"The true measure of a man is not found in times of comfort and convenience. The true measure of a man is found in times of conflict and controversy." -- Martin Luther King "In the face of adversity the true guy comes out." -- Rollie Massimino "STOP AND MAKE A DECISION" -- By Ralph Miller Oregon State If you will watch a game closely you will see a number of turnovers when players are going hard off of the dribble (full and half court), do you know why they turn it over? It is because they pass the ball while they are still moving at a high rate of speed (I call this speeding) Here is how to correct speeding. Teach your players to "Stop and Make a Decision". I'll explain, if a player will come to a jump stop and get his balance and wait a second or two and see TWO RECEIVERS not just one receiver (most average players just look for one player not two or three players to pass the ball to) *You need to yell this all the time in practice "Stop and make a Decision"!!!!!! *MORE and this is also important: The passer after he comes to a jump stop and makes a decision needs to remember this. He cannot get the ball deflected by the man guarding him, most turnovers are deflections by the player or players guarding the man making the pass (did you know this?). Here is what the passer does wrong and it happens all of the time. Players don't know when to throw a bounce pass and when to throw a pass in the air to their teammates. If the defenders arms are up you throw a bounce pass and if the defenders arms are down you throw a chest or over head pass. How tough is this? *They will also need to fake a pass to make a pass. *If you will teach your players to "Stop and make a Decision" you will cut down on lots of your turnovers. You must make this saying part of your everyday coaching vocabulary. ________________________________________________________________________ Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company. -- George Washington Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all. -- George Washington ________________________________________________________________________ “Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals.” -Dr. Dorothy Height “The common denominator of success — the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful — lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” - Albert Gray ________________________________________________________________________ The Seven Wonders of the World by Author Unknown Junior high school students in Chicago were studying the Seven Wonders of the World . At the end of the lesson, the students were asked to list what they considered to be the Seven Wonders of the World . Though there was some disagreement, the following received the most votes: 1. Egypt 's Great Pyramids 2. The Taj Mahal in India 3. The Grand Canyon in Arizona 4. The Panama Canal 5. The Empire State Building 6. St. Peter's Basilica 7. China 's Great Wall While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student, a quiet girl, hadn't turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The quiet girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many." The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help." The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the Seven Wonders of the World are: 1. to touch... 2. to taste... 3. to see... 4. to hear... (She hesitated a little, and then added...) 5. to feel... 6. to laugh... 7. and to love. The room was so quiet; you could have heard a pin drop. May this story serve as a gentle reminder to all of us that the things we overlook as simple and ordinary are often the most wonderful - and we don't have to travel anywhere special to experience them. Enjoy your gifts! ________________________________________________________________________ My favorite saying about your associations and my way of saying it is, “You are the same today as you’re going to be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.” Hang around thinkers; you’ll be a better thinker. Hang around givers; you’ll be a better giver. Hang around workers; you’ll be a better worker. Hang around a bunch of thumb sucking, complaining, griping boneheads; and you will be a better thumb sucking, complaining, griping bonehead. -- Charlie Tremendous Jones ________________________________________________________________________ "My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure." -- Abraham Lincoln "The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate." -- Thomas J. Watson, Founder of IBM ________________________________________________________________________ The time is always right to do the right thing. You achieve according to what you believe. More harm has been done by weak persons than by wicked persons. The problems of this world have been caused by the weakness of goodness rather than by the strength of evil. The true measure of a person is in his height of ideals, the breadth of his sympathy, the depth of his convictions, and the length of his patience. Eddie Rickenbacker encouraged us to "think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience." The right train of thought will take you to a better station in life. To try and do what's best and to remain essentially ourselves are really one and the same thing. Coach John Wooden said, "Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of being." One secret of success is being able to put your best foot forward without stepping on anybody's toes. If you seek greatness, then forget greatness and ask for God's will. You will find both. Elevate your personal standards of quality. Whatever you thought was good enough for now, add 10 percent more. Better is better. The biggest mistake you can make in life is not to be true to the best you know. George Barnard Shaw remarked, "Keep yourself bright; you are the window through which you must see the world." - John Mason, from the book An Enemy Called Average ______________________________________________________________________________ Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire. -- Samuel Johnson What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? - Vincent van Gogh ______________________________________________________________________________ Many people believe that support is something that you give to someone you feel sorry for or that it means propping up someone who would fail unless you were there to give him a boost. But that's not the way I see it. Support is the boost you can give someone who can help himself but who needs a partner to open a window or push aside a roadblock. -- Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's ________________________________________________________________________ Dreams are necessary to life. Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. Good things happen to those who hustle. And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. -- Quotes from Anas Nin A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame someone else. -- John Burroughs Together Everyone Achieves More ________________________________________________________________________ Jabs are taken almost daily all around the internet on everything from players attitude to their individual work ethic. It’s rare you see a positive article on the ‘good guys’. Here’s a piece on Sonics rookie Kevin Durant taken from Sports Illustrated.com back on December 12. “The best thing about Kevin is his attitude,” Carlesimo said. “[He and fellow rookie Jeff Green] know they don’t have all the answers. They know they have a long way to go to become really consistent NBA players, and that’s a huge step in itself. They know how important it is to work, how important it is for the assistant coaches to be working with them before practice and after practice and watching tape with them. “If I’m sitting in my office late in the afternoon or at night and I hear the ball bouncing, it’s 50-50 it’s Kevin. He texts [assistant coach] Brian Keith when he’s on his way in and he’ll get a couple hundred shots up. You can’t teach that. You can make people do that, but it doesn’t work when you make people do that. They have to want to do that. It’s the kind of enthusiasm for basketball Magic had. There have been some very good players in this league who don’t have that enthusiasm for basketball that he has.” __________________________________________________________________ Jim Leyland “If somebody said what’s the most important thing for you as a manager,” Leyland said, “I would say, particularly with a team like this, that I don’t want anybody at the end of the season to say, ‘Oh, yeah, they’ve got really good players but they played (poorly).