Gators have an outside shot with Humphrey
March 27, 2007
The Kansas City Star, Mo.
ST. LOUIS | The netting in the basket at the east end of the Edward Jones Dome was no match for Florida's Lee Humphrey.
The twine absorbed the first two of Humphrey's long range swishes but not the third, and Sunday's NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional final was delayed for more than 10 minutes so workers could restring the net. It was replaced at halftime.
"I think it was a faulty net or something," said Humphrey, who made seven of 13 three-pointers in Florida s 85-77 victory over the Ducks that sent the defending champion Gators back to this weekend's Final Four.
"I didn't shoot it any different than I shoot the rest of my shots. Maybe the net was a little messed up before the shot."
On a team that features the powerful inside game of 6-foot-10 Al Horford, 6-11 Joakim Noah and 6-9 Corey Brewer, it's the outside threat of Humphrey and fellow guard Taurean Green that makes defenses pay for collapsing on the Gators' big men.
"When you see Lee make his first two threes, all I do every time he shoots is start running back with my arms up, because I feel like it's going in," Brewer said. "He's the best open shooter in the country."
Humphrey, like most three-point shooters, can be streaky.
"The mind-set is shoot it no matter what, if it's going in or not," said Humphrey, a 6-2 senior, who averages 10.1 points per game but scored 23 against Oregon. "You can tell when you're really feeling it. It's hard to describe. You feel good shooting the ball, and you think every shot is going in. Even if you're not shooting the ball well, you still have to take open shots because it spreads the defense out."
"If you've got good looks, you've got to keep taking them. You never know. You can miss five in a row, and come out and make the next four, and you're making a good percentage."
Humphrey parlayed that philosophy into shooting a Southeastern Conference-leading 103 three-pointers in 226 attempts for a league-best 46 percent. He has made a three-pointer in a school-record 37 straight games, and his 39 three-pointers in NCAA Tournament games are a school record. In addition, he became Florida's all-time leader in made three-pointers with 208, during the win over Oregon.
"I think it's a pretty cool accomplishment," Humphrey said. "There's been a lot of great players at Florida and to hold that record is pretty cool. I think it's cool for our team. It says a lot about the unselfishness of our guys."
Perhaps no one appreciates Humphrey's three-point prowess more than Florida coach Billy Donovan, who was one of college basketball's early three-point bombers for Providence's 1987 Final Four team.
"Lee is as good as any shooter I've been around," Donovan said. "And the thing about him is he can really keep his focus in the game and he can drift through a game and go through 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 minutes of play where teams do a good job. Then all of a sudden he gets freed up. And he really can make shots when maybe he doesn't have a rhythm.
"A lot of times when you're a shooter, you get frustrated when you don't get shots. Lee has never been like that. He has the best understanding I've been around of a young man who shoots the ball as well as he does, of letting it come to him."
As accurate a shooter as Humphrey is in the half-court offense, he's only been to the free-throw line 12 times in 37 games, making nine. He hasn't shot a free throw since Jan. 27, a span of 18 games.
"I may have the worst free throws-per-minute in the country," Humphrey joked.
While Humphrey's game doesn't lend itself to taking the ball to the basket and drawing contact, the Gators don't get the ball in his hands at the end of tight games when teams are fouling. He usually heads downcourt, and Green and Brewer handle the ball and go to the line.
What's up with that?
"In those end-of-the-game situations, there are things you can try to do to get the ball in somebody's hands," Donovan said. "If the defense is doing a good job taking those things away, you've got to do some other things. Taurean has been a real good free-throw shooter for us."
Perhaps Brewer put it best.
"He's shooting the nets off," Brewer said. "Would you foul him?"
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Gator basketball coach Donovan is praised
(CSTV U-WIRE) GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- It's been seven years since Memphis Grizzlies forward Mike Miller suited up in his No. 13 Gators jersey under Billy Donovan's guidance, but not much about the UF coach has changed.
Perhaps the reason for the Gators' unprecedented success during Donovan's 11-year tenure is the way he motivates his team.
"That's what makes him the best coach in college basketball," Miller said.
It's Donovan's constant brainstorming that has led him to use homemade gimmicks to inspire his players.
It's his brainstorming that made him dress up as a cop before UF's game at Auburn to demonstrate the Gators' play to break up opponents' parties on the road.
It's his brainstorming that has led him to bring in famous names like three-time Super Bowl championship coach Bill Belichick to speak to the team.
"People talk a lot about the word motivation, and I think that sometimes when people think about the word motivation, they think it's a rah-rah speech everyday," Donovan said. "There are different ways of motivating different people."
In Miller's sophomore year, his last at UF before turning pro, Donovan required the players to wear white sweatbands around their wrists or ankles during the NCAA Tournament.
Donovan had the players write the name of a loved one on each of their bands to remind them that they were playing for a cause, for someone other than themselves.
Miller wrote "family." Udonis Haslem wrote "Big Bro" for Sam Wooten, his half brother who had passed away after a battle with cancer.
The Gators made it all the way to the national championship game that year.
During the past four years, Donovan has made sure there's never been a shortage of motivation, and he's used inspirational figures as a way to create the desired effect.
During this season's juniors' careers, the speaker they said they were most drawn toward was Belichick.
"I don't know too much about the NFL," forward Joakim Noah said. "I mean, I didn't even know the rules 'til I got here. I didn't really know him that well before he came to speak to us, but I started following a little once he came to speak to us because I really respected what he had to say."
The New England Patriots coach spoke to the team last season after the Gators won the Southeastern Conference Tournament and delivered a very different message from the praise the team had been receiving.
"He told us that if we play to that level, we're going to go home," Noah said. "(He said) you have to elevate your game. Elevate your team play. Elevate your sacrifice. I thought that was interesting that, even though we won a championship and everyone is congratulating us, he's really keeping it real with us.
"I just think that's cool that a guy like that shows his support and comes in to talk to college guys."
Belichick returned before the 2007 SEC Tournament, this time with another message and a different medium to explain it.
The coach played a video of the 1973 horse race in which Secretariat, who became the first Triple Crown winner in a quarter of a century, ran away with the competition.
Although the race occurred before any of the players were born, the story still resonated with the team.
"The only reason why I knew about Secretariat was because I used to watch all the 'SportsCenturies' on ESPN Classic," guard Lee Humphrey said. "I thought that was one of the coolest stories -- just how dominant he was."
Since that day, the Gators adopted a philosophy that has become the focal point for the rest of the season.
"He was just saying just never look back," Noah said. "That's going to be our motto: Just never looking back. Just looking forward. Being the best you can be."
While the team enjoyed everyone who came to speak to them, some of the players connected strongly with certain figures.
For senior Chris Richard, it was former Detroit Pistons guard Isiah Thomas -- the Pistons all-time leader in points, assists, steals and games played -- who visited the team in 2003.
"He was basically telling us the same things that coach told us," Richard said. "Just go out every night, play it like it's your last and try to stay focused and stay humble."
For forward Al Horford, it was 2006 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. Horford's a Cardinals fan and admires his fellow Dominican, first baseman Albert Pujols.
The players said they've never been star struck when someone enters the locker room, but the closest they've ever been was in October 2006 when former Los Angeles Lakers guard Jerry West walked through the door.
"We were surprised," Taurean Green said. "It's an honor when you have the guy who's the NBA logo come and talk to you."
West -- the man responsible for swishing a 60-foot buzzer beater that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks -- spoke about winning and the mindset players need before games.
"It was weird -- he's the greatest shooter ever, Mr. Clutch," junior Corey Brewer said.
Donovan has also brought in speakers who weren't athletes, and they have been just as effective, if not more so.
In 2004, when Donovan felt the Gators were tired and weren't pushing themselves, he brought in a Navy SEAL to speak about Hell Week so the players would put their exhaustion in perspective.
"I respected him more than any of the other people (Donovan) brought in, because he's been through a lot of things," Richard said. "A lot of people will never see some of the things he's seen."
Donovan summoned Dr. Harry Edwards, a noted sports sociologist and consultant to the NFL's San Francisco 49ers.
Edwards used an analogy of pushing a boulder up a mountain to compare the task to repeating a national championship.
He told the team in the beginning of the season they would have to start from the bottom of the mountain again, and this time they would need to take a different path.
"I don't think it made sense until we lost a couple of games and then all of a sudden we're like, 'He's right. You can't push it back up the same way,'" Brewer said. "It wasn't that we weren't pushing it together, it was just that we were trying to do it the same way as last year."
And then there's Donovan -- the master motivator himself. The one who enters the locker room before every game and fires up the team when no one else can.
"That's more right there on the moment, get pumped up, get energy going," Humphrey said. "Those (speakers) are more talking about focus and preparation and what goes into preparing for the game. I don't think it necessarily gets you amped up the way it does when Coach comes out five minutes before a game."
When Richard was in high school, he wasn't sure Donovan's reputation as a master motivator was accurate.
After all, how much could one man do to continually instill fire in his players' guts again and again?
After Richard listened to former high school teammate and UF walk-on Chris Capko, he changed his mind.
"He said Coach might have been one of the best speakers he'd ever seen," Richard said. "(He said) he knew he wasn't going to play in any of the games, but before every game, Coach had him fired up and ready to go like he was one of the starters. Once I heard that, I believed it."
When Donovan can't find the words to inspire his players, he resorts to another method -- visual stimulation.
They watched footage of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson duke it out in the boxing ring before this season's home opener against Samford.
They watched cinema's favorite underdog, Rocky Balboa, train to "Eye of the Tiger" in "Rocky III" last season.
They watched "When We Were Kings" -- a documentary about 1974's Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and then-champion George Foreman -- the night before defeating Kentucky in the 2005 SEC Tournament championship game.
Donovan has never worried that his tactics will fail to move the players, and the coach will continue to search for revolutionary methods to spark the Gators to life.
"You have to take some risks," Donovan said. "You've got to challenge guys."
Copyright 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved
Men's basketball: Ohio State's Matta faces team he rounded into top-tier shape
Web Posted: 03/16/2007 10:09 PM CDT
Tim Griffin
Express-News
LEXINGTON, Ky. Xavier fans haven't forgotten. Many of the Musketeers faithful who watched Ohio State play Central Connecticut State before their team's game Thursday roundly booed Ohio State coach Thad Matta.
Long before the "Thad Five" made Matta a household name in college basketball, Matta led Xavier into uncharted territory.
So much for that association during today's South Regional second-round game. Matta even heard catcalls Thursday night when he took a seat in press row midway through the Xavier game for some advance scouting of his old team.
"Somebody told me our crowd booed him and the word I would say for that is disappointing," said Xavier coach Sean Miller, who worked as an assistant on Matta's staff. "If you are truly a Xavier fan, you should be able to distinguish that our game and our school's history goes beyond any one coach."
Matta and Miller shared a small office when both worked as Miami-Ohio assistants under Herb Sendek. After Miller accepted a job on Matta's Xavier staff, his family lived with the Mattas for a month until they were able to arrange housing in the Cincinnati area.
They remain close, frequently talking on the telephone during the course of the season.
"Sean's one of the best friends I have in life," Matta said. "I want him to go as far as he can. As a coach, people think you're not a human being. I root for Xavier. But I don't think this will be a big issue. I'm like a weird guy in that regard. I don't hone in so much on the name across the chest."
But it's not as if Xavier's fans won't be up for a rare shot at the No. 1 Buckeyes even with their old coach directing the Ohio State program. The schools are located only about 100 miles apart, but have played only three times. Their most recent meeting came in Xavier's overtime victory in the 1984 National Invitation Tournament.
Xavier guard Drew Lavender, a transfer from Oklahoma, grew up in Columbus and was recruited by the Buckeyes. He played on the same Brookhaven High team with Ohio State guard Ron Lewis and was a member of three-on-three teams with him since he was in third grade.
Matta left for Ohio State in 2004 after leading the Musketeers to the Elite Eight. A three-point loss to Duke kept Xavier from the Final Four. It was the school's best tournament finish.
Today's second-round game and a possible trip to the Alamodome materialized for the scrappy Musketeers only after they overcame an eight-point second-half deficit to beat BYU in the first round.
The Musketeers will be challenged to keep the talented Buckeyes and 7-foot freshman sensation Greg Oden in check. Oden had 19 points and 10 rebounds in Ohio State's 78-57 first-round victory over Central Connecticut State.
"We're going to have to play the perfect game to beat Ohio State," Miller said. "I'm their biggest fan. Unfortunately, that'll end for a couple of days. But we're looking forward to the challenge of playing them."
wgriffin@express-news.net
Portions @ 2007 KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News.
All rights reserved.
Cowboys move on to try Aggies again
March 9, 2007
Fort Worth Star Telegram
Oklahoma State, limping into the Big 12 tournament but believing a four-day run to the promised land rests in its talented if underachieving hands, promised renewed vigor to start the journey.
Knowing no team has won four in a row in this tournament, the Cowboys brought the intensity Thursday in spurts, but long enough to wrench Nebraska's woeful offense.
Three nights after the Huskers walloped OSU in Lincoln and inspired a come-to-Jesus meeting from coach Sean Sutton, the Cowboys rode tough defense to a 54-39 victory in front of a pro-OSU crowd at the Ford Center.
"We kind of had a chip on our shoulder," junior forward Marcus Dove said. "We wanted to show the fans that we still knew how to play Oklahoma State basketball, and I think that's what we did."
The win lacked style points after the first five frantic minutes when OSU (21-11) forced multiple turnovers and seized control with a 15-1 start.
The Cowboys played intensely throughout, prodded by Sutton and his permanent scowl that reminded of his father. But long offensive lapses might have left doubt with the orange-and-white faithful that the Cowboys can hang in tonight's quarterfinal against rested No. 2 seed Texas A&M (25-5).
Sutton thinks they can.
"I really liked the energy and the effort that our guys played with," Sutton said. "If they will play that way the rest of the way, then I think we have a good chance to win this tournament."
The Aggies blew out OSU twice this season, including by 20 points in Stillwater. This time the Cowboys will have freshman guard Obi Muonelo available. He returned from a long injury layoff Monday and gives OSU better depth, athleticism and playmaking ability.
"The first two times we weren't playing defense that good and our offense wasn't clicking," said Mario Boggan, whose 11 points led the Cowboys although he missed a chunk of the second half with foul trouble. "I feel like this time we are going to go out there and just play harder."
Nebraska (17-14), which scored 85 points Monday, shot only 27.7 percent in this one. The Huskers will wait and see if the 32-team NIT comes calling to cap Doc Sadler's first year as their coach.
The Huskers, confounded early by OSU's full-court pressure, finished with 24 turnovers and went 4-of-20 on 3-pointers.
"I wanted them to embrace the challenge of this game," Sutton said of his team, "and play defense like our program has been know for."
IN THE KNOW Breakdown Why Oklahoma State won: The Cowboys came out with full-court pressure and, despite some offensive lapses, revealed revitalized emotion, as they said they would.
Why Nebraska lost: It took 9:41 for the Huskers to make their first field goal.
Notable Nebraska's 39 points tied a season low. The Huskers lost 92-39 at Kansas on Feb. 17.
Nebraska outrebounded OSU 38-28, including 17 offensive rebounds, but managed only nine second-chance points.
Up next: Okla. St. vs. Texas A&M, 6 tonight, KTXA/21
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N. Dakota St. 104
March 2, 2007
FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Josh Vaughan came of the bench to score 18 points, all on 3-pointers, as North Dakota State rolled over New Jersey Tech 104-52 on Thursday.
Vaughan doubled his season output for 3-pointers as the Bison (19-8) moved within one win of their first 20-win season. Vaughan made six of eight 3-point attempts.
It was the first time since December 2003 that North Dakota State went over 100 points in a game.
Brett Winkelman led the Bison with 20 points. He also had six rebounds and four assists.
Andre Smith had 19 points and eight rebounds and Ben Woodside chipped in 17 points and seven assists for the Bison.
NDSU shot 63 percent from the field in the first half to take a 49-32 lead at halftime.
New Jersey Tech shot just 19 percent in the second half and scored only 20 points as the Bison pulled away. It made one of 11 3-point attempts.
Kraig Peters and Courcy Magnus scored 11 points apiece to lead New Jersey Tech.
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