Cultures of Resistance

“There are two super powers in the world: The United States and Global Public Opinion.”

I just finished watching a documentary called Cultures of Resistance. It has been a movie that I have wanted to look into for a while and I finally was able to watch it. The interesting thing is that Promo Jeune Basket is actually supported by the organization that made the documentary. The organization is now called Cultures of Resistance, but was formerly known as the Caipirinha foundation.

My copy of the documentary had no subtitles, and it is filmed all over the world in different languages. Though I could not understand the words of a lot of the stories, the message was definitely transmitted to me in the strongest way. The message and focus of the movie is the message that we as humans can resist in ways other than violence and war. When there is iniquity and struggle the strongest form of resistance in the human spirit comes from passion and love, not anger and hatred. Violence and war are forms of resistance stemming from hatred and anger. Art, poetry, music, dance, photography and the celebration of the human spirit are forms of resistance that are driven by passion and love. This movie celebrates the latter.

The documentary addresses so many different struggles in the world that I could spend all day writing about each one. The struggles include those in Palestine, Liberia, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Iran, and even the DRC just to name a few. Though I am familiar with most of the struggles, I just want to focus on the overall message that I took from the movie. What is stuck in my mind now is the strength that we as human beings attain through resisting, through saying no to atrocities such as war, and how that strength must be the driving force in leading us into the future.

This strength, this force of resistance is what we saw in the recent Arab spring. Though in some cases it resorted to violence, we watched a resistance take place. This resistance wasn’t one of violence though, it was one driven by public opinion and desire to see a better life for each and every person. The resistance of the people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and the many other countries standing up against the inequality in their countries was nothing less than inspirational to me.

War leads us down a path to death and destruction. Near the end of the movie they begin to mention the World Peace Day in 2003 when the largest global movement of people (almost 15 million) was recorded in the streets of various cities around the world. They mention a New York Times article where the author wrote, “There are once again two super powers in the world: The United States and global public opinion.” A very powerful message coming from that time period for sure as the United States really represented war as they moved into Iraq and continued fighting in Afghanistan. Though I could go in many different directions with that quote (and rant for hours and hours) I interpret that quote as, “There are two super powers in the world: War and Public Opinion.”

It is the spirit of humans that guide the world into a happy and prosperous future, and public opinion is the mark that the human spirit sets itself within society. So there are two super powers in this world today. One super power is that which we see too often (and is gloried too much within too may cultures) is war, which will eventually end up destroying the world. War has never brought anything good upon the world. The other super power is one that is coming to life in as uncontrollable and immovable movement to make the world a better place and that is global public opinion. This film again is a remarkable document of the way the people of the world are standing up against war and conflict to make the world a better place. It is a film celebrating life, which is the focus of public opinion, and denouncing destruction, which is the focus of war and conflict.

To see what Cultures of Resistance is about go visit, www.culturesofresistance.org, and you can see clips from the movie. You can also see the mini feature that they did on my organization, Promo Jeune Basket. I don’t really know how to portray my thoughts right now except through writing, so while watching the movie I wrote this poem:

Got your face in the pillow you cant breath

You kick and kick and kick but no one can hear you scream

thinking to yourself does anyone care

look around and see that no one is there

stand up to look further You can taste the fresh air

no one is in sight but the air is pristine

your lips begin to move and the truth comes out

look down see millions with their face in the pillow trying to shout

what is it keeping them with their face down?

you begin to yell “with love we swim with war we drown”

Yell and yell and yell until there is no other sound

the kicking ceases as the people take your words into account

Some stand up just to raise their fist

One by one I see the people resist

One by one the crowd begins to multiply

No longer will they lay down and just die

Instead stand and let the truth be their guide

You can feel the movement in your midst

The movement takes form led by the youth

A young boy sheds his bullet-proof

Drops his piece as a symbol peace

Begins dribbling his ball up and down the streets

A young girl takes her pen and writes what she sees

A movement of the young revealing the truth

No longer are our faces down in the pillow

People took the choice to stand and grow

But it wasn’t the kicking and screaming that got us out

It was the realization that love is what life is about

One person inspired many to stand and flout

This is the resistance our culture will show

Sweet Sixteen!

Thursday

After watching the games through the night of Thursday I am more depressed than I ever have been in my life. Not only did every team that I want to win lose, but Sparty bowed out and even worse I had to watch the last seconds of Draymond Green’s career. I’m sure that Dancing Bear will be playing basketball somewhere in the future, and I hope the NBA, but I’m not sure he will thrive in the NBA and will probably end up playing somewhere overseas where I wont be able to watch.

So before I get into a recap of what I saw I want to pay tribute to the 4 beautiful years of basketball Dray played in East Lansing. When he came in (before I saw him play) I thought he was some bigheaded Mr. Basketball from Saginaw that was overweight and was only Mr. Basketball in high school due to his size. Very quickly I saw differently. Even though he wasn’t a superstar as a freshman, he was good and he showed a lot of potential. He was fast for someone his size, very passionate when he played, had quick feet, and good touch next to the rim along with a pretty good mid range jump shot. Throughout his career he developed all those skills even more, and lost weight to become 2012’s Big Ten Player of the Year and a NCAA Player of the Year. If Anything I think he deserves the Senior Award, and if anyone else gets that I will be very disappointed, no one deserves it as much as him.

Anyway, Draymond has grown into one of the most versatile players in college basketball. He is a great leader with his passion and intensity. If there is any example I would ever want to give to players I coach I would show them Draymond Green. Even though he would play outside of his game sometime, he never did it in a stupid way; he would just do it because he was so aggressive. The mistakes that Dray makes aren’t due to a lack of knowledge or heart, but they happen due to him wanting to win so badly that he tries to do too much. I love that guy! Anyway, I can see him being somewhat of a Big Baby Davis in the NBA at best, or go play over in Spain, China, or Turkey never really to be heard from again in the States. I know that I will be a lifetime fan though, and no matter what country he ends up in I will know his career.

So lets get onto the games…

The night began with probably the best game of the night: Syracuse vs. Wisconsin. I must say that I was hoping that the buzzcuts would pull out the upset, but that’s because of the Big Ten affiliation and that I have not been impressed with the Orange’s uninspired play so far. The game proved to be an impressive one.

Wisconsin of course slowed the game down and was very patient against the zone. One thing that surprised me while watching the game was how poorly Boehiem’s 2-3 rotated. Wisconsin really put on a barrage of three pointers from all angles, but I didn’t think Wisconsin really worked too much against the zone. A lot of their 3’s came from the wing, of course in the waning seconds of the shot clock, but in a lot of possessions the ball never made it into the high post or short corner. The guards would just move the ball for about 30 seconds on the perimeter and than jack one up. This is surprising that ‘Cuses zone was so vulnerable without the ball really every penetrating the zone at all. It’s the poor defense of the Orange and good shooting of Wisconsin that kept the game close.

Of course Syracuse scored in all different ways and Wisconsin never took away C.J. Fine’s left hand allowing way too many easy layups. Syracuse played how they are expected on offense and they were able to pull out the W. The best part of the game for me was listening to Boeheim at the end of the game. He gave an interview that sound like he was saying, “This Wisconsin team is the best team we’ve seen in a long time.” It made me laugh because Wisconsin is a good team, but I wouldn’t even put them in the 10 best teams in college basketball, and Boeheim better prepare well for their next match because it will prove harder than the Badgers match up for sure.

For other thoughts on the game that really sum up the last play of the game (which I don’t have enough time or space to into), read this great article from grantland, http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7726923/bo-ryan-wisconsin-syracuse-sweet-16

Finishing right after the ‘Cuse-Buzzcuts game was the Lousiville-Michigan State game. From the beginning of the slugfest I knew Sparty was in trouble. The game from the very tip resembled more of a street fight than a basketball match. This wasn’t a good omen for MSU, as Louisville plays way more grimy than Sparty. State plays grimy in a very organized fashion under Izzo, but the Cardinal play a very in your face grimy under Pitino.

The game looked wide open in the beginning of the first half as both teams played lock down defense and neither team could put the ball in the hoop. The point at which Louisville began separating themselves is when they began knocking down threes with about 6:00 minutes left in the first half. Going into half time I think the Cardinals hit four three pointers to put themselves up 23-18 as the teams header to the locker room. Now I missed the first part of the second half because I was watching the Buzzcuts three point barrage, but I have heard and can imagine what happened. Louisville began throwing more refined hooks and uppercuts by Dieng protecting the rim on defense and Behanan hitting the offensive boards hard. Michigan State usually isn’t known for it’s stellar offense, but it is known every year for its work on cleaning the glass, but Louisville dominated them on the glass. When I saw the stat recap about half way through the second I saw State losing the rebounding battle by about –10 I knew that the game was over.

The next two games: Ohio State-Cincinnati and Florida-Marquette games were two that I was very excited for because I knew anything could happen in the games. Cincy looked strong for the first little bit of the game, but the more talented Buckeyes really handed it to them after letting them stick around in the first half. Ohio State’s scoring came from everywhere. What’s surprising is that their best scorer in my mind, Will Buford, was the only starter not to score over 10 points. Cincy, other than the beastly Yancy Gates, was just too undersized to match up and play good defense against Ohio State.

The Florida- Marquette game went differently than I thought it would. I really thought that Marquette was the better team, and even though I knew Florida is much better than their seven seed ranking the Gators proved to be the better team. I thought that the only way that Florida would win the game would be if the Golden Eagles threw the ball away a lot, and really just beat themselves. The game actually was one where both teams played average games. Neither team did anything to lose the game or put themselves ahead o the other team by a lot. This is why I think Florida proved themselves to be the better team.

Bradley Beal showed that he is one of the best guard NBA prospects in college basketball as he went for 21, 6, and 4. His size and skill really make him someone who I think will go high in the draft, maybe top 5. Like I said though, there is no real statistic that can show why Florida won the game, but they shot a little better, had a couple more rebounds, and played a little bit better defense. Even though statistically the Gators and Eagles were pretty close, Florida came out on top by 10 points.

Most disappointing fact of the night: We will not be able to watch Draymond Green and Jae Crowder go at each other in the Elite Eight.

Senior of the night: Even though it kills me to not pick Draymond, Jordan Taylor showed that he is the most experienced point guard in the country and is the only player that I think should give Green a run at the Senior award.

Best player to watch run back on defense after scoring on offense: Next year watch Derrick Nix run back on defense after a put back. He looks like Don Vito freaking out after getting abused by Bam. He’s probably the goofiest in this category, just ahead of Shaq Daddy.

Funnest player to watch play of the night: Justin Jackson from Cincy was great to watch; getting some great hustle blocks on unsuspecting Buckeye victims. It was just exciting watch him run all over the court without abandon.

Players of the Night: Gorgui Dieng, C.J. Fair, Bradley Beal, Lenzelle Smith Jr.

Final Four teams of the night: Louisville and Ohio State

So that was Thursday…

Friday night I missed watching all the games because I started getting sick from not sleeping, and its not the greatest thing in the world to be sick in Africa. So I decided I needed to sleep last night and hoped to catch replays of the games, but of course there was no electricity during the day, so I had to settle for box scores. Today is a sad day for Matthew as I saw what I expected: two great games in the UNC-Ohio game and the KU-NC State game. I’m just sad that neither NC State or Ohio pulled out the upset. Instead of me blabbering on about what I think about games that I didn’t even watch, I will just get on to the teams that I think will win in the Elite Eight and make it to the Final four, and it should be no surprise.

Final Four teams of the night: Kentucky and North

ISC basketball court inauguration

Today Promo Jeune Basketball inaugurated it’s second new basketball court (le Terrain Zinga Teta) in the month of March. I an write with the utmost pride today, and all the members of PJB can stand tall as we have surpassed the greatest of expectations that anybody (including ourselves) could have imagined. Even speaking with our Director, Dario Merlo, he said that he always dreamed that he would be able to provide a great basketball court for the players of Goma, but never did he imagine two great basketball courts.

In the same way, as I mentioned in my other inauguration blog, it has been a dream of mine to one day build a basketball court in Africa. Well today my dream has come to fruition two times over. Even though I am not personally responsible for the funding or construction of the courts, I like to think that my presence here in Goma and my blood and sweat (and yes even tears) put into the construction of the court has made this day possible.

Our new court is different from the other court we built. We decided to design the two courts differently. Le Terrain Valerie, which was inaugurated the other week, was your common six hoop (one center court with two side courts) basketball court. This new court though only features four hoops. There is one main court and two half courts on the new court. This court is also located in a much more public place than our other court. Le Terrain Zinga Teta is located on the main road passing through the middle of downtown Goma and is built in front of the Institute of Commerce in Goma (or better know to people of Goma as ISC). It is a great location as it again is it the middle of two of the largest secondary schools in Goma, ISC and Instagoma.

The only problem with the location is that it is too open to the everyday traffic of cars, people walking, chookadoos, bicycles, and whatever mode of transportation they can think of here in DRC. It is located about 20 meters off of the road and is open to everyone walking by. Even during it’s construction a lot of the day was spent telling people to walk around the court, not right through the middle of it. Of course we want everyone to come and enjoy our new court, but some people don’t have the common knowledge no to walk across a basketball court that people are playing on.

The traffic of the location also causes another problem, which is dust. I swear I have lost a couple years of life living in Goma because of all the dust, smog, and smoke I have inhaled. On the dirt roads of Goma it is not uncommon to not be able to see 50 meters in front of you due to the diesel engines releasing all the crap from its exhaust, the trucks and cars kicking up large amounts of dust from the dirt, and the smoke, which is billowing from multiple piles of burning garbage. It sounds disgusting and it really is. Anyway, our new court is located right on the busiest and dirtiest roads of Goma, which is not ideal.

Even though there are these problems with the basketball court, it does not take away from the fact that it is beautifully contracted, well designed, and now ready to be broken in. Today was like pulling a new pair of shoes out of its box and putting them on. You feel great and know that you look good (just as the court did for PJB) but there are always some troubles breaking those shoes in. The court was beautifully set up with a DJ table, and a tent covered sitting area. The sun was shining and the people began to arrive to watch as we opened up that new pair of shoes for the first time.

The ceremony began at a Congolese 3:00PM again with the broken record sounding national anthem. This time speeches from PJB director Dario, and the Provincial Minister of Sport in North Kivu, as well as the president of the regional basketball league headlined our ceremony. After the speeches was the ribbon cutting ceremony, which was just your average ribbon cutting ceremony. Then we had a special surprise for the children of PJB.

Along with being able to open our new basketball court we took the opportunity to present 30 players with scholarships. In Goma even the public schools require fees to attend and many of our players are kicked out of school because they cannot pay. It is a terrible problem in Goma that education is not available for everybody because of the fees[1].  Today PJB was able to support 30 players with a year of education. At the end of the ceremony, and before the games began we took a short time in honoring the effort and focus of these 30 kids receiving scholarships.

After the presentation of the scholarships, we began the girl’s game. The PJB Girls Elite team was matched up against DC Tropicana for the first time this year. Just as the game began some large clouds appeared out of nowhere and decided to dump on us for about five minutes, so the game was paused for a couple minutes. After the clouds cleared everything continued as planned, like the rains never came. The sun greeted the inbounds whistle to re-commence the game. The match was a 30 minute abbreviated match, which saw Tropicana beating us (PJB) by 3 points in a very scrappy and disorganized game.

The second game, which was scheduled for the inauguration, didn’t involve a PJB team. Instead we decided to invite two other teams from the town to join in our celebration and play a match to break in our new court. These two teams were Goma Bulls and Mt. Carmel. These two men’s teams actually star some of the better youth players of Goma playing alongside grown men. The match was very up-tempo and very entertaining, and ended in a Mt. Carmel victory

Overall the inauguration was very successful and beautiful. We had probably close to 1000 people out to the new court to celebrate our accomplishment with us. It is great to share PJB’s hope and excitement for the future of Goma with the people of Goma

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[1] Each school year requires three payments of anywhere from 80$-$200 depending on the school. Though this only amounts to anywhere from 240$-600$ per year, which sounds like nothing to those of us paying back university loans, for a person who only makes 30$ a month, it is difficult to use 80$ every three months on school.

Round of 32 recap

It seems to be a pattern in these first two rounds. The first day of games in the round hold no surprises. The games aren’t terrible, but they also aren’t great. The third round games on Saturday, as you already know ended up with the higher seed winning every game. This was a contrast to the night before (Friday) when it was upset city. Because I am such a fan of basketball I still enjoyed the Saturday games, even though I was only able to see a little bit of each game.

The games I was really looking forward to were the Kansas State-‘Cuse game and the VCU-Indiana game. I felt like these two match ups were the best of the night and like I predicted on Friday, I thought these would be the only two upset games of the night. I actually missed the K-State- ‘Cuse game because there was a close friend who had a family member pass. Of course I have done a little research on the game, and the games which followed.

I am not going to lie, Saturday was my third night in a row staying up all night, so I had only had about 4 hours of sleep in 3 days. My memory of the games Saturday night is really scrambled because it was very hard to concentrate and I was in and out of sleep during the games. So I am going to just give my thoughts from what I can remember.

First I am going to talk about the two games I was really excited for. I thought Kansas State had it in them to beat Syracuse after Thursday night where they beat a pretty impressive Southern Miss team. Kansas State had the type of team that rebounded and played stifling defense, which is the perfect anatomy of an upset team. They also have one of the more versatile scorers in the NCAA in Rodney Mcgruder. From the game rewind I saw of the first half, the game looked to be going how I thought it would. Kansas State was down one at half time, but heavily out rebounding ‘Cuse but of course shooting a much worse percentage and turning the ball over more.

Then I heard the analysis and I knew that the game was finished. Rodney McGruder had hurt his ankle and was hobbled a little bit. On a team like K-State who has a hard time finding the bottom of the net at times, its not good when your only real scoring threat is hobbled, especially against a stacked Syracuse squad. I missed the second half of the game because of the aforementioned loss, but it was no surprise that the Orange pulled ahead in the end and moved on to the sweet 16.

This game kind of brought down my spirits because I was really riding K-State; I loved the way they were playing. So my next hope for the night was VCU pulling off the upset of Indiana. I’m not jumping on the VCU bandwagon rooting for them, even though I love Shaka and the way that VCU plays. The reason I wanted to see an upset against Indiana is because I very much dislike the Indiana program[1], Tom Crean[2], and really just the whole state of Indiana[3].

I was in and out of consciousness during this game. It broadcast here between 1 AM and 3 AM so by that time I was quite exhausted even though I was really excited for the game. The game was great though! I missed the end but saw that it was a two-point win for Indiana. What I saw from the game was exactly the reason that I was excited for the game: because these two teams style of play compliment each other to make for a great match up. Indiana fires up shots and uses Zeller in the paint to open up their shots on the perimeter. They don’t play extremely fast or extremely slow, they seem to be able to adapt to the style of play of the other team.

VCU is different than Indiana because they dictate their games to their pace whether or not the other team likes it. They defend hard and they push the rock. They embody to emotion, passion, and intensity of their coach 100% of the game, and they don’t seem to be scared of anybody. I think that Indiana's style of play compliments VCU’s because they take a lot of shots, which equals long rebounds, therefore giving the Rams their chance to get out on the break. On the other hand VCU’s style of play compliments Indiana because they over commit on defense, which allows for the shooters to make easy cuts going to the basket. Also Indiana is a smart and well-coached team, so they have the poise to stay calm against VCU’s pressure.

What I saw of the game was great. Both teams seemed to be playing their games comfortably. I love to watch basketball when neither team on the floor seems to be beating themselves. That is how I felt about this game. Both teams really stuck to their game plan. Indiana won because I think they are smarter players, and they have an All-American big man, which is something that VCU lacked.

Anyway… Lets get on to some of my very hazy observations:

If only… Iowa State could have played the last seven minutes or so the way they played the rest of the game they could have had a shot at Kentucky. I thought they played them well, Kentucky just has too many weapons, and Iowa State became fell in love with that dangerous 3 point arc.

Jae Crowder, Jay Crowder, Jae Crowder…. Just cant wait until you so beautifully rip Florida a new one so that I can watch you play against Sparty. I’m sorry you’ll have to lose that one, but maybe you’ll somehow land with the pistons, then I’ll never have to root against you! Oh ya I see you too Mr. Darius Johnson-Odom.

Saddest thing I’ve come to realize about this years tournament- Is that I cant hope that Marquette makes the final four.

The Big Ten- I am happy that the three big ten teams to play on Saturday won, but really I will not care if none of them are in the elite 8.

White Boy of the Night- I thought it was fun watching Helsip pour in nine trey-pootays. Honorable mention goes to the whole Wisconsin team. Yes, I am definitely calling Jordan Taylor and Ryan Evans white boys.

Teams who will make the Elite 8 from tonight- Marquette, Baylor, and Wisconsin

Players of the night- Ryan Evans, Jae Crowder, Marquis Teague[4], The white shooters- Seehay and Halsip[5], Royce White (In a losing effort), Jared Sullinger, Drew Gordon (injured and in a losing effort)

…And now we are on to last night, or Sunday night if I can’t get this posted until Tuesday. Last night followed the pattern of the tournament so far, and after one very predictable and unexciting night of basketball on Saturday, we were again entertained with upsets and close games. Again I was in and out of sleep this night as it was my fourth night in a row without sleeping, but the pain and agony of trying to keep my eyes open was well worth it.

The games didn’t begin here until 12:30 AM for some reason, which means that I missed the first two games of the day, the NC State- Georgetown game, the State-SLU game, and the UNC-Creighton game. These were actually the three games I wanted to watch most, and each seemed to be pretty good from what I have seen in the box scores. I am happy with the results though as I of course am a SPARTY through and through, but also I have followed CJ Leslie for the past couple years and I really like their other big, Howell.

I was surprised to see that Georgetown lost though. They looked really good in the first round against a dangerous Belmont and my man’s Jason Clark and Henry Sims looked like they had the heart to push their team deep in the tourney. I’m quite disappointed that I missed this game, but I am guessing that the stronger bruisers of NC-State’s frontcourt slowed Sims down.

Nothing good happens after 2 AM…As I have learned time and time again. Ted’s mom was definitely correct and on Sunday night I wish this weren’t true. The two games, which took place after 2:00AM, last night for me, the ones that were broadcast here, were the Purdue-Kansas match up and the Florida State- Cincinnati games.

Disclaimer: I filled out one bracket at the beginning of the tournament, but haven’t looked at it since, and all I know is that my championship game was U of D vs. Sparty, so any predictions I make or sides I take are only for my preference’s sake. My opinions of any of the games in this tournament have not been dirtied by the presence of a bracket.

Anyway, I was pulling to see both Purdue and the Trojans in the sweet 16, and the dance has ended for those two teams as of last night. Both Purdue and FSU looked as if they were going to pull out the victories until they spent their last 50 seconds or so of their 2012 tournament doing everything they could to lose the game. Purdue lost because Matt Payner decided that his senior and probably best player ever at Purdue (if he was never crippled) didn’t deserve the ball in the last possessions of the game. Instead he let Jackson dribble the ball around like he was trying out for the globetrotters just to give the ball to Tyshawn Taylor so that he could see his tournament hopes go down the drain with an emphatic dunk.

In the FSU game they decided to put the team on the back of Loucks, but he was to busy looking up at the megatron which seemed to spend more time focused on his girlfriend[6] then the actual game. With the game pretty much wrapped up with FSU up 4 with less than a minute left, Loucks forgot that Dion Dixon wasn’t on his team and that he shouldn’t pass him the ball for an easy jam.[7]

So if you take anything away from this blog post… Don’t go overseas to watch the tournament because the games are broadcast through the night, and that means that something bad will happen during one or more of the games.

Speaking of bad… NOOOOOOOO KENDAL NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Probably my favorite player to watch in college basketball because of his smoothness and knowledge may be done for the tournament with a broken wrist! Sorry UNC, I thought for sure you had it in the bag, but the tides have changed. Really, nothing good happens after 2AM!!!!!

Biggest surprise of the night- University of Ohio. What a terrible state, but I really like the team. The only problem with this surprise is the fact that now they will have national attention, and it will be that much harder for me to sneak into their graduate assistant position.

Jason Williams Award- Whit-Eboy of the night- My man Robbie Hummel. I will definitely miss you.

Big ups to Ohio- Their state makes up for 25% of the Sweet Sixteen. Too bad it will only make up 12.5% of the Elite Eight.

Teams who will advance to the Elite 8: Michigan State, North Carolina, Kentucky, Baylor, and Cincinnati.

Players of the Night- John Henson, Sean Kilpatrick, “The Big Saltine” Freese[8], C.J Leslie (Honorable Mention: Richard Howell), Tyshawn Taylor, Kenny Boyton, DJ Cooper, Draymond Green!

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[1] Except Zeller. I saw him last year at the United Center for the McDonalds All-American game, and I fell in love with the way he plays. He plays the pivot like a true post player. He runs the floor, hustles on defense, is quite athletic, is strong with both hands, and is just a very smart player. I’m all for Cody Zeller.

[2] I know that many coaches cheat in basketball behind the scenes, but I cannot respect a coach like Crean who obviously cheats, and there is solid proof that he is a cheater. I don’t care if that is the business, or whatever other excuses anyone wants to use. If you cheat in recruiting, or if you bend the boundaries to get yourself ahead (again, cheat) you lose all respect in my book. That being said, the man can coach basketball, which he has proven, and he is a good recruiter, which has been proven is because he cheats.

[3] Just drive through it and tell me if you still like the state.

[4] I hate saying this because I think he is selfish and overrated, but he had a heck of a night.

[5] Their names aren’t important. All you need to know is that they are white and they shoot, so this tournament is probably the last time you’ll ever hear their names.

[6] And future wife, who they say is also an athlete at FSU a swimmer. She’s definitely a pretty girl, but danggit I want to watch basketball not the face of a girl who seems to be going through the emotions of a wife waiting for her husband to come home from Vietnam.

[7] Dixon did a great job of making it a very emphatic and athletic dunk to putting no doubt in my mind that Cincy now had FSU by the balls despite being down 2 with about 48 seconds left.

[8] Yes I did just make up a racist nickname for him because I don’t know his first name and am too lazy to look it up.

Inauguration day Pt. 2

So I am lazy and have been writing documents all week about the inauguration, and I have no more creative energy to write or think of anything new or interesting to say about the second day of the inauguration except that we had a mini-tournament with 4 mens teams and 2 girls teams. PJB lost both our games, which sucked, but it was still a beautiful day on a beautiful court...


Anyway, I want to post the PJB newsletter on here. Our website, which I was helping to work on was being run by a guy, but he bailed and I havent seen him in Goma since January... so no newsletter for anyone who is not a sponser for PJB. So I will be posting the newsletters here for everyone to see if you are interested. This newsletter is for the inauguration and it has like 5 photos which are pretty cool, so if youve read this far you have to check it out!

March Madness First Round

After reading a little bit of the “first four” I became more and more excited for Thursday to come. Both BYU and Western Kentucky staged amazing comebacks, 25 points and 16 points respectively, to write their teams in to the field of 64. If Tuesday showed us even the slightest glimpse of what was to come then we’d be in for a treat. Then came Thursday.

            Let me first begin by describing my viewing situation. Being in Goma, DRC since September has put me at a huge disadvantage to properly follow sports of any type because of the lack of reliable electricity, much less proper Internet or TV coverage of the games I want to see. Nonetheless I have done my best to read up on the box scores and game recaps to keep myself sane in knowing what is going on in college basketball.

            Luckily, since January, I have had access (limited) to African ESPN. The channel has done a good job broadcasting the NCAA and NBA games. Goma is currently 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in US, which means that games are usually between 1:00 and 5:00 AM our time, and replays show sometime in the middle of the work day. This means that I have spent many late nights watching basketball (when electricity is available).

            This time difference means that during this March madness the round of 64 games are being broadcast from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM straight, and all the games have been broadcast.[1] So, just so everyone knows my situation, it is now about 2:00 AM on Saturday morning and I am waiting for the SLU-Memphis game to come on. I have only slept 3 hours since waking up at 7 AM on Thursday, but I could not be more happy to be sitting here writing this blog post and watching college basketball.

            So lets get to the juicy stuff, the first round action that occurred on Thursday. I’m not going to lie, but after 12 straight hours of games I was starting to get bored. I don’t know if its just that the selection committee has become way to good at their seedings or if I have been naughty this year and basketball Santa was giving me a lump of coal, but the games on Thursday were very un-intriguing. Here are some observations I had from the Thursday games:

• SYRACUSE- OK, UNC-Asheville put a scare on “Cuse, but that game was the closest to madness we were able to see. More so than UNC-Ashville playing out of their minds, and having a great coach, the real reason the game went the way that it did was because of the uninspired play of Syracuse. Maybe deflated after the loss Of Fab Melo for the tourney, and the ridiculous comments made by Boeheim about academics[2], but the Syracuse looked like they wanted to be anywhere else but Pittsburg playing basketball. From what I have seen throughout the year, and on Thursday night, I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffer a 3^rd round or Sweet 16 bow out.
• Am I alone?- Am I the only one who really wanted Harvard to win? Also, am I the only one who wanted to turn off the TV because of how boring the Wisconsin-Montana game was? If it wasn’t for the lumberjack beards scattered along the Montana bench I might have died from the fact that my heart would have stopped supplying blood to my brain due to lack of stimulation.
• Best Game of the Day- The only game that really kept me interested was VCU-Wichita State. I thought Wichita State was the best mid-major in the tourney[3].  Shaka Smart did it again though with VCU. It is awesome to see a hard working and enthusiastic coach rubbing off on his players. The VCU players really play some inspired ball. They are in supreme condition and are skilled players, but I believe it is their heart and enthusiasm, which bring them success.
• Jae Crowder…- I think that I am in love with Jae Crowder, or maybe just the way he plays. Id be fine with either, really.
• Biggest Surprise that was Not Really Surprising- I did not think for one second that the studly transfers of Iowa State would ever lose to the young cocky and misled superstars of Uconn. At least Drummond and Lamb have the NBA to look forward to, and I hope Napier somehow finds a way to marry himself, get himself pregnant, and have too much responsibility with his new family to play college basketball again. He would be doing us all a huge favor.
• Lower- Seeded Teams Who I Think Showed They Have What it Takes to Make the Sweet 16: Kansas State[4], Iowa State, and New Mexico
• Higher Ranked Teams Who Will Probably Bow Out Early- Syracuse and Indiana.
• Biggest Surprise of the Night: West Virginia getting spanked in what was practically a home game for them by the Zags.

Even though Thursday wasn’t the best first day of March Madness I have ever witnessed I still of course enjoyed watching every minute of basketball which was broadcast. Yes, even the Wisconsin-Montana game which was boring as sin was still enjoyable for me (Does that make any sense?). Anyway, the real madness began yesterday, Friday with an incredible line up of games.

I could not have been more excited going into Friday though because I would be able to watch my Detroit Titans, and Sparty play, but also would be treated with some perfect match ups which proved to be great games such as, North Carolina State and SDSU, Creighton and Alabama, Cincy-Texas, Memphis and SLU, and Notre Dame and Xavier. I thought all of these games were great match ups for all the teams and were really unpredictable. These are the type of match ups that cause madness, and Madness it was on Friday.

Almost all of the match ups above proved to be great games, but it was the one’s in which I expected blowouts[5] that really were treats. It has been over 10 years since a 15 seed has beaten a 2-seed and we got to see both Mizzou and Duke go down to teams… wait I cant even remember the names of the teams they lost to? Also games which weren’t upsets, but didn’t make for as coring a game as they should have were the two 16-seed vs. 1-seed games where Vermont and LIU-Brooklyn both decided they wanted to hang out with the Tar-Heels and Spartans.

            Before I get to observations I need to vent a little frustration. Even though I am very grateful to have witnessed a lot of great basketball on Friday, Goma teased me. Not only did they decide to broadcast the Heat-6ers game during the third set of games on ESPN, but the French channel also decided to show the second half of the ESPN double header (Thunder-Spurs). The house I was watching the game at is owned and inhabited by a NBA enthusiast and he insisted on watching both games. This meant that I missed most of the afternoon and night games of Friday. Yes, if you are wondering that includes the Purdue-St.Mary's gem, The Notre Dame-Xavier game, and the Duke upset[6]. It also includes the two most important games of the night, Sparty and the Titans games. I was lucky to catch about 10 minutes of each of those two games though after the two NBA games were finished until Goma again surprised me by deciding to fart out its electricity and send me to bed early.

So I will only make some observations on what I saw, but also some observations on what I have heard happened. Man am I disappointed I missed so much. I am equally as happy though that I got to see such great basketball.

• My Favorite Game of the Night- The young Alabama[7] team and the highly efficient Creighton team proved to be a great match up. It was like watching a lunatic brother driving his calm and collected older brother up the wall. Even in my notes of the games I wrote for this one, “March Madness’ Finest.” I'm not jumping on the bandwagon of Greg McDermott, because I said when I first saw him playing alongside Harrison Barnes at Ames High that he was a special player, but he really is a great player. I was amazed by the way he ran the floor, made the perfect cuts (what seemed like 10000000 basket cuts that always seemed to work), and had a supreme knowledge of the game. He looked like he was running the team

I had a good feeling that Creighton would win this one, but the Tide really fought it out. They were great on defense, and even though they weren’t highly touted on offense, they seemed to be able to score in every way. This game had me shaking my head saying, “Wow” for the majority of the game[8]. It really was a spectacle, and the best game of the night.

• The Biggest Upset of the Night- Definitely the Spartans (GO STATE!) of Norfolk State upsetting the Mizzou Tigers. Really I don’t think anyone could have seen Mizzou getting upset in the first round, a true bracket killer as they were favorites to make the final four and in a lot of cases win the whole thing. Man did Norfolk play tough though, and I’ll give it to Mizzou for not giving up in the end, but Spartan big O’Quinn had a beastly game. Man did Norfolk stay on that offensive glass and just make big play after big play. This is the type of game that makes us call it the Madness.
• Game That Looked Like One Team was Playing Itself- Florida State and The Bonnies played in a slugfest. To me it looked like watching the same team play itself, the two teams resembled each other so much. They were both bigger teams that played great defense and rebounded the ball well. The one thing that really stuck out about the game though was big #44 for the Bonnies, Andrew Nicholson. He came out and his game sounded like Biggie throwing bars, “If you don’t know…now you know.” This guy I guess has been doing this all year for St. Bonaventure, but dang he looked like a superstar, filling up the stat sheet in all different ways. He could bang at 6’9, take the ball to the hoop, shoot the outside jumper, pass, play D, whatever you want in a basketball player this guy has it. I'm pretty sure we’ll be seeing him and Michael Snaer playing against each other in the NBA someday soon!
• Biggest Letdown by a Mid Major of the Night- Man, I really wanted Belmont to pull one off, but the Hoyas really dominated them. If Belmont wasn’t such a good 3-point shooting team the 71-45 blowout could have been a 50-point blowout. The transition game and the all-around game of players like Jason Clark and Henry Sims actually impressed me.
• Lower- Seeded Teams Who I Think Showed They Have What it Takes to Make the Sweet 16: Cincinnati, USF, Purdue
• Higher Ranked Teams Who Will Probably Bow Out Early- The two I would have put here are already gone, so this category is null-and-void I guess. I can see Florida State either going down in the next round or making the final four, it is up to them…
• Favorite Players of the night: Draymond Green, Ray McCallum[9], Greg McDermott, Andrew Nicholson, “Puttin’ in Overtime” O’Quinn, Henry Sims, and Yancy Gates.
• AND A BIG SCREW YOU TO THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS!

So that it my thoughts on the first round of games, and am expecting some more great one’s tonight. Lets hope that my TV subscription comes in today and I don’t miss out on Kansas State beating ‘Cuse, and the Rams making it to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. Man I love March!

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[1] ESPN rotates the games which are played simultaneously depending on the time and score of the game. Usually it will switch to the more intriguing game.

[2] His comments calling the APR and academic standards of the NCAA, “nuts”. This story really makes him 50% of the coach and man I thought he was before in my eyes.

[3] Speaking of mid-majors, I really expected Colorado State to pull off the upset, especially after the 1^st half, but Canaan and the Shockers proved to be too strong, and more battle tested.

[4] Both because of their pretty good-looking play against Southern Miss, but also their luck in their future match ups.

[5] If you were wondering, yes I definitely had no doubt that U of Detroit Mercy would blow out Kansas. I don’t know if that is the fan in me speaking or just the great desire of my heart, but I count this as an expected blowout.

[6] Really does anyone know what the name of the team who beat them is?

[7] ROLL TIDE! That’s for you Aaron, Green, and Jiff.

[8] Both because of the great play and the ugliness of Creighton’s big-man, his name begins with an E and sounds African.

[9] Senior and Junior

Inauguration...

This weekend we inaugurated our first new court to open in Goma. The court is named after Ms. Valerie Todenhofer, who was an employee and key to building our partnership with adidas to fund the court. The court is located in the center of town in the compound of a Catholic Church funded library and cultural center called maison des jeunes. It is in a prime location to serve the youth of Goma, as it is located at “college”, which is surrounded by the three biggest private schools in Goma.

An inauguration is a celebration of a new beginning. It is a ceremony to commence the upstart of something tangible and useful. I could not be more happy, excited, and overwhelmed, as I was this past weekend. It has always been a dream of mine to be able to one day build a basketball court in Goma. I could never have imagined that I would be inaugurating a basketball court in Africa that I put a lot of my own time, sweat and blood into at just the age of 23.

It’s hard to explain, in words, the feeling you get as you watch your dream come true. It is a feeling of pride, contentment, and incomprehensible joy. To some extent the feeling is one of relief because you know that all the hard work and focus you put into something amounted to success, but it is not all relieving. It is almost the sense of relief you may feel on January 1^st when you put everything from the year before behind you and you can let go of the stresses of what was before. In the same way though the feeling also paints a picture of a future that you can step in to with a new found wealth of knowledge, experience, and opportunity that will help you to thrive in the future.

Sitting at home on Sunday after the inauguration I felt like a veteran schoolteacher returning home from the last day of school. In that moment I felt content with my life and assured that I was worth something. You know how younger people always question their worth, but usually you can see the happier old people content with life even when all seems to be going wrong? I think this is because older people (lets just consider anything over 35 “older” to me) have experience, which has proven their worth to themselves, so they can be contented. This experience has been that type of experience for me. One that has been so great that there are very few things that could happen to shake my worth. I have incredible self worth, and I have one amazing basketball court to show for it, and two on the way!

That is how I felt when looking back on my weekend. It is now Tuesday and I still haven’t really yet come to terms with my feelings. I am not in a state of “my goal is finished now what do I do,” as some people slip in to, but I am even hungrier for more. I have a long life ahead of me and I am happy to have accomplished something I thought would not come until after my career even before I’ve really started my career, but I have many other dreams and aspirations. I know now how great it feels to accomplish those dreams though, and I will strive to continue that.

Anyway, let get to the actual inauguration. The definition, according to dictionary.com, of inaugurate is “to make a formal beginning of…” Many times a person will finish a job and just leave it at that. It so much better to “formally” celebrate and commence the use of that job. I had very little input on the planning of the inauguration because I am not familiar with the traditions of Congolese celebrations, so I was really just along for the ride on Saturday and did what I was told.

The ceremony began on Saturday at a Congolese 2 PM (for those of you who haven’t read my blog at all that means about 2:45 or 3 PM). This meant that me and the other coaches were of course at the court at 6 AM sharp (I don’t play that Congolese Time) to prepare everything for the ceremony. This included cleaning the court, setting up chairs (we are now looking for funding to hopefully build some stadium seating for the court), trying to find a way to shade the seating area from the hot sun, buying refreshments… and so on. We wanted to make the ceremony as professional as can be to show our supporters and the people of Goma that we truly are a professional organization.

The ceremony began at around 2:45 PM with the playing of the Congolese national anthem. I mean no disrespect, but the song resembled someone singing a gospel version of Lean on Me at midnight at a noraebang after one to many drinks. Not to dog on the Congolese national pride (I love the country) but I have to describe it how I hear it right? Anyway… after that came the speeches. I was very impressed because there were only two speeches, one by Dario the founder and director of PJB, and one by the Congolese Minister of Sport. What impressed my was the brevity and straight to the point-ness of the speeches. When I am in meetings with Congolese people a 15-minute meeting can turn in to a four-hour meeting… No lie FOUR HOURS!

The speeches were each about 5 minutes long and from what I could understand (they were in French) they were concise and full of praise and excitement for the future of PJB and the city of Goma. Of course the speeches ended with the great act of The Ribbon Cutting. Its funny having a ribbon cutting for an outdoor basketball court because there’s no one entrance to the court. Instead we had to put 30 meters of blue ribbon across the middle of the court making it look a little bit like a crime scene. All facetiousness aside, it was amazing watching that ribbon being cut though because it was a mark, as I mentioned earlier of a new beginning.

I guess that could be what a ribbon cutting symbolizes. The ribbon is strung up with the tension of being tied to two unmovable objects. Then the ribbon is cut releasing all the tension and stress in the ribbon, and with that cut all the work and anticipation for the new court is also released and a sense of relief and excitement overwhelms you. The ribbon is a symbol for that pent up anticipation and when it is cut it symbolizes the release of all that tension.

After the excitement of cutting the ribbon there was only one thing left to do… break the court in. We set up three abbreviated matches, one 30-minute game for each team in our program. The first game was between our youth team (which for right now is all boys) and a team called TBC. The game was actually embarrassing for me as a coach because I watched as our boys got dominated in all aspects of the game, which stemmed from our “superstar” type mentality. Our boys tried throwing up threes every offensive possession, danced around with the ball on the perimeter and chased the ball around on defense like a bunch of prisoners fighting over a bar of soap. I was very embarrassed, and I let the youth coach know after the game that he needs to work a lot in practice.

The second game was much better as it featured our elite girls team. Our girls have come a long way in their attitude towards the game. Though their skills are still really really bad, they now have the desire to improve, and the heart to work and play hard. They also developed (all themselves without the encouragement of the coaches) leadership within the team that has equated to great team spirit and good sportsmanship. The girls played a select team from the top women players in Goma and won by about 8 points. They won by doing all the little things, rebounding, playing good defense, taking smart shots, and hustling (the best they can) after the ball. The girls have a long way to go, but at least they have a foundation of strong leadership and a good attitude.

The day finished with a match between our elite men’s team and Virunga. I was not playing or coaching at all today because I was wanted to be a spectator and see what the program looks like for the outside, so I just sat back and enjoyed all day. This was somewhat of a mistake because Dario, another elite player, did the same. Our elite team got trounced. I think the final whistle found us losing by about 20 points… in a 30-minute game. There was no communication, no hustle, and no thinking going on, on the court. It looked like we were a bunch of teenagers playing grown men (which was exactly the case, but we are trying to teach our players to play like men, even though they are young). Like the youth team, the reason the loss could be mostly blamed on the attitude coming in to the game. Basketball is a skill game, but it is more so a mental game, so when you are matched up well with skill (which was the case in this match), attitude is usually the determining factor. It is my focus now in the next month and a half to lay the foundation of great attitude, team work, and sportsmanship toward the game, so when I am not here the players can use the drills that they have learned over the past 6 months to add improved skill to their base of a great basketball attitude and mind.

All in all, Saturday was a great day. I arrived back home at about 7:30 PM, which made it a 13-hour day in the hot hot sun, so I jumped in bed to prepare for day two of the inauguration on Sunday.

Stayed tuned for day 2… (which will include some pics)

Happiness

So one thing I haven’t really discussed on my blog is communication. Being here in Goma communication isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but it is quite expensive. With five bucks I can call out of the country for about 30-40 minute… I can’t really figure it out because its different every time but what else would you expect from an African telecommunications company. The funny thing is that if I call in country, but between networks (the two popular networks here are airtel and vodacom) I end up spending close to 50 cents per minute, which is more than three times what it costs for me to call out of the country. Because of the ease of communication I have actually been able to spend some time and money calling my girlfriend and family. This is actually a great thing because Internet is very difficult to find here and is so slow it is hard to do most of the stuff I want to do on it anyway.

So, getting to my real point, I was on the phone the other day with Sophia in Houston and we talked for a second about happiness. While we were talking I had so many ideas bouncing around in my head that I just wanted to get them down in writing. I have actually found this to be my new favorite past time, writing about philosophical ideas that I come across during the days.

Our conversation was centered on measuring happiness. Sophia told me that she was having a discussion with a friend that posed the question that we can measure depression, but why can we not measure happiness. First of all, I don’t really understand how you can measure depression, but I guess there is some scientific way. I believe that only the person experiencing happiness can ever measure it, but why do we need to measure it anyway?

The way I view happiness is in a completely selfish manner. My happiness is something that I feel, and I feel it in a way that no one else can feel it, nor do I want to share it. As I am the selfishly happy person I am, there is no way anyone else in the world can judge my happiness. It is in the same way that I find people trying to measure their faith or the faith of others. As a person of faith, I know that my faith is what grounds me, and that fact can never be measured or judged by anyone but myself. I look at happiness the same way I look at faith; it is a personal matter.

I think that in the discussion of happiness you will have to talk in circles around judging the measure of one’s happiness. To accept another person’s happiness is much more important than measuring it. Before I go any further let me give you my definition of happiness and Oxford’s definition (I made mine up in a way that I sound smart like a dictionary writer… why? Because that makes me happy);

My Definition	Good Ol’ Webster’s Definition
“The state of being self-satisfied and content with one’s current situation and/or experience.”	“Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.”

Looking at my definition of what I believe is happiness seems to be close to on par with what the accept definition for happiness is. Nowhere in mine or Webster’s definition of happiness is there mention of what causes happiness though. Furthermore, nowhere in the definition does it imply that there must be something in place to cause happiness except for some “feeling” or “experience”.  I think that so many people are focused on measuring the things that cause happiness and counting that as a measure of happiness.

If people look at it this way, I think that is easy to measure happiness, but I do not believe that the things, which cause happiness, are in-deed happiness. Happiness is a direct result of the causes, but happiness is never equivalent to the causes of it.

So I’m blabbering on about all this stuff that I am not sure actually even makes sense (we will see when I read over it when I’m finished), but let me make an example to see if I can get my point across. There are many things that make me happy. Sexxxy basketball shoes, good conscious rap, playing sports, jerseys, parties, traveling are among some of the many things that make me happy. If you look at these things you can see that I have all of them, so I am happy. That is not necessarily true. All of these things are material things, things that can be measured. This is why people measure these things and call it happiness, but happiness cannot be measured from this standpoint.

I have a great example from my time here in Africa. Daily I pass by a little shop on my way in to town on my bicycle. The first time I ever passed the shop was my first month in Congo, and now I stop there to talk with the guys there every day. It has become my daily routine and it is something that makes me very happy. My good friend there, Ari, is 19 years old and a refugee from Masisi. He works every day repairing motorcycles or bicycles that ride by on their way in to town. The problem is that there are about 15 stops just like his on the way in to town, so most of his days are filled by sitting around waiting for work that will not come. He has talked with me before about wanting to go to school, but he cannot make enough money to go.

Anyway we talk every day (he likes to practice his English, and me my French) and sadly everyday turns in to a discussion about money. His perception is that I am a white person with money (partially true and partially not) so I am happy, and he works hard all day with his hands, is a black man, and receives no money, so he is not happy. The thing is what he doesn’t realize is that everyday I stop by and talk with him because talking with him makes me happy. That fact is true regardless of if I am a millionaire or bankrupt. I can also see on his face as I ride my bike up every day, and he runs out from under the umbrella he is using for shade that he is happy when I come talk to him.

If you were to take our two situations from an outsider looking in you might think, that white man must be so annoyed by all these Congolese kids trying to talk to him, or wow look at that Congolese being friends and talking to that MIZUNGU! These are actually comments I get by the different people who pass as we sit there and talk. This is not the case at all. I am just as happy to be there talking with Ari as he is to have me talking to him at his shop. People would judge our happiness in the situation by the white man having everything to give the black man and the black man having nothing for that white man, so there is no way the white man can be happy. This is just not the case at all.

So I want to go back to the point that it is more important to accept another person’s happiness than to measure it. Many people today are so quick to rebut another person’s happiness. It can be out of jealousy or out of hatred, or whatever may cause one to dislike another person’s happiness, but people always want to somehow discredit another person’s happiness. The way to do this is by putting a measure on another person’s happiness. “This person is happy, but how much more happy would he be with this or that…”

In the culture of the world today it is all about material things. Look at the TV. You may be happy playing your PS2 everyday, but then you see on an advertisement for a PS3 and all of the sudden you are no longer “happy” with your PS2. This is not happiness. I think that society so badly wants to measure happiness, so that just like in any other capitalistic utopia, we can compete to see who is happiest.

Happiness is not a competition. Happiness is not meant to be determined by anyone else. Happiness is a selfish emotion that a person can only determine on their own. True happiness cannot be fabricated for the benefit of others around them. It is a feeling of being. I would encourage everyone to develop true happiness, so that they can independently fulfill their true selves because to be happy is to be one’s self.

Coaching Philosophy as of March 2012

Coaching sport is the most respectable leadership platforms in the world and it is also one of the most scrutinized. A basketball coach assumes many roles in the school or organization in which they are coaching. A coach can be seen as an organizer, an advocate, a leader, a mascot, a role model but however you want to categorize a coach their most important role is as a teacher.

I have wanted to be a coach since I was in high school. The reason I fell in love with coaching is still the same reason I pursue my passion today and that is that I want to teach the great game of basketball in a way that I can develop better players and better people that I ever could be. My aim as a coach is to develop the most complete basketball players to ever play the game, but also develop the best people to ever walk the earth.

Basketball is an ever changing game in the same way that we live in an ever changing world. That is why as a coach I must focus on being adaptive to the changing climate of the world and basketball. Through my continuous effort to learn and grow as a coach I try to show and teach my players to love beating on their craft (whatever that craft might be). As Will Smith said, “, skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” Coaching not only gives me the opportunity to day in and day out beat my players crafts into them whether they like it or not, but it is my goal as a coach to create players who understand and love the effects and outcomes of industry and hard work.

It is well known that families that play together, stay together, and those that walk apart fall apart. My team is my family and so the communication and continuity of every aspect of my basketball program must be on the same page. My attention, respect, and time is open for every player, coach, administrator, and fan that is part of my team. In my personal philosophy family is prioritized second behind my faith and my basketball philosophy is exactly the same, but I will always consider my team family.

The way I teach my players to play is the same way I want them to live life. In a game I want my players to be playing at full speed for 100% of the game and never take a possession off offensively or defensively. I want them to play fast, but not out of control. Though hustle should never be mistaken for skill, it sure can make for a pretty good substitute for skill. That is why my best defender and my best rebounder will always start a game along with my best scorer and ball handler.

No matter a skilled player or not my players will always be in attack mode offensively and defensively. I have found that the best offense against a man to man defense is fast break and the best offense against a zone defense is fast break, so my offense will always be breathing down the neck of the defense. Also, I have found that nothing makes a ball handler or shooter uncomfortable is a hand in their face so my players will always play pressure defense. Finally, I realized one day in 11^th grade math that the more opportunities someone has to score, the more that person will probably score. For this reason my team will rebound the basketball so as to have as many possessions as possible.

Basketball for my team is way more than a game, but it is a metaphor for the type of people we are. As mentioned above we will prepare ourselves to be ready for whatever the game and life throws us and we will give one hundred percent to succeeding in what we catch. We will attack each and every obstacle together with cooperation and poise. Most of all we will approach all the good and the bad we face with a good sportsman-like spirit. Our minds will be clear to revel in our wins yet learn from our losses and we will taste success.