Men's Tourney Winner

[devdog69]

...is still in the balance. It's either Ken Bolt, who is a local official friend of mine, probably doesn't even know you guys exist out here in cyberspace, or Chad Weaver, self-proclaimed howler monkey.
If KU wins it's KB
If Syracuse wins it's Chad..Rock Chalk Jayhawk...

Oh that hurt, I'm a Missouri fan and that really, really hurt.

[A Pennsylvania Coach]

SuperFunky HowlerMonkey. I should win for having the best picks and the best entry name!

Seriously, is Jim Boeheim a better coach today than he was yesterday, just because Kansas missed 18 free throws? Way too much importance is placed on winning championships. Like Coach Wooden said, "it's not about winning, it's about the pursuit of winning." You could tell by the way Boeheim and Williams carried themselves the past couple of days that they understand that as well.

Boeheim has always been a great coach. Anybody who just figured that out yesterday is missing the boat.

And they should've given them two trophies last night--the NCAA Championship and the Big 12!

[devdog69]

Congrats, coach.

[Hawks Coach]

Originally posted by A Pennsylvania Coach
Way too much importance is placed on winning championships. Like Coach Wooden said, "it's not about winning, it's about the pursuit of winning." You could tell by the way Boeheim and Williams carried themselves the past couple of days that they understand that as well.

Wooden was right, but he could also afford to say that having won many championships

Having come just shy of the league championship and league tournament championship again this year, I really appreciate how hard it is to win the whole thing. In our league, we lost a close game to the league champion, who also had one loss but took us in head to head (1st tiebreaker). We were on the lowest point of a slump when we played that team, and any other day we probably beat them. In our tourney, we lost in the semifinals when we had a 5 1/2 minute scoreless streak to start the 4th quarter - 1st quarter you can bounce back, 4th quarter you are out of time. Most of the problem was just failure to finish easy plays. And the players weren't even nervous - just couldn't hold onto the ball - bad time to start fumbling, but it happens.

To win it all, everything has to come together just right - your off days have to be against the right team and not too far off. And when one game can determine everything, there is no margin for error. A series of one and out games, it is a minefield.

And sometimes you just have luck on your side (right Mr Boeheim?!). I think we had it both ways this year, a little lucky at times, way unlucky a couple of times. Being there with a reasonable chance and putting the best forward you can is what it is all about. Keep doing it, and someday things may line up right and you can win one or two!

[mick]

Originally posted by A Pennsylvania Coach
SuperFunky HowlerMonkey. I should win for having the best picks and the best entry name!

Attaboy, Coach!
The only reason your win counts is that you already use your srtiped shirt.
mick

I just noticed that the better you know the rules the worse you know the teams. Hmmmmm.

[silverfox]

".. the race is not to the swift, and the battle is not to the strong,... nor favour to men of ability: for time and chance overtake them all."
Ecclesiastes 9:11

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Hawks Coach
Wooden was right, but he could also afford to say that having won many championships
To win it all, everything has to come together just right - your off days have to be against the right team and not too far off. And when one game can determine everything, there is no margin for error. A series of one and out games, it is a minefield.

This seems to me to be true, even at the NCAA National Championship level, don't you think? So here's the part I don't understand. In order to win that last, biggest game, you've got to have such a strong competitive drive that it sort of ruins the fun of just making it, doesn't it? I mean, even though Tennessee lost last night, they're still second in the whole country, with such an unbelieveably successful history. But if that is good enough, they for sure won't win the championship. Yet, if they wind themselves up for that biggest game, and then lose, they are heartbroken. how to strike the balance?

[Andy]

Originally posted by mick

I just noticed that the better you know the rules the worse you know the teams. Hmmmmm.

If that's the case, I must know the rules forward and backward......

But the real question is.......

Do I have "presence"

[mick]

Originally posted by Andy


But the real question is.......

Do I have "presence"

Well, Andy,
Of course you do.
We all do.
The question is whether what we have is adequate, or not.
mick

[A Pennsylvania Coach]

Originally posted by rainmaker
In order to win that last, biggest game, you've got to have such a strong competitive drive that it sort of ruins the fun of just making it, doesn't it?

It didn't look like anything ruined Taurisi's fun last night.

I think I have a strong competitive drive. But I also have the ability to put things in perspective. We won our first-round playoff game this year. That was a lot of fun. We lost in the quarterfinals then again in the consolations. Leading up to both those two games, I wanted very badly to win them. At the end of the last one, which was also the end of the career for my three great seniors, I was devastated for a few minutes. Then the hurt of losing turned into the hurt of it being over. And now, six weeks later, I can look back and be really proud of the season we had.

And we had a lot of fun.

[mick]

Originally posted by A Pennsylvania Coach
And now, six weeks later, I can look back and be really proud of the season we had.

I lost a semi 38 years ago and it still sucks.

[Edited by mick on Apr 9th, 2003 at 10:41 AM]

[Joe]

"So here's the part I don't understand. In order to win that last, biggest game, you've got to have such a strong competitive drive that it sort of ruins the fun of just making it, doesn't it?"

Sort of...but I think the winners *were* the ones that were
able to relax and have fun under pressure. Look at Terasi
and Anthony: as much as was possible given the pressure they
just went out and enjoyed it (at least they seemed to smile the most :-) ). I don't think I saw a Kansas or Tennessee
player smile once....

Joe

Originally posted by rainmaker

This seems to me to be true, even at the NCAA National Championship level, don't you think? So here's the part I don't understand. In order to win that last, biggest game, you've got to have such a strong competitive drive that it sort of ruins the fun of just making it, doesn't it? I mean, even though Tennessee lost last night, they're still second in the whole country, with such an unbelieveably successful history. But if that is good enough, they for sure won't win the championship. Yet, if they wind themselves up for that biggest game, and then lose, they are heartbroken. how to strike the balance?

[Hawks Coach]

[QUOTE]

Originally posted by rainmaker

This seems to me to be true, even at the NCAA National Championship level, don't you think? So here's the part I don't understand. In order to win that last, biggest game, you've got to have such a strong competitive drive that it sort of ruins the fun of just making it, doesn't it? I mean, even though Tennessee lost last night, they're still second in the whole country, with such an unbelieveably successful history. But if that is good enough, they for sure won't win the championship. Yet, if they wind themselves up for that biggest game, and then lose, they are heartbroken. how to strike the balance?

It's pretty hard to strike the balance. When we first started in travel ball, winning a first round tournament game was tremendous. Finishing with a +.500 record was great (6-4). The second year, we pushed the top team in the league for 4 quarters before losing a tight game in the second round of the tournament, another satisfying outcome.
This year, we could have run the table and won a championship - and we had that as a goal. We entered the season knowing that we had no margin for error, that an undefeated season would be the key to a league championship in all likelihood. And we lost one game, the only game we couldn't afford to lose as it turns out.

So. . . We are happy with how we are playing ball this year, but we are clearly much more disappointed by our losses this year than we were in our first year, even though we lost far fewer games this time around. We were 17-3 in two highly competitive leagues and finished in a tie for the lead in both (and in the one league that offered trophies for first, we lost the tiebreaker ). We made the semifinals of a tournament that we could have won, and lost to a team that we had beaten the last two occasions that we played. That team won the tournament, and they beat a team in the final that has never beaten either of our teams. So we knew the championship was there for us to take, and will never be satisfied with not having finished that job. Boeheim was thinking about '87 while winning this year, and probably still feels bad that those players couldn't be part of the trophy celebration.

I think that you learn and grow from these "almost, not quite" experiences, but you will always have a slight feeling that you left something behind. Is it worth it - I think so. We now walk on a court expecting to win every game, we can go into halftime down a dozen and still expect to win (and have won games in these circumstances). So we have a new confidence in our abilities and have learned how to finish the job on most occasions. But if you reach the top levels, you aren't be completely satisfied if you don't win it all. And that just goes with the territory.

As for smiling (Joe's comment), I think that was easier when the lead was big in each team's favor. It's easy to be loose and happy when you have control. Those players on UCONN and SU stopped smiling when the game tightened up. Syracuse looked tight those last few minutes when the game got too close for comfort. Taurasi wasn't smiling when they called TO and Auriemma chewed her butt for not playing defense (and he quickly saw he needed to sit her a few minutes). Taurasi started smiling again when UCONN began to make plays and open it up again. You couldn't reasonably expect KU to be smiling when they are down 18 in the national final, or Tennessee when they were down 13. That ain't happening.

I do think that one of the big influences in each game was a coach that recognized he had players and he let them play the game. I think that the best players in men's and women's won the championship.

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by mick

I lost a semi 38 years ago and it still sucks.

[Edited by mick on Apr 9th, 2003 at 10:41 AM]

Geeze, what kindergarden has playoffs for their sports teams?

[Joe]

"As for smiling (Joe's comment), I think that was easier when the lead was big in each team's favor. It's easy to be loose and happy when you have control. Those players on UCONN and SU stopped smiling when the game tightened up."

Some

"Syracuse looked tight those last few minutes when the game got too close for comfort. Taurasi wasn't smiling when they called TO and Auriemma chewed her butt for not playing defense (and he quickly saw he needed to sit her a few minutes). Taurasi started smiling again when UCONN began to make plays and open it up again."

Chicken or the egg....


"You couldn't reasonably expect KU to be smiling when they are down 18 in the national final, or Tennessee when they were down 13. That ain't happening."

True, but I think it was clear that 'Cuse and UConn were the
loosest teams out there. Hey, KU wasn't smiling when they were up 40 in the semi! My point, and agree there is a cause and effect (wining is more fun than losing :-)), was that the two players that were smiling
the most (and *appeared* to be the most relaxed), also happened to be the two best players. Bang a gong: they happened to win too! Before the game Auriemma said Taurasi
was the most fearless player he's ever seen. Fearless, relaxed, confident, clutch, take your pick of the words you want to use, but the tightest teams rarely win the big ones, *even* when they have the best talent.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hawks Coach

It's pretty hard to strike the balance. When we first started in travel ball, winning a first round tournament game was tremendous. Finishing with a +.500 record was great (6-4). The second year, we pushed the top team in the league for 4 quarters before losing a tight game in the second round of the tournament, another satisfying outcome.
This year, we could have run the table and won a championship - and we had that as a goal. We entered the season knowing that we had no margin for error, that an undefeated season would be the key to a league championship in all likelihood. And we lost one game, the only game we couldn't afford to lose as it turns out.

So. . . We are happy with how we are playing ball this year, but we are clearly much more disappointed by our losses this year than we were in our first year, even though we lost far fewer games this time around. We were 17-3 in two highly competitive leagues and finished in a tie for the lead in both (and in the one league that offered trophies for first, we lost the tiebreaker ). We made the semifinals of a tournament that we could have won, and lost to a team that we had beaten the last two occasions that we played. That team won the tournament, and they beat a team in the final that has never beaten either of our teams. So we knew the championship was there for us to take, and will never be satisfied with not having finished that job. Boeheim was thinking about '87 while winning this year, and probably still feels bad that those players couldn't be part of the trophy celebration.

I think that you learn and grow from these "almost, not quite" experiences, but you will always have a slight feeling that you left something behind. Is it worth it - I think so. We now walk on a court expecting to win every game, we can go into halftime down a dozen and still expect to win (and have won games in these circumstances). So we have a new confidence in our abilities and have learned how to finish the job on most occasions. But if you reach the top levels, you aren't be completely satisfied if you don't win it all. And that just goes with the territory.

As for smiling (Joe's comment), I think that was easier when the lead was big in each team's favor. It's easy to be loose and happy when you have control. Those players on UCONN and SU stopped smiling when the game tightened up. Syracuse looked tight those last few minutes when the game got too close for comfort. Taurasi wasn't smiling when they called TO and Auriemma chewed her butt for not playing defense (and he quickly saw he needed to sit her a few minutes). Taurasi started smiling again when UCONN began to make plays and open it up again. You couldn't reasonably expect KU to be smiling when they are down 18 in the national final, or Tennessee when they were down 13. That ain't happening.

I do think that one of the big influences in each game was a coach that recognized he had players and he let them play the game. I think that the best players in men's and women's won the championship.