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Remembering Billy Knight
As basketball coaches we strive to win, but also do everything we can to help our players develop skills and habits of mind to last a lifetime.
As basketball coach at UCLA, I was fortunate to have teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament in six consecutive seasons (1997-2002). Our teams made five Sweet Sixteen appearances and one run to the Elite Eight. Naturally, it is satisfying to win games, yet these achievements simply fulfill short term goals.
True success in athletics is… Continue Reading
Four C’s or One?
The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award is presented to a player who makes achievements in four C’s – classroom, character, community and competition – but in the end, it all comes down to just one.
Certainly, we want our student athletes to reach their potential in the classroom, excel in competition, and be active in the community. However, for the college athlete, it is strength of character that serves as a driving force behind the other three C’s.
It doesn’t always… Continue Reading
Bringing Baseball Back
Baseball used to be America’s pastime.
With the right ambassadors, it can be again.
Major League Baseball has soiled what once was a good name with steroid scandals, outrageous payrolls, and a disconnection with a section of the fan base. The “me-first” mentality has caused some fans to look elsewhere for their baseball fix.
Judging by record attendance in the college game, many fans are finding amateur play to their liking. Many of the knocks found in… Continue Reading
Balancing the 4 C’s
When the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award was created in the 2001-02 season, it was more suited for collegiate men’s basketball than women’s basketball.
Male players were leaving schools at a growing rate to pursue their NBA dream and the envisioned windfall of dollars that come with signing pro contracts.
The women, on the other hand, had no reason to depart before receiving their diplomas. In fact, it was the diplomas themselves that were their real pro contracts despite the… Continue Reading
The “4 C’s” in College and Beyond
With the softball season underway, this year will be the last time many players suit up with their school colors. The seniors want to make their senior year the best it can be with the probability of competing after college very low.
Unlike some of the other sports, the softball players aren’t going to be leaving school with the hopes of landing a big professional contract or with hopes of playing in the Super Bowl or the Baseball World Series.
Playing in the Women’s College… Continue Reading
Why We Remember the Seniors
If you hang around this business of covering college basketball long enough, the case of Benjamin Button no longer seems so curious.
In a college-basketball writers’ world, we age as our collective subjects remain forever young. While we turn gray at the temples, heavy around the middle and thin at the top, they are always 19, 20 and 21 years old, full of that certain something that makes us so interested in them.
Yet, upon closer inspection, the individuals we cover are… Continue Reading
The message could not have been clearer … or timelier
Preparing to write this column this week, an article appeared on the front page of the sports section of my local newspaper trumpeting the accomplishments of this season’s Michigan State hockey team.
The Spartan hockey team, which won the national championship in 2007, isn’t having a banner year. In fact, MSU is in the midst of its worst regular season showing in more than 30 years and is battling to stay out of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association cellar.
Instead,… Continue Reading
An Opportunity for College Sports to Seize the Day
In these troubled economic times, with scandals on Wall Street and substance abuse once again rearing its ugly head in major league baseball, Americans are yearning for some pure, honest, loyal heroes to emerge. There is an opportunity for college sports to seize the day. Sparked by President Obama’s call for young Americans to come forward and give of themselves, the playing field is wide open for senior student-athletes in collegiate sports to step up to this challenge across… Continue Reading
The Extraordinary Senior Leader
Four years later. For some, like it was for me, five and feeling ancient, even though at times, still just a baby. You’re a senior in college, and a great one at that. Why are you great? You’re great because you’ve got that special something. You’ve become the one that others looks up to when they need guidance, and the one they look down on when things don’t go as planned. You’ve earned that responsibility. Get used to it—you should have… Continue Reading
Senior Student-Athletes Should Be Hailed for Finishing What They Started
When exactly did we come to the place in collegiate sports where we had to, in some small fashion, defend senior student-athletes?
It seems around every corner someone has to explain the value of a college degree…..to argue in favor of players staying for four or five years to complete both their eligibility and education.
I wholeheartedly agree with Seth Davis when he writes, “he has figured out that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.” I guess… Continue Reading
