"Don't be afraid."

By Ray Glier

I'm watching the Georgia State basketball team play Troy on Friday night and the Panthers are winning comfortably. And then all heck breaks loose.

Troy gets out of its zone defense. They are down by 17 and now they are desperate. It's the second half and they start playing like their hair is on fire chasing the man with the ball and behaving in a craze on defense.

Georgia State starts to wilt. The lead gets down to 10.

Into the game comes this freshman guard, Devonta White of Alpharetta. He's a rookie. It's his second college game.

He grabs the wheel and keeps the whole operation from going into a ditch. He scores on a three-point play. Then he scores on a drive to the basket.

Suddenly, the Panthers have their legs back under them.

When the game ended, White was not on the floor. He had played just 14 minutes. He had three assists. He also made two turnovers and shot the ball a couple of too many times, but at least he was aggressive with the basketball. White scored points and wasn't afraid.

He will get another chance to play.

Don't be afraid when your chance comes. Go for it. Stand up to pressure on the basketball court.

I remember playing intramurals in college. I was more shooter than ball handler. I could make shots. But when this one team came at me with two 6-3 guards trapping me, I was a turnover machine. I wilted and wanted to go hide under the bench. We got clobbered.

The next game it happened again, but I was smart enough to get rid of the ball before the trap overwhelmed me.

That's the other lesson. Be prepared.

Don't afraid and be prepared.

Don't be afraid of competition

By Ray Glier

Ohio State has to replace its point guard, who also happened to be the team’s leading scorer. Evan Turner did a lot of things for the Buckeyes and he will be missed.

When I talked to Thad Matta, the Ohio State coach, he was not ready to immediately turn the point guard duties over to veteran guards David Lighty, William Buford or Jon Diebler.

Instead, he said he wanted to get a look at freshmen guards Lenzelle Smith and Jordan Craft.

Sounds silly, right? Matta has four returning starters, Lighty, Buford, Diebler, and 6-foot-8 Dallas Lauderdale. Ohio State also has incoming freshman Jared Sullinger, a forward who some regarded as No. 1 or No. 2 high school player in the country.

How could there be room in the starting lineup for a freshman?

There might not be when the games start, but Matta is intent on creating an atmosphere of competition. He is not going to let the four upperclassmen waltz into a starting spot. They are not safe.

One of the things Matta emphasized is that he is not sure which of the freshmen might be able to handle the rigors of the Big Ten, which is going to be loaded this season. What if Craft or Smith are just what the Buckeyes need: Guards who knows where to go with the ball and value ball security?

The Ohio State coach wants competition. The heck with seniority.

Just look at the University of South Carolina’s football team. The Gamecocks’ veteran quarterback Stephen Garcia is thriving and Steve Spurrier told me he has no doubt that it is because of freshman Connor Shaw. Shaw enrolled early in January and learned the playbook and has become a quarterback who can be trusted. He is breathing down Garcia’s neck and competing for the starting job.

Here is what has happened. Last season, Garcia was prone to take off running and not carry out a play because he didn’t think it would work. If he does that now, Spurrier will yank him out of the game (and did so during the Gamecocks’ recent game against Auburn.

The lesson for kids is don’t be afraid of competition. The goal is to improve. Have fun, but get better.

The good coach is going to create competitive situations.

Remembering the lost art of kids’ play

By Ray Glier

It’s 95 degrees. It’s 3 in the afternoon. My 11 year old is outside shooting jumpers.

I was overjoyed.

There were a couple of things going on. Somebody told him sixth-graders don’t make the middle school team. So if he is not too worn out from baseball (he’s a catcher) he will go shoot and shoot and shoot and have a different answer for them come November and workouts.

That’s good. Don’t take “no” for an answer.

Then I saw something else. He worked on a crossover, then between the legs. He dribbles right and shoots left (don’t ask me how that happened) so he decided to practice shooting right and dribbling.

That’s good. Initiative.

So, of course, I tried to ruin it all one day by preaching. I started with the bit that it was great he was not going to let anyone tell him he was not good enough for the middle school team. Then I remarked about the initiative. He was doing things on his own, like dribbling with his off-hand.

I got a nod from him after I finished my Dad 101 stuff … and then I got scolded.

“You know, Dad, it’s fun, too” he said.

That’s right. Don’t forget that. There is a part of the equation here in kids’ play that some of us who have talented athletes just lose sight of. We’re thinking about getting ahead, they are thinking fun. We’re thinking the next step, they’re thinking, “No worries, I’m shooting basketball.”

We (I) heap on too much pressure sometimes. He said he likes to be pushed and reminded about fundamentals – but only sometimes. There are a lot of other times where he wants to be left alone.

We should probably trust our kids more. Let them decide when to drop the hammer and push themselves. We all worry, “If I just would have done this …”

Eventually, it comes down to the kid.

If you’re not overjoyed, you should be.

Putting a Team Together

The marriage of LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade reminds me of the playground as a kid. We worked hard for even sides, played some good games, and then the 8^th graders - the big kids to us fourth graders - would show up and pound the “little kids.”

They had it orchestrated. They were too tall, too physical, and would win easily to 10.

They took great delight in it and would rub it in with fancy passes and long passes over our heads to the cherry picker on the other end. It wasn’t really winning. It was a contrived win, a set up.

When you get a chance to put together a team for a game, do the right thing. Don’t show up with a loaded squad and just swat and swat. Make it even.

A couple of things will happen. If you have to grind, you get better. There is no question about it.

Second, the respect will follow. Somebody will notice you pulled back from just pounding a lesser team. If you sit there and hold the court with a bunch of big dudes, the hate will show up sooner or later. You can play basketball for an hour or so a day. The other 23 hours somebody is going to think you are a creep for being a bully on the court.

The Heat are running a risk. They might win a title, but it is not a sure thing. What is more certain is that there will be contempt league-wide for this crew.

Here is the learning moment from this marriage of players…

The LeBron Spectacle on television with his own special show should be a warning to terrific players not to humiliate teammates or friends. James humiliated the city of Cleveland and his teammates on TV.

If you have talent, stand down off the court. Be humble. Admiration for your skills could quickly turn into contempt.

James found out quickly what the backlash would be when his former owner chastised him in public. It was a severe scolding.

Here is another learning moment….

Can three players, James, Wade, and Bosh, who are accustomed to playing with the ball, play without the ball?

I’m just asking.

I’ve seen enough of James to know he stands and stands. Can he set a screen? Can he stay out of the way of a Wade drive, or a baseline move by Bosh?

This is not hate. Just questions. We’ll see.

Beware of the Revolving "Trap Door"

Monday morning, a Division I basketball coach told me, “The NCAA is always a step behind with enforcement of the rules. I wish the biggest problem we had was the street agents.” Street agents, the guys buzzing around players at summer tournaments lining up future clients for agents, are not a problem?

"Not compared to the parents," said the coach. “Mom and dad want more shots, more playing time, more this, more that.” It reminded the coach of the line from another coach. “The best team to coach,” he said, “is a team of orphans.”

That makes sense. There is no hustle from the mom and dad because there is no mom and dad. The coach could blend a team and hold them together and not worry whether a player is getting lured away. The hijacking of players happens, especially during the summer months. A kid hooks up with a summer team, a collection of players from another school, and in September he is suddenly at another school.

The Georgia High School Association has tried to curb the practice for years. The GHSA even went so far to try and block a transfer when a kid showed up with legitimate rent papers from his new school. The kid said, “I live here”, but the GHSA started checking to see if there was a primary residence somewhere else. If the player’s family was paying property taxes somewhere else, and they could prove it, the kid was ineligible.

Now, there are some examples of parents who do need to step in. I was interviewing Tim Tebow’s father about the increasing rate of transfers from one high school to another because Tim Tebow was a controversial transfer. Parents and players seek “better” opportunities, but Tebow made the point that what if the family is stuck at a school with poor coaches and poor discipline.

“Should they have to stay in that environment?” he said.

It’s a good point. What about the black baseball player who told me that while riding on a bus with white players from his high school, he had to deal with unacceptable racial comments. The parents pulled him out of that school, which was appropriate….along with calling the authorities. But too often parents are looking for the best weight room, the best gym, a travel schedule and, more important, elite players to team up with their son or daughter.

Beware the green grass on the other side of the street, mom and dad. Beware the coach who promises shots and PT.

The trapdoor could open.