes to the point they no longer wanted to play their in-state rivals. That ends Saturday when Cincinnati faces Ohio State in the John Wooden Tradition at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

When Nevada-Las Vegas defeated No. 20 Nevada in Reno, it was the Rebels’ first road victory on the road against a ranked opponent since ... 1991. That was when Jerry Tarkanian was coaching UNLV and the team was undefeated and the defending national champions.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse has suggested that Texas Tech coach Bob Knight or former Utah coach Rick Majerus would be good choices as the Gophers’ next coach. Dan Monson resigned last month.

On Dec. 9, Georgetown defeated Oral Roberts 73-58 and Oklahoma State defeated Ball State, 75-56. A couple of random, non- conference blowouts, right? Here’s the Paul Harvey on those two games: Georgetown is coached by John Thompson, Oral Roberts by Scott Sutton. Thompson’s brother, Ronny, coaches Ball State and Sutton’s brother, Sean, coaches Oklahoma State.

Turnovers

Kansas losing to Oral Roberts and DePaul. Minnesota. Colorado College’s 6-point first half vs. Air Force. Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl’s temper. Connecticut’s non-conference schedule. New Mexico (losses by a combined 55 points to rivals UT-El Paso and New Mexico State).

Steals

Kentucky’s Randolph Morris. Missouri Valley Conference. George Mason’s start. Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton. Iowa State champion Northern Iowa. Ohio State freshman Greg Oden. Missouri’s full-court pressure. Ole Miss freshman Ben Hansbrough (Tyler’s little brother).

Trash talk

Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, whose team has lost to Missouri State and beat Winthrop in overtime, on how good those two teams are: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/16251453.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp 12/17/2006 Another example of the NCAA's common sense Page 3 of 3

“People that I care about, that know basketball, know how good they are. I don’t know much about carpentry, so I wouldn’t know good wood from bad wood. I’m a basketball coach and I know good teams.”

Wendell Barnhouse, 817-390-7760 [email protected]

© 2006 Star-Telegram.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.dfw.com

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/16251453.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp 12/17/2006 Beauty in the little things Page 1 of 4

Posted on Sun, Dec. 17, 2006

COMMENTARY

Beauty in the little things , a sports giant, cared about small details. And he’d talk about rules, numbers, children — just about

anything but himself.

By JOE POSNANSKI The City Star

Lamar Hunt, the founder of the , the man who named the Super Bowl and a guy who once tried to buy Alcatraz, called the cell phone a couple of years ago when my wife and I were in the doctor’s office with our oldest daughter.

“Is she all right?” he asked with grave concern in his voice. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/16257678.htm?template=contentModules/print... 12/17/2006 Beauty in the little things Page 2 of 4

“Oh. Yes, she’s fine. It’s just a regular checkup.”

“Well, you take care of her. I can wait. If you would be kind enough to call me back later, that would be great.” And he hung up the phone so quietly that I was not entirely sure he had gone.

•••

This will be a series of small stories because that’s what Lamar Hunt appreciated. He may have had a larger effect on American sports than anyone who ever lived, but he did not find himself very interesting. That’s a rare quality among rich and accomplished men. It is the first thing anyone who met Lamar Hunt noticed.

“He’s just a regular guy,” they would say — everybody said that. Bill Grigsby, that beautiful Chiefs announcer, often remembered loaning Hunt change so he could buy coffee. , the Chiefs Pro Bowl , often remembered how Hunt wanted to talk about places they both knew in Texas. Fred Arbanas, the great Chiefs tight end of the 1960s, often remembered Hunt serving the players food and drinks on the plane to road games. And so on.

Everyone remembered small things with Lamar Hunt. He would have liked that.

•••

Lamar Hunt wanted to be called the Chiefs “founder” rather than the Chiefs “owner.” He insisted on it, and he rarely insisted on things.

“To me,” he said, “every Chiefs fan has ownership in the team. They are just as invested emotionally as I am. I was able to bring the team to Kansas City, but it is Kansas City’s team.”

•••

Lamar Hunt had a unique way of turning conversations away from personal talk. He would simply shift the talk suddenly and surprisingly. For instance, you might ask him how he became interested in sports, and he might begin by talking about his childhood. They called him “Games” back then because he was always inventing some new sport with a ball, a wall, chalk lines, concrete steps, whatever. He was the son of H.L. Hunt, the oil magnate, a billionaire in a time when there were only a handful of billionaires in the world.

So you might ask Hunt then whether those little games were a way for him to escape that soap-opera world of Texas oil. This would spur Hunt to talk about — kneeling .

“I don’t think quarterbacks should be allowed to kneel at the end of games,” he would say. It would be a bit stunning because the conversation had not gradually turned to this point — nobody had said one word about quarterbacks or kneeling or even football. But Hunt would just keep talking about kneeling quarterbacks like it was the most natural thing in the world. He would say teams should not be allowed to just run out the last 2 minutes of a game.

“No other sport allows you to just hold on to the ball like that,” he would say. “In basketball, they have the 10-second rule and a shot clock, plus they are allowed to foul you. In baseball, you still have to keep pitching the ball. In soccer, you can try to keep the ball away, but it takes great skill to do that. But in football, we allow our quarterbacks to just fall to one knee to run out the clock, and I don’t think that’s good for the sport.”

He would then offer up a series of potential rule changes — he could go on like this for quite a while. And by the time he finished, you had forgotten what you were asking about Hunt’s life, which was probably the point all along.

•••

An e-mail story: A man was killed in a motorcycle accident; he was working at the time for Lamar Hunt’s construction company. The accident had nothing in particular to do with the construction job, but Hunt’s personal secretary went to the home of the widow and gave her a book of blank checks, each signed by Lamar Hunt.

A week later, the secretary returned with a message from Hunt: “Please don’t use these checks to pay for $10 items or small amounts. Please use them for what you really need.”

•••

Lamar Hunt loved playing around with numbers. He would take scraps of paper and scribble for hours. One time, he figured up some statistic to show what a 1,500-yard might do for the Chiefs. Another time, he totaled up the number of times he saw Michael Jordan play live. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/16257678.htm?template=contentModules/print... 12/17/2006 Beauty in the little things Page 3 of 4

“I believe it’s 108,” he said, this was in 1997, a few months before Jordan retired for the second time. Hunt was an original partner in the Chicago Bulls, and watching Jordan play was one of the sporting thrills of his life, along with seeing the World Cup for the first time, watching Rod Laver hit forehands, being there in Atlanta when Michael Johnson ran his famous 19.32 in the 200-meter dash and, of course, seeing Otis Taylor break free in Super Bowl IV. The beauty and adventure of sports moved him much more than winning and losing. That’s what defined him as an owner and a sportsman.

“You know I’ve never met Michael Jordan,” he said suddenly, as if he only just realized that. “And I don’t think I ever will.” When asked why, he said the words that I still believe cut closest to the heart of the man. “Sometimes,” he said, “beauty is best appreciated from afar.”

•••

Lamar Hunt would sit absolutely still during games. He would not cheer during or boo after . His wife, Norma, used to tear a referee doll limb from limb after questionable calls, but even then Lamar would not change expressions.

“I suppose I’m a pretty patient man,” he said once, talking about the Chiefs. “It’s a vice. I tend to let things play out. I want to see what will happen.”

It was that patience (and quite a bit of money) that helped him through the early salad years of the League. It was that patience that kept him believing, until the last days of his life, that professional soccer would find its place in American sports. It was that patience that kept him hoping — every year for the last 36 years — that his Chiefs would make it back to the Super Bowl. Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson said Hunt never said no to any move — no matter the cost — that might make the team better.

Yes, some wanted him to be more forceful, shake destiny a bit, fire decision-makers more quickly, spend money with more abandon. But that just was not Lamar Hunt.

“Bad luck,” he would say to Peterson after losses.

•••

Lamar Hunt named the Super Bowl after his daughter’s Super Ball and spent $2.5 million for one gigantic painting called “Icebergs.” He tried to start a professional bowling league, and he did help start professional tennis (he’s in the International Tennis Hall of Fame). He put a bid on Alcatraz Island (he wanted to turn it into a shopping and space museum). He built amusement parks. He never gave up on his dream for a rolling roof that could cover both Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums. He claimed for many years to own just one suit because he said one was all a man needed. His name was in the Dallas phonebook until the day he died.

“There are those who would say I never quite grew up,” he said. “And I suppose they’re right.”

•••

When I called Lamar Hunt back that day, he again asked whether my daughter was all right. I assured him that this was just a checkup, she was fine, she got a lollipop on her way out, and he said that was good. “Health is so important,” he said. Hunt was already sick by then. He still thought he could beat the cancer.

We talked for a little while about Kansas City — Hunt remembered in the mid-1960s, when Charlie Finley, owner of the Kansas City A’s, asked whether Hunt would move the Chiefs to Atlanta so they could be a package deal. “This is a (lousy) town,” Finley said, only he didn’t use the word “lousy,” which is why it is in parentheses. He used a much harsher word, one not fit for print, and one Hunt says with a slew of apologies.

“Charlie could be a crass man,” Hunt said.

He did not move the team, of course, because he thought there was something real and admirable about Kansas City. He did not move the team in the 1970s and ’80s either, even though the team was lousy and the seats at Arrowhead were half empty, and things just didn’t seem to be working out. Then in the 1990s, when the Chiefs started making the playoffs and every seat was filled with someone wearing red, he would sit in his owner’s box and look around in wonder.

“Kansas City is really a wonderful place,” he said. “It amazes me how things happen. One of the blessings of my life was moving the Texans to Kansas City.” Then, perhaps because he thought the conversation was turning too personal, he asked whether I thought baseball would be better if there was a pitch clock that forced the pitcher to throw the ball within, say, 20 seconds of when he got the ball back from the catcher. It was just another odd Lamar Hunt turn, but by then I had grown used to them. I said that a clock like that might do more harm than good — it might ruin the pace of the game.

“You could be right,” he said. “Baseball does have a nice easy pace. Like life.” http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/16257678.htm?template=contentModules/print... 12/17/2006 Beauty in the little things Page 4 of 4

“Not your life,” I said.

“No,” he said, and he laughed. “Not mine. I’ve always managed to get into something, haven’t I?” The conversation ended shortly after that. Every single time I saw Lamar Hunt after that — until he was no longer well enough to come to Chiefs games — he always asked how my oldest daughter was doing.

To reach Joe Posnanski, call (816) 234-4361 or send e-mail to [email protected]. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com

© 2006 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/16257678.htm?template=contentModules/print... 12/17/2006 Los Angeles Times: Loaded question Page 1 of 5

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-guns17dec17,1,6697211.story?coll=la-headlines-sports

ATHLETES AND GUNS | SPECIAL REPORT

Loaded question Possession, and use, of firearms by athletes has become a hot-button issue, triggering concern for pro leagues such as the NBA and NFL By Lance Pugmire Times Staff Writer

December 17, 2006

Tampa Bay running back Errict Rhett was making a career of fearlessly confronting 300-pound linemen and rock-solid , but his first encounter with real, heart-thumping fright came the day he faced a .45-caliber muzzle.

That was a decade ago — on a day when the NFL's 1994 offensive rookie of the year needed a car wash and a haircut. He pulled into a neighborhood shop that provided both.

His uniform of the day: a stylish linen shirt and white pants. When he rose from the barber's chair, he looked sharp. So did the freshly washed and shining red Lexus waiting for him outside the door. Maybe too sharp. He stood out in the crowd.

A car wheeled in front of Rhett, blocking access to his car. The driver, a menacing stranger, challenged him — then reached under his seat.

"I know that motion there," Rhett recalled in an interview. "Where I'm from, the inner city of South Florida — Carver Ranches — whenever you see that motion, everyone knows that damn motion."

And, as Rhett rightly sensed, in another instant he was staring at a handgun. It was pointed at his head.

"My heart started beating so fast it was uncontrollable," he said. "I've never been so scared. The whole world got quiet."

That moment changed him. Rhett, like a lot of other professional athletes, decided he would never again leave home without his own concealed handgun.

While NBA and NFL officials decline to estimate how many players are licensed to carry weapons, a spate of recent gun incidents involving professional and college players has revealed that numerous athletes apparently are armed.

Three NBA players were found to be carrying concealed handguns after police were called to a shooting incident in October outside an Indianapolis strip club.

Stephen Jackson of the had fired off five shots in the parking lot outside the club. He said the driver had threatened him and his friends. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-guns17dec17,1,3993179,print.story?coll=la-headlines-sports 12/17/2006 Los Angeles Times: Loaded question Page 2 of 5 Police found that all three Pacers teammates were armed. Jamaal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels, like Jackson, also were licensed to carry concealed weapons.

Prosecutors charged Jackson with criminal recklessness and misdemeanor battery. Tinsley and Daniels had not used their guns and were not charged.

"Stephen Jackson should be ashamed of himself," said attorney David Cornwell, who nonetheless defends an athlete's right to be armed. The Atlanta lawyer represents such prominent football players as Reggie Bush of the Saints and Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers.

Athletes "have a right not to be assaulted," Cornwell said. But he regarded Jackson's alleged gunplay as a dangerous example of someone apparently using a gun to gain "respect in the streets."

There have been a number of other incidents.

In January, receiver Chris Henry pleaded guilty in Orlando, Fla., to a concealed weapon charge. During an argument with a group of people, he had pulled his 9-millimeter Luger and allegedly pointed it into the crowd.

In February, Sebastian Telfair, then a Portland Trail Blazer, was questioned by Massachusetts state police after a loaded handgun was found in his luggage aboard the team plane. Telfair said he had accidentally carried his girlfriend's gun on the road trip to Boston. He was fined by the team.

And in August, former NBA player Lonny Baxter was arrested in Washington, D.C., after shooting a gun from his vehicle near the White House. He was sentenced to two months in jail and is working out in Italy, trying to land a spot on a professional team in Europe.

"He has nothing to say about it, and he wants to move on," said Baxter's Washington attorney, Richard Finci. "The fact is it's a felony to have a gun near the White House, and it's stupid to discharge one into the air."

Such incidents have raised new concerns throughout the sports world and focused critical public attention on the issue of armed athletes.

NBA Commissioner David Stern tackled the subject during his annual preseason conference call in October, saying he prefers that players keep their guns at home.

"We think this is an alarming subject," Stern said. "Although you'll read players saying how they feel safer with guns, in fact those guns actually make them less safe."

The commissioner argued that carrying a gun dramatically increases "your chances of being shot by one."

The league's collective bargaining agreement restricts players from bringing even licensed firearms to arenas, practice facilities or promotional appearance. NBA rookies are instructed about the pros and cons of gun ownership during their league transition program.

Stern said players can own guns, but "I would favor being able to have a firearm to protect your home. Period."

One of the worst incidents involving a gun and a basketball star, however, took place at home. In 2002, then-recently retired New Jersey Nets star Jayson Williams was charged with reckless manslaughter after a limousine driver was shot dead in Williams' New Jersey home.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-guns17dec17,1,3993179,print.story?coll=la-headlines-sports 12/17/2006 Los Angeles Times: Loaded question Page 3 of 5 A jury deadlocked on the felony charge and Williams is scheduled to be retried.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy also acknowledged that the recent rash of gun incidents with athletes has raised concerns in his league.

"It's something we closely watch," he said.

Last week, Terry "Tank" Johnson of the was arrested at his home for possessing a number of guns and assault rifles, allegedly unregistered and in violation of probation from a previous gun charge.

Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound , had been arrested in 2005 after a Chicago nightclub valet told police Johnson stowed a 9-millimeter gun in the console of his truck. A loaded handgun was discovered.

He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unlawful use of a weapon in November 2005 and was serving an 18- month probation.

"It was bad luck," Johnson's attorney, Jerry Marconi, said of the first gun charge. "Tank belonged to Bass Pro Shops' gun range in Arizona," where he used the gun. But, Marconi said, the lineman "had so many cars … he truly forgot it was in the truck."

Regarding the stash of weapons found in Johnson's home this week, Lake County prosecutor Jeff Pavletic said: "It's quite an arsenal for someone to be claiming he target shoots."

Johnson's bodyguard, Willie B. Posey, was shot to death Saturday in a Chicago nightclub. Johnson's attorney has said the player had nothing to do with the shooting.

Other NFL players involved in gun incidents since 2005 include Sean Taylor, Michael Doss and Jabar Gaffney.

Gaffney, then with the and now a receiver for the New England Patriots, was found in June by New Jersey police to have a .380 semiautomatic pistol in his glove compartment — a gun legally registered in Texas, but not in New Jersey. The charges later were dropped.

Taylor, a first-round draft pick of the Washington Redskins who signed for $18 million in 2004, was charged in -Dade County, Fla., with aggravated assault with a firearm. Law enforcement authorities said witnesses reported Taylor had pointed a gun at a group of men, accusing them of stealing two of his all-terrain vehicles.

Taylor's attorney said "it was a fistfight" with no weapons involved. Taylor pleaded no contest to misdemeanor simple battery and simple assault in June — a plea bargain that allowed Taylor to avoid answering if he used a gun in the incident.

The Redskins safety was placed on 18 months' probation, ordered to talk about the importance of education at 10 Miami schools and required to contribute $1,000 for scholarships to each of those schools. The NFL also fined him four game checks — $71,764.

Doss, an safety, received 40 hours of community service after firing shots outside a restaurant in Akron, Ohio, in the middle of the night.

Police found shell casings on the ground and a gun in Doss' Mercedes-Benz. The NFL also suspended Doss for one game.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-guns17dec17,1,3993179,print.story?coll=la-headlines-sports 12/17/2006 Los Angeles Times: Loaded question Page 4 of 5 In August, former Ohio State star running back Maurice Clarett, briefly of the Denver Broncos, was arrested by Columbus, Ohio, police. They found four loaded guns in Clarett's SUV.

Earlier this year, heavyweight boxer Andrew Golota was charged with misdemeanor violations when police conducting a sexual assault investigation in found Golota to be possessing more than a dozen firearms without permits.

In 1997, Coach Barry Switzer was detained by security guards at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for carrying a loaded revolver in a canvas bag. Airport officials said there was no criminal intent, and Switzer explained he placed the gun in the bag previously to keep it away from three children visiting his home, then forgot.

Baseball players Jose Canseco and Steve Howe also faced illegal gun possession charges during their playing careers.

A number of professional athletes have been attacked in public.

Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce was stabbed 11 times by a nightclub patron in 2000. The former Inglewood High player says he has a gun at home.

Corey Fuller of the used his gun to thwart a robbery when he was confronted by two armed men outside his Tallahassee home in 2004.

Defensive back Terence Kiel of the Chargers was shot in an apparent carjacking attempt in a Houston mall parking lot in 2003.

Athletes who carry guns do so, lawyer Cornwell said, because of "legitimate safety concerns." But he said he urges his clients to hire private security guards.

"I tell guys unless you're trained, don't carry. There's tragedy looming at the end of a gun muzzle," he said.

Todd Boyd, a critical studies professor at USC specializing in pop culture, calls guns part of the real world of many young athletes.

"So many of these players come from impoverished, urban or rural South environments," Boyd said. "Now you talk about that kid becoming an NBA player, making a lot of money, wearing expensive jewelry, driving expensive cars, and coming from a culture where you have to protect yourself — it's no surprise they're taking steps to cover each other.

"Of course, the guys who are smart have guys around them with guns — bodyguards."

After his encounter with the .45-caliber handgun at a Tampa carwash and barbershop, when Rhett was able to talk his way out of trouble, he went on to play another five seasons in the NFL — after the Buccaneers, he went to the Ravens and the .

And he remained an armed athlete.

"It's a simple reason," he said. "You want to protect yourself with a gun, not flaunt it."

The problem for many pro athletes, Rhett said, is balancing newfound personal wealth and maintaining contact with friends and family in public places where the athletes were raised.

"When I visited my mother and father in the inner city, man, it was scary," Rhett said. "My dad's been http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-guns17dec17,1,3993179,print.story?coll=la-headlines-sports 12/17/2006 Los Angeles Times: Loaded question Page 5 of 5 robbed at his door eight times. It was so bad…. And in clubs, there's a 99% chance you'll run into at least one person who's jealous of you."

Rhett said his decision to protect himself with a concealed firearm led him to the hobby of gun collecting. He amassed a collection of 60 guns, he said — everything from small pistols made in the 1800s to World War II handguns to a replica of the large, bazooka-looking flare gun Al Pacino flashed during his memorable "say hello to my little friend!" confrontation in the film "Scarface."

He said he maintained weapons permits for each firearm. But he had to use one of his guns only once, he said — and then it was merely a show of force.

Backing out of a fast-food parking lot with his pregnant wife, Rhett said he accidentally struck another car. The couple suddenly was surrounded by angry teenagers.

"It was getting very hostile, these kids yelling 'Come on, man' at me, with more cars pulling up," Rhett said. "It was totally intense until I showed them what I had. They backed off, and I called the police from my cell. I had my [firearm] license. Everything was fine."

Rhett said he ultimately decided to "start concentrating on being a better father instead of a gun collector." He said he gave up trips to firing ranges with teammates and traded in his "priceless" gun collection.

But locker rooms haven't changed, he said.

"You could tell the guys who would be dangerous with a gun," Rhett said. "Every team has … three or four guys you knew were packing, and you were thinking, 'Oh, man, that guy's dangerous.' "

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To print this page, select File then Print from your browser URL: http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/tigers/article/0,2844,MCA_25363_5219561,00.html C-USA stretches wings in SEC tie-in

League stepping into ring with heavyweight

By Phil Stukenborg Contact December 17, 2006

The champion-vs.-champion format has been shelved.

No longer does the AutoZone Liberty Bowl invite the champions from the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA to play each other, as the postseason game did from 1999 to 2004. While the previous arrangement had some marquee value from a national standpoint, Liberty Bowl officials and Dave C-USA representatives aren't lamenting their new deal. Einsel/Associated Press For the next four years, it will be C-USA versus the Southeastern Conference. QB Kevin Kolb's C- It's an interesting arrangement for C-USA. After years of playing a league champion, albeit one from a USA champion non-Bowl Championship Series conference, C-USA sends its best to play an SEC team near the Houston team will bottom of its division. play South Carolina C-USA teams haven't enjoyed much success against the SEC, regardless of their standing or national in the AutoZone ranking. This season, C-USA went 1-9 against the SEC with the only win (by Tulane) coming against a Liberty Bowl. The struggling Mississippi State program. Last year, it was 1-6, with the one win also over Mississippi State Gamecocks have (by Houston). "some quality wins," says U of M coach Commissioner Britton Banowsky, though, quickly dismisses any talk about the potential damage such a matchup could have on the young league's credibility. Having the C-USA champion play host to an SEC Tommy West. team -- even one with a losing league record -- seems attractive to Banowsky and all involved.

This year's game, which will be played Dec. 29 and kick off at 3:30 p.m., features C-USA champion Houston (10-3) vs. South Carolina (7-5). The Gamecocks finished fifth in the SEC East and went 3-5 in league play, but four of those losses were by a or less to ranked opposition, including No. 2 Florida (a 17-16 defeat).

"We are happy to be playing the Southeastern Conference,'' Banowsky said. ''Competitively, it doesn't differ a lot from past (Liberty Bowl) games. The bowl teams we played in the past were high-achieving teams, like Fresno State and Boise State, who had performed well on the field.

"You have the same thing with South Carolina. They're a good team in a tough league and they bring in a solid brand.''

The matchup makes geographic sense for the bowl. With the overall popularity of SEC football in the Mid-South, most years should provide an interesting opponent for C-USA. The matchup should theoretically be attractive to local college football fans. Kentucky, which will play in the Music City Bowl, also was considered for the game. The Wildcats were the SEC's feel-good story of 2006, also going 7-5 and earning their first bowl trip since 1999.

As for South Carolina, the Gamecocks bring a college coaching icon in , who won a national title at Florida and also coached in the NFL with the Washington Redskins. They bring an entertaining offense, directed by Blake Mitchell and multitalented receiver Syvelle Newton. Newton also played quarterback and free safety this season.

Houston will counter with quarterback Kevin Kolb, a four-year starter and the C-USA Offensive Player of the Year. The Cougars have a variety of offensive weapons -- Kolb, receiver Vincent Marshall, running backs Jackie Battle and Anthony Alridge -- and an improved defense.

''The impression I get is Houston is looking forward to playing a nationally renowned team like South Carolina,'' said Liberty Bowl executive director Steve Ehrhart. "South Carolina was so close to having won all those games (Auburn, Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida) and then they finished the year beating Clemson. I think the nation respects South Carolina ... knowledgeable fans do, too." http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/cda/article_print/0,1983,MCA_25363_5219561_ARTIC... 12/17/2006 commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN: Tigers Page 2 of 3

Houston coach Art Briles also has a healthy respect for a Spurrier-coached team. He doesn't concern himself with the C-USA champion vs. SEC East No. 5 discussion.

"I feel there's a necessity for us to perform at the level we've performed at all year,'' Briles said. ''That's where all my focus is going to be.

"We're not out to save the world. We're out to improve as a football team and (bring) credibility and national respect to our university."

Briles said that, from a fan's standpoint, Houston-South Carolina will be a "a very exciting" matchup.

University of Memphis coach Tommy West, whose team struggled this season after going to three straight bowls, said he finds the matchup a credible one for the C-USA champion. He said he'd cherish the opportunity.

"I can tell you that if we get in the Liberty Bowl, I don't care who we'll be playing," West said. "I'll just be glad to be there.

"I think this year they've got a really good team (South Carolina) to play our league champion. And I don't think it takes anything away from the game (with the Gamecocks being 3-5 in the SEC). I don't look at it that way. I look at it this way: South Carolina has some quality wins. You win seven games and play in that league, and you've done pretty dang good."

-- Phil Stukenborg: 529-2543

AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL

Matchup: Houston (10-3) vs. South Carolina (7-5)

When, where: Dec. 29, 3:30 p.m., at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium

Tickets: Call 795-9095; or go to libertybowl.org

TV: ESPN

Conference USA in the Liberty Bowl

The C-USA representative has won seven of 10 Liberty Bowls since the league was formed:

2005: Tulsa 31, Fresno St. 24

2004: Louisville 44, Boise St. 40

2003: Utah 17, Southern Miss 0

2002: TCU 17, Colorado St. 3

2001: Louisville 28, BYU 10

2000: Colo. St. 22, Louisville 17

1999: So. Miss 23, Colo. St. 17

1998: Tulane 41, BYU 27

1997: So. Miss 41, Pittsburgh 7

1996: Syracuse 30, Houston 17 http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/cda/article_print/0,1983,MCA_25363_5219561_ARTIC... 12/17/2006 Baker's graduation has special meaning Page 1 of 2

Posted on Sun, Dec. 17, 2006

UF | DALLAS BAKER

Baker's graduation has special meaning Florida Dallas Baker capped a dramatic turnaround in his life by graduating, and he got a big

from coach .

BY MIKE PHILLIPS [email protected]

GAINESVILLE - Dallas Baker graduated from the on Saturday.

Sounds simple enough, but you would have to know the relationship between the wide receiver and his coach, Urban Meyer, to understand the deeper meaning.

Meyer is being hoisted on a pedestal of late for leading his Gators to the national title game against Ohio State on Jan. 8, but Baker's graduation has meant just as much to the coach.

''There's a special place in our hearts because we know how far he has come,'' Meyer said. ``I'm proud of the bunch of them, especially Dallas.''

That's because Baker wasn't supposed to graduate. He never even dreamed of it.

''I just thought I would come to college, play football and get drafted in the NFL,'' said Baker, who was recruited by Steve Spurrier six years ago. ``I never thought I would graduate.''

Then Meyer showed up two years ago.

''Coach Meyer changed everything for me,'' said Baker, a New Smyrna Beach native.

TURNAROUND STARTS

Baker recalled this week a meeting he had with Meyer about 18 months ago.

''Mainly, he just came to me like a man, really,'' Baker said. ``He told me that a lot of people on the team thought I was funny, but as far as a good football player . . . I don't want to say [what he called me]. I was like, wow, I can't believe he just said that to me. We had a meeting the next day and he was telling me the things I need to work on. I saw he meant business, and then we just went from there.

``Basically, he just talked about me growing up. He said I needed to start going to class instead of being a class clown. He said my teammates thought I was funny but they didn't think I was very smart. He said I needed to start performing on the field. ''

Meyer was Baker's third coach, but no one had demanded that much from him.

''I was shocked because most coaches try to beat around the bush. They don't want the players to get upset. They worry about players transferring and all that type of stuff,'' Baker said. ``Really, the way he was looking at it was as if he shouldn't beat around the bush. He was going to tell me up front, and that should help me in the long run.''

Baker has emerged as the Gators' leading receiver (56 receptions for 897 yards and nine touchdowns) and is one of the big reasons they are playing for a national title.

Baker always had the ability to make the highlight-reel catch, but he wasn't disciplined in his routes. He still can make the catch that takes your breath away, but he's also like a surgeon when it comes to slicing through a defense.

INSPIRATIONAL http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/16258745.htm?template=contentModules/printst... 12/17/2006 Baker's graduation has special meaning Page 2 of 2

Baker's graduation lifted not only himself and Meyer, but the entire team, and it also left Baker and his family in tears.

''That was a guy that when he got here, he had deficit points and everyone was worried about his GPA,'' Gators receivers coach Billy Gonzalez said. ``So to see a guy all of a sudden buy into a program and see how special it is to get a degree, that means more to me than anything.

``We had a meeting with his parents [last] summer and they shed tears because he was close to a degree.''

''It's something I've been talking about all week,'' Baker said this week. ``I'm here. I'm playing for the national championship. We won the SEC and I'm [graduating]. I'm looking forward to once I get out of here, I'm writing a book about this year.''

Now Baker looks at that meeting with Meyer as the best day of his life.

''That was the turnaround,'' Baker said. ``If he didn't tell me that, we wouldn't be in this situation now.''

© 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miami.com

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Teams may play in masterpiece or meltdown after long wait for bowl games

By Edgar Thompson

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, December 18, 2006

GAINESVILLE — Coach Art Kehoe scanned a roomful of blank stares and wondered what team would show up.

In more than 20 bowl games with Miami, the longtime Hurricanes assistant never knew.

More on the Gators Kehoe did know long layoffs between the season and a could go either way - from Vinny Testaverde's meltdown against Penn State in the 1986 title game to the Canes win against top-ranked Oklahoma for the '87 crown.

So, in the midst of 24 practices and 48 meetings during a 36-day break before the Bad luck won't last 2000 against Florida, Kehoe feared the increasingly glazed-eyed looks for Gators in the film room.

Joakim Noah said it’s "My offensive linemen were ready to revolt," recalled Kehoe, who just finished his easy to forget Florida ran first season at Ole Miss after spending 1981-2005 at Miami. "They didn't want into some bumps on the practice anymore. They didn't want to watch the film. It gets tedious. "It gets way to last season’s ... awful." Read posts, share comments Yet, layoffs keep getting longer and longer for the nation's top teams. Talk Back:Message board Florida will end a 36-day break - 10 days more than the Gators entire summer practice schedule - when it faces Ohio State in the Jan.'8 national title game. The Latest headlines Buckeyes will end a 51-day layoff, dating to a 42-39 win Nov.'18 against Michigan. Teams may play in masterpiece or meltdown "You talk about a wait - that's a wait," Florida said of the after long wait for bowl Buckeyes. games Commentary: Arizona an How the nation's top two teams respond to the extended lull could go a long way to oasis for Ohio St. determine the outcome - and the quality of the game. Big game doesn't bring big money One thing seems clear: the odds are good neither team will look quite the same as everyone last remembers - the Buckeyes rolling up 503 yards on the Wolverines http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Teams+may+play+in+m... 12/18/2006 Teams may play in masterpiece or meltdown after long wait for bowl games Page 2 of 4

defense or the Gators shutting down Heisman runner-up Darren McFadden to beat Arkansas 38-28 in the Dec.'2 SEC Championship.

"You're not going to take the same team to the bowl game that you ended up the season with," former coach said.

"You're either going to be a better team or you're going to be a worse team."

Game photos Arkansas (Dec. 2) Some players, like Gators senior Ray McDonald of Belle Glade, can use the time Florida State (Nov. 25) off. South Carolina (Nov. 11) Share your pics "It couldn't have come at a better time," said McDonald, who tore a ligament in his right arm against Arkansas. "But it does feel kind of strange that we don't have a More on UF football game for a month." 2006 results | Stats All Florida sports With 21 days to go before the title game, the interminable layoff ranks high on the list of concerns for Florida's Urban Meyer and Ohio State's . More on: UM | FAU | FSU Meyer, whose Gators played 13 games in 14 weeks, even researched the topic, More area colleges including a recent chat with Texas coach . A 32-day break last season Weekly e-mail updates didn't keep Brown's Longhorns from upsetting USC 41-38 in a game considered among the best ever played. More in Sports Latest news, photos "We're taking a hard look," Meyer said. "This is the first time it's been that late after RSS feeds (the season). , NFL Florida Marlins, MLB "We're the guinea pigs." , NBA Florida Panthers, NHL Still, many universal truths - most of them bad - about long bowl layoffs exist. Colleges | Gators | Hurricanes Losing their edge Owls | Seminoles | Local schools Golf | Courses Teams can go stale, some players can get fat and coaches can get too fancy with High schools | Youth their game plans. Recreation, outdoors Tennis | More sports "We can outthink ourselves sometimes," Florida offensive coordinator Weekly e-mail updates said. "When you give us too much time between games, like we have for this one, you can forget what got you here in the first place."

Players also can lose their way amid the continual build-up for the one post-season game that commands everyone's attention.

Georgia coach Mark Richt said a month of hype contributed to Florida State's 13-2 loss to Oklahoma in the 2000 title game - Richt's final game as Seminoles' offensive coordinator.

"They heard for 40 days they had no chance of winning and we heard for 40 days we had not chance of losing," Richt said.

Tressel faces one of the trickiest balancing acts of all with Heisman-winning quarterback Troy Smith.

College football's biggest individual prize and the biggest game can be a bad mix. http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Teams+may+play+in+m... 12/18/2006 Teams may play in masterpiece or meltdown after long wait for bowl games Page 3 of 4 For every virtuoso performance like 's in the , there's Heisman winners who come out flat, like Gino Torretta in 1993 Sugar Bowl, in 2001 or Jason White in .

"Performances can sometimes be affected by distractions and more items on the plate," Tressel said. "Troy has been asked to be a lot of places, do a lot of things.

"I know Troy pretty well and he'll do a good job handling those responsibilities."

Testaverde mentioned the banquet circuit and appearances on late-night talk shows as a factor in his five- collapse against Penn State in the '86 title game.

Last season, USC's Reggie Bush was completely outplayed by Heisman runner-up Vince Young of Texas.

More than White's three-interception performance, Sooners coach questioned the mind-set of OU's seniors in a 55-19 loss to USC in the '03 Orange Bowl.

Ten Sooners were drafted the following spring, including five in the first two rounds.

"Are they still in the moment or on to their next part of their life?" Stoops said last week. "To me, that's a big factor how those players want to finish it off."

Upperclassmen set tone

Florida's younger players plan to follow the lead of the 21 seniors, whom Meyer credited most for the school's first SEC title since 2000.

"It goes with your leaders," freshman backup quarterback said. "If you're just going through the motions every day or if you're going out there competing trying to get better."

The biggest key is to simulate game speed whenever possible.

Ex-Canes running backs coach Don Soldinger said Willis McGahee looked nothing like a Heisman finalist in the first half of Miami's loss to Ohio State in the '02 title game. McGahee then suffered a knee injury in the second half.

"I looked at him early in the game and said, 'Are you kidding me?' '' Soldinger said. "The whole thing is (a layoff) takes your edge off."

But offenses can practice effectively with no one across the line of scrimmages. Defenses cannot re-create national championship competition against third-string players and walk-ons on the scout team.

"You've been out there tackling scout teamers for 51 days and comes your way, you don't lay a glove on him," said ESPN analyst , a college for 17 years and a 10-year NFL veteran. "It's not until the second quarter that you're as fast as him."

To have their team ready from the opening kickoff, coaches often require some trial and error.

Longtime Texas coach Darrell Royal said he took his first team to New Orleans more than two weeks before the 1957 Sugar Bowl - a 39-7 loss to Ole Miss.

"I took them down too early and worked them too hard," said Royal, whose teams were 8-6-1 in subsequent http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Teams+may+play+in+m... 12/18/2006 Teams may play in masterpiece or meltdown after long wait for bowl games Page 4 of 4 bowls, winning two national titles.

Holtz said his first of 21 bowl teams - in 1970 at William & Mary - looked like world-beaters four days before a Tangerine Bowl loss to Toledo.

"I learned the hard way to peak at game time," said Holtz, who was 5-4 in major bowls at Notre Dame.

Every coach has a story, including many with happy endings. Tressel is 4-0 in BCS bowls, while Meyer is 4-0 in bowl games.

Kehoe has had his share big post-season wins, including a 37-20 win against Florida in the and five national championships.

It doesn't mean Kehoe wouldn't scrap the system today. To him, the question - playoff or layoff? - is a waste of time.

"Imagine if after 162 baseball games major-league players said before we start the World Series we're going to practice a month," Kehoe said."That's what we're doing. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life."

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Big conferences not eager for playoff

By Brent Schrotenboer UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 17, 2006 If you're looking for somebody to blame for the fact that the bowl system keeps growing with no playoff system in sight, start with a list of six names.

The six major conference commissioners have gained increasing power in the past 10 years and have turned it into television deals worth more than $110 million per year. They broker their power by representing their member school presidents and negotiating with bowls and television networks on their behalf. This year, they will distribute the vast portion of $210 million in bowl payouts to their members.

“It's safe to to say the commissioners have opposed changing (to a playoff system) because the current system gives them the power of what takes place in postseason football,” said Cedric Dempsey, the president of the NCAA from 1994-2002. “It's strongly controlled by the conferences.”

Before 1992, the major conferences had independent affiliations with the major bowls: The Big Ten and Pac-10 with the Rose, the Big Eight with the Orange, the SEC with the Sugar. Because of these independent relationships, their power was more diffuse.

But with the rise of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 – to ensure a matchup of the nation's top two teams – their power was consolidated. They joined forces to hold the keys to the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls. This year, they even added a fifth game to the mix – a separate BCS Championship Game.

In 1994, a special NCAA committee studied the possibility of a Division I-A playoff, but most of the resistance was coming from school presidents, Dempsey said, not the commissioners. For one, the presidents objected to lengthening the season, which they since have warmed up to by approving 12-game regular seasons.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, this year's BCS coordinator, has insisted the presidents and chancellors he represents still aren't interested in a playoff.

But John Sandbrook, a UCLA administrator who served on the 1994 playoff committee, questions whether the presidents are as concerned about the status quo as the commissioners.

Because their negotiating, power-brokering, revenue-generating and revenue-distributing powers could diminish with a major postseason format change, the commissioners are against it, according to Sandbrook's theory.

“If I were in their shoes, I might be behaving the same way,” Sandbrook said. “They are there to maximize the revenues of their conference and there is a historical system (the bowls) that allows this to happen. So they view their jobs as basically protecting the status quo.”

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How to launch a college football program (and be successful) By TOM ROBINSON, The Virginian-Pilot © December 17, 2006 Last updated: 1:50 AM

CONWAY, S.C. - Pat West perched in a folding chair, resting in a $1,000 premium parking space, on a sun-drenched football Saturday at Coastal Carolina University.

A game between Coastal Carolina and Charleston Southern in Division I-AA - the level at which Old Dominion plans to play in 2009 - had just begun inside Brooks Stadium, a from where West nursed a glass of white wine with her husband and two friends.

In no obvious hurry to end the tailgate party, West nonetheless would be inside soon, cheering her school's fourth-year team. This, to her surprise, is how she spends football Saturdays now when Coastal Carolina plays at home.

"And I was one who didn't want football," said West, who works in Coastal Carolina's department of finance. "I was wrong."

Let her count the ways: She didn't think the university could afford president Ronald Ingle's vision. Didn't think the team would be good. Didn't believe the "Grand Strand" resort region would support it because rooting passions for the University of South Carolina and Clemson University are so entrenched.

West will tell you again. She got it wrong.

The Chanticleers, named for a Canterbury Tales rooster, routinely attract a Brooks Stadium crowd beyond its 6,400 -seat capacity, even when games are shown live on regional cable TV.

They have had a winning record all four seasons; this year's team earned a bid to the 16-team Division I-AA playoffs and went 9-3 after falling to eventual champion Appalachian State in the first round.

School officials report other football-related spikes. Advertising dollars linked with Coastal Carolina sports are up some 75 percent since football began in 2003. Sales of "Chanticleer Gear" athletic merchandise, once minuscule, now require the attention of a full-time marketing person.

Undergraduate enrollment has jumped by half, to about 6,800, over the past six years, with the student population gaining about 3 percent in diversity.

So what do tailgating fans of a young I-AA program in South Carolina have to do with Old Dominion? For starters, the Monarchs' effort is still gathering steam, the search for a head coach is under way, and lessons can be learned from Coastal Carolina's footprints.

For sure, ODU will face many challenges over the next three years. There are questions to answer, skepticism to buck, money to raise, construction to perform, coaches and staff to hire, equipment to purchase, players to recruit and a practice-only year for those recruits to endure.

Only then will the Monarchs play their first football game at Foreman Field since 1940.

All this must come in a cohesive, timely manner if football's promises to a campus - new loyalties, stronger school spirit, more donors and greater media attention - are to be seen in Norfolk as they are at Coastal Carolina.

"Football gives this school an identity," said Steve Mays, tailgating with some former Coastal Carolina classmates in a lot http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/print.cfm?story=116194&ran=125713 12/17/2006 HAMPTON ROADS Sports (Printable Version) Page 2 of 3 near the stadium. "And it gives us all an excuse to come back to campus six times a year.

"Without football, we wouldn't do it."

Ingle can talk all day about Coastal Carolina's top-notch marine science department and its other academic programs. But he defers to his former athletic director, Buddy Sasser, to explain why adopting football was a priority when the school broke from the University of South Carolina system in 1993.

"Buddy told me one time athletics are like the front porch of your house," Ingle said. "It's the least important part, but it's what everybody sees.

"If it's all junky, well, you may have the nicest living room, dining room and study, but they're going to evaluate you based on that public image. That's athletics."

When Ingle green-lighted football, even he didn't imagine Coastal Carolina could come so far so quickly.

The school barely owned a football. It had only drawings of a stadium and a field house; construction of the latter has just started. It had no practice field, no coaches, no players and a shared locker room for three sports.

However, it did have $4 million of state money ticketed to jump-start stadium construction. A share of increased student fees, and a private nest egg school officials decline to numerate, complemented that sum.

The impetus from the start was doing it "the right way," said athletic director Warren Koegel, who played at Penn State and in the NFL.

That translated into avoiding shortcuts and demonstrating a commitment to run a program "people will be proud to be associated with," Koegel said. "You realize that if you do that, it's going to have tremendous benefits for the university in many, many ways.

"But you don't just do it to do it. You do it with a plan... so that when you play that first home game, everything is organized and under control."

So Coastal Carolina checked off the goals as they fell: l Hiring an experienced coach who'd won, graduated players and rallied his community?

Check: It found David Bennett, 44, a South Carolinian who coached a nationally competitive Division II team at Catawba (N.C.) University. l Earning the faith of businesses in the face of inevitable skepticism?

Check: Bob Brooks, a late, well-known businessman whom Ingle said "told me I was crazy" to start football, eventually came around - and provided $2 million that bought instant credibility. The stadium bears Brooks' name. l Recruiting a first class of players who would play no games for a year and practice on recreation fields, driving ranges and even tennis courts?

Check: Bennett sold 17 of them, including All-American quarterback Tyler Thigpen, seventh this season for the Walter Payton Award, given to Division I-AA's top player. l Playing an initial schedule designed to generate early buzz?

Check: Coastal Carolina beat Division II Newberry in its first game, and finished 6-5. It has gone 10-1, 9-2 and 9-3 since and won or shared the p ast three Big South titles.

Bennett predicted a tougher road for ODU because its intended league - the Atlantic 10, which will become Colonial http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/print.cfm?story=116194&ran=125713 12/17/2006 HAMPTON ROADS Sports (Printable Version) Page 3 of 3

Athletic Conference - is among the stiffest in the country.

"You'd better schedule some I-AA nonscholarship teams, and a couple of Division IIs or Division IIIs that you can beat," Bennett said. "That's a key. You have to have some success."

Of course, success goes beyond victories and losses.

To Mays, it's in the ranks of people around town who now wear Chanticleer T-shirts, caps and such.

To Joe West, Pat's husband, it's in the Clemson and South Carolina season-ticket holders, such as himself, who will sometimes choose the short drive for a Chanticleers game over an all-day effort to see the Tigers or Gamecocks.

To Ingle, it's in the donations directed to the school with football as the spark. Division I-AA programs historically operate in the red. Coastal Carolina's, with a budget of "$3 million, something like that," Ingle said, walks that line.

"It probably evens out," Ingle said in his stadium hospitality suite. "But we'll have people up here today who, pre-football, didn't even know about us. We'll have a guy who committed $500,000 to the business school about a month ago. So how do you measure that?"

To Mark Roach, the senior associate athletic director, you measure it by a campus that buzzes now on football weekends - not what he remembers as a Coastal Carolina student.

"This was a 'suitcase school,' because you knew on Fridays and Saturdays you were going somewhere to watch football," Roach said. "Football has really helped make this a total university."

Bennett? He judges success by his team's influence beyond the field. He insists his players perform community service, especially mentoring at elementary schools. It's been contagious: Bennett said 400 Coastal Carolina students now mentor.

"It's neat to see stuff like that happen," Bennett said.

There are plenty of potential pitfalls. A bad team can drown excitement. Title IX issues can arise from adding a huge, expensive men's sport. A school's other athletic programs can feel squeezed. Projected financial support can be lacking.

These are more likely to bite the school that fails to commit to the mantra "do it right," cautioned Dick Sheridan, a former North Carolina State coach who advised Coastal Carolina during its start-up effort and is a consultant to ODU.

"The execution of this is not easy," Sheridan said, "but Old Dominion has the people who want it to happen the right way."

Coastal Carolina's area, relatively, "is a tiny little place," said Sheridan, who lives nearby. "From the standpoint of general community support, the potential for Old Dominion is much greater."

Today at Coastal Carolina - and perhaps tomorrow at ODU - they can raise a glass on football Saturdays to realized potential. l Reach Tom Robinson at (757) 446-2518 or [email protected]

© 2006 HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com

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Teaching Their Children Well Russia, Serbia, Lithuania Taking a Fundamental Approach to Basketball

By Michael Lee Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 17, 2006; E01

MOSCOW Fifteen-year-old Lavrentiy Klimov packed his luggage last July with everything he thought he would need: two pairs of his favorite sneakers, which he called "keecks"; more T-shirts than he could count; a few warm jackets; some of the admitted bookworm's best reading material; a Russian-to-English dictionary; his CD player; and his favorite music.

"I listen to rap music," he said. "Most of all, I like Tupac Shakur."

Klimov likes basketball more. So he and his mother, a doctor, signed a five-year contract with CSKA , one of the premier teams in Europe, making Klimov a professional basketball player at an age when most of his U.S. counterparts are still worrying about their place on the varsity team.

"I was ready," he said. "I thought it would be important for me to continue playing basketball in professional way."

If U.S. basketball officials want to understand the challenge they face in restoring the nation's dominance in international play, they need look no further than one blond, shaggy-haired teenager from Yekaterinburg in the mountainous Ural region of central Russia. Klimov left home on a 1,000-mile journey to enter a player development program that is vastly different from what American children experience.

The U.S. approach has numerous fissures, as documented in a year-long series of stories by The Washington Post. Shoe company-sponsored AAU teams, which play with little regard for fundamentals under coaches who work with little or no oversight, dominate youth basketball. The series also found that academic integrity, the foundation of the NCAA system, has been damaged by prep schools that grant eligibility through questionable academic programs.

In foreign countries, completely different approaches are used. And while there still are concerns about aspects of player development systems that resemble trade schools more than colleges or high schools, there is little doubt that players for the most part are drilled in fundamentals by coaches who are well trained and, in some countries, accredited.

In Europe, professional teams oversee most of the best young players, who sign contracts at an early age. Italian power Benetton Treviso has about 600 players, some non-pros as young as 8, in its junior program. The French system that produced of the puts its young players in the National Institute of Sport and Physical Education, a government-run training center in Paris that teaches basketball and also offers a school curriculum.

A tour of facilities last month in Russia, Serbia and Lithuania, whose teams have defeated the United States in international play, found a mixture of approaches. In Russia, players can either sign with pro teams and join their junior programs or go to basketball schools. Serbian youngsters are most likely to be signed and trained by http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600712_pf.html 12/17/2006 Teaching Their Children Well - washingtonpost.com Page 2 of 6 pro teams, and young Lithuanians have a choice of basketball schools, including two run by former NBA stars.

Regardless of the system, the results are undeniable: After the embarrassment of finishing sixth in the 2002 world championships, a recommitted U.S. team could finish no better than third in the Olympics in 2004 and third in the world championships in September. And NBA teams have taken notice: There are a record 83 international players, almost 20 percent of the league, this season.

High-ranking officials from U.S. high schools, the AAU, the NCAA, the NBA and shoe companies are studying ways to improve the American development system because, as NBA Commissioner David Stern put it, "the rest of the world is trying to eat our lunch."

Klimov had a chance to come to the United States. He had been selected for a foreign-exchange program that would have allowed him to spend a year living with a family and attending high school in Greensboro, N.C. But he had played so well at a CSKA basketball camp that team officials had offered him the contract and a place in their junior program. Klimov decided that no matter how strong the lure of the United States, he didn't want to lose an invaluable year of Russian basketball training. So the night Klimov and his mother signed the contract, he hurriedly packed his luggage. A day later, he was in Moscow.

"I knew that it would be hard here," Klimov, now 16, said in an interview at the CSKA training facility. "Maybe sometimes I miss my family. I think it's quite normal."

The Teenage Professionals

After an hour of weight training and a two-hour practice last month, the members of CSKA's junior program, none older than 19, tossed on stocking caps and hefty, team-issued, navy blue bubble coats. They prepared to trudge 10 minutes, through a light snowfall, from team headquarters to their dormitory on the opposite side of Leningradsky Prospect, the crammed thoroughfare that links Moscow to St. Petersburg, 400 miles away.

Coping with the brisk temperatures and fumes from the bumper-to-bumper traffic, they walked through an armed CSKA security gate and past a shopping center parking lot. Ignoring the sex shops that line the next , they climbed a pedestrian bridge and headed down to the dormitory. Lunch and afternoon naps beckoned before they had to return practice again in six hours.

"I eat, sleep and train," CSKA point guard , 18, said through an interpreter. "I have very little free time. I'm not like the other youth, smoking, drinking. I prefer training. It's better for me to be here."

CSKA -- an acronym for Central Sports Army Club, the name it carried when affiliated with the Soviet army -- signs players beginning at age 14 to contracts that usually last about five years. CSKA supplies them with room, board and a salary ranging from $300 to $2,000 a month, depending on their progress and play (the average Russian salary is $410 a month).

Seventeen players on the junior team, who are between 15 and 19, live in seven rooms in the dormitory, a terra- cotta-colored building with two square beige columns outside the front door. The CSKA soccer players are on the third and highest floor, with the basketball players below them. The CSKA boxers, ice skaters and hockey players are elsewhere in the dorm. Shved and Artur Urazmanov, a participant in the Nike Hoop Summit against top U.S. prep stars in Memphis in April, live in a furnished apartment a few blocks away, provided by the club.

After plowing through large portions of chicken soup and meatballs with pasta in the dining hall, Klimov took a nap, but teammates Semen (pronounced SEH-men) Shashkov and Maxim Zakharov postponed sleep to watch highlights of NBA players LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Vince Carter on a DVD in the tidy room they share.

A few teammates slipped in and grabbed spots on the twin beds or adjacent couch to watch. The players, some http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600712_pf.html 12/17/2006 Teaching Their Children Well - washingtonpost.com Page 3 of 6 in T-shirts from CSKA sponsor Nike, were silent, studying the movements of each player intensely. Above the television and between two windows that look down on the street was a small poster of Kobe Bryant in a uniform, dunking.

"If you look at the basketball aspect, it's great. The players that I've practiced with, I've seen them get better," said CSKA senior team guard and former Duke standout , who is in his fifth season playing in Europe and has observed the club systems in Italy and , as well. "One of the negatives of this experience is that this is all that they do."

The day for most players begins with breakfast and weight training as part of an individual strength program. Donning their red CSKA practice jerseys last month, the players worked more on state-of-the-art weight machines than with the free weights arrayed against one wall. They also did resistance training with large rubber bands as a strength coach looked on.

Players who haven't finished secondary school attend classes three times a week, while every member of the team practices mornings and evenings, a total of 10 times a week, in a gym one floor above the senior team's practice court.

"No doubt, [my life] has changed," Klimov said. "Now, I go to work. Every day, I must get up and train. No matter if I am sick, I am tired, I don't want to. I must go. I've come here for basketball."

Those who have completed secondary school can continue their education through correspondence courses. Shved said he is enrolled in courses at a local college, but with a sheepish chuckle, he couldn't name the course or the school.

"Basically, they are going to college -- basketball college. That's what these farm systems basically are," said CSKA player , a graduate of Blair High School in Silver Spring and St. Bonaventure who played briefly with the Wizards in 2001. "They don't have those NCAA stipulations. A lot of the arguments in America are about young players losing the ability to mature, losing their education, losing this, losing that. At a time I agreed with it. But seeing the way some of these kids have traditionally learned to grow in a system, I have a big question as to if you lose something by not going to college. Your education never stops. I got a college degree. It's always great to go to college. But I mean the system they have in place, it seems like it's working."

CSKA is backed by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, an avid basketball fan who serves as controlling owner in the nickel enterprise Norilsk Nickel. The club reportedly has a budget of about $38 million, considered extremely high by European standards (the payroll of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats is also $38 million). The money has paid off: CSKA is the defending Euroleague champion, having made three straight appearances in the final four, and won its third consecutive Euroleague junior championship last April in Prague.

CSKA is affiliated with the Trinta basketball school in Moscow, which works with players beginning at age 7. CSKA also hosts an annual basketball camp where top prospects, such as Klimov, can earn contract offers. In some instances, the process resembles the recruitment of blue chip athletes by American colleges, as CSKA, with six scouts in each region of the country, competes with other pro clubs throughout Russia.

Shved, ranked as one of the top international players, landed in CSKA's lap. Shved's father, a coach of a junior team in Belgorod, contacted team officials about two years ago and asked them to take a look at his son. CSKA sent two coaches to watch the rail-thin point guard and came away impressed with his playmaking and scoring. Within a week, Shved had moved to Moscow. Now he is the junior team's leading scorer and often invited to practice with the senior team, which includes Langdon, Vanterpool and , who had 12 assists in Greece's stunning upset of the United States at the world championships. "We didn't know he would be this good," CSKA General Manager Yuri Yurkov said of Shved with a smile. "We are pleased."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600712_pf.html 12/17/2006 Teaching Their Children Well - washingtonpost.com Page 4 of 6 Yurkov said the organization selects players based on how well they perform against peers, but other factors are considered in an attempt to project a player's height: the size of his hands and feet, the height of his parents and grandparents.

"Before making a serious choice and invite them, before we start being responsible for them, we must feel they could have an opportunity. We don't have room for mistakes," Yurkov said through an interpreter. "If one or two players makes it to the senior team, then it's a success."

The program has produced two players for the senior team since its inception in 2002. And forward Yaroslav Korolev used rules established by FIBA, basketball's world governing body, to leave CSKA before playing for the senior team and enter the 2005 NBA draft at age 18. He became the highest Russian ever taken in the draft at No. 12.

Coaching Pipeline

Serbia and Russia have similar player development strategies. Top Serbian pro basketball clubs Red Star and Partizan, which have combined to produce about a dozen NBA players, run youth development programs similar to CSKA's. Players are recruited and signed from different regions -- there are more than 800 youth teams in the country -- and often their families are moved to Belgrade, with the teams helping the parents find jobs. Players attend regular schools and practice in the evening, sometimes pushing close to midnight on weeknights, based on the availability of floor time because the clubs don't own gyms. It is almost a year-long commitment, with players and coaches practicing and playing games for all but two weeks of the year .

Critics of the club system throughout Europe worry about smaller, poorer teams profiting off the young players who are developed. Serbia's FMP Zeleznik, which competes one level below the Euroleague, has an average attendance of about 800 at its gym on the outskirts of Belgrade. The facility, comparable in size to a U.S. high school gym, has no seats at court level; fans sit in bleachers well back and above the court.

FMP states quite plainly that it is in the business of developing and eventually selling players to the highest bidders. Its 200 players receive scholarships, live in dormitories, attend classes and practice twice per day. They have access to a weight room, sauna and a medical center that is used by the Serbian national team. But if a player becomes a star, he won't be around long. Five FMP players, including Mile Ilic, a 7-foot-1 reserve center for the New Jersey Nets, were sold for a reported $3.5 million over the summer. A spokesman said the money from the transactions is invested back into the program.

The one big difference between Serbia and Russia is its emphasis on coaching. You can't take the reins of a team -- at any level -- without a license from the 1,500-member Serbian Coaches Association, which has a training center in Belgrade. Aspiring coaches must train for at least two months, attending classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, to receive a blue license to coach children and work within the low ranks of Serbian basketball. Coaches at higher levels must attend school for two years.

This has put Serbia in the position of exporting players and coaches. In Russia, CSKA junior players are coached by Ratko Joksic, 65, a Serbian with more than 35 years' experience and a meticulous taskmaster who seeks perfection with each drill.

He speaks Russian, though not always correctly -- he sometimes emphasizes the wrong part of the word, which can give it a different meaning -- but the players listen intently and never object to his instruction, even if they don't understand it. Last month, he spent about 20 minutes explaining almost every aspect of the pick-and-roll to six 15-year-olds: how to set a pick properly, with hand wrapped over hand, arms close to the body; how to roll off the screener's hip to create separation from the defender; and how to determine whether to shoot or pass to the cutter.

After one player set a pick and failed to roll to the basket promptly, Joksic shouted in Russian, "You have http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600712_pf.html 12/17/2006 Teaching Their Children Well - washingtonpost.com Page 5 of 6 reflexes like your grandmother."

None of the players laughed or smiled.

The Lithuanian Way

In a brightly lit modern gymnasium with shiny hardwood floors in one of the up-and-coming neighborhoods in Vilnius, about a dozen 7-year-olds stumbled over each other, little feet scampering up and down the floor as they chased each other in an exercise that resembled rugby more than basketball. The capital of Lithuania might best be known for its unique combination of Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architecture, but it also is one of the few cities in Europe where basketball is the most popular sport.

With so many players on the court, it was impossible to determine who was on the same team. And, despite the ball being smaller than those used by collegiate or professional athletes, the children could barely push it to the height of the rim. That led to more mad scrambles, tussles and pile-ons. The rare successful shot was often followed by arm-raising, fist-pumping, high-fiving celebrations.

The Sarunas Marciulionis Basketball Academy and other facilities like it are one of the few aspects of the Soviet era that remain since Lithuania declared its independence in 1990. Several private and government-run basketball schools are sprinkled throughout this tiny country of about 3.6 million people, with the two most prominent programs owned and operated by former NBA stars Marciulionis and , whose facility is in Kaunas, an hour away.

Before American losses in international competitions became commonplace, Lithuania nearly became the first country to defeat an American team filled with NBA stars in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Former Maryland guard Sarunas Jasikevicius came within inches of making a three-pointer that would have shocked a team with Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett and Jason Kidd.

Marciulionis and Sabonis started their programs for players ages 7 to 18 in 1992. Marciulionis, who played seven seasons in the NBA after winning an Olympic gold medal with the Soviet Union in 1988 and two bronze medals for Lithuania with Sabonis, started his academy with his own money but now relies mostly on sponsors and tuition to cover the costs. He said he could remember growing up in Kaunas, when his friends built a hoop in his yard and his family struggled to provide some simple necessities. "My grandmother used to sew socks for me," he said.

Marciulionis has four gyms, with three located at the primary headquarters. Sabonis bought a former tennis facility and converted it into a state-of-the-art basketball facility with four courts, a weight room and cafeteria. Unlike the all-consuming CSKA program, these academies serve as before- and after-school programs, in which parents pay for their children to intensely learn fundamentals at an early age and engage in competitions when they reach 12. They are also taught life skills and receive lessons in English.

Students begin practicing three times a week at age 7. After three years, practices increase to 90 minutes four times per week. And in the fifth year, participants practice five times a week for 90 minutes. Lithuanian youngsters do not sign pro contracts until they are 18, and many prefer to play college basketball in the United States.

Asked if this is the best way to produce players, Marciulionis shrugged. "I can't say what's right or wrong. Time dictates what is better," he said. Six members of the Lithuanian national team that finished seventh at the world championships last summer were products of these two schools. Sabonis alum Martynas Andriuskevicius is a reserve center for the Chicago Bulls.

The tuition at the Marciulionis Academy is 120 litas per month -- about $45, or almost one-tenth of the average monthly salary in Lithuania -- but the most talented older players either receive a free or discounted tuition. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600712_pf.html 12/17/2006 Teaching Their Children Well - washingtonpost.com Page 6 of 6 Marciulionis said in special instances, he is willing to assist some families. "If we have a mother with three kids or a divorced family, there are other obligations, we help them out, free of charge," Marciulionis said.

Marciulionis has 815 children in his program, ranging from ages 7 to 18. He has 11 certified coaches who are assigned to two age groups each. Sabonis has a similar setup, except the age groups for coaches differ by five years.

The coaches stay with the same group of players until the children graduate from the program, which helps to maintain continuity and form lasting bonds.

Marius Linartis has coached the players on the Marciulionis under-16 cadet team since 1998. In beating an opponent by 63 points last month, his players put on a sharp display of team basketball -- moving without the ball, multiple passes on offense, cutting to the basket, solid defense. Povilas Duchouskis, the team's starting center, had a commanding presence inside but was just as apt to step out and make three-pointers. Augustus Peciulevicius was quick enough to dart to the basket almost at will.

When Linartis first began coaching them, he took them on the typical track, from having them running wild as neophytes, to gradually teaching them how to dribble, pass, shoot and defend. Linartis, 33, has been with the Marciulionis Academy for 10 years, working his way up as an assistant for one year, until he gained the experience to guide his own team. In addition to working with players born in 1991, he also coaches kids born in 1998. With the younger kids, the focus is simpler, like teaching them to dribble without looking at the ball. "At the smaller age, I am trying to get them mostly to feel the ball," he said. "To play basketball, they must feel the ball."

He teaches his team of mostly 15-year-olds the principles of and forces each player, no matter how tall they may be, to learn how to score in the low post. "I don't know who this player can be when he grows. Maybe in 10 years, he can play the center position," Linartis said, explaining his reasoning for not focusing on developing guards, forwards or centers. "They must all know. I want them to know everything about basketball."

Dallas Mavericks General Manager Donn Nelson, an assistant on the Lithuanian national team, was responsible for signing Marciulionis, the first NBA player from the Soviet Union, when he was with the Golden State Warriors in 1989. He believes that the focus on fundamentals creates a more well-rounded player.

The United States has "through a lot of things -- some within our control, some without -- slowly de- emphasized the educational aspect of our sport, I think," Nelson said in a phone interview. "There's no reason with the emphasis that we have on the sport of basketball, with the resources that we have -- both financial and educational -- and with the popularity of our game at all ages, why we shouldn't be doing a better job in developing our young players. There is no reason that anybody develops a better basketball player than we do."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600712_pf.html 12/17/2006 ‘Blue Moth’ Guides Father in Loss of Son - New York Times Page 1 of 3

December 17, 2006

SPORTS OF THE TIMES ‘Blue Moth’ Guides Father in Loss of Son

By GEORGE VECSEY

Bill and Nicki Hancock used to watch the Oklahoma State basketball games on television, just to catch a glimpse of their older son, Will, on the sideline. Will, the sports information director, made life easier for everybody at the press table.

The parents never worried about the logistics of college sports. The father was in the same business, the man who directed the Final Four every year. He accepted that teams jumped into airplanes, large or small, after road games, eager to get back to campus.

Early in the evening of Jan. 27, 2001, at home in Kansas City, Mo., for the first time ever, the father found himself preoccupied with the blustery weather in Colorado, where his son would be flying. The mother felt a horrible blast of prairie wind slash directly into her heart, although she did not know why. The news arrived at 10 p.m. — two players and six other members of the travel party had gone down in the crash of the third team plane.

(I will pause here to tell you that Bill Hancock is one of the nicest and most capable people I know in sports. He ran 16 Final Fours and now manages the Bowl Championship Series. I saw Will Hancock at college games and at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games. It was very clear that he and his dad were a unit — friends and colleagues.)

•

Somehow the family got through the next days on innate grace and sheer nerve. Bill formulated his own survival mantra: “Put one foot in front of the other. Heaven is real. Will is there. Believe it.” Then the parents faced the rest of their own lives, feeling the need to do something else, something different. They hit upon a cross-country trip, with Bill on his bicycle and Nicki driving a support van, from California to Georgia. Everybody grieves in different ways.

When he was a child, Bill heard his grandmother describe the raging winds of Oklahoma, in the accent of her native North Carolina. The wind is called the blue norther but Bill thought she was saying “blue moth.” The name stayed with him.

“Now, the blue norther of despair — the blue moth — struck often,” Hancock writes in his book,

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/sports/17vecsey.html?_r=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print 12/18/2006 ‘Blue Moth’ Guides Father in Loss of Son - New York Times Page 2 of 3 “Riding with the Blue Moth,” published in 2005 by Sports Publishing, L.L.C., of Champaign, Ill.

“Just as there is little hope in predicting the 10-day forecast, I could not predict when the blue moth might attack, dousing me with a napalm that destroyed all hope,” Hancock continues. “I despised the agony that came with those waves of sadness. I hated the savage blue moth.”

The beast hunkers around his shoulders as he takes a vial of Pacific water from Huntington Beach, Calif., and heads east. The moth will assault him in the desert, on mountains, in farmland, in towns, while camping at night with Nicki. He learns to live with the monster. He keeps pedaling.

His son comes at him from all angles, as a long-haired child, as an adult in a blazer. Out of shape at the start, he feels his son pushing him up a steep Arizona mountain. He thinks of Will’s widow and daughter, and Will’s brother, Nate. He watches his wife bravely get through each day.

As the miles pass, Hancock opens his eyes and heart to the country itself, rediscovering it mile by mile. In a vast nation that has been observed by the likes of Kerouac, Steinbeck, Kuralt, de Tocqueville and Guthrie, Hancock becomes a novice writer, the latest uneasy rider, finding his own vision, his own voice.

“The hills of east-central Oklahoma are packed with mighty white oaks and pin oaks,” he writes. “I decided every branch was a miniature water cannon spraying humidity into the air, like fire boats in New York City’s harbor on the Fourth of July. Three white cows stood up to their armpits in a muddy pool. I wanted to join them.”

•

He also observes the people — the casual violence in word and gesture, the generous offers of beer, soda and water, the Christian construction worker who volunteers that his co-workers are headed straight to hell, the proffered road directions and the drivers who pass him carefully. When whites tell Hancock to steer clear of a certain black town, he seeks it out, finding himself treated with warmth and humor, hardly to his surprise. A red-stater by birth, he is an aging McGovernite flower child by self-image. This land is his land, too.

Deliberately wearing casual sports gear, self-conscious about appearing like a Tour de France wannabe, Hancock nevertheless appreciates his 27-speed Cannondale R600 with lightweight aluminum frame. He fixes his own flats. He covers 2,746 miles and collects a vial of Atlantic water at Tybee Island, Ga., and then he goes home.

Since Hancock’s book came out last year, he has received this message from readers who have also suffered the ultimate parental nightmare: “Mr. Hancock, this book has given me hope.”

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/sports/17vecsey.html?_r=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print 12/18/2006 ‘Blue Moth’ Guides Father in Loss of Son - New York Times Page 3 of 3 Bill and Nicki Hancock spend time with their three grandchildren. He changed jobs, she retired from teaching, and they made another bike trip from Mexico to Canada. (People ask him what it was like to pedal that far uphill, he says with a smile.) The blue moth never goes away, but they keep moving their feet.

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http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/sports/17vecsey.html?_r=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print 12/18/2006