Miles Cartwright called me last night to let me know he has given a verbal commitment to The University of Pennsylvania of the Ivy League. Miles and his family are very excited about his choice. Penn has made the NCAA tournament 4 times this decade and has a national schedule that includes teams like, Duke, North Carolina, Villanova, Penn State, and University of Pittsburgh. Their home games are played in the storied Palestra in Philadelphia. Penn’s non-Ivy league schedule also includes Temple University, LaSalle and St. Josephs University, all big time AC-10 schools with a rich history of tough, hard-nosed east coast basketball. Miles will play for Coach Miller who is known for his basketball acumen and his ability to make his teams competitive winners. Miles will also have the opportunity to be tutored by 1st year assistant coach Jerome Allen, former Penn All Ivy leaguer, former pro player (NBA and Europe) before returning to Penn this year. Allen was also inducted into the Big 5 Philadelphia Hall of fame this past February. The other Assistants John Gallagher and Mike Martin who both has a rich pedigree in basketball and academics round out a very strong coaching staff.

Miles is in great hands and the coaching staff and I are very excited about the opportunity that Miles will have to continue his basketball career at Penn. As coach AD said to me tonight.

“Penn got a guy who can play anywhere. He just knows how to get it done period.”

click here for more info on Penn Basketball

More recruiting news

Kareem Jamar is currently narrowing his choices down between University of Portland and University of Montana. He has taken official visits to both schools and will be making a decision sometime soon. Both schools offer him an opportunity to come in and play right a way and speak very highly of his overall understanding of the game. He informed the university of Detroit that he has narrowed his choices down to Portland and Montana.

Chris Barnum has several opportunities that he is considering

Solomon Singer is being recruited of UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge

Cal State Northridge and University of Detroit are recruiting Denzel Douglas

Academic Recruiting

Yes, it does pay to get those grades.

Derek Farrar is being recruited for academics to some major schools and will decide which route he will pursue as the season continues

Pharoah Green has academic offers from University of Pittsburgh, Grinnell College in Iowa, and University of the Pacific in Stockton CA.

If you are in the class of 2010, please send me any recruiting news (Student-Athlete or Academic) to me.

Embedded video from NBA Video

Hoop Masters 13u team wins Hard Core Hoops Championship

It is said that patience is quality that every person needs to learn. In the case of the Hoop Masters 13’s they have had that. There tough coach, John Fischer, has molded the team into a hard hitting, defensive pressuring team and they put that all together to win the Hard Core Hoops 13u basketball tournament. The team will try to repeat their achievement this coming weekend at the ACES tournament.

By John Fischer
Hoop Masters

All across America, in bars and barber shops, in living rooms and locker rooms, in gyms after pickup games, the debate continues – Who is the greatest basketball player of all time? And the answer is…we still can’t decide. Kareem, Chamberlain, Jordan, Russell, Shaq – yes, Shaq, all get top votes. Maybe it will be Kobe or one day, Lebron James. But today, I want to talk about two players that I believe had the biggest impact on the game. Not just the NBA, but all of basketball from top to bottom. The play of these two individuals literally changed the game – not just the rules as in the case of Jordan and Chamberlain, but the actual culture of basketball. The two biggest impact players? Julius Erving and Magic Johnson.

Magic Johnson

I am accusing Magic Johnson of a game-changing crime. The post game is dead, and we know who the perp is – Magic Johnson killed it. He didn’t mean to do that, it just happened. I guess that means we can reduce the charge from post-murder to post-slaughter, because I can say in my heart of hearts he did not mean to do it. Shaquille O’Neal has kept it alive, but after he retires, the post game is officially demised (it might stay on life support with Dwight Howard, but after that it’s over).

By all standards at the time, Magic Johnson should never have played point guard. He should have been a power forward – the recipient of passes from the point guard. No one expected a 6-9 (legit 6-9) player to handle the ball – in the open court, broken court and in traffic with such ease. Great point guards were guys like Archibald and Frazier – shorter, quicker guys who could penetrate and make plays. No one ever thought that a 6-9 guy could play that spot with the same effectiveness. The Houston Rockets had Robert Reid playing point occasionally, and he was 6-8, but he was no Magic.

As Magic’s career was ending, a new mindset was developing in parents of tall children all across the country. No one wanted their Johnnie (big Johnnie) to be “stuck in the post” on their basketball teams. It didn’t matter if Johnnie got the ball on every possession and scored. Dad and Mom wanted to see Johnnie dribble the ball like a point guard and shoot the ball just like the little guys got to do. Thus began the death of the post game. Few people realize that post play is not the easiest thing to learn, and it doesn’t get easier because you are taller. It takes years to learn proper post footwork, positioning, shooting angles and most importantly, the feel of the defender. You don’t just show up in college at 6-10 and start dominating in the post unless you have been playing that position for awhile, and for good coaches. Otherwise, at 6-10 and no shooting/ball handling ability, you are known as a stiff. In the old days, a 6th grader who was 6 ft tall would play center. Same with a 6-2 7th grader, and a 6-4 8th grader. No matter what kind of team – school team, recreation team or club team, either the head coach or an assistant would work with these players in the post to teach them the fine art of effectively scoring. These players would then go to high schools and in many cases, play the same position for their high school team that had the same system. It made sense – get the ball as close to the basket as possible in the hands of a tall player equipped with the skills to put it in the basket.

Magic Johnson steamrolled completely over this mindset like Patton’s end run across France. Eventually, parents started fleeing teams where Johnnie was stuck in the post and coaches started teaching all of their players how to handle the ball and how to shoot from distance and how to play facing the basket, and somehow, teaching how to play with your back to the basket got left behind. Today, we have fewer effective post players than at any time in the history of the game (including high school, college and professional levels). Even our counterparts in Europe are developing 6-10 guys who step out and shoot the 3. Other than super human sized individuals (like Shaq), we may never see a true center again. Kevin Love might be the closest thing, as crazy as that sounds.

So I rest my case. The post game is dead. Magic Johnson, whether he knew it or not, killed it. His mere presence and style of play changed the game right in front of our eyes, and it caused a whole new mindset to evolve.

Julius Erving

For the longest time, dunking did not have the full respect of coaches, players and fans. You could dunk the ball, but no one did so with any regularity in games. Truth is, for guys 6-5 and smaller, it was an incredible demonstration of athletic ability and grace. For taller players, it was just something they could do because they were tall. But many people involved in the game did not value the dunk. If you missed a dunk in the 60s or 70s, chances are you were pulled from the game. When I was a kid growing up, dunking the ball wasn’t even allowed in college and in high school (thanks to Lew Alcindor)! Players like Alcindor and Russell and Chamberlain could all dunk with ease and did so regularly, but the old school coaches just turned away from it instead of embracing it.

Then came the Doctor. Erving played the game high in the air, which just wasn’t that common in the early 70s. Julius Erving dunked the ball regularly, and he did it with style, athleticism, grace and one more thing – power. Erving was literally throwing it down before anyone thought to call it throwing it down. And while the old guard still turned away at first, eventually, you couldn’t ignore it – and in fact, you were an idiot if you didn’t embrace it. Simply put, Erving took something that was okay for some, not for others, and really not accepted by the basketball establishment and turned it into the easiest and most reliable shot in basketball. Not only is it accepted, it is how the game is represented in highlight after highlight. Thanks to Erving, that 6-9 post player who finds himself all alone under the basket need not worry dunking the ball.

In fact, if he simply lays it up and somehow misses the target or it gets swatted from an unseen defender, the next sound you hear will be the horn, and as the player is heading to the bench his coaches will tell him, “You should have thrown that down!”

Like it or not, these two men caused changes in the game – not just rule changes, but changes in our attitude and philosophy and how we play the game. Further, we show no signs of deviating from the course these two men established 20-30 years ago. I believe that means they deserve mention in any conversation where the goal is to determine the greatest basketball player ever. It won’t help us get to an answer any quicker, but at least we’ll have all the players in the discussion.

Jerome Green
Sports Editor

The Heart of The CIF

It takes heart to play in the CIF and that is what I saw over and over again from the various players over this past weekend. I traveled about 200 miles this weekend covering games at Colony High School, The Galen Center and The Honda Center, and for a person who has a major distain for traffic; it was well worth the drive.

I know we are approaching colleges March Madness and the NBA play offs, but for my money, there is no better value than the CIF playoffs. You get to see kids of all sizes and abilities play the game they luvv to the fullest of their capabilities. As an added bonus you get to see coaches bring their best efforts to the floor and at the same time exemplify the type of behavior that you would want any young person to model. CIF basketball is just plain fun and exciting. The organization of these events by CIF is tremendous. Each game that I attended went off without a hitch.

I witnessed players like Carl Hoffman. Loyola (playing on a bad ankle) give it his best while having to deal with his teams loss and taking responsibility of not coming through as well as he wanted to.

When I asked him about his ankle(only the team and his family knew how bad it was). He told me, “it was hard to move, but it wasn’t the reason I didn’t play well”. Carl Hoffman is a class act with heart.

I saw Riverside King go into to a game against Mater Dei, where the only people who thought they could win was they and their families and pull out a resounding 14 point win. Bringing their heart to the floor and once again proving that the game is played not in the paper or in the rankings, but on the court. I also witnessed Gary McKnight, coach of Mater Dei, acknowledge that the best player on the floor in his game was Riverside Kings’, Kawhi Leonard who finished with 11 points, 20 rebounds and six blocks to show that San Diego State just stole one.

The CIF playoffs also show that hearts are not measured by physical statue. Michael Williams from Taft and Miles Cartwright from Los Angeles Loyola proved that by each scoring 32 points for their teams in losing efforts.

I also watch for every player, no matter what time in the game, if it’s 12 seconds to play or 1 minute who truly soak in the opportunity to play in a CIF game and I reflect back on my high school and college years

Key games of the Day.

Key first day news:

Cal Supreme shows their dominance by beating SCA and Tarheels.

Hoop Masters upsets ICan playing balanced team basketball vs one on one ball by Ican

Eli Siverman Lloyd of Hoopmasters 12u was high scorer for his Age group scoring 28 in a losing effort against SBA rebels

First Day results

Jerome Green

The K.I.S.S (keep it Simple Stupid) principle has it’s place in the American culture and in his book “ Everyone Hates A Ball Hog, But They All Love A Scorer”, Coach Godwin breaks down the game of scoring into the simplest, most definable approach that I’ve ever read. The book is a one-hour read and is written in intelligent yet simple vocabulary. Like in the movie “Show Me The Money”, when Jerry’s girlfriend said “ Shut up, you had me at hello”. Coach Godwin had me on page three of his book when he said, “everyone knows what he or she wants to do in life; the problem is finding out how to do it.”

In the book Coach Godwin breaks down his approach to scoring with things like breaking the game down into quarters and halves and don’t think that scoring is all about how many jump shots you can make, but more so, were are your scoring opportunities, between offensive rebounds, steals, etc.

What I also like about the book is that is easily transferable to developing life-skills. In Chapter-15 (Using Basketball to Score in Life), Coach Godwin talks about key life skills that are needed to become a better player and person. His main points include the principles of Discipline, Communication, Responsibility, Teamwork, Hard Work, the Will to Succeed, Strategy, dealing with Adversity and Developing Friendships.

The entire book is filled with gems, some new, some revised and some borrowed, but if you want to read one book this year on how to become a better scorer this is the book. After reading this book, I felt that I might be able to play about 2 minutes on these worn down legs and score a point or two.

You can purchase the book on Amazon.com or on coach Godwin’s website

Loyola beats Harvard-Westlake 91-88
Jerome Green
January 31, 2009

Some of the best and most passionate basketball is not being played at the Staples Center, John Wooden Court or The Galen Center. The most electrifying heartfelt basketball in Southern California is being played in High School Gyms, filled to capacity with family, friends and Students. The best part is some of these games are free (at least until CIF playoff start). Last night I was at Harvard-Westlake to watch Harvard-Westlake play the Loyola Cubs. Loyola won 91-88 behind Jordan Gathers 27 points and took over first place in the Mission League.

This was a rematch rivalry game where the Loyola teams seemed ready to come out and establish themselves very early. Loyola jumped to a quick lead by a couple baskets by Carl Hoffman. It was very clear that Loyola’s player’s intentions were to approach this game differently than they did in their losing effort a few weeks ago. Coach Jamal moved Miles Cartwright back to point, a position that he made all league playing last year and Jordan Gathers to the two spot. While the game didn’t represent the best defensive effort on either side, it did hold up to being a true rivalry game and worth the drive over the hill on the 405 to see.

Loyola Opened an 14 point lead on balanced scoring from the 6-9, Hoffman, who had 19 points, Cartwright and 6-10 Tony Wroblicky who had 14 points apiece. Harvard-Westlake stormed back into the game with a combined defensive and offensive effort. Chris Barnum who is a defensive nuisance did a good job in containing Miles Cartwright and Michael Attanasio post entry passes were better than most I’ve seen this year on the high school level. Harvard-Westlake was led in scoring by Damien Cain, 6-7 sophomore, who scored 25 points, Erik Swoopes, 6-5 junior who scored 20 points and Junior Austin Kelly who had 20 points.

You can call it a redemption game where all the participants played for the pride of representing their school and playing with all their hearts

Jordan Finn

Excerpt from L.A .Times Article on Jordan Finn,

By
Eric Sondheimer:
Hoop Masters works hard at teaching man to man defense because we know that what Jordan Finn has found out by playing for coach Kleckner at Etiwanda High School.

There might not be a coach in the Southland who teaches better man-to-man defense than Kleckner. The coach hasn’t allowed his teams to play a single possession of zone defense since he took over the Etiwanda program 13 years ago, and his players understand what that means.

“If you can’t guard the ball, you won’t play,” Finn said. “Either you get yelled at or you’re taken out of the game.”

Added Kleckner: “I let the kids know there’s no exceptions and no excuses for not guarding the ball. I think it keeps the kids accountable.”

(read full article here)