Liberty Basketball

Check out the following article from the Liberty Tribune about our season opening win at Park Hill.

Liberty 59 Park Hill 32

I hope not...

I hope this isn't true. Trade would not make a lot of sense, especially with an already overcrowded outfield...

According to one National League executive, the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves have had serious discussions about a trade that would send outfielder Jeff Francoeur to the Royals for pitcher Zack Greinke. The same source said he believed the teams were close to executing the deal, but that Atlanta was holding up trade discussions until the Braves had a resolution of their pursuit of free agent righthander A.J. Burnett. Royals general manager Dayton Moore (who interviewed for the Red Sox job during Theo Epstein's walkabout in 2005-06) is a former member of the Braves organization and is eager to bring the outfielder to Kansas City

Statement

New OK-State Men's BBall coach Travis Ford is trying to change the culture in Stillwater. I would consider this a pretty bold statement...

Oklahoma State coach dismisses starting forward Thomas

STILLWATER, Okla. --

Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford has dismissed starting forward Ibrahima Thomas from the basketball team.

Ford says he had several conversations with the sophomore over the past week and determined that he lacked the commitment to make the program successful.

At 6-foot-11, Thomas was the main post presence on a Cowboys team that lacks depth inside. He was benched for Oklahoma State's 83-65 loss at Washington last week and replaced in the starting lineup by senior Anthony Brown.

Thomas had been averaging 8.3 points and 3.9 rebounds while starting the first seven games for Oklahoma State (5-3).

Prince?

Keep an eye on Virginia's athletics website. I wouldn't be surprised if Ron Prince goes back and takes his old job.

Three assistant coaches out at Virginia

Associated PressCHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. --

Al Groh will be back for a ninth season as the football coach at Virginia, but his son Mike, the offensive coordinator the past three seasons, will not.

Mike Groh was among three assistant coaches who resigned in a shakeup brought on by his father's annual review, Al Groh said in a statement Monday. He said assistant head coach and defensive backs coach Steve Bernstein would retire and defensive line coach Levern Belin intended to pursue other opportunities.

"There are no scapegoats here," Al Groh said in the statement after commending the coaches for their commitment to the university. "The head coach is responsible for the team."

Virginia finished 5-7 this year.

Liberty Basketball

*Jack Smith, Assistant for the past 41 years and myself at a gameday shootaround at Missouri State University.*

We spent the past weekend in Springfield, Missouri in the annual Tip-off Classic.

We were not able to bring home the championship as we lost by 8 in the title game to a pretty good Fayetteville, Arkansas team.

Our record now stands at 3-1 after our opening week.

Quote

Al Jefferson, who replaced Garnett as the Wolves' cornerstone forward, touched on the growing effort concerns Saturday night after the loss when he told local reporters: "It starts in this locker room with us. They could have Jesus Christ himself come and coach us, but if we don't go out there and play hard and play together, it won't mean nothing."

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...

Coach Wooden

Doesn't get any better than this...

Rick Reilly - John Wooden article

Coach MAC

Some people say I'm too serious and I need to smile and relax," Coach Mac says. "I'm relaxed. I think what I try to do is do things the right way. I know that hard work is a big key to being successful. And doing things the right way will pay off for me. There are certain things that I expect from my team. We're going to come in and we're going to play hard and we're going to play together and we're going to play unselfish basketball. We're going to take care of the ball. We're going to work on the defensive end of the floor."

Believe it or not, that's not what I said...that's from Nate McMillan of the Trailblazers.