Tourney Time

As a basketball player, fan, and coach, there is nothing better than tournament time!  The regular season is great, but teams can make or break their season based on what happens in the tournament.  Emmanuel is a great example of that last year in our conference tournament.  They played well in the tournament and made it to the conference tournament finals which earned them an automatic birth into the National Tournament.

Every team that makes it to the tournament starts fresh.  Records are 0-0.  It's win and advance or lose and go home.  Ball till you fall.  

Tonight Will played a good game and scored a career high 24 for us to help us advance pass Emmanuel and into the semi-finals vs. Lee tomorrow at 6.  The other great thing about the tournament is that when you win you don't get much time to celebrate.  There is always another game to prepare for. 

Shout out to our women's team who won by 1 point to also advance to the semi-finals where they will face Southern-Poly at 4 tomorrow.

Old School Basketball

I got an email from a coach the other day and in it there was a section that talked about Keeping it Real: Old School Basketball Values.  It was written by Herb Welling from Omaha Central High School.  I liked it and thought I'd share it with you.  

We value the ball

We take good shots

We share the ball and we make the extra pass

We sprint back on defense and we give up no lay-ups

We defend the ball and we help our teammate guarding the ball

We contests shots and we don't foul

We box out

We rebound and we run the floor

We dive for loose balls

We take charges

We respect the game, officials, coaches, opponents, and more importantly our teammates

We have good body language

We compete hard and we play with passion

We have no excuses and we have "next play" mentality

We listen with eyes and ears

We only care about one stat and that is the final score

We are responsible and accountable to the team on and off the floor

We play as a team

 

Shorter College...

I am so proud of the guys' hearts!

The win vs. Shorter was a great team victory. We basically played without two of our starters for the second half. Mix was not feeling well and had missed some practices and did not play and Chris got a couple quick fouls and a T early in the second and had to sit and cheer the team on from the bench. We fought back from 11 points down to come back and win to help us complete a sweep over Shorter this year. It was a huge win!

Roller Coaster

Have you ever been on a roller coaster?  I'm sure most of you have.  Some people love them and others can't stand them.  I kind of like them but usually get a little motion sickness when I ride them a lot.  If you have followed our season, which if you are reading this blog I'm guessing you have, you are probably following where I'm going with this.  I feel like we have been on a roller coaster this season.  We have had lots of ups and downs.  We play great one night and play with a lot of passion and energy and the next night it is almost like watching a different team.  We may shoot the ball great one night and then the next night it seems like we can't get anything to fall.  A quick up followed by a quick low.

One thing I have strived to attain since graduating college and entering the "real world" is balance.  I believe balance is the key to being a health person.  Balance in the physical, spiritual,  and social aspects of life.  I mentioned in a previous blog about how Kenny talked about bad things happening to everyone and that the way you handle them is what makes you different.  In sports and life there are going to be ups and downs.  It feels like our ups and downs are one after another, much like a roller coaster.  The good part of this is that we have been able to bounce back after a rough night and play well.  We have not stayed down for long.  The flip side  of that is that we have not been able to stay up very long either.  My hope is that we are able to figure out how to play at a high level at the end of our season when it counts the most.   Teams that get hot at the end of the season are the ones that do a lot of damage.  

We struggled last night vs. Southern Poly.  They are a good team and played well against us.  I was proud of Josh, Bentley and Zach last night.  When they came in they played hard.  Josh took a charge and hit a nice floater on a fast break.  Zach hit a three.  Bentley grabbed a couple of rebounds and made a free throw.  

Coach Haarlow's 100th Win

If you read my post after the AUM game you could probably sense my frustration. The first hint might have been the title "Frustrating night." I knew we needed to play with a lot more passion, energy and togetherness if we were going to beat a tough Faulkner team. Fortunately we did just that. Our guys were ready to play on Saturday. DT gave a little motivational speech to the team before the game about having the attitude of a winner, playing together, encouraging teammates, and our men responded by coming out ready to play. Our defense was much better. We forced 20 turnovers and only had 15. I'm guessing that does not happen to Faulkner very often with the kind of pressure defense they play. It was fun watching our guys compete. Bentley, Zach, and Josh made sure our bench was positive and gave us a lot of energy. Stevo had a nice two handed dunk with authority after a nice block by Lee who had some family at the game from Mississippi. Ferg and Dave also had a couple of nice rejections. Ferg led us in scoring with 23 and we also got 10 from Mixer and Crawford. It was a nice win for our guys and our program, not to mention our coach...

The win on Saturday gave Coach Haarlow his 100th win! This is Coach's seventh year as the head coach at Berry and his 100 wins are the second highest total of any Berry men's basketball coach, trailing only Larry Taylor's total of 159 over 14 seasons. Coach Haarlow said that he would celebrate the win like a wild man by saying good night to his kids, spending some time with his wife, and going to bed.

Another big challenge awaits us on Thursday. We play Southern Poly who was at the top of our conference before having to forfeit some games due to playing a player who was not eligible. They currently hold the same record as us in the SSAC at 5-6.

Kenny Herriot- Motivational Speaker

Last week we had a guest speaker at Berry College by the name of Kenny Herriot. He has a pretty amazing story. Kenny was a successful fitness trainer, boxer and manager when he suffered a freak motorcycle accident in July 2000 which left him paralysed from the waist down. He was only traveling 15 mph but hit a diesel slick and his bike came out from under him. Kenny was determined to regain his fitness and independence after the accident. He took up wheelchair racing in 2002 and in an amazingly short period he rose to the top echelons of the sport, taking all Scottish records from 400m to the marathon, and the British marathon record.

He talked about how your life can change in a heart beat and that when he says that most people automatically think about negative things happening. But your life can change for the better in a heart beat as well. Kenny has made the most of a tough situation through a positive attitude and lots of hard work. He has two quotes that he focuses on when he speaks to people...

"Bad things happen to everybody - its how you handle them that makes you different."

"Nothing slows you down like negative people."

He is currently training and about to embark on a journey across the United States from San Fransisco to New York in The Great Lemon Ride. This 3,500 mile journey is a way for Kenny to raise awareness for Alex's Lemonade Stand which is a charity that was started by a little 4 year old cancer patient named Alex back in 2000. She decided she was going to start a Lemonade stand and give the money she raised to the hospital to help kids like her. Her little lemonade stand continued to grow and others across the country and world caught on and started their own. When Alex passed away at the age of 8, she had attained her goal of raising 1 million dollars. Alex's mother also spoke to the group at Berry and shared Alex's story.

If you would like to visit Kenny's web site here is the link...

http://www.kennyherriot.co.uk/

If you would like more information on Alex's Lemonade Stand visit...

http://www.alexslemonade.org/home

Frustrating night

Well it is about 1 am right now central time in Alabama where we are and I'm not sleeping.  That's not a good thing.  Especially since it is 2 am eastern time which I am use to.  I don't know if I'm thinking about the game tonight, which was not pretty or if it was the stupid decision I made to drink Code Red Mountain Dew at Taco Bell where we ate after the game.  I'm guessing it's the second of the two.  I usually don't drink caffeine, but I didn't remember it keeping me up like this.  I don't feel wild and crazy, but I also don't feel tired.  Sorry, a little random I know, but I thought maybe you could relate.  

The game vs. AUM was not pretty tonight.  We were down 17 at half and they had 52 points.  The second half was not much better.  AUM is talented, that's for sure.  They didn't miss many threes in the second half, to be honest if didn't feel like they missed any.  We got beat badly.  Hopefully we will regroup and have a better effort on Saturday vs. Faulkner.  We need to play with a lot more passion and energy.  If there is one thing we know about Faulkner, they will play super hard.  We need to match their effort and get away from this road trip with a split.  

One last note before I attempt to sleep again.  We are staying in a Country Inn and Suites.  This place is pretty nice.  When I walked up to the room before the game, all of the guys were excited and running in and out of the rooms.  When I saw my room, I saw why.  We have a nice big suite complete with a couch 2 tvs, fridge, microwave, bathroom, 2 sinks and plenty of space. It may not sound all that impressive, but it's much better than we are use to.  The rooms are nice!  So, that's a bonus.  On the flip side, the air conditioning is not working in my room, so it's hot in here!  Maybe another reason I can't sleep.  It may be a curse of growing up in northern Illinois.  I like it nice and cold and cuddling up under a blanket.  I struggle to sleep when I'm hot.  Alright enough rambling.  Good night.

P.S. If you read this blog at all, please feel free to comment and let me know what you like, dislike, or whatever.