College Basketball

Thanks to my wonderful fiance, great seats for the 2 CBE classic games.

College Basketball Hall of Fame

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the 3rd annual college basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Since I have an amazing fiance, she was able to get me on the "inside" and I served as a team host for Kansas and a personal host for Coach Self.

**Sidenote...The event probably ranked as one of the Top 5 things I've ever done. I challenge you to go through and make a list of the Top 5 things you've been able to do in your life. I'm working on mine**

I heard a million stories and am still in the process of trying to piece together everything that happened. Since I spent the entire evening with Coach Self, I have many things that come to mind about him. I'll share this story...

It was time for us to move from the "private dinner" to the floor for the induction ceremony. Coach and I were chatting on our way to the floor when we got stopped and asked by a Sprint Center security person for our "passes". I immediately thought to myself, "Don't they know who this guy is?" Before I could get anything out of my mouth, Coach Self says, "oh yeah, here, it's in my pocket give me a second."

So instead of pulling a "don't you know who I am", or looking at me and saying "take care of this", the man fresh off the National Championship, the pinnacle of his profession, has enough humility to pull out a 3x5 pass.

He was that way the entire night, humble and down to earth.

Don Meyer article

My boss often talks about "the best basketball coach" that he knows. He's not talking about John Wooden, or Bobby Knight. He's not talking about Adolph Rupp or Dean Smith. Nah, how about, Don Meyer, Head Coach at Northern State University.

Of course I recognize a personal bias, but I believe coaching is the greatest and most important profession in the world. The logic is this...Coaching is teaching and teaching is coaching. Although a doctor can perform a heart by-pass to save your life, didn't someone have to teach him how to do it?

This is a wonderful story about a "Coach," Don Meyer.

Make sure to read this article when time allows.

Don Meyer - ESPN - Buster Olney

Now this doesnt seem right...

So I was reading this interesting article on CNN.com about Barack Obama potentially having to give up his BlackBerry...

I hope that you chose to read the article, there were a couple of interesting points in it. (sidenote: Did you know that Obama gave up smoking before running for President?)

Here's my point...

Don't you think it would be completely opposite of what the article states? Wouldn't the President need more access to information, emails, text messages, etc. Wouldn't he be more protected by laws?

I found this to be an interesting article. President Bush has not emailed since 2001. Could you imagine going 8 years without emailing?

Make sure to check out the article and let me know what you think.

MLB - Manager of the year

I heard an interesting stat...

In the history of the Manager of the year award, there has NEVER been a unanimous selection.

Come on Mr. President...

Obviously American people voice their displeasure with the President over many pressing issues. The economic crisis is probably the top right now. The war(s) are up there as well.

One of the things that made many people flock to President-elect Obama was the way he connected with the "common-folk." The picture I've attached of him dropping off his kids at school is a perfect example (minus the secret service).

I don't think it's appropriate to get into a discussion about politics on a blog, but I am going to give my first every blog post about the President.

NO FREAKIN WAY IS HE WEARING A WHITE SOX HAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm seriously contemplating gathering a collection pool and buying him a Royals hat and sending it to the Oval Office...let me know if you're interested.

What about this hat?! This looks like something the President would wear...

Obama

Although I've been sick this week, about the only good news was when I couldn't sleep Tuesday night I didn't have to worry about getting up early for work early on Wednesday.

Being able to stay up and watch Obama's speech at Grant Park was pretty cool.

I made sure to save the front page of the KC Star Wednesday morning.

BBall

This is the last "free" weekend that I will have until mid-March.

We're starting our basketball season on Monday, November 10th. A pretty good birthday present for me...

We're super excited about the possibilities with this team. We have veterans and youth. We have big and small. We have athletic and not athletic. We have coachable and non-coachable. We have attitudes and ego's. We darn near have it all...

I'll simply make this point, somewhat in reference to my last post about Ron Prince (style over substance).

We should have a great team. We should make a good run at a Final 4. Starting November 10th, I'm done talking about it, and ready to start doing it.

Thoughts

I'm supposed to be working on some course work for my Master's in Special Education, but instead I am stuck on all of the news about Ron Prince resigning.


Ron Prince went 16-18 to this point in his time at Kansas State. Is that worthy of being fired? Probably not. Not at a place that was deemed to have had one of the "worst football programs in history."

It is worth mentioning that K-State fans are extremely spoiled because of what Coach Snyder did. There are certainly unrealistic expectations to match Coach Snyder.

Let this be clear, I don't think that Ron Prince was fired because of his 16-18 record, I think he was fired for the right reasons.

This guy was fired because he couldn't hold onto any quality assistants.
This guy was fired because he made those same assistants run stadium's.
This guy was fired because he didn't think it was important to hold onto an equipment manager.
This guy was fired because he couldn't get his players to buy in.
This guy was fired because he made those some players run at 3:00am after flying back from a game against Louisville.
This guy was fired because he couldn't deliver the big time recruits.
This guy was fired because he couldn't develop relationships with HS coaches.
This guy was fired because he was loosing season ticket holders.
This guy was fired because he wasn't bringing in enough money into an athletic department that depends on football.
Ultimately, this guy was fired because he had a lot of style and not much substance.

I listed some of the reasons why I believe he was fired. Notice that NONE of it had to do with his record? Indirectly, sure some of that stuff plays into it. Ron Prince wasn't fired because he was 16-18, he was fired because he wasn't making any progress. I think that Ron Prince is an extremely intelligent man. I think that he probably is a terrific coordinator.

I don't know if anyone could have come in from outside the "Snyder family" and have success.

My only thought is this...it took Bill Snyder 18 years to build the program, did it take Ron Prince only 2 and 3/4 years to tear it down?

KSU - Prince - OUT

I've read numerous reports that Ron Prince is going to resign as KSU head Football coach, today.

Obviously, I have quite a lot of thoughts. I'll post soon.

Take a look!

One thing that I'm so lucky to have is great friends. I have friends who have accomplished many different things and have helped me become a better person.

This is just one example of the amazing work one of my buddies has done.

James Roberts article

Pet peeve

The more I've realized this, the better it is for my health... I have a lot of pet peeves...

One of them takes place at the high school everyday.

Kids who "share" ipod headphones. One has one in their right ear, the other has it in their left ear.

Bothers me...