Coach K: Jalen Rose remarks 'insulting' to Duke - WGN

"Never try to teach a pig to sing; It wastes your time and annoys the pig." - Robert Heinlein

I was glad to hear Coach K join the chorus in defense of Grant Hill and the Duke program. I couldn't agree with him more. This on top of Grant Hill's well written defense.

I'm not even sure what kind of a bizarre-o world we live in anymore when there is even a question of someone as classy and successful as Hill. And what do you know, karma comes around immediately and bites ol' Jalen right on the ass with his concealment of a DUI arrest from his employers at ESPN -- the same ESPN that combined with producer Jalen Rose to produce this docu-trash.

Jalen Rose perpetuates this NAACP-type mind-set of covert, institutional racism, a form of "dog-whistle racism" that only they and their ilk can see. This allows them to frame it and re-frame as the situation serves them. Then they can craft self-serving documentaries (by Jalen Rose, for Jalen Rose, about Jalen Rose) that re-write and over-glamorize a legacy that simply doesn't exist.

This serves the same segment of the population that blindly follows the race baiters and poverty pimps like Al Sharpton -- who BTW is still waiting for his "forty acres and a mule" -- and discard the path of success demonstrated by Hill and others. A lot of good Sharpton's (and others) "preachings" have done to improve the lot of African-American in this country over the last, what is it, thirty or forty years? Instead, jackasses of his ilk would prefer to denigrate and tear down a successful, classy A.A, like Grant Hill.

Hill simply doesn't fit the model of the argument regarding race in this country as Sharpton / Rose portrays it in this country, so he has to be torn down. In the same way N.O.W., tries to tear down Palin. It's not the National Organization of Women anymore, it's the National Organization of Women who endorse the Liberal Agenda. (NOW -> s/b NOWELA). It is no longer the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, it's the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who fit the Liberal Model and the Denigration of those who Don't (NAACP -> s/b NAACP, ah the heck with it). It is such an insane mind-set or mental model that it makes my head explode just thinking about it. (HYPERBOLE ALERT!!)

Funny, but I never think you are able to build somebody up by tearing somebody else down in the process. These two organizations routinely employ this process in their actions.

In fairness, Jalen Rose has attempted to clarify his remarks and put them into context, but for all intents and purposes, the damage is already done. His clarification will never receive the same attention as his initial remarks. To torture a pair of metaphors, Rose wants to close the barn door after the poop hits the fan.

And then of course, the karma train ran over Jalen, as the DUI details surfaced. A little bit of "Oh what a tangled web we weave...."? Perhaps.

The former Michigan guard said the comments regarding Duke's preference to recruiting "Uncle Tom's" were said from his perspective as a high school athlete heading into college and do not reflect his current opinions as a 38-year-old man.

"I know a lot of people are trying to circumvent a great documentary that was two hours of quality content and paraphrase a statement that I made and look at the headline but not read the story," Rose said in the voicemail, according to USA Today. "That's basically when I talked about my recruiting as a high school student as it related to Duke. I just want to make sure I verify how I felt about that. I was clearly talking about a framework from 1991 to 1993, not about 2011."

I just feel like we've reached a point in the so-called debate where the Heinlein quote shown above rings true.

In the end, Coach K and Hill are right and Jalen Rose is dead wrong. Rose and the Fab Five left little or nothing positive behind at Michigan. Even the baggy shorts thing was a rip-off from the Flying Illini. If we're counting mixing hip-hop and a bad-boy image with basketball, you could say they left a negative legacy. I'll leave aside the allegations of illegal payments. None of which you'll see or hear about as part of the legacy of the so-called "Uncle Tom's" at Duke.

Kudos to Coach K and Grant Hill. Thanks to Jalen Rose for highlighting the stupidity of the argument that underpins the last of the race-baiters and poverty pimps. Hopefully, incidents like this will signal the death knell of their clueless arguments.

From wgntv.com:
Coach K: Jalen Rose remarks 'insulting' to Duke - WGN

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski reacted Tuesday to comments made by Jalen Rose in ESPN's "The Fab Five" documentary referring to black Duke players in the early 1990s as "Uncle Toms."

"Sometimes people say things to get attention so they can sell their documentary," Krzyzewski told "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on WMVP-AM 1000. "Obviously, that was a poor choice of words and very insulting to everyone here at Duke but especially, not just our African-American players, but any African-American students. When you judge within a race, you start judging, like you put categories as to who you are. I think that's just the wrong thing to do."

Duke was 3-0 against the Fab Five and beat Michigan in the 1992 NCAA title game.

"We were very successful against them and, to be quite frank with you, we recruited Chris Webber," Krzyzewski said. "I didn't recruit Jalen Rose because we had Grant Hill and I'm happy with that. We didn't look at the other -- Juwan Howard, we knew wasn't going to come to Duke. The other two kids (Ray Jackson and Jimmy King) we didn't think were of the caliber that could play as well as Thomas Hill and Brian Davis and Billy McCaffery. They're good kids. They were good kids.

"They had a heck of a run, but they didn't leave anything, they didn't establish anything there," said Krzyzewski, referring to the Fab Five's failure to win a national title or lay a foundation for future success. "The guys that I had established something that (former Duke and Chicago Bulls guard) Jay Williams continued to do 10 years later -- the standards of what it meant to be a Duke basketball player."

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Grant Hill's Response:

HillTop » Blog Archive » Grant’s Unedited Response to the Fab Five’s Documentary

Grant’s Unedited Response to the Fab Five’s Documentary
Due to space constraints, the editorial posted in the New York Times was shortened. Read Grant’s full, unedited response to the Fab Five’s comments in their recent documentary here.

I am a fan, friend and long time competitor of the Fab Five. This should not be a surprise because I am a contemporary of every member of that iconic team. I have competed against Jalen and Chris since the age of 13. Jalen, Chris, and Juwan are my friends and have been for 25 years. At Michigan, they represented a cultural phenomenon that impacted the country in a permanent and positive way. The very idea of the Fab Five elicited pride and promise in much the same way the Georgetown teams did in the mid-80s when I was in high school and idolized them. Their journey from youthful icons to successful men today is a road map for so many young, black men (and women) who saw their journey through the powerful documentary, Fab Five.

It was a sad and somewhat pathetic turn of events, therefore, to see friends narrating this interesting documentary about their moment in time and calling me a bitch and worse, calling all black players at Duke “Uncle Toms” and, to some degree, disparaging my parents for their education, work ethic and commitment to each other and to me. I should have guessed there was something regrettable in the documentary when Jay Williams and I received a Twitter apology from Jalen before its airing. And, I am aware Jalen has gone to some length to explain his remarks about my family in numerous interviews, so I believe he has some admiration for them.

In his garbled but sweeping comment that “Duke only recruits black Uncle Toms,” Jalen seems to change the usual meaning of those very vitriolic words into his own meaning, i.e., blacks from two-parent, middle class families. He leaves us all guessing exactly what he believes today. And, I wonder if I would have suggested to former Detroit Pistons GM Rick Sund to keep Jimmy King on the team if I had known, back then in the mid-90s, that he would call me a bitch on a nationally televised show in 2011.

I am beyond fortunate to have two parents who are still working well into their 60s. They received great educations and use them every day. My parents taught me a personal ethic I try to live by and pass on to my children. They remain committed to each other after more than 40 years and to my wife, Tamia, our children, and me. They are my role models and always will be.

I come from a strong legacy of black Americans. My namesake, Henry Hill, my father’s father, was a day laborer in Baltimore. He could not read or write until he was taught to do so by my grandmother. His first present to my dad was a set of encyclopedias, which I now have to remind me of the importance of education. He wanted his only child, my father, to have a good education, so he made numerous sacrifices to see that he got an education, including attending Yale. This is part of our great tradition as black Americans. We aspire for the best or better for our children and work hard to make that happen for them. Jalen’s mother is part of our great, black tradition and made the same sacrifices for him.

It is unbeknownst to me what Jalen meant by his convoluted reference to black players at Duke considering how little he knows about any of them. My teammates—all of them, black and white—were a band of brothers who came together to play at the highest level for the best coach in basketball. I know most of the black players who preceded and followed me at Duke. They all contribute to our tradition of excellence on the court. It is insulting and ignorant to suggest that men such as Johnny Dawkins (coach at Stanford), Tommy Amaker (coach at Harvard), Billy King (GM at the Nets), Tony Lang (coach of the Mitsubishi Diamond Dolphins in Japan ), Thomas Hill (small business owner in Texas), Jeff Capel (former coach at Oklahoma), Kenny Blakeley (assistant coach at Harvard), Jay Williams (ESPN analyst), Shane Battier (Memphis Grizzlies) or Chris Duhon (Orlando Magic) now or ever sold out their race. To hint that those who grew up in a household with a mother and father are somehow less black than those who did not is beyond ridiculous. All of us are extremely proud of the current team, especially Nolan Smith. He was raised by his mother, plays in memory of his late father and carries himself with the pride and confidence that they instilled in him. He is the quintessential young Dukie.

The sacrifice, the effort, the education and the friendships I experienced in my four years are priceless and cherished. The many Duke graduates I have met around the world are also my “family,” and they are a special group of people. A good education is a privilege. At Duke, the expectations are high for all of us. Just as Jalen has founded a charter school in Michigan, we are expected to use our education to help others, to improve life for those who need our assistance and to use the excellent education we have received to better the world. The total experience at Duke taught us to think before we act, to pause before we speak and to realize that as adults we have a responsibility to do good, not just do well. A highlight of my time at Duke was getting to know the late, great John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor of History and the leading scholar of the last century on the total history of African Americans in this country. His insights and perspectives contributed significantly to my overall development and helped me understand myself, my forefathers, and my place in the world.

Ad ingenium faciendum, toward the building of character, is a phrase I recently heard. To me, it is the essence of an educational experience. Struggling, succeeding, trying again and having fun within a nurturing but competitive environment built character in all of us, including every black graduate of Duke.

My mother always says, “You can live without Chaucer and you can live without calculus, but you cannot make it in the wide, wide world without common sense.” As we get older, we understand the importance of these words. Adulthood is nothing but a series of choices: you can say yes or no, but you cannot avoid saying one or the other. In the end, those who are successful are those who adjust and adapt to the decisions they have made and make the best of them. I only hope I can instill in my children the same work ethic, the same values, the same common sense approach to life and the same pursuit of excellence my parents, Coach K and Duke gave me.

I caution my fabulous five friends to avoid stereotyping me and others they do not know in much the same way so many people stereotyped you back then for your appearance and swagger. I wish for you the restoration of the bond that made you friends, brothers and icons. I hope you reach closure with your university so you will enjoy all the privileges of its greatness.

I try to live my life as a good husband and father. I am proud of my family. I am proud of my Duke championships and all my Duke teammates. And, I am proud I never lost a game against the Fab Five.

Grant Henry Hill
Phoenix Suns
Duke ‘94

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NCAA Final Four and the future of March Madne$$

OK, just because I did not pick ANY of the Final Four teams for the first time, doesn't mean I am going to ignore the event like it's the pre-season NIT or the Maui Invitational Tournament or something. But I was thinking along those lines.

The remaining match ups are intriguing.

Cinderella and home town favorite Butler vs. perennial tournament heavyweight Michigan State.

I like Team Sparty here, based mainly on their rebounding and toughness. Coach Izzo's experience in this environment should help as well. The Butler is a very entertaining team to watch, so this will be a close call. My guess is it will be a pro-Butler crowd, but that should not deter Michigan State. It's not like they are very popular at fellow Big Ten venues.

Perennial favorite Duke and West Virginia.

For a change, I actually like this Duke team. Maybe it's the Chicago area product John Scheyer. He looks like he might be the tenth guy picked on the playground, but he scores, he passes, he makes his teammates better. He may have to play some D here. Singler looks like a cross between Dirk Nowitzki and Jack Sikma. Dare I say love-child? He's a good player though. I like Nolan Smith as well. They have trouble with athletic, physical teams like West Virginia and Coach Huggy-bear comes close to nullifying any coaching advantage Coach K would usually hold. I would feel better about the Mountaineers if their PG were healthy, but Duke in a battle.

Then Duke over Michigan State in the final.
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NCAA to increase play-in field by 3500%

On a separate note, apparently the NCAA plans to expand the March Madness field in the future from the current 65 team field to 96 teams.

So in the future, the 97th best team in the country, likely with a near .500 record will be whining their way to the NIT (also owned by the NCAA).

No stop-over from 65 to 68, maybe by increasing the play-in field from one to four teams first, just to see how that works.

I like the fact that now the mid-major teams that win their regular season conference championships will make the field automatically rather than having to win their conference tournament as well.

A team that plays well all season, but is banged up, can be left at the curb (or the NIT) by fading in a one-week tournament. The Cinderella stories that win their late season tournaments will still make the Big Dance.

The future NIT tournaments are going to be real hoot. Maybe they can capture fan interest in the future by pitting the NIT champion against the womens champion or the WNBA champion or something along those lines. Just a thought.

It's all about the CA$H register and the non-revenue sports that are desperate for funding in a post Title IX world.

Hey, maybe now that women are entering and graduating from our nations colleges in greater numbers than men in recent years, we can pass a "Title XI" that would save some of these "minority programs" -- MEN'S PROGRAMS -- JK N.O.W. -  I don't want a pink brick thrown through my window or anything.

IS TOM IZZO THE BEST COLLEGE BASKETBALL COACH?

He may be the top college coach that doesn't get his due. And I say this after his team eliminated my entry in the office poll. Thanks a lot Tom, ya rat bastard ya!!

Who had Michigan State advancing this far in their bracket? One person in our pool picked them to win, but I believe there were more who picked Duke to win. Or Louisville. Or North Carolina.

Look at the following factoids.

* Izzo's .756 winning percentage (31-10 record) in the NCAA tournament ranks third among all active coaches with 10 or more games coached:

1. Mike Krzyzewski, Duke, 72-22 (.766) 2. Billy Donovan, Florida, 22-7 (.759) 3. Tom Izzo, Michigan State, 31-10 (.756) 4. Rick Pitino, Louisville, 37-12 (.755) 5. Roy Williams, North Carolina, 52-17 (.754)

No offense, but on the recruiting trail Coach K is asking kids to go to Duke. DUKE!!!! Donovan can sell the Florida sun and the effect it has on the young coeds level of dress throughout the year. ADVANTAGE GATORS!!! Pitino has Louisville and it's tradition to sell. Roy Williams has North Carolina, a guy named Jordan as an alumnus and many other selling points.

Izzo has to convince kids to matriculate to East Lansing!! No offense to East Lansing but in this list of venues, you run a distant fifth out of the five entries.

Izzo is currently the longest-tenured basketball coach in the Big Ten Conference. Michigan State began a streak of twelve straight NCAA tournament appearances, which is the 5th longest current streak among Division I teams. During that run only Mike Krzyzewski (29) has more NCAA tournament wins than Tom Izzo (26).

Who knew the Coach Izzo was running neck and neck with the great Coach K?


And if that wasn't enough, there is this description of his coaching philosophies.

Izzo's teams are known for guard play, toughness and rebounding. Izzo got attention when people learned of his "war" rebounding drills, in which the players have sometimes worn football helmets and shoulder pads.

His motto is "Players Play – Tough Players Win".

His other coaching philosophy is that "he doesn't determine playing time, players do."

Even if the Spartys do not rise up and upset the Tar Heels, perhaps it's time to acknowledge Tom Izzo as one of the top coaches in college basketball.

FIRST ROUND MADNESS

Well, the smoke has cleared a little bit as 1/2 the games are in the books.

We're in a pool where you get only one point and no bonus for the first round. I think it's time for a scoring update. The first round is all about picking the upset. After that it's just win, baby. But the charm of the first round is to be the one who had the stones to pick the potential Cinderella of the tournament. Why should picking a 1 vs. 16 match up give you the same points as going out on a limb and nailing that 5-12 upset or a 4 vs. 13? The first round points should be weighted to the size of the upset (i.e. if you pick a 12 to win over a five you get 7 points - 12 minus 5). If you pick the favorite you get 1 point.

In the subsequent rounds, if you pick that 12 to bounce a four, you get 16 points. The 12 minus 4 multiplied by 2 for Round 2. And so on down the line. If you pick the favorite, you just get 1 point in the 1st Round 2 points in the second round and so on.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. Let's continue.

Team Obama picked 19 of the first 32 correct according to ESPN. I came in at 24 correct. That puts me in 18th place out of 39 office workers at my wife's firm. The Prognosticator in Chief would be DEAD LAST in my wife's office. This has not been a good week for the Comedian in Chief. First his misspeak on the Tonight Show reveals he would be a mediocre Special Olympics bowler. And now this.

Maybe as Coach Shisshevskivich, Coach Shhiskabob, aw heck Coach K from Duke said, he should concentrate more on the economy than brackets and comedy. I mean, poor Little Timmy Geithner doesn't even have anyone to get him coffee at the Treasury and we are in the middle of an economic meltdown and all. I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying.

The two tools I used to get my bracket right were as follows:

I looked at historical precedent dating back to 1985 and found in the first round teams seed 13-16 were very unlikely to win (39-345 record) and 10-12 seeds were pretty dicey as well (97-191). So there needs to be a compelling reason to pick them.

In the 2nd round same trend, 13-16 came in at (6-33) and 10-12 improved to (45-52). So I didn't go deeper than 13-16 in the first round. I have #12 Wisconsin winning another but that's it for the deep dogs.

In the Regional Round, Teams seeded 9th or higher get the boot. A (13-41) record will do that for you. Everybody else is in play..

In the Regional Finals, same thing. 9's and higher are (2-11) at this point.

In the Semis', anything higher than a #6 seed goes home (1-4). Fourth through six seeds are a combined (4-10) mostly due to the #4 seed (2-7) record. Seeds 1-3 are (41-34) not great, but not bad.

In the title game, 1 seeds are (14-9). After that, (10-15). So the higher seed is a 60-40 chance to win.

For the rest of the coin-toss games or where the historical precedent didn't lead me anywhere, I went with the Sheridan ratings. Dude is a 1970 MIT Mathematics graduate, so if I'm going to let anyone help me with my homework, it's going to be him.

I looked for game where the dog was better than the higher seed and went with it.

Arizona (15)was rated 83.01 vs. Utah (5) 85.38.
Southern Cal (10) was rated better than Boston College (7) by 84.36 to 82.63 plus they finished strong.
Maryland (10) was rated 82.83 vs California (7) 85.21 plus you have tradition and coaching on your side.
Wisconsin (12) was even with Florida State (5) 84.78 to 85.35. Close enough and I like Bo Ryan as a coach.
Michigan (10) was 83.85 vs. Clemson (7) at 87.36, so that was worth the try.

Minnesota (10) vs. Texas (7) didn't some through but Minnesota was 84.52 vs. Texas 85.15. It was worth a try.
Butler was rated higher than LSU by 84.47 - 83.59 and I liked their style of play so it was worth a try even though it didn't work.

Still a basket here or there and maybe I'm questioning the methodology. But it seems like a basket cost me at least two W's.

But that's what makes horse races. And March Madness.

Hopefully the methodology works in the later rounds. I think I went to much with the favorites down the road and that will come back to bite me. No real Cinderellas. I did like North Dakota State but they got a tough draw with Kansas in the Opening Round. Welcome to the NCAA Tournament fellas.

March Madness - Good Luck with your Brackets

A good opening day for Team Slavik, 13 for 16 games. Duke kills me as usual, this time by losing. Because, I had VCU as an upset and talked myself out of it by thinking too much. I thought, no way is Duke going down in the first round. Like I tell some of my players, "don't think, you're hurting the team".

Heard Bobby Knight go off on a number of subjects before being sent home.
1) Officials working NCAA games too much. "First of all, I don't think there's an official in the world capable of working six days a week". He proposes a three day a week max and geographic limits, more instructional time.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm one of the brethren, but he's right. I don't think I could physically handle six days a week at my level. And officials discuss this amongst themselves and agree with the message, but on this topic, I'm betting we'll consider the messenger and thus we will proceed to disregard the message. That would be a mistake. Knight's right.

2) Knight commented on the NCAA-NBA one year rule requirement. The so-called, one-and-done rule. He believes players should be required to take 12 credit hours per semester before going to the pros. Not a bad suggestion, to have student-athletes at least give the appearance of being students.

Again, of course, due to the messenger, the message gets somehow mangled and lost. Perfect example, I'm listening to one of the local sports talk shows and up and coming ESPN basketball analyst Stephan Bardo roasted Knight for his comments about this subject. He opined that Knight didn't recruit the caliber of player (like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant) so he somehow shouldn't be concerned about the subject. Never mind that his program has to compete against others that do (that whole level playing field subject). If he had stopped there, he would have sounded ignorant enough for me, but most of his audience probably would not have been the wiser, but he further states that Knight has no standing commenting on coaches being responsible for kids going to class. And people wonder why I rail against the media so much!

This may have been one of the more ignorant statements about a subject, by a speaker who is being paid to be knowledgeable about said subject, as I have heard in quite some time. And of course, neither of the interviewers seemed willing to stop the impending train wreck.

Does Mr. Bardo not know that Knight (regardless of anything else you may hold against him) has one of the best reputations for having kids go to class and graduate in college basketball?
His comrades in arms should have at least tried to pull him out of it, maybe with the hand they weren't using for the group-jerk they must have been having. He-he-he we're bashing media-hater Bobby Knight again.

Congratulations Stephen Bardo, you'll probably go far in your industry, since you were willing to pick up a stick and publicly batter Bobby Knight. Next time, try to add some level of intelligence or understanding of the issues to your arguments. Thanks.


I felt the same way when I heard Dan Patrick and Keith Olberman interview Pete Rose, when Pete contradicted the Dowd Report and his prior comments by saying he bet on the Reds to win every night. Keith at least stepped in and offered that Pete was adding fuel to the fire so to speak, but it seems so obvious that Rose is saying whatever he feels will garner sympathy and gain acceptance back into baseball regardless of what the "evidence" shows.

Still I get the feeling when listening to garbage like this, that these guys revel in publicly teasing a dog if it would help their ratings or Q factor.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR BRACKETS.