As we roll into March Madness and the NCAA tournaments, one thing we can always count on this time of year is a few good articles about some of the coaches.
As these articles tend to be a bit more in-depth than at other times of the year and often written for
the March Madness fan, we often get a lot of great information from these articles.
So, obviously, I'm writing this with an article in mind. Or two.
I came across these two articles today that I think you'll enjoy reading.
The Life Lessons of Villanova’s Jay Wright, the
Anti-Coach
Sitting in his spartan office on the Villanova campus, Jay Wright conjures up a high-drama memory that offers, he says, a perfect example of his approach to coaching. (Spoiler alert: His anecdote is curiously lacking in what you'd typically call coaching.)
So he draws the scene. It's a familiar one: Houston; last spring's NCAA championship game, which you probably remember as culminating in one of the most frenzied finishes in college-basketball
history. Sure, the buzzer beater that won Villanova the game was plenty memorable, but for Wright, the night's moment of real drama was at halftime.
With his team down by five to North Carolina, Wright was walking toward the locker room, trailing a retinue of
assistants. (The pack included Jim Brennan, an army veteran and devotee of Tibetan Buddhism whom Wright calls his team's “performance consultant” but who once referred to himself as Wright's “dream interpreter.”)
As Wright reached the door, it swung wide before the coach could even lay hand to handle, and there stood senior center Daniel Ochefu—all six feet eleven inches of him. Ochefu put his giant hand on his coach's shoulder.
“We need you to stay out,” Ochefu said, looking serious. “We got this. Me and Arch [senior point guard and co-captain Ryan Arcidiacono] got this.”
Continue reading...
Why John Beilein Is The Truest Coach In College Basketball
One crash. Four days. Four wins.
That’s my attempt to write a story in six words, something that Ernest Hemingway once did in response to being challenged to write a short-short story. (For his answer see below.)
But no writer, even Papa himself, could come up with a better story than what’s behind the six words I just wrote. On Wednesday March 8 a plane carrying 109 passengers aborted takeoff from Willow Run Airport. On board were University of
Michigan basketball players, coaches, spouses and even members of the Michigan band on route to Washington D.C. to play in the Big 10 Tournament. Gutsy winds forced the pilot to abandon takeoff and the plane skid 400 yards off the runway.
Coach John Beilein and wife Kathleen exited the plane and took off running. According to reporting by Brendan Quinn of M-Live, Beilein noticed that the inflatable exit chute was blowing untethered preventing passengers from sliding down to safety. Beilein told his wife to keep running and he went back
to hold the chute down in the gusty winds. Jet fuel was spraying all about and the engine was still hot.
Continue reading...
Enjoy those articles!
And keep on the lookout for some Hoops U. March Madness specials we'll have going on in the coming days!
See U next
time...
