The Nations Top Coaches

The key to the success of a college basketball team is the ability of the Coach. A successful bench coach can and will spell the difference of success and failure. Some coaches in the heat of the battle wilt when in pressure game situations. Usually because they did not manage the clock well during the course of a game. Depending upon how well the coach makes decisions and manages the game, determines how much pressure he will face with under minutes remaining in a game. The coach can create a pressure situation by mis-management of the game. The players are usually not disciplined enough to execute or the coach has a flawed philosophy in game management. Either way it is the coach’s job to get their team ready for any situation. What causes me to wonder is when a coach uses all of the allotted time outs and have none to call in crucial game ending situations. This happens a lot when coaches do not manage the game well. Being a top flight coach involves how well you manage crucial situations at the end of a game.

You must make all the right moves at the right time in order to be effective. With that said, I put together a list of coaches who I feel have demonstrated that they know how to manage the game and change strategy when needed. The coaches are not listed in any particular order, but all have demonstrated that they know how to manage a game, ultimately producing a win. Mike Krzyzewski, Duke- Without a doubt the most successful coach in the ranks of college basketball. He has had the good fortune of coaching superb basketball talent and the benefits of coaching at The Premier Basketball School in the country.

Coach K is at the top as America’s top coach on nearly every ones list. Bill Self, Kansas- He coached his way to the top, by winning the National Championship. This is the litmus test of the coaching ability of the coach. Self proved that he belongs in the top tier of coaches. Roy Williams, North Carolina-Williams came into his own when he returned to North Carolina as The Head Basketball coach. Great coaching ability and a unique ability to bring talent together and lot of it at Carolina. Jim Calhoun, UConn- The cornerstone of UConn’s offense is a great point guard combined with a good inside game. Usually the inside is occupied by a better than average center. But with Calhoun’s offense a good point guard is the key to push the ball up the floor, distribute the ball, or effectively take the three. Calhoun is great at managing the closing minutes of a game.  Villanova- The three guard offense has been highly effective for Jay Wright and when he has three guard who can shoot from the perimeter, slash and dish effectively to the basket, he can break down the opposing defense fairly quickly. Wright because of his knack of recruiting exceptionally quick, efficeint shooting guards, has been able to manage the closing minutes of a game quite effectively.

Tom Crean, Indiana (Formerly coach at Marquette)- Crean is a master of managing a game and interchanging players at just the right time to keep the opposing team off balance on both offense and defense. He did this extremely well at Marquette. Look for Crean to recruit more power rated players at Indiana than he did at Marquette. This will insure that he will continue to have success in the closing minutes of a game. Crean is a master of managing a game.

Billy Donavon, Florida- Donavon is another coach who when he has reasonable talent, can effectively manage a game, by substituting strategically and effective pull out of game, by making superb coaching moves. Donavon won back to back national Championships and it was because he is a great bench coach.

Billy Gillespie, Kentucky- Although he had a mediocre year at Kentucky last year, Gillespie is a great recruiter and has a knack of drawing out the best of players who over the course of the year adapt well to his system. Look for Kentucky to remain one of the top echelon programs, because of the coaching ability of Gillespie. Last year was a great example of Gillespie’s coaching ability. Kentucky struggled all year long, but they game together in the end to win a seed in the NCAA tournament.

Rick Pitino, Louisville- Pitino is somewhat erratic at times. Does not manage the clock well and sometimes makes bone headed substitutions at inappropriate times. However, his teams or capable of hitting home run balls, via the three point line, which let him off the hook when making bad coaching decisions, and when he has managed the clock unresponsively. It is a situation where Pitino is on or he is not. Louisville rises and falls with the nuances and the management of the clock by Pitino.

Luke Olsen, Arizona- No coach has consistently managed a game better than Lute Olsen. He has accomplished this with great point guard play and above average inside game. But Arizona’s offense rises or falls with the point guard. And Olsen has had some good ones. He is without a doubt one of the top bench coaches in terms of managing the waning minutes of a game in America.

Ben Howland, UCLA- Howland brought his magic to Westwood and has created a talent pool that is exceptional to say the least. His clock management has been good and he has effectively advanced to the NCAA tournament enjoying good success.

Bob Huggins,West Virginia- Last year Huggins over achieved. The talent level at West Virginia was suspect, but Huggins managed to pull out a respectable year, making the NCAA tournament. For West Virginia, cloak Management became increasingly important. Look for Huggins to have the Mountaineers at the top through the upcoming season.

Bob McKillop- Davidson- Unless you were on another planet last year you have to be impressed with the coaching ability of McKillop. However one player made all of this possible and it was Stephen Curry. He is a shooter period. Enough said. He can get his shot off in a way that is not quick, but subtle. The point is he got his shot off consistently to get Davidson to the final eight last year. Curry is not a top ten player, so McKillop had to coach this team to success.

Mark Few-Gonzaga- Few coaches have done more than Coach Mark Few, to raise the National name recognition of one one school in ten years. Mark Few is an excellent bench coach and recruiter who has elevated Gonzaga to a household name. What can be said about the successes the Few has had. The best I can say is that he is an excellent bench coach.

Rick Barnes-Texas- Just study his history and the number of players that have made it to the NBA and how Texas is now known as a point guard factory and you see why Riick Barnes Made this list. He is an excellent coach and one of the great thinker in America. Best Of the Rest John Thompson III John Calipari Tim Floyd I’m sure there are others that should have been on this list.

Here’s a list of the top coaches from the past. Bobby Knight Adolph Rupp Denny Crum Al McGuire John Wooden Dean Smith John Thompson Gale Catlett

Around the Political Landscape

In the upper west side of Manhattan, a reporter at MSNBC, wore a McCain shirt and asked people who walk by and asked if they were for McCain. Many people passed by in the video and nearly no one actually supported John McCain. It showed the strength of Barack Obama, who has over comed the partisan divide. As he stood their at 80th and Broadway, their appeared to be a tremendous amount of hatred toward John McCain.

John McCain continued to struggle on the campaign trail. Faced with a limited campaign budget,McCain was forced to have Much smaller events.

New York Times shows Obama +11, New Hampshire shows Obama with a 13 point lead. The race is tightening in Pennsylvania and Ohio, although Obama hold a lead over McCain. The weekend voting with be interesting.

Bill Clinton Campaigns With Barack Obama

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”………..Senator Barack Obama

News Around Political World

David Alan Greer, former cast member of In Living Color, has a new show called Chocolate City. The show airs on Comedy Central on Wednesday Nights at 10:30. The CNN poll of polls has Barack Obama up by 7 points on Thursday morning. That’s down one point from the day before. Obama continues the last few days on the campaign trail in Florida, a key battle ground state.

John McCain continued his constant attacks on Barack Obama on the Larry King Show. McCain throughout his campaign has not yet explained what he would do to fix the economy. All that we know is that he is an expert at attacking Obama. An attack dog. That’s what he is all about. Both McCain and Palin are both empty suits. The light are on and no one is home.

Phillies Win It All

The Philadelphia Phillies took home the world championship trophy tonight winning its first championship since 1980. Twenty-five years to be exact. It was a wacky series that resumed tonight after a rain delay on Monday. The Phillies took home the championship for a city starved from championship glory.

For the first time, the championship came before a national television audience before 11 PM. Which meant that the series had someone of a prime time audience. So the city of Philadelphia can be proud of a winner and with it full slates of sports teams, the Eagles, Flyers, Sixers and Phillies, the city where Philly steaks are king, can be proud that they now have a winner.

Charlie Manual guided the Phillies to its second World Series title.

Infomercial, Clinton, and Obama

Barack Obama Infomercial was a well done documentary/commercial that told a story about Americas working class, Obama’s life story , and his vision of American. This proceeded two rousing campaign stops by the dual campaigning of President Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in Sunrise and Orlando, Florida. Bill Clinton was Bill Clinton, tonight he was a speaker who is able to isolate the issues that mean something to the voters.

Clinton called the presidential campaign the greatest job interview in the world. You are making the decision on who can best lead us out of this economic downturn. Then came Barack Obama, Obama said that American could see the peace that we saw under Bill Clinton is the 1990’s. Obama said we now have six days left to change. Six days left until the election. The choice is clear, four more years of the same tired economic theory or a new adventure filled with change in Barack Obama.

Despite Clear Dominance of Obama- Some People Are Still Undecided: WHY?

This is an an anonymous article that speaks well to our logic and our biases about Obama and McCain.

WHAT IF..

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?

…..think about it.

Would the country’s collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obama had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obama’s had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama: Columbia University – B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden: University of Delaware – B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Vs

John McCain: United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism

Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. It saddens me to think that this is the America (Every one is created equal, land of the free, and home of the brave.) that we live in but it is sadly reality.

You make the call.

Obama Closes- While McCain-Palin Continue To Feud

The Democrats look for the race to tighten up in the last few days of the campaign. Florida is a battle ground state. Governor Charlie Crist has extended early voting hours, so most polls will be open for twelve hours. The Obama campaign is a well oil machine and well organized. Obama is out spending McCain 4 to 1. Tonight Barack Obama will buy time on many Television stations nationwide. This is an unprecedented move for any candidate and has never been done in history. It is an half hour ad. His last closing argument to the nation.

This is the latest in the many twist and turns of the Obama- McCain battle for the White House. Sarah Palin continues to build an audience for what many seem to think is a move to be the presidential candidate in 2012. Palin has decided she would take advantage of her stage despite McCain’s slip in the polls. A top unnamed McCain advisor called her a “wack job”. Yet no one is blaming John McCain for choosing her. There is no criticism of McCain for choosing her. McCain is the the main culprit for choosing Palin as his running mate.

This is not a good scenario for the Republicans. The way John McCain has managed his campaign leaves much to be desired. If this foreshadows how he will manage a McCain administration, we are in deep trouble.

The McCain-Palin Campaign In In Shambles

How do you define Sarah Palin? Is she a “Diva”. Is she a “Rogue” candidate? Is she out for herself? Could it be all of the above? There is absolute confusion in the the McCain House. He has lost total control of his kingdom and the main culprit wreaking havoc on the McCain Castle is, you guessed it, Sarah Palin, an invited guest no less. John McCain should take more time in preparing his guest list. Perhaps give the guest list a good once over before inviting your guest to your home.

Now McCain looks a little lost and disgusted whenever he’s on stage with Sarah Palin. Suppose the McCain-Palin ticket wins? What will John McCain do then with his loose cannon? Can you imagine how Palin will deviate from policy when visiting foreign dignitaries? Would she be on message or off message. The way things stand now, she certainly would be off the official message and more on her own agenda.

The McCain-Palin campaign is a disaster. This could be a complete and utter catastrophe for the Republicans, who stand to lose majorities in the Senate and in Congress and the Democrat achieve a filibusterer proof majority. George Bush has done so bad that no mater what, the electorate are blaming all Republicans for being another version of George Bush.

Trouble In The McCain-Palin Camp

There trouble in the McCain camp with Sarah Palin. Aids are now saying that she is unprepared on the issues. They have all along been fearful of turning Palin loose for fear of what she would say. As any hiring manager knows you meticulously research your job candidate. You do a background check, checking everything. You get a feel for what the person has done in the way of former employment. In the interview process you look for all you can for telling comments or information.

If you can detect of trend in behavior from the past, you note it and follow up on it. The best predictor of the future is what a person has done in the past. So Sarah Palin’s flaws were staring John McCain in the face. Why did he not question the fact that she attended five colleges. Why did she enter a beauty contest? All these things would speak to the character of the person. I’m sure McCain knew about Trooper gate. If he did not it proves that he is incompetent. If He did; it proves that he is even more incompetent.

The point is McCain staffer are beside themselves because Sarah Palin has started to improvise on her own. She has taken on the role of ” Loose Cannon”. McCain would have known this if he had hired smart. He did not. He only has himself to blame.