Larry Drew still coach of the Hawks – for now (Yahoo! Sports)
ATLANTA (AP) — One day after the Atlanta Hawks were bounced from the NBA playoffs, Larry Drew remained their coach.
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Former Knicks star Larry Johnson: ‘Gay men in locker room would make me uncomfortable’
NBA veteran Jason Collins made history this week by publicly announcing he was gay. Reactions have been mixed since news of his decision broke. Some people are on board with it, while others are certainly not.Count former NBA All-Star Larry Johnson as one who is not okay with it. The 44-year-old native of Texas made his feelings known via Twitter after Collins came out.I don’t Jason Collins personally but he seems like a great guy. Me personally gay men in the locked room would make me uncomfortable .— Larry Johnson (@TheRealLJ2) April 29, 2013One of his followers quickly tweeted in response: “RESPECT LJ! There’s no place in the NBA for gay players.”Johnson responded by saying, “I agree.”Naturally, Johnson’s tweet incited a storm of response from other users as well. Some offered words of support for his position and others offered plenty of resistance.You can view the debate in its entirety via his profile page.Ppl ! this is nothing against Jason or …
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What to Expect from Keith Frazier and Larry Brown at SMU in 2014
Nestled between North Carolina and North Carolina State in the latest Rivals.com recruiting rankings at No. 14 in the country is SMU, a school that has not made the NCAA tournament since 1993.
The Mustangs’ climb up the charts is the result of head coach Larry Brown convincing McDonald’s All-American guard Keith Frazier, the top player in Dallas, to play for SMU.
This is why SMU went after Brown a year ago—his name recognition alone made the program relevant—and getting a player like Frazier to campus was key to Brown’s turnaround plan.
Brown told the Dallas Morning News:
For him to make a commitment to come here is remarkable with the options he had. When we got the job here, our goal was the hopefully be good enough and relevant so that kids would want to stay at home and play here. For him to be the first to do that is huge. I don’t take it lightly. I want kids to feel like they can stay at home and be coached at the highest level.
Winning games is the next part of the equation, and how can you bet against Coach Brown? He’s only coached one team that did not reach the postseason at some point—his one season with the New York Knicks.
The genius of Coach Brown was not really felt in the first year. The Mustangs won two more games overall and one more in conference than the year before under former head coach Matt Doherty.
But Coach Brown wasn’t dealt much of a hand when he took over. His bench was so thin this past year that he played his starters a higher percentage of minutes than any team in the country, according to KenPom.com.
All five starters return next year, but a majority of them will be coming off the bench.
Along with Frazier’s likely addition to the starting lineup, Brown will also be able to insert Illinois State transfer Nic Moore at point guard and the top JUCO prospect in the nation, Yanick Moreira, inside.
That gives SMU three players who would start for many teams across the country. Frazier is a given, considering he’s ranked as the fourth-best shooting guard by Rivals.com.
Moore averaged 10 points and 3.9 assists as a freshman at Illinois State, a team that nearly made the NCAA tournament. He came to SMU with his coach Tim Jankovich, who is the coach-in-waiting.
Adding Jankovich to his staff was one of the best moves Brown made when he got the job. Not only did he get a good point guard along with the coach, Jankovich knows the college game and was a rising star at Illinois State. The former Kansas assistant took the Redbirds to four NITs in five seasons at the school, which had gone six straight seasons without a postseason appearance before he arrived.
The Redbirds lost in the Missouri Valley championship game in overtime to Creighton in 2012. They would go on to the NIT, where they won on the road in overtime against Ole Miss and then lost in overtime to eventual NIT champion Stanford in overtime. In those three games, Moore averaged 23 points and 5.7 assists.
Brown also signed shooting guard Sterling Brown, the brother of NBA guard Shannon Brown. The younger Brown is ranked as the 138th-best prospect by Rivals.com.
Two other candidates to start will be Illinois transfer Crandall Head, the brother of former Illini guard Luther Head, and Villanova transfer forward Markus Kennedy.
With Frazier, Brown, Moore and SMU’s leading scorers this past year—Nick Russell and Jalen Jones—SMU has a crowded backcourt, giving Brown some actual depth to work with.
Depth can only take you so far if your talent is average, and that’s why adding Frazier is so significant. The guard has the ability to come in right away and be a go-to scorer. Russell and Jones were role players miscast as scorers by necessity last season.
Coach Brown spent the year before he took the job at SMU visiting his buddies in the profession at Kansas, Kentucky and Villanova, and what he saw in the college game made him believe he could build a winner quickly at a school like SMU if he got the necessary talent.
Brown told ESPN.com in January:
Butler has figured it out. Gonzaga has it figured out. When Cal [John Calipari] was at Memphis, he figured it out. We’ll figure it out here, too. I think we’re gonna be good a lot quicker than people expect.
The whole equation—struggling program reels in genius mind—is reminiscent of Kansas State and Bill Snyder in college football. Brown preaches for his teams to play “the right way.” Snyder does the same, and he has led two turnarounds in Manhattan.
Betting against Brown now that he has legitimate talent would not be wise. The turnaround king and his new star, in Brown’s words, are gonna be good a lot quicker than people expect.
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Larry Sanders’ blocks are so fun they got their own website
The Bucks have put together an entire website that pays tribute to Sanders’ shot-blocking prowess.
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Referee Takes Elbow to the Face from Larry Sanders During Bucks Game
It wasn’t the elbow the city of Milwaukee needed, and it certainly wasn’t the elbow NBA referee Bill Kennedy deserved.
Kennedy ended up on the receiving end of a huge shot to the face at the beginning of Monday night’s game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Charlotte Hornets.
Immediately after throwing the ball up for the tipoff, Kennedy was leveled by the falling elbow of Bucks forward Larry Sanders. Sanders had jumped up to the win the ball, and on the way down, his right arm caught the referee flush in the face.
Kennedy remained down for several minutes—rubbing his head and presumably trying to remember how to conjugate verbs—but eventually regained his feet and would go on to officiate the rest of the game.
Clearly, Sanders’ elbow was unintentional, but it certainly adds to the number of ridiculous interactions he’s had with referees this season.
Earlier this month, Sanders made waves by giving referees the “thumbs up” after being ejected from a game against the Washington Wizards. He also received a $50,000 fine for needling officials with criticism after an ejection from a game against the Miami Heat in March. His total of 14 technical fouls on the season is tied for most in the league.
Regardless of his prior (sometimes hilarious) behavior toward officials, you cannot put this one on Sanders. You have to give Kennedy credit for recovering from a shot to the head that would end most big-horn sheep.
On Twitter, where losing brain cells doesn’t require blunt force trauma: Dr__Carson
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Larry Sanders takes out ref with elbow on tipoff
After watching the NBA for over 15 years, I don’t recall any moment like the incident that NBA referee Bill Kennedy suffered tonight during the tip-off of the Milwaukee Bucks game against the Charlotte Bobcats.As Milwaukee center Larry Sanders won the tip-off against Charlotte’s Bismack Biyombo, he accidentally swung his elbow in the direction of Kennedy who was trying to get away from the tip.Watch as Sanders elbow lands right in Kennedy’s face and sent him to the ground:
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Larry Sanders ejected for third time in 10 days
Milwaukee Bucks center and defensive leader Larry Sanders can’t control himself.
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Larry Sanders fined $50K for comment about refs and Heat
Bucks center Larry Sanders dared to question the NBA’s authority Friday night.
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What Is Larry Sanders’ Ceiling for the Milwaukee Bucks?
Among the usual suspects being discussed as the league’s best defender this season sits Milwaukee Bucks center Larry Sanders. However, as the third-year player from VCU continues to emerge as an elite shot-blocker, it’s hard not to wonder what his ceiling is.
Ranking atop the list of leading shot-blockers with 3.1 per game, it’s no secret that Sanders is most valuable on the defensive end of the floor. Those who are surprised by this breakout season, though, shouldn’t be.
During his rookie year, Sanders averaged 1.2 blocks in just 14.5 minutes per game. In his second season, his minutes dropped, but his production on defense didn’t, as he blocked 1.5 shots per game. Those numbers translate extremely well when converted to per 36 minutes.
When discussing the potential of Sanders, though, defense isn’t a major talking point because that aspect is already there.
The youth and inexperience of Sanders really sticks out when looking at his game offensively as well as his inability to stay out of foul trouble. These two areas could dictate his future success.
Along with more minutes and more blocks have come more fouls.
Sanders is no different than other big men in this category. At 3.5 fouls per game, he ranks slightly behind fellow defensive stalwarts like Dwight Howard and Roy Hibbert. But the fouls he commits are usually not the product of his aggressive shot-blocking nature. In fact, more often than not, Sanders picks up quick, silly fouls that end up taking him out of the game early.
These fouls are often the result of being out of position. Sanders frequently gets hit with over-the-back calls on the offensive glass, and his failure to put a body on his man defensively results in the same outcome.
As he’s demonstrated recently, frustration tends to take over when officials whistle him. Prior to yesterday’s game against the Orlando Magic, Sanders had been ejected in two straight games.
According to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sanders’ behavior isn’t lost on head coach Jim Boylan:
Sanders was ejected for the second straight game when he picked up two technical fouls with 2:44 remaining, after he was called for fouling James on a drive.
Boylan said there would be a serious discussion with Sanders about his on-court behavior.
“You’re a professional athlete, and you have to behave like a professional,” Boylan said. “The referees don’t come in here with an agenda, for the most part. They come in here and ref the game.
“I know all those guys. It doesn’t mean you can’t have an argument or a disagreement with one of them. That happens in the heat of the game. We’ll talk with Larry. Like I’ve said to Larry before, I don’t mind him playing with emotion as long as it doesn’t hurt the team.
It’s all part of the learning process, but Sanders will need to learn to cope with the inconsistencies of NBA officiating if he wants to stay on the court and keep his sanity.
And while he’s shown promise on offense, Sanders is still relatively raw.
With his size, length and athleticism, he should be averaging more than 9.1 points per game. Right now, much of his output comes as a product of his work on the offensive boards.
Since being drafted, Sanders has improved his post repertoire, but it still needs plenty of work. He’s also shown the ability to hit the occasional mid-range jump shot, but not consistently enough to fall in love with it—which he sometimes does.
On a positive note, Sanders has improved both his field-goal percentage and free-throw percentage in each of his three seasons. If he can continue to shoot the 50.9 percent from the field that he’s shooting this year throughout his career, that will mean his offensive game will complement his already great defense.
That’s not to say that he’s bad offensively. He just needs work.
From less than five feet, Sanders is shooting 60.7 percent, showing that he’s solid at finishing around the basket. With some added strength, that number could, and should, continue to increase.
In order for him to become an even more complete offensive player, though, he must continue to work on his mid-range game.
If he can improve on the 30.6 percent he’s shooting from five to 14 feet, defenders will be forced to leave the comfort of the paint to guard him. Given the quickness and athletic advantage he has over a lot of centers, this would allow him to get by slower defenders for easier baskets.
The 2012-13 season for Sanders has been a successful one regardless of how he finishes. He’s taken big steps in almost every aspect of his game and should continue to do so.
It’d be foolish to say he’s the next Dwight Howard. He’s not that type of player and probably won’t ever be.
That’s not a knock, though.
There’s no reason why Sanders cannot be an elite defender year in and year out and enjoy success similar to the likes of Joakim Noah and Serge Ibaka.
He’s already started off down the right path. Now he just needs to continue working hard and improving his weaknesses.
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UCLA Basketball: Why Larry Drew II Is the Bruins’ Key to Postseason Success
After finishing the season on a high note by notching a Pac-12 regular-season title, UCLA gets down to business on Thursday as it commences postseason play with a conference tournament matchup against Arizona State.
While the Bruins have done well to revamp their image and garner considerable momentum heading into March Madness, they are nevertheless surrounded with questions as they make their way toward the Big Dance.
This UCLA team, stacked with highly touted recruits Jordan Adams, Kyle Anderson, and Shabazz Muhammad, certainly has the raw talent to make some noise in Pac-12 Tournament and ensuing NCAA Tournament.
It’s an exciting notion to ponder for Ben Howland and his Bruins, who have not achieved any success in the big tourney since now-NBA star Kevin Love led UCLA to the Final Four in 2008.
Yet, as we’ve seen year after year, it takes a certain beast to endure the madness of March.
Talent alone doesn’t quite cut it.
The one-and-done culture of college basketball has changed the dynamics of the Tournament and reiterated a very important point.
This tournament is about experience.
Early departures of star players have opened the field up for teams with talented upperclassmen like Butler to make it to the NCAA Championship in consecutive years. Experience and wisdom give teams an imperative edge in the Big Dance.
Enter Larry Drew II, UCLA’s senior point guard.
On a team with talented but inexperienced young players, Drew has played a vital role for the Bruins all season as their sole upperclassman leader. Not only has he set the tone for the team with his persistent defense, but he has also guided them through tight situations with the game on the line.
In addition to being a leader, Drew has allowed his teammates to shine all season long by dishing out a conference-leading 7.7 assists per game.
As tremendous as freshman guards Shabazz Muhammad and Jordan Adams have been this season, they wouldn’t have been able to achieve the success they did without Drew finding them shots in the half-court set.
UCLA’s freshmen guards have proved themselves to be as talented as they were hyped to be, but they have also proved their naïveté as young players in their first seasons at the college level.
With three freshmen and reserved junior forward Travis Wear in the starting lineup, Drew will be the Bruins’ most important player in the postseason, as he has been all season long.
His influence won’t stop at his leadership, though.
Although he struggled with his jumper in the early stages of the season, which allowed defenders to give him a cushion, Drew found his shot in the second half of conference play.
In his last seven games, the 6’2” guard—who grew up less than 15 miles from UCLA’s campus—shot an accurate 49 percent from the floor and a stellar 63 percent from beyond the arc, becoming the Bruins’ most accurate three-point shooter at a cumulative 41.8 percent on the season.
That’s a stat the opposition won’t ignore, and Drew will certainly be guarded tightly in the postseason, which will allow UCLA to keep its offense spread.
Moreover, Drew has proved to be a clutch player who keeps calm under pressure.
He demonstrated this when he knocked down a buzzer-beating fall-away jumper to send UCLA to victory over the visiting Washington Huskies in early February. Drew remained confident in himself as he took the ball up the court with poise, convinced that he could lead his team to victory despite insistent calls for the ball from teammate Shabazz Muhammad.
And that’s exactly who will take the big shot when the game is on the line in the postseason.
Drew has helped shine the spotlight on his teammates all season long, but it is he who will have the spotlight shining bright on him as UCLA makes its way through the postseason.
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