Blackstonian Sports

Athletic Business Newswire - Controversial TD Celebration Video: Was Right Call Made?

2011-12-14T12:43:00.000-08:00

Athletic Business Newswire - Controversial TD Celebration Video: Was Right Call Made?

Racist N Word Chant Gets High School Basketball Team Suspended

2011-12-14T12:10:00.001-08:00

By Melanie Jones

At least 11 high school girls from the Kenmore East varsity basketball team have been suspended and face other sanctions after sophomore Tyra Batts revealed that her teammates had a tradition of using the N word as their regular pre-locker room chant.

Batts, the only black member on the team, had tried to stop the girls from using the racial slur before blowing the whistle to Kenmore East officials, but members of the New York school varsity team continue to say the chant was a "joke."

'It's just a word, not a label.'

Tyra Batts, 16, broke the story of Kenmore East's racially volatile "tradition" in a tape she sent to Buffalo News. "The whole team before our game would have a ritual of saying 1-2-3 and then the N word," said Batts, who is the only African American on an otherwise all-white girls carsity team. "N-I-G-G-E-R, no slang, no nothing. It's a tradition that's been going on for years."

Batts, a sophomore at Kenmore East, was shocked when she first heard the chant, which usually following a group prayer. When she first heard the chant at the team's opening game against Sweet Home High last week, she tried to get her teammates to stop.

"I said, 'You're not allowed to say that word, because I don't like that word," she told Buffalo News.
But her teammates brushed her off.

"They said, 'You know we're not racist, Tyra," she recalls. "It's just a word, not a label."

When she tried to confront the girls again, Batts claims she was verbally attacked with another racial slur. The fight got physical, and Batts was suspended for five days for fighting. She felt angry, frustrated and very alone.

"I was outlabel-- I was outnumbered," Tyra Batts concluded.

'Unacceptable, Insensitive and Not Representative'

When school officials didn't do enough to investigate why the fight took place, Batt's parents contacted a local radio station, and Tyra Batts decided to share her story with the national news.

In response, Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Superintendent Mark P. Mondanaro launched a belated review of the fight that led to Batt's suspension, and was shocked to discover the years-long tradition of N word chanting as a pregame ritual. Claiming total ignorance of the tradition, Mondanaro said school administrators began investigating the minute they learned of it.

The results, as Mondanaro said in a conference, were astonishing. "The insensitive chant is absolutely unacceptable, insensitive and not representative of the diverse student body," he told Batts in an official apology on behalf of his district.

Coach Bondgren Under Scrutiny

The issue, however, is far from resolved.

Once the story broke, the hihg school girls involved in the chants received two-day suspensions and a one game suspension for the season, as well as having practice canceled for a week. School officials and some teammates apologized to Batts and her family.

But beyond some as-yet-undetermined sanctions for several members of Batt's team, that is the extent of that the student were punished, and Batts feels that one person, in particular, is escaping blame altogether: the girls' varsity coach, Kristy Bondgren.

Although Batts can't be sure that Bondgren heard the girls' pre-game chants, in which the N word was frequently and loudly used, she does find it hard to believe that her coach missed some of the other racial slurs that were thrown her way.

According to Batts, racial jokes about slavery, shackles and picking cotton were all commonplace, and some teammates made comments about Batt's skin color. According to the Kenmore East sophomore, Bondgren did nothing to stop them.

Just a 'Joke'?

In the aftermath of Tyra Batts' revelations, some students have tweeted their embarrassment about the incident and their sympathy for Batts. "My school is racist..." one Twitter user wrote, while another tweeted, "soooo ashamed to go to kenmore east."

Racial tension at the school, however, has visibily increased, according to Time reporters. And in an interview with a local radio station, one of Batt's teammates may have made things worse by painting the N word chant as a joke.

Amber Schurter, who is biracial, told WKBW-TV that the racially charged cheer wasn't racist at all, and that the chant, while sounding "a little weird" to people outside the school, wasn't a big deal in the locker room.
A spokesman for the Kenmore School District, who said the chant began last year when a black and white student said it to one another as a "joke," begged to differ.

"This is no laughing matter," he said. "It is not a joke. It is serious."

Below, watch Tyra Batts "blow the whistle" on the N word chant:

NY high school girls basketball team suspended for using racial slur

2011-12-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

Cathedral questions Super controversy

2011-12-05T07:33:00.001-08:00

By Dan Ventura

Cathedral quarterback Matt Owens sprinted past two Blue Hills defenders and was on his way to the end zone and a potential go-ahead score.

With less than 20 yards away from paydirt and nothing but open space in front of him, Owens clenched his left hand and raised it to the sky.

Unfortunately, that one act, seemingly harmless in the eyes of many in attendance at yesterday’s Division 4A Super Bowl at Bentley University, ran afoul of the new MIAA rule directed at sportsmanship.

Owens was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and the ball was spotted back to the 24. An interception one play later ended Cathedral’s final scoring threat in an eventual 16-14 loss, ending the most successful football season in school history.

After the game, Cathedral coach Duane Sigsbury was quoted in the Sunday Boston Herald as saying, “If you are going to take a game away from a kid being excited because he just made the play of his life shame on you.”

Reached last evening, Sigsbury politely declined comment on advice of school officials. Cathedral athletic director Jimmy Lynch tried to be as diplomatic as possible, but admitted the on-field ruling was a concern to him.

“It’s an unfortunate way to end a great game with two great teams,” Lynch said. “I’ve spoken with people in our school and we’d like to get a further clarification of the rule from the MIAA.”

Joe Cacciatore, the assigner for officials in the Catholic Conference and Greater Boston League sympathized with Cathedral, but was quick to defend his comrades in their handling of the situation.

“It’s tough, but the official absolutely made the right call according to the letter of the law,” Cacciatore said. “It says it right there in the rules that any attempt to draw attention to yourself, whether it is pointing the finger, raising a fist or anything like that, is a penalty.

“We’ve been instructed to call it when it happens, it’s zero tolerance now. I served as a liaison for the two semifinal games at Andover Tuesday night, and that was one of the first thing we talked about with the coaches and captains.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/football/view.bg?articleid=1386049

Tabor's Coronel commits to Maine

2011-10-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

By Pete Warner, BDN Staff

Dimitry Coronel of Tabor Academy and Barry Webster of Lee Academy have both given verbal commitments to accept basketball scholarships from the University of Maine.

The verbals were reported on the NewEnglandRecruitingReport.com website.

UMaine head coach Ted Woodward is prohibited by NCAA rules from commenting on a recruit until the school has received his signed National Letter of Intent. The early signing period begins Nov. 9.

Coronel is a 6-foot-4 swing player from Boston who played his first three years at East Boston High School before transferring to Tabor Academy, in Marion, Mass., a year ago. There, he earned All-New England Preparatory School Athletic Council Class A second-team recognition for coach Chris Millette.

Coronel, who played last summer for the Metro Boston AAU team, reportedly has the ability to shoot from 3-point range but also is an accomplished one-on-one player who can take the ball to the basket.
NERR said Coronel made his decision after visiting the Orono campus last weekend and watching the Black Bears go through practices.

Webster is a 6-10 post player from England who will further diversify UMaine’s international flavor.
Webster attended Burleigh Community College in Leicestershire, England, prior to coming to the U.S. to attend Lee Academy.

“Barry barely played basketball before he joined, and his improvement has been meteoric,” Phil Gleadell, Burleigh’s head of physical education, said last spring in a school newsletter about U.S.-bound athletes.
Webster is a native of Coalville, Leiscestershire, England, and spoke about his opportunity in the same Burleigh CC publication.

“I travelled to the U.S. last summer (2010) with a team organized by Guildford Heat coach Creon Raftopoulos to play in an AAU tournament in Florida, and it was a great experience,” Webster said. “Now going there full time is a dream come true.”

The participation of Coronel and Webster at UMaine is contingent upon their acceptance by the university and compliance with NCAA initial-eligibility guidelines.

FULL STORY: bangordailynews.com/2011/10/18/sports/colonel-webster-commit-to-umaine-men%E2%80%99s-basketball-program/

Everett takes down BC High

2011-10-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

Everett 35, BC High 21

Eagles sunk by own mistakes, turnovers

EVERETT -When Everett quarterback Jonathan DiBiaso was dragged down in the backfield by BC High’s Luke Catarius on third-and-9 late in the third quarter, it was all but guaranteed the Eagles would get the ball back in decent field position with a chance to tie the game heading into the fourth quarter.

But as Gilly DeSouza got the kick away for Everett, the flags hit the ground. The roughing the kicker call gave the ball back to the Crimson Tide with a first down.

After a holding call on first down gave Everett a first-and-20 at its 44, Jalen McRae hauled in a 64-yard touchdown pass from DiBiaso (15-of-29 passing, 246 yards, one interception) to put the Crimson Tide ahead by the final score, 35-21.

“There was a few plays, not just that [roughing the kicker],’’ BC High coach Jon Bartlett said. “There was a few plays that we hurt ourselves . . . there was a number of times that we shot ourselves in the foot.’’

For the most part, the Eagles (4-3) managed to shut down the Everett offense in the fourth quarter. The Crimson Tide managed only one first down in the two possessions after recovering a Gordon McLeod fumble on a punt return. But a fumble recovery by DeSouza late in the quarter and an unsportsmanlike conduct on the Eagles’ last possession helped Everett hold on.

“Yeah they held us in check, they covered well,’’ said Everett coach John DiBiaso. “They were all over our receivers But we still put 35 up.’’

In an attempt to keep the ball away from Eagles running back Preston Cooper, the Crimson Tide (7-0) opened with a short, high kick that caught BC High by surprise and was recovered by Everett’s Jalen Felix. Five plays later Vondell Langston (19 carries, 86 yards) scored on a 12-yard touchdown run.

“We weren’t really trying to recover it, we just weren’t going to kick it to Cooper,’’ coach DiBiaso said. “It worked out to our benefit because they dropped back and let it hit the ground.’’

The Eagles pulled even with a 72-yard touchdown pass from Bartley Regan (7-of-16 passing, 176 yards, two touchdowns) to Lincoln Collins, but the Crimson Tied came back with a seven-play, 74-yard drive. Langston punched it in from three yards out to give Everett the lead for good.

Everett extended its lead off of BC High turnovers. In the second quarter, pressure forced Bartley Regan out of the pocket and he tossed up a running pass that was intercepted by Felix, leading to a 2-yard DiBiaso touchdown run. On the next Eagles drive, Regan was intercepted by DeSouza, who returned it 58 yards to the Eagles’ 7. DiBiaso again ran in from 5 yards out to put Everett up, 28-7.

Everett opens up its Greater Boston League schedule Friday against Medford.

“It feels great to beat what I consider a great team,’’ coach DiBiaso said. “I’m very proud of the kids, how they responded, but in all honesty it is a glorified scrimmage because if we come out and we lose a GBL game we don’t go to the playoffs, no matter whether we beat BC High, Xaverian, St. John’s Prep, nobody cares if we don’t go to the playoffs So you can’t have a hiccup the rest of the way.’’

FULL STORY: boston.com/sports/schools/football/articles/2011/10/23/everett_takes_down_bc_high/

White carries Cards to nice City victory

2011-10-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

Photo by Stuart Cahill

Story by Justin Barrasso | bostonherald.com

Isaiabrier White and Madison Park sent a message to Brighton with a convincing 36-14 victory yesterday in a crossover Boston City League contest at White Stadium.

“Just find holes and run through them,” said a humble White.

Like many of his teammates, White hardly ever sat as he played both offense and defense. He scored the first two touchdowns of the game to open up a 14-0 lead, and then put the game away in the third quarter with a 45-yard TD run that bruised and battered Bengals linemen.

“You try to play 100 percent on both sides of the ball, but it just happens that I played better on offense,” said White.

His play was exactly what Madison Park (4-1) needed to provide some distance from an explosive opponent in Brighton (3-3).

“He’s elusive,” said Madison Park coach Roosevelt Robinson. “You go one way and he goes the other.”
Cardinals quarterback Jamal Leary also threw for two touchdowns, connecting with receivers Dalvin Green and David Stewart. The 35-yard TD toss to Green gave MP a 22-0 lead with 4:43 left in the first half.
“It’s his first year playing quarterback,” said Roosevelt. “He’s taken his role very seriously and is throwing very well.”

Leary is becoming more comfortable in the pocket.

“I’ve been a receiver all my life . . . but you just have to keep your composure and play with the best of your ability,” said Leary.

Coming off a bye week, Madison Park put together a plan to try to contain Brighton senior quarterback Jonathan Marrero, who threw for a touchdown and also had an 85-yard TD reception from sophomore Jalen Apperwhite.

“We try to really get the guys to understand the formations and how they’re supposed to attack on defense,” said Roosevelt, “and we attack every formation.”

With a critical matchup at South Boston next week, this was a game Madison Park needed to assert itself with its physical style of play.

“The pass was tough for us today on the spread because you’re thinned out, but we overcame it,” said Roosevelt.

“We’ve got to work on a few things, but we came out pretty well.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/football/view.bg?articleid=1375098

Eastie to honor Jermaine Wiggins and John Sousa

2011-10-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

Danny Ventura - Boston Herald

East Boston will retirey numbers of Jermaine Wiggins (18) and John Sousa (66) when the team hosts Boston English on Nov. 4. Headmaster Mike Rubin told the Herald logistics haven’t been worked out as to whether the ceremony will take place before the game or at halftime.

Wiggins was a two-time Boston City League All-Star (1992-93), before embarking on a collegiate career at Marshall and Georgia. He spent eight teams in the NFL as a member of the Jets, Patriots, Colts, Panthers, Vikings and Jaguars, earning a Super Bowl ring with the Patriots for the 2001 season.

Sousa starred at East Boston in the mid-1960s, captaining the 1968 squad. He spent 17 years as an assistant at Boston English before accepting the coaching job at his alma mater in 1995. The winningest coach in school history, Sousa spent 15 years on the Jets’ sidelines, winning 119 games and a Super Bowl title in 2004.

FULL STORY: bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/high_school/index.php/2011/10/23/eastie-to-honor-jermaine-wiggins-and-john-sousa/

Rondo raring to go

2011-10-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Celtics guard has kept busy

By Gary Washburn - Globe Staff

While the NBA has been in a lockout, Rajon Rondo has accomplished a lot. He rehabilitated his dislocated left elbow to full strength. He spent the past few months touring the country in marketing opportunities. And he continued his education at the University of Kentucky.

Yesterday, the Celtics point guard made an appearance at a Boston bookstore to sign magazine covers featuring his photo.

Rondo will soon become the face of the Celtics franchise - the youngest All-Star on a roster full of seasoned veterans - and he is ready to get started on perhaps one final championship run with the current roster.

“I hope there’s a season,’’ he said. “I’m looking forward to it and everyone around the league is, even the fans.

“It’s just an extended vacation as far as trying to continue to train and get better. It’s more time for me to work on my game, and that’s how I try to face it in the next couple of weeks or months or whatever we have.

“Right now my focus is to play with the Celtics.’’

The Celtics are half a team right now. Whenever the lockout ends, they will begin camp with seven signed players and two rookies. Obviously, team president Danny Ainge will have to bolster the roster. After last May’s playoff drubbing at the hands of the Miami Heat, Rondo is eager to see a retooled roster.

“It will be different makeup, a lot of different guys,’’ said Rondo, who said he is not considering signing overseas. “So a lot of new faces around the city, but we’ll try to get them accustomed to how we do things here in Boston and go for a championship.’’

Rondo made highlight reels with an acrobatic alley-oop pass to Denver rookie Kenneth Faried in a Kentucky all-star game last week, after making his first organized basketball appearance last weekend at the South Florida All-Star Classic. In that one, he was promptly booed by the Heat faithful at Florida International University in Miami.

“I had a fun time at the game, a lot of guys playing together,’’ he said. “It’s good competition. That’s what you look for in this type of time of the year.

“The elbow is fine. I have been playing in a lot of games and it hasn’t given me any problems yet.’’

Rondo has worked out feverishly at the University of Kentucky, and though he is not in true basketball shape because of a lack of a training camp, he is prepared for more extensive workouts when the lockout concludes.

Many of Rondo’s teammates are still smarting from the elimination by Miami, a series marred by Rondo’s freakish dislocated left elbow in Game 3. Remarkably, Rondo returned to that game and played in the final two of the series.

“I don’t try to say woulda, coulda - they beat us, 4-1, as simple as that,’’ he said. “I think it was all adrenaline to come back in the game where I hurt my elbow. The next game it wore off and I had to sit down a little bit.’’

Despite the recovery and lockout, Rondo said he has enjoyed his respite.

“This has been the best summer of my life, really,’’ he said. “Lockout or not, I’m still going to enjoy my life and do what I do best.’’

FULL STORY: http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2011/10/16/rajon_rondo_eager_to_get_celtics_back_together/

Brianna Forde named new girls hoop coach at New Mission

2011-10-18T13:46:00.001-07:00

New Mission reached into the annals of Boston City League lore in hiring Brianna Forde to take over the girls basketball program. She succeeds Greg Berry, who will move over to become assistant boys basketball coach to Cory McCarthy.
Forde was one of the more decorated girls basketball players in city history. A four-year starter for John Rice, the 5-foot-9 guard averaged a double-double in leading the Bulldogs to four Boston City League championships and the Division 3 state title in 1999.
Forde went on to play for Barbara Stevens at Bentley. Upon graduation, she became UMass-Boston’s assistant woman’s basketball coach and Health Education and Wellness Specialist at UMass Boston. From 2000 to 2006, she served as a physical instructor for the Boston Celtics athletic camp, recruiting participants, designing sport related workshops and workout stations, managed the camp inventory, refereed and coached co-ed college bound athletes.

Chip off the old block

2011-10-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

Danny Ventura - Boston Herald High School Insider

All American Games, Football University and Eastbay announced that eighth-grader Coby Tippett from Sharon Middle School has been selected to play at the 2012 Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl, taking place January 8, 2012, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

The son of former New England Patriot and NFL Hall of Famer Andre Tippett, Coby will play defensive back for the 8th-grade East 185-pounDanny Ventura - d weight limit team and will be honored with a jersey presentation during the homecoming football game at Sharon High School this Saturday at 1:40 p.m.

Coby is very athletic and has natural play-making ability. Tippett, a multi-sport athlete, is extremely fluid in pass coverage, and has great hips for a young athlete. His performance at FBU Boston had him walk away with youth MVP honors.” said Erik Richards National Eastbay Bowl Director

This January will be the fourth annual Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl. Pitting the nation’s top youth football players against one another in an all-star format, the Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl brings together the top youth talent in the nation. Tippett is one of just a handful who will be able to compete in this exclusive showcase.

The Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl consists of the U-15 USA-Canada Youth Bowl and three East vs. West all-star games, one for the top 40 7th graders with a 175-pound limit, one for the top 40 8th graders with a 185-pound limit and a third game featuring the top 40 8th graders with no weight limit.

Since its inception, many of the top players in the Bowl have received college interest and national attention from media outlets such as USA Today, Sports Illustrated and the New York Times. The Bowl week consists of practices, a skills competition, and break-out sessions with Hall of Famers, as well as current and former NFL stars and celebrities. The Youth All-Americans also get VIP access to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and were honored during the game, which takes place the day before.

Several thousand youth all-stars were nominated for this elite honor. Athletes had to fill out a nomination form and submit a highlight tape. The selection committee, which consists of Football University’s regional directors and scouts, work year round with hundreds of local youth football coaches and commissioners who help identify top athletes.

For more information on the Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl and its related events, visit: www.footballuniversity.org or www.eastbay.com/eastbayyouthallamericanbowl. National sponsors of the Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl include Eastbay, adidas, Battle Sports Science – Tapout, Gatorade, Schutt Sports and Youth Football Coaches Association (YFBCA).

FULL STORY: http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/high_school/index.php/2011/10/13/chip-off-the-old-block-2/

Cathedral: High praise

2011-10-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

Sigsbury has ’em undefeated

By Dan Ventura / Sweet 16 | Monday, October 3, 2011

Duane Sigsbury earned Super Bowl rings as an offensive coordinator at both Woburn and Reading.
But when the opportunity to be head coach at Cathedral arose, Sigsbury packed his bags and traded in the Middlesex League for the Catholic Central Small.

The move has been a marriage made in heaven so far, as Cathedral has ripped off four straight wins to open the season. The closest call came Saturday night when upstart Pope John (Hyannis) gave the Panthers all they could handle before succumbing, 18-16, at Moakley Field.

“I’m having a blast with this,” Sigsbury said. “I’ve always wanted a chance to be the head man and I’m teaching at Cathedral, so when they opened the position, I went for it and got it.”

Sigsbury brought his beloved spread offense with him. Fortunately, he has a quarterback (Matt Owens) and a powerful running back (Geeavontie Griffith) to make things easier. What he didn’t bank on was Carlos Bermudez, a speedy 5-foot-6 guard from the basketball team, deciding to make a comeback to the gridiron after a two-year sabbatical.

“As soon as I got the job, he came up to me and said he wanted to play,” Sigsbury said. “He’s not the biggest kid, but pound for pound, he’s as tough as they come.”

Griffith is another player who doesn’t lack for grit. Despite a 102-degree fever last Saturday, Griffith battled his way to 240 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“I tell everyone who asks about them that they are every bit as good as the kids I coached in the Middlesex League,” Sigsbury said. “I’m not going to say they’re as good as (former Woburn great) Mike McLaughlin, but I would put them up there with the Tommy Harts, the Tino Perrinas and the Ryan Pollocks.”

While the offense has generated the early season headlines, Sigsbury went out of his way to laud the play of his defense. Linebackers Sage Philippe and Rajdel Francois are the keys to his 4-4 defense, along with Derek Welcome.

“The whole thing has been a great experience,” Sigsbury said. “We have a bunch of kids who work very hard every single day and they want to get better. It’s nice to see them work like that and see the rewards.”

A loss to all

Saddened to learn recently of the passing of Al DiTullio. According to various reports from friends and local media, DiTullio, 48, suffered complications from gall bladder surgery.

A longtime fixture on the local high school scene, DiTullio spent nearly 25 years as a broadcaster and sideline reporter in Watertown and Everett.

“I’ve known Al for 30 years going back to my days at St. Patrick’s,” said Everett coach John DiBiaso. “He was a good guy who really cared about the high school kids. It’s just very sad.”

Sweet 16
1. EVERETT (4-0): The race is on for the all-time state TD passing record and Jonathan DiBiaso intends to be a part of it.
2. DUXBURY (4-0): Handled its biggest league challenge without too much difficulty.
3. XAVERIAN (4-0): Wonder if Austin DeCarr throws a football harder than he throws a baseball?
4. BC HIGH (2-2): The good news is the rest of the competition is in-state.
5. CHELMSFORD (3-1): Someone had to pay for the disappointing effort against BC High a week earlier.
6. LINCOLN-SUDBURY (4-0): Showing some diversity on offense these days.
7. BRIDGEWATER-RAYNHAM (3-1): Pushed a bit by New Bedford.
8. CATHOLIC MEMORIAL (2-1): Now that’s what people expected to see.
9. CONCORD-CARLISLE (4-0): The DCL crossover game with Lincoln-Sudbury in November is gonna be fun.
10. DENNIS-YARMOUTH (4-0): Dolphins showed they could run the ball if needed last week.
11. MANSFIELD (3-1): A bounce or two either way and the Hornets could very well be 0-4 right now.
12. NEEDHAM (3-1): It didn’t take long for a certain bandwagon specialist to shoot off an email after the upset win over Weymouth.
13. ANDOVER (3-1): Nice bounce back after the Tewksbury loss.
14. WEYMOUTH (3-1): Wildcats now find themselves in a position of scoreboard watching after the loss to Needham.
15. WALPOLE (4-0): Didn’t want to hear Pete Wall yelling at me if we didn’t have the Rebels in here.
16. NORTH ANDOVER (3-1): Brandon Walsh can throw it and he can run with it.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/football/view.bg?articleid=1370517

On a roll for Blue Hills

2011-10-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

Burton felling foes, records

Blue Hills running back Vincent Burton is looking beyond school rushing records to another Super Bowl appearance. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

By Lorenzo Recupero

Globe Correspondent

While many eyes in the high school football world are focusing on players such as Everett’s Jonathan DiBiaso, as he chases Tom Colombo’s coveted state passing touchdowns record, or BC High’s Preston Cooper, as he leads the charge for a resurgent Eagles team, other spectators have their sights on a Division 4A team and its prolific, young runner, Vincent Burton.

Burton, the Globe’s Division 4 Player of the Year last season, ran for 1,549 yards a year ago for Blue Hills, scoring 30 touchdowns and 202 points, for first place in the division by far (runner-up Laquane Bradham of West Roxbury had 12 touchdowns and 88 points).

His strong play last season willed his team to its first Super Bowl appearance since 1984. That was the year running back Richard Sass scored a school-record 32 touchdowns to go along with 1,842 yards. Sass reached that mark as a finely tuned senior; Burton missed that mark by two touchdowns as a sophomore. In fact, Burton became the youngest player in school history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. Not even Richard Fahey, who holds the school’s all-time season rushing record with 2,032 yards in 1975, hit the 1,000-yard mark at such a young age.

Blue Hills coach Ed Catabia, who has coached the Warriors since 1980 and watched Sass set the record in 1984, sees striking similarities between the running backs.

“Sass was one of the toughest runners I’ve ever coached at Blue Hills. He was the type to run you over and lay you out if you were in front of him - no matter what,’’ said Catabia, who believes a hard-nosed approach is also Burton’s strength.

“Burton and [Sass] are the same exact runners. [Burton] never complains about getting hit, who’s hitting him, or how hard he has to go through the line, and that’s his strength when running the ball. “He is big and powerful and will flat out knock you down if you are in his way.’’

Burton’s toughness is more ingrained than something he has learned.

“I never get scared [running the ball],’’ he said. “One thing about me when I run is I never try to evade you. If you’re going to hit me, I’m going to hit you back. I never just stand up and let someone hit me. I just hit them first.’’

This season he has already accumulated 531 yards (5.3 per carry) and 11 touchdowns in just three games for the 3-0 Warriors.

Burton’s surge has attracted quite a following.

His former Randolph-Holbrook Pop Warner coach Bob Sass, the brother of current record holder Richard, has been to Blue Hills’s early games and expects this will be the season his brother’s long-standing record is broken.

“It feels really good to have a former player doing so well at this level,’’ said Bob Sass. “If it were going to be anyone to break my brother’s record, who is dear to me, I’d want for it to be a kid as good as Burton.

“At this rate he’s going to score 100 touchdowns for his career. The entire Sass family is rooting for him.’’ Sass also coached last year’s EMass-leading scorer Blaise Branch of Cardinal Spellman the same year he had Burton.

Burton’s teammates - most notably the offensive line - have gotten much praise as they pave the way for their featured back.

“[Vincent’s running] makes me feel like a bigger man,’’ said right tackle Nick Catromboni, who has played with Burton since their Pop Warner days. “It puts me in the spotlight too. He’s a great runner and I’m so happy to be blocking for him.’’

Burton, after Blue Hills’s first three wins, including yesterday’s 40-0 victory over North Shore, believes his team is on the right track.

“We’re good now, but just keep getting better and better every week it seems. If we keep playing like this, maybe we will have another Super Bowl appearance,’’ he said.

The only question now is not whether Burton can lead his team to another Super Bowl berth, or if he can break Richard Sass’s record, but whether he can finally boost the Warriors toward what the other legends, Fahey and Sass couldn’t achieve - a Super Bowl championship.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/football/articles/2011/09/25/on_a_roll_for_blue_hills/

Dragons coast into first place

2011-10-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Fleet-footed Latin Academy quarterback Kyle Dance easily runs past a pair of Dorchester defenders for a touchdown. (Winslow Townson/For The Globe)

By Lorenzo Recupero

Globe Correspondent

Latin Academy is officially in first place.

Its 34-16 triumph over Dorchester at White Stadium yesterday in the Boston South League opener put the Dragons atop the league for the first time in seven years, according to coach Rocco Zizza.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been in first place in October,’’ said Zizza, whose team missed out on the postseason with a 5-5 record in 2010.

“We’re a lot more physical this year and it’s going a long way for us.’’

The victory extended Latin Academy’s win streak to three games, and earned the Dragons (3-1) their third consecutive Mason Cup, given to the winner of the game between the Dorchester rivals since 2008. The Cup is named in honor of Hall of Fame coach Joseph Mason, who coached at Dorchester for 37 years.

The Dragons’ offense had its best game of the season, taking the pressure off the defense, which had given up only 6 points since a season-opening 27-6 setback at Millis. The defense did contribute a goal-line stand to preserve a 20-8 halftime lead.

Sophomore quarterback Kyle Dance put up his best numbers of the year, having a hand in three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) and running for 155 yards on 10 carries.

“We are still a power team rushing the ball, but we now have a QB who can run the ball, and that really opens up our offensive playbook and today it really showed,’’ said Zizza.

Dance showed off his passing touch, completing all seven of his attempts for 91 yards, including a game-sealing 67-yard strike to sophomore Devaughn Riley in the fourth quarter.

“[Dance] runs hard and is very athletic. Every time he carries the ball, it’s for positive yards,’’ said Zizza. “He can really make it happen when he scrambles.’’

Earnest Kellough, the team’s leading rusher, had 175 yards on 13 carries and two TDs.

Senior Elijah Smith threw a touchdown pass to Kadeem Collins at the start of the second quarter to give Dorchester (1-2) an 8-7 lead. Dorchester’s other score came when Smith ran it in from 3 yards out with 34 seconds left in the game.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/football/articles/2011/10/01/kyle_dance_leads_latin_academy_into_first_place/

More financial help for NCAA athletes on the way

2011-09-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY

The NCAA appears poised to deliver next month on declarations that college athletics should get more of its multi-billions in revenue to its athletes.

A committee weighing a number of potential changes is expected to recommend that the value of individual scholarships be raised by as much as $2,000 in the top-tier Division I, moving them closer to covering the athletes' full cost of attending school. Full grants currently cover only room, board, books and tuition.

The NCAA's Division I board of directors would act on the proposal when it meets Oct. 26 and 27 in Indianapolis.

There is "widespread support" within the committee weighing the measure, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said during a presentation to major-college ADs earlier this week in Grapevine, Texas. Swarbrick sits on the panel, which also appears likely to ask for a move from single-year to multi-year scholarships.

Sentiment in the past year has grown for finding ways to put more money into the hands of athletes, particularly in the wake of lucrative new television agreements struck by the NCAA in basketball, the Bowl Championship Series in football and a number of major conferences. Analysis by USA TODAY found that, in 2009-10, median college costs at public universities exceeded an athlete's scholarship coverage by about $4,000. The range at individual schools varied from $177 to more than $9,600.

The gap entails such incidental costs of attendance as travel and laundry.

Scholarship increases would vary by school, and Swarbrick's committee is proposing a cap: the lesser of an institution's uncovered costs or $2,000. The move, if approved next month, wouldn't be mandatory but subject to adoption by conference. Amounts for athletes on partial scholarships would be prorated.

"The philosophy that makes this make sense to us," Swarbrick said, "is that, really, because of the demands we place on student-athletes, their opportunity to generate any other revenue for themselves in a way that other students do is simply not there. And we ought to recognize that and make up for it."

Multi-year scholarships also are seen as an athlete-welfare issue, and Swarbrick said his committee favors that proposal even though it might not bring athletes the security many expect.

"The process for nonrenewal of an annual grant probably would look just like the process for terminating a four-year grant," he told ADs. "… But we did think the statement that would be made about our commitment to student-athletes was worth doing and made this a change worth pursuing."

The moves are part of a series of sweeping changes the NCAA anticipates enacting in the next year.

The Division I board also figures to endorse toughened eligibility requirements for incoming freshman athletes during its October meetings, raising the bottom-line grade-point requirement from 2.0 to 2.5 in core high school classes - English, math, science and social studies. Additionally, NCAA President Mark Emmert said it could require year-to-year progress toward high school graduation, averting the specter of athletes piling up credits as seniors or the summer after their senior year.

"We've seen far too many summer miracles occur where students are taking 16 hours of high school course work in three months and getting straight As," Emmert said.

Planned reforms in rules enforcement - most notably devoting more attention and resources to major violations and backing off such pickier and harder-to-enforce regulations as phone call and texting limits - are likely to take until next summer, he said.

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/story/2011-09-28/ncaa-cost-of-attendance/50594680/1?csp=34sports&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomCollegeSports-TopStories+%28Sports+-+College+-+Top+Stories%29

Coaches primed on concussions

2011-09-28T10:16:00.001-07:00

By Ira Kantor | Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Dozens of Boston Public Schools coaches received advanced concussion training at Northeastern University yesterday, designed to help reduce the risk of head trauma-related injuries in student athletes and prevent longer-term effects such as degenerative brain disease.

“The problem is a concussion isn’t thought of as a brain injury. It is a brain injury, and there is a spectrum of severity with concussion, and some of them can be very severe,” said Dr. Robert Cantu of the Sports Legacy Institute, which hosted the training session with the Boston Scholar Athlete Program. “Symptoms last a very long time, and people in some cases (don’t) even ever get over the symptoms.”

The schools canceled and cut short practices yesterday to let coaches attend the event. Yesterday’s training included how to recognize and respond to a concussion, and the appropriate amount of time a concussion sufferer should take before returning to play or the classroom.

“Everyone will be better off with this education, and will be safer, but it will seem like this is everywhere because we haven’t been recognizing it,” said Christopher Nowinski of the Sports Legacy Institute and Boston University School of Medicine’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. “A concussion is a very serious injury, and there’s a lot that we need to do to make kids safer. It starts with getting them off the field for the day, getting them to a medical professional, but it goes beyond that as well.”

Cory McCarthy, a varsity basketball coach at New Mission High School, said he believes the training will help him help the kids.

“This is serious business. You’re dealing with kids here who don’t have the judgment or who don’t have the ability to diagnose themselves,” McCarthy said. “They barely say when their knees are injured, and we have a culture where, especially in football, (Dallas Cowboys quarterback) Tony Romo gets hurt and comes back in the game – he has a collapsed lung and broken ribs. He comes back in the game, what is that saying to our kids?”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1369118

A place for Boston City League fans to watch their favorite teams in action

2011-09-23T10:25:00.001-07:00

By Danny Ventura (Boston Herald)

Boston City TV and the Boston Neighborhood Network partner up to produce Mayor Menino’s Game of the Week. The crew covers one Boston public school football game each week and then air it over the weekend and early the following week. Last week’s game was Boston English and Brighton at historic White Stadium.

Air times in the Boston area are as follows:
a) Ch. 24 (Comcast) and Ch. 13 (RCN): Sunday at noon and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
b) Boston Neighborhood Network: Ch. 23 (Comcast) and Ch. 83 (RCN): Monday at 9:30 p.m.

Games are not streamed live, but can be viewed online after they’re completed at: www.cityofboston.gov/gameoftheweek

Friday, September 23: Boston English vs. Latin Academy (WS), 6:30
Thursday, September 29: Wayland vs. Boston Latin (WS), 6:30
Friday, October 7: West Roxbury at East Boston, 6
Friday, October 14: Charlestown vs. Dorchester (WS), 3:30
Friday, October 21: South Boston vs. Burke (WS), 6:30
Friday, October 28: Latin Academy vs. West Roxbury (WS0, 6:30
Friday, November 4: Boston English vs. East Boston, 6
Thursday, November 10: O’Bryant vs. Latin Academy (WS), 6:30
Friday, November 18: West Roxbury vs. Brighton (WS), 3:30
Tuesday, November 29: MIAA playoff game
Saturday, December 3: *MIAA Super Bowl game

* - Pending a Super Bowl birth by a BPS Football Team
Note: Game dates/times are subject to change due to weather and team schedule changes.

The Huddle: Week 2

2011-09-20T13:45:00.001-07:00

The Shame of College Sports

2011-09-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

A litany of scandals in recent years have made the corruption of college sports constant front-page news. We profess outrage each time we learn that yet another student-athlete has been taking money under the table. But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves. Here, a leading civil-rights historian makes the case for paying college athletes—and reveals how a spate of lawsuits working their way through the courts could destroy the NCAA.

By Taylor Branch

Image credit: Evan Kafka

“I’m not hiding,” Sonny Vaccaro told a closed hearing at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., in 2001. “We want to put our materials on the bodies of your athletes, and the best way to do that is buy your school. Or buy your coach.”

Vaccaro’s audience, the members of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, bristled. These were eminent reformers—among them the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, two former heads of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and several university presidents and chancellors. The Knight Foundation, a nonprofit that takes an interest in college athletics as part of its concern with civic life, had tasked them with saving college sports from runaway commercialism as embodied by the likes of Vaccaro, who, since signing his pioneering shoe contract with Michael Jordan in 1984, had built sponsorship empires successively at Nike, Adidas, and Reebok. Not all the members could hide their scorn for the “sneaker pimp” of schoolyard hustle, who boasted of writing checks for millions to everybody in higher education.

“Why,” asked Bryce Jordan, the president emeritus of Penn State, “should a university be an advertising medium for your industry?”

Vaccaro did not blink. “They shouldn’t, sir,” he replied. “You sold your souls, and you’re going to continue selling them. You can be very moral and righteous in asking me that question, sir,” Vaccaro added with irrepressible good cheer, “but there’s not one of you in this room that’s going to turn down any of our money. You’re going to take it. I can only offer it.”

William Friday, a former president of North Carolina’s university system, still winces at the memory. “Boy, the silence that fell in that room,” he recalled recently. “I never will forget it.” Friday, who founded and co-chaired two of the three Knight Foundation sports initiatives over the past 20 years, called Vaccaro “the worst of all” the witnesses ever to come before the panel.

But what Vaccaro said in 2001 was true then, and it’s true now: corporations offer money so they can profit from the glory of college athletes, and the universities grab it. In 2010, despite the faltering economy, a single college athletic league, the football-crazed Southeastern Conference (SEC), became the first to crack the billion-dollar barrier in athletic receipts. The Big Ten pursued closely at $905 million. That money comes from a combination of ticket sales, concession sales, merchandise, licensing fees, and other sources—but the great bulk of it comes from television contracts.

Video: Taylor Branch describes how his research for this piece woke him up to the NCAA’s injustice (part 1 of 3)

Educators are in thrall to their athletic departments because of these television riches and because they respect the political furies that can burst from a locker room. “There’s fear,” Friday told me when I visited him on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill last fall. As we spoke, two giant construction cranes towered nearby over the university’s Kenan Stadium, working on the latest $77 million renovation. (The University of Michigan spent almost four times that much to expand its Big House.) Friday insisted that for the networks, paying huge sums to universities was a bargain. “We do every little thing for them,” he said. “We furnish the theater, the actors, the lights, the music, and the audience for a drama measured neatly in time slots. They bring the camera and turn it on.” Friday, a weathered idealist at 91, laments the control universities have ceded in pursuit of this money. If television wants to broadcast football from here on a Thursday night, he said, “we shut down the university at 3 o’clock to accommodate the crowds.” He longed for a campus identity more centered in an academic mission.

The United States is the only country in the world that hosts big-time sports at institutions of higher learning. This should not, in and of itself, be controversial. College athletics are rooted in the classical ideal of Mens sana in corpore sano—a sound mind in a sound body—and who would argue with that? College sports are deeply inscribed in the culture of our nation. Half a million young men and women play competitive intercollegiate sports each year. Millions of spectators flock into football stadiums each Saturday in the fall, and tens of millions more watch on television. The March Madness basketball tournament each spring has become a major national event, with upwards of 80 million watching it on television and talking about the games around the office water cooler. ESPN has spawned ESPNU, a channel dedicated to college sports, and Fox Sports and other cable outlets are developing channels exclusively to cover sports from specific regions or divisions.

With so many people paying for tickets and watching on television, college sports has become Very Big Business. According to various reports, the football teams at Texas, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State—to name just a few big-revenue football schools—each earn between $40 million and $80 million in profits a year, even after paying coaches multimillion-dollar salaries. When you combine so much money with such high, almost tribal, stakes—football boosters are famously rabid in their zeal to have their alma mater win—corruption is likely to follow.

Scandal after scandal has rocked college sports. In 2010, the NCAA sanctioned the University of Southern California after determining that star running back Reggie Bush and his family had received “improper benefits” while he played for the Trojans. (Among other charges, Bush and members of his family were alleged to have received free airfare and limousine rides, a car, and a rent-free home in San Diego, from sports agents who wanted Bush as a client.) The Bowl Championship Series stripped USC of its 2004 national title, and Bush returned the Heisman Trophy he had won in 2005. Last fall, as Auburn University football stormed its way to an undefeated season and a national championship, the team’s star quarterback, Cam Newton, was dogged by allegations that his father had used a recruiter to solicit up to $180,000 from Mississippi State in exchange for his son’s matriculation there after junior college in 2010. Jim Tressel, the highly successful head football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, resigned last spring after the NCAA alleged he had feigned ignorance of rules violations by players on his team. At least 28 players over the course of the previous nine seasons, according to Sports Illustrated, had traded autographs, jerseys, and other team memorabilia in exchange for tattoos or cash at a tattoo parlor in Columbus, in violation of NCAA rules. Late this summer, Yahoo Sports reported that the NCAA was investigating allegations that a University of Miami booster had given millions of dollars in illicit cash and services to more than 70 Hurricanes football players over eight years.

The list of scandals goes on. With each revelation, there is much wringing of hands. Critics scold schools for breaking faith with their educational mission, and for failing to enforce the sanctity of “amateurism.” Sportswriters denounce the NCAA for both tyranny and impotence in its quest to “clean up” college sports. Observers on all sides express jumbled emotions about youth and innocence, venting against professional mores or greedy amateurs.

For all the outrage, the real scandal is not that students are getting illegally paid or recruited, it’s that two of the noble principles on which the NCAA justifies its existence—“amateurism” and the “student-athlete”—are cynical hoaxes, legalistic confections propagated by the universities so they can exploit the skills and fame of young athletes. The tragedy at the heart of college sports is not that some college athletes are getting paid, but that more of them are not.

Video: Taylor Branch uses a religious analogy to explain what’s wrong with college athletics (part 2 of 3)

Don Curtis, a UNC trustee, told me that impoverished football players cannot afford movie tickets or bus fare home. Curtis is a rarity among those in higher education today, in that he dares to violate the signal taboo: “I think we should pay these guys something.”

Fans and educators alike recoil from this proposal as though from original sin. Amateurism is the whole point, they say. Paid athletes would destroy the integrity and appeal of college sports. Many former college athletes object that money would have spoiled the sanctity of the bond they enjoyed with their teammates. I, too, once shuddered instinctively at the notion of paid college athletes.

But after an inquiry that took me into locker rooms and ivory towers across the country, I have come to believe that sentiment blinds us to what’s before our eyes. Big-time college sports are fully commercialized. Billions of dollars flow through them each year. The NCAA makes money, and enables universities and corporations to make money, from the unpaid labor of young athletes.

Slavery analogies should be used carefully. College athletes are not slaves. Yet to survey the scene—corporations and universities enriching themselves on the backs of uncompensated young men, whose status as “student-athletes” deprives them of the right to due process guaranteed by the Constitution—is to catch an unmistakable whiff of the plantation. Perhaps a more apt metaphor is colonialism: college sports, as overseen by the NCAA, is a system imposed by well-meaning paternalists and rationalized with hoary sentiments about caring for the well-being of the colonized. But it is, nonetheless, unjust. The NCAA, in its zealous defense of bogus principles, sometimes destroys the dreams of innocent young athletes.

The NCAA today is in many ways a classic cartel. Efforts to reform it—most notably by the three Knight Commissions over the course of 20 years—have, while making changes around the edges, been largely fruitless. The time has come for a major overhaul. And whether the powers that be like it or not, big changes are coming. Threats loom on multiple fronts: in Congress, the courts, breakaway athletic conferences, student rebellion, and public disgust. Swaddled in gauzy clichés, the NCAA presides over a vast, teetering glory.

Founding Myths

From the start, amateurism in college sports has been honored more often in principle than in fact; the NCAA was built of a mixture of noble and venal impulses. In the late 19th century, intellectuals believed that the sporting arena simulated an impending age of Darwinian struggle. Because the United States did not hold a global empire like England’s, leaders warned of national softness once railroads conquered the last continental frontier. As though heeding this warning, ingenious students turned variations on rugby into a toughening agent. Today a plaque in New Brunswick, New Jersey, commemorates the first college game, on November 6, 1869, when Rutgers beat Princeton 6–4.

Walter Camp graduated from Yale in 1880 so intoxicated by the sport that he devoted his life to it without pay, becoming “the father of American football.” He persuaded other schools to reduce the chaos on the field by trimming each side from 15 players to 11, and it was his idea to paint measuring lines on the field. He conceived functional designations for players, coining terms such as quarterback. His game remained violent by design. Crawlers could push the ball forward beneath piles of flying elbows without pause until they cried “Down!” in submission.

In an 1892 game against its archrival, Yale, the Harvard football team was the first to deploy a “flying wedge,” based on Napoleon’s surprise concentrations of military force. In an editorial calling for the abolition of the play, The New York Times described it as “half a ton of bone and muscle coming into collision with a man weighing 160 or 170 pounds,” noting that surgeons often had to be called onto the field. Three years later, the continuing mayhem prompted the Harvard faculty to take the first of two votes to abolish football. Charles Eliot, the university’s president, brought up other concerns. “Deaths and injuries are not the strongest argument against football,” declared Eliot. “That cheating and brutality are profitable is the main evil.” Still, Harvard football persisted. In 1903, fervent alumni built Harvard Stadium with zero college funds. The team’s first paid head coach, Bill Reid, started in 1905 at nearly twice the average salary for a full professor.

A newspaper story from that year, illustrated with the Grim Reaper laughing on a goalpost, counted 25 college players killed during football season. A fairy-tale version of the founding of the NCAA holds that President Theodore Roosevelt, upset by a photograph of a bloodied Swarthmore College player, vowed to civilize or destroy football. The real story is that Roosevelt maneuvered shrewdly to preserve the sport—and give a boost to his beloved Harvard. After McClure’s magazine published a story on corrupt teams with phantom students, a muckraker exposed Walter Camp’s $100,000 slush fund at Yale. In response to mounting outrage, Roosevelt summoned leaders from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale to the White House, where Camp parried mounting criticism and conceded nothing irresponsible in the college football rules he’d established. At Roosevelt’s behest, the three schools issued a public statement that college sports must reform to survive, and representatives from 68 colleges founded a new organization that would soon be called the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A Haverford College official was confirmed as secretary but then promptly resigned in favor of Bill Reid, the new Harvard coach, who instituted new rules that benefited Harvard’s playing style at the expense of Yale’s. At a stroke, Roosevelt saved football and dethroned Yale.

For nearly 50 years, the NCAA, with no real authority and no staff to speak of, enshrined amateur ideals that it was helpless to enforce. (Not until 1939 did it gain the power even to mandate helmets.) In 1929, the Carnegie Foundation made headlines with a report, “American College Athletics,” which concluded that the scramble for players had “reached the proportions of nationwide commerce.” Of the 112 schools surveyed, 81 flouted NCAA recommendations with inducements to students ranging from open payrolls and disguised booster funds to no-show jobs at movie studios. Fans ignored the uproar, and two-thirds of the colleges mentioned told The New York Times that they planned no changes. In 1939, freshman players at the University of Pittsburgh went on strike because they were getting paid less than their upperclassman teammates.

Embarrassed, the NCAA in 1948 enacted a “Sanity Code,” which was supposed to prohibit all concealed and indirect benefits for college athletes; any money for athletes was to be limited to transparent scholarships awarded solely on financial need. Schools that violated this code would be expelled from NCAA membership and thus exiled from competitive sports.

This bold effort flopped. Colleges balked at imposing such a drastic penalty on each other, and the Sanity Code was repealed within a few years. The University of Virginia went so far as to call a press conference to say that if its athletes were ever accused of being paid, they should be forgiven, because their studies at Thomas Jefferson’s university were so rigorous.

The Big Bluff

In 1951, the NCAA seized upon a serendipitous set of events to gain control of intercollegiate sports. First, the organization hired a young college dropout named Walter Byers as executive director. A journalist who was not yet 30 years old, he was an appropriately inauspicious choice for the vaguely defined new post. He wore cowboy boots and a toupee. He shunned personal contact, obsessed over details, and proved himself a bureaucratic master of pervasive, anonymous intimidation. Although discharged from the Army during World War II for defective vision, Byers was able to see an opportunity in two contemporaneous scandals. In one, the tiny College of William and Mary, aspiring to challenge football powers Oklahoma and Ohio State, was found to be counterfeiting grades to keep conspicuously pampered players eligible. In the other, a basketball point-shaving conspiracy (in which gamblers paid players to perform poorly) had spread from five New York colleges to the University of Kentucky, the reigning national champion, generating tabloid “perp” photos of gangsters and handcuffed basketball players. The scandals posed a crisis of credibility for collegiate athletics, and nothing in the NCAA’s feeble record would have led anyone to expect real reform.
But Byers managed to impanel a small infractions board to set penalties without waiting for a full convention of NCAA schools, which would have been inclined toward forgiveness. Then he lobbied a University of Kentucky dean—A. D. Kirwan, a former football coach and future university president—not to contest the NCAA’s dubious legal position (the association had no actual authority to penalize the university), pleading that college sports must do something to restore public support. His gambit succeeded when Kirwan reluctantly accepted a landmark precedent: the Kentucky basketball team would be suspended for the entire 1952–53 season. Its legendary coach, Adolph Rupp, fumed for a year in limbo.

The Kentucky case created an aura of centralized command for an NCAA office that barely existed. At the same time, a colossal misperception gave Byers leverage to mine gold. Amazingly in retrospect, most colleges and marketing experts considered the advent of television a dire threat to sports. Studies found that broadcasts reduced live attendance, and therefore gate receipts, because some customers preferred to watch at home for free. Nobody could yet imagine the revenue bonanza that television represented. With clunky new TV sets proliferating, the 1951 NCAA convention voted 161–7 to outlaw televised games except for a specific few licensed by the NCAA staff.

All but two schools quickly complied. The University of Pennsylvania and Notre Dame protested the order to break contracts for home-game television broadcasts, claiming the right to make their own decisions. Byers objected that such exceptions would invite disaster. The conflict escalated. Byers brandished penalties for games televised without approval. Penn contemplated seeking antitrust protection through the courts. Byers issued a contamination notice, informing any opponent scheduled to play Penn that it would be punished for showing up to compete. In effect, Byers mobilized the college world to isolate the two holdouts in what one sportswriter later called “the Big Bluff.”

Byers won. Penn folded in part because its president, the perennial White House contender Harold Stassen, wanted to mend relations with fellow schools in the emerging Ivy League, which would be formalized in 1954. When Notre Dame also surrendered, Byers conducted exclusive negotiations with the new television networks on behalf of every college team. Joe Rauh Jr., a prominent civil-rights attorney, helped him devise a rationing system to permit only 11 broadcasts a year—the fabled Game of the Week. Byers and Rauh selected a few teams for television exposure, excluding the rest. On June 6, 1952, NBC signed a one-year deal to pay the NCAA $1.14 million for a carefully restricted football package. Byers routed all contractual proceeds through his office. He floated the idea that, to fund an NCAA infrastructure, his organization should take a 60 percent cut; he accepted 12 percent that season. (For later contracts, as the size of television revenues grew exponentially, he backed down to 5 percent.) Proceeds from the first NBC contract were enough to rent an NCAA headquarters, in Kansas City.

Only one year into his job, Byers had secured enough power and money to regulate all of college sports. Over the next decade, the NCAA’s power grew along with television revenues. Through the efforts of Byers’s deputy and chief lobbyist, Chuck Neinas, the NCAA won an important concession in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, in which Congress made its granting of a precious antitrust exemption to the National Football League contingent upon the blackout of professional football on Saturdays. Deftly, without even mentioning the NCAA, a rider on the bill carved each weekend into protected broadcast markets: Saturday for college, Sunday for the NFL. The NFL got its antitrust exemption. Byers, having negotiated the NCAA’s television package up to $3.1 million per football season—which was higher than the NFL’s figure in those early years—had made the NCAA into a spectacularly profitable cartel.

“We Eat What We Kill”

The NCAA’s control of college sports still rested on a fragile base, however: the consent of the colleges and universities it governed. For a time, the vast sums of television money delivered to these institutions through Byers’s deals made them willing to submit. But the big football powers grumbled about the portion of the television revenue diverted to nearly a thousand NCAA member schools that lacked major athletic programs. They chafed against cost-cutting measures—such as restrictions on team size—designed to help smaller schools. “I don’t want Hofstra telling Texas how to play football,” Darrell Royal, the Longhorns coach, griped. By the 1970s and ’80s, as college football games delivered bonanza ratings—and advertising revenue—to the networks, some of the big football schools began to wonder: Why do we need to have our television coverage brokered through the NCAA? Couldn’t we get a bigger cut of that TV money by dealing directly with the networks?

Byers faced a rude internal revolt. The NCAA’s strongest legions, its big football schools, defected en masse. Calling the NCAA a price-fixing cartel that siphoned every television dollar through its coffers, in 1981 a rogue consortium of 61 major football schools threatened to sign an independent contract with NBC for $180 million over four years.

With a huge chunk of the NCAA’s treasury walking out the door, Byers threatened sanctions, as he had against Penn and Notre Dame three decades earlier. But this time the universities of Georgia and Oklahoma responded with an antitrust suit. “It is virtually impossible to overstate the degree of our resentment … of the NCAA,” said William Banowsky, the president of the University of Oklahoma. In the landmark 1984 NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the NCAA’s latest football contracts with television—and any future ones—as an illegal restraint of trade that harmed colleges and viewers. Overnight, the NCAA’s control of the television market for football vanished. Upholding Banowsky’s challenge to the NCAA’s authority, the Regents decision freed the football schools to sell any and all games the markets would bear. Coaches and administrators no longer had to share the revenue generated by their athletes with smaller schools outside the football consortium. “We eat what we kill,” one official at the University of Texas bragged.

A few years earlier, this blow might have financially crippled the NCAA—but a rising tide of money from basketball concealed the structural damage of the Regents decision. During the 1980s, income from the March Madness college basketball tournament, paid directly by the television networks to the NCAA, grew tenfold. The windfall covered—and then far exceeded—what the organization had lost from football.
Still, Byers never forgave his former deputy Chuck Neinas for leading the rebel consortium. He knew that Neinas had seen from the inside how tenuous the NCAA’s control really was, and how diligently Byers had worked to prop up its Oz-like façade. During Byers’s tenure, the rule book for Division I athletes grew to 427 pages of scholastic detail. His NCAA personnel manual banned conversations around water coolers, and coffee cups on desks, while specifying exactly when drapes must be drawn at the NCAA’s 27,000-square-foot headquarters near Kansas City (built in 1973 from the proceeds of a 1 percent surtax on football contracts). It was as though, having lost control where it mattered, Byers pedantically exerted more control where it didn’t.

After retiring in 1987, Byers let slip his suppressed fury that the ingrate football conferences, having robbed the NCAA of television revenue, still expected it to enforce amateurism rules and police every leak of funds to college players. A lethal greed was “gnawing at the innards of college athletics,” he wrote in his memoir. When Byers renounced the NCAA’s pretense of amateurism, his former colleagues would stare blankly, as though he had gone senile or, as he wrote, “desecrated my sacred vows.” But Byers was better positioned than anyone else to argue that college football’s claim to amateurism was unfounded. Years later, as we will see, lawyers would seize upon his words to do battle with the NCAA.

Meanwhile, reformers fretted that commercialism was hurting college sports, and that higher education’s historical balance between academics and athletics had been distorted by all the money sloshing around. News stories revealed that schools went to extraordinary measures to keep academically incompetent athletes eligible for competition, and would vie for the most-sought-after high-school players by proffering under-the-table payments. In 1991, the first Knight Commission report, “Keeping Faith With the Student Athlete,” was published; the commission’s “bedrock conviction” was that university presidents must seize control of the NCAA from athletic directors in order to restore the preeminence of academic values over athletic or commercial ones. In response, college presidents did take over the NCAA’s governance. But by 2001, when the second Knight Commission report (“A Call to Action: Reconnecting College Sports and Higher Education”) was issued, a new generation of reformers was admitting that problems of corruption and commercialism had “grown rather than diminished” since the first report. Meanwhile the NCAA itself, revenues rising, had moved into a $50 million, 116,000-square-foot headquarters in Indianapolis. By 2010, as the size of NCAA headquarters increased yet again with a 130,000-square-foot expansion, a third Knight Commission was groping blindly for a hold on independent college-athletic conferences that were behaving more like sovereign pro leagues than confederations of universities. And still more money continued to flow into NCAA coffers. With the basketball tournament’s 2011 television deal, annual March Madness broadcast revenues had skyrocketed 50-fold in less than 30 years.

The Myth of the “Student-Athlete”

Today, much of the NCAA’s moral authority—indeed much of the justification for its existence—is vested in its claim to protect what it calls the “student-athlete.” The term is meant to conjure the nobility of amateurism, and the precedence of scholarship over athletic endeavor. But the origins of the “student-athlete” lie not in a disinterested ideal but in a sophistic formulation designed, as the sports economist Andrew Zimbalist has written, to help the NCAA in its “fight against workmen’s compensation insurance claims for injured football players.”

“We crafted the term student-athlete,” Walter Byers himself wrote, “and soon it was embedded in all NCAA rules and interpretations.” The term came into play in the 1950s, when the widow of Ray Dennison, who had died from a head injury received while playing football in Colorado for the Fort Lewis A&M Aggies, filed for workmen’s-compensation death benefits. Did his football scholarship make the fatal collision a “work-related” accident? Was he a school employee, like his peers who worked part-time as teaching assistants and bookstore cashiers? Or was he a fluke victim of extracurricular pursuits? Given the hundreds of incapacitating injuries to college athletes each year, the answers to these questions had enormous consequences. The Colorado Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the school’s contention that he was not eligible for benefits, since the college was “not in the football business.”

The term student-athlete was deliberately ambiguous. College players were not students at play (which might understate their athletic obligations), nor were they just athletes in college (which might imply they were professionals). That they were high-performance athletes meant they could be forgiven for not meeting the academic standards of their peers; that they were students meant they did not have to be compensated, ever, for anything more than the cost of their studies. Student-athlete became the NCAA’s signature term, repeated constantly in and out of courtrooms.

Using the “student-athlete” defense, colleges have compiled a string of victories in liability cases. On the afternoon of October 26, 1974, the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs were playing the Alabama Crimson Tide in Birmingham, Alabama. Kent Waldrep, a TCU running back, carried the ball on a “Red Right 28” sweep toward the Crimson Tide’s sideline, where he was met by a swarm of tacklers. When Waldrep regained consciousness, Bear Bryant, the storied Crimson Tide coach, was standing over his hospital bed. “It was like talking to God, if you’re a young football player,” Waldrep recalled.

Waldrep was paralyzed: he had lost all movement and feeling below his neck. After nine months of paying his medical bills, Texas Christian refused to pay any more, so the Waldrep family coped for years on dwindling charity.

Through the 1990s, from his wheelchair, Waldrep pressed a lawsuit for workers’ compensation. (He also, through heroic rehabilitation efforts, recovered feeling in his arms, and eventually learned to drive a specially rigged van. “I can brush my teeth,” he told me last year, “but I still need help to bathe and dress.”) His attorneys haggled with TCU and the state worker-compensation fund over what constituted employment. Clearly, TCU had provided football players with equipment for the job, as a typical employer would—but did the university pay wages, withhold income taxes on his financial aid, or control work conditions and performance? The appeals court finally rejected Waldrep’s claim in June of 2000, ruling that he was not an employee because he had not paid taxes on financial aid that he could have kept even if he quit football. (Waldrep told me school officials “said they recruited me as a student, not an athlete,” which he says was absurd.)

The long saga vindicated the power of the NCAA’s “student-athlete” formulation as a shield, and the organization continues to invoke it as both a legalistic defense and a noble ideal. Indeed, such is the term’s rhetorical power that it is increasingly used as a sort of reflexive mantra against charges of rabid hypocrisy.
Last Thanksgiving weekend, with both the FBI and the NCAA investigating whether Cam Newton had been lured onto his team with illegal payments, Newton’s Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide came together for their annual game, known as the Iron Bowl, before 101,821 fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium. This game is always a highlight of the football season because of the historic rivalry between the two schools, and the 2010 edition had enormous significance, pitting the defending national champion Crimson Tide against the undefeated Tigers, who were aiming for their first championship since 1957. I expected excited fans; what I encountered was the throbbing heart of college sports. As I drove before daybreak toward the stadium, a sleepless caller babbled over WJOX, the local fan radio station, that he “couldn’t stop thinking about the coin toss.” In the parking lot, ticketless fans were puzzled that anyone need ask why they had tailgated for days just to watch their satellite-fed flat screens within earshot of the roar. All that morning, pilgrims packed the Bear Bryant museum, where displays elaborated the misery of Alabama’s 4–24 run before the glorious Bryant era dawned in 1958.

Finally, as Auburn took the field for warm-ups, one of Alabama’s public-address-system operators played “Take the Money and Run” (an act for which he would be fired). A sea of signs reading $CAM taunted Newton. The game, perhaps the most exciting of the season, was unbearably tense, with Auburn coming from way behind to win 28–27, all but assuring that it would go on to play for the national championship. Days later, Auburn suspended Newton after the NCAA found that a rules violation had occurred: his father was alleged to have marketed his son in a pay-for-play scheme; a day after that, the NCAA reinstated Newton’s eligibility because investigators had not found evidence that Newton or Auburn officials had known of his father’s actions. This left Newton conveniently eligible for the Southeastern Conference championship game and for the postseason BCS championship bowl. For the NCAA, prudence meant honoring public demand.

“Our championships,” NCAA President Mark Emmert has declared, “are one of the primary tools we have to enhance the student-athlete experience.”

“Whoremasters”

NCAA v. Regents left the NCAA devoid of television football revenue and almost wholly dependent on March Madness basketball. It is rich but insecure. Last year, CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting paid $771 million to the NCAA for television rights to the 2011 men’s basketball tournament alone. That’s three-quarters of a billion dollars built on the backs of amateurs—on unpaid labor. The whole edifice depends on the players’ willingness to perform what is effectively volunteer work. The athletes, and the league officials, are acutely aware of this extraordinary arrangement. William Friday, the former North Carolina president, recalls being yanked from one Knight Commission meeting and sworn to secrecy about what might happen if a certain team made the NCAA championship basketball game. “They were going to dress and go out on the floor,” Friday told me, “but refuse to play,” in a wildcat student strike. Skeptics doubted such a diabolical plot. These were college kids—unlikely to second-guess their coaches, let alone forfeit the dream of a championship. Still, it was unnerving to contemplate what hung on the consent of a few young volunteers: several hundred million dollars in television revenue, countless livelihoods, the NCAA budget, and subsidies for sports at more than 1,000 schools. Friday’s informants exhaled when the suspect team lost before the finals.

Cognizant of its precarious financial base, the NCAA has in recent years begun to pursue new sources of revenue. Taking its cue from member schools such as Ohio State (which in 2009 bundled all its promotional rights—souvenirs, stadium ads, shoe deals—and outsourced them to the international sports marketer IMG College for a guaranteed $11 million a year), the NCAA began to exploit its vault of college sports on film. For $29.99 apiece, NCAA On Demand offers DVDs of more than 200 memorable contests in men’s ice hockey alone. Video-game technology also allows nostalgic fans to relive and even participate in classic moments of NCAA Basketball. NCAA Football, licensed by the NCAA through IMG College to Electronic Arts, one of the world’s largest video-game manufacturers, reportedly sold 2.5 million copies in 2008. Brit Kirwan, the chancellor of the Maryland university system and a former president at Ohio State, says there were “terrible fights” between the third Knight Commission and the NCAA over the ethics of generating this revenue.

All of this money ultimately derives from the college athletes whose likenesses are shown in the films or video games. But none of the profits go to them. Last year, Electronic Arts paid more than $35 million in royalties to the NFL players union for the underlying value of names and images in its pro football series—but neither the NCAA nor its affiliated companies paid former college players a nickel. Naturally, as they have become more of a profit center for the NCAA, some of the vaunted “student-athletes” have begun to clamor that they deserve a share of those profits. You “see everybody getting richer and richer,” Desmond Howard, who won the 1991 Heisman Trophy while playing for the Michigan Wolverines, told USA Today recently. “And you walk around and you can’t put gas in your car? You can’t even fly home to see your parents?”

Some athletes have gone beyond talk. A series of lawsuits quietly making their way through the courts cast a harsh light on the absurdity of the system—and threaten to dislodge the foundations on which the NCAA rests. On July 21, 2009, lawyers for Ed O’Bannon filed a class-action antitrust suit against the NCAA at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. “Once you leave your university,” says O’Bannon, who won the John Wooden Award for player of the year in 1995 on UCLA’s national-championship basketball team, “one would think your likeness belongs to you.” The NCAA and UCLA continue to collect money from the sales of videos of him playing. But by NCAA rules, O’Bannon, who today works at a Toyota dealership near Las Vegas, alleges he is still not allowed to share the revenue the NCAA generates from his own image as a college athlete. His suit quickly gathered co-plaintiffs from basketball and football, ex-players featured in NCAA videos and other products. “The NCAA does not license student-athlete likenesses,” NCAA spokesperson Erik Christianson told The New York Times in response to the suit, “or prevent former student-athletes from attempting to do so. Likewise, to claim the NCAA profits off student-athlete likenesses is also pure fiction.”

The legal contention centers on Part IV of the NCAA’s “Student-Athlete Statement” for Division I, which requires every athlete to authorize use of “your name or picture … to promote NCAA championships or other NCAA events, activities or programs.” Does this clause mean that athletes clearly renounce personal interest forever? If so, does it actually undermine the NCAA by implicitly recognizing that athletes have a property right in their own performance? Jon King, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, expects the NCAA’s core mission of amateurism to be its “last defense standing.”

In theory, the NCAA’s passion to protect the noble amateurism of college athletes should prompt it to focus on head coaches in the high-revenue sports—basketball and football—since holding the top official accountable should most efficiently discourage corruption. The problem is that the coaches’ growing power has rendered them, unlike their players, ever more immune to oversight. According to research by Charles Clotfelter, an economist at Duke, the average compensation for head football coaches at public universities, now more than $2 million, has grown 750 percent (adjusted for inflation) since the Regents decision in 1984; that’s more than 20 times the cumulative 32 percent raise for college professors. For top basketball coaches, annual contracts now exceed $4 million, augmented by assorted bonuses, endorsements, country-club memberships, the occasional private plane, and in some cases a negotiated percentage of ticket receipts. (Oregon’s ticket concessions netted former football coach Mike Bellotti an additional $631,000 in 2005.)

The NCAA rarely tangles with such people, who are apt to fight back and win. When Rick Neuheisel, the head football coach of the Washington Huskies, was punished for petty gambling (in a March Madness pool, as it happened), he sued the NCAA and the university for wrongful termination, collected $4.5 million, and later moved on to UCLA. When the NCAA tried to cap assistant coaches’ entering salary at a mere $16,000, nearly 2,000 of them brought an antitrust suit, Law v. NCAA, and in 1999 settled for $54.5 million. Since then, salaries for assistant coaches have commonly exceeded $200,000, with the top assistants in the SEC averaging $700,000. In 2009, Monte Kiffin, then at the University of Tennessee, became the first assistant coach to reach $1 million, plus benefits.

The late Myles Brand, who led the NCAA from 2003 to 2009, defended the economics of college sports by claiming that they were simply the result of a smoothly functioning free market. He and his colleagues deflected criticism about the money saturating big-time college sports by focusing attention on scapegoats; in 2010, outrage targeted sports agents. Last year Sports Illustrated published “Confessions of an Agent,” a firsthand account of dealing with high-strung future pros whom the agent and his peers courted with flattery, cash, and tawdry favors. Nick Saban, Alabama’s head football coach, mobilized his peers to denounce agents as a public scourge. “I hate to say this,” he said, “but how are they any better than a pimp? I have no respect for people who do that to young people. None.”

Saban’s raw condescension contrasts sharply with the lonely penitence from Dale Brown, the retired longtime basketball coach at LSU. “Look at the money we make off predominantly poor black kids,” Brown once reflected. “We’re the whoremasters.”

“Picayune Rules”

NCAA officials have tried to assert their dominion—and distract attention from the larger issues—by chasing frantically after petty violations. Tom McMillen, a former member of the Knight Commission who was an All-American basketball player at the University of Maryland, likens these officials to traffic cops in a speed trap, who could flag down almost any passing motorist for prosecution in kangaroo court under a “maze of picayune rules.” The publicized cases have become convoluted soap operas. At the start of the 2010 football season, A. J. Green, a wide receiver at Georgia, confessed that he’d sold his own jersey from the Independence Bowl the year before, to raise cash for a spring-break vacation. The NCAA sentenced Green to a four-game suspension for violating his amateur status with the illicit profit generated by selling the shirt off his own back. While he served the suspension, the Georgia Bulldogs store continued legally selling replicas of Green’s No. 8 jersey for $39.95 and up.

A few months later, the NCAA investigated rumors that Ohio State football players had benefited from “hook-ups on tatts”—that is, that they’d gotten free or underpriced tattoos at an Ohio tattoo parlor in exchange for autographs and memorabilia—a violation of the NCAA’s rule against discounts linked to athletic personae. The NCAA Committee on Infractions imposed five-game suspensions on Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State’s tattooed quarterback, and four other players (some of whom had been found to have sold their Big Ten championship rings and other gear), but did permit them to finish the season and play in the Sugar Bowl. (This summer, in an attempt to satisfy NCAA investigators, Ohio State voluntarily vacated its football wins from last season, as well as its Sugar Bowl victory.) A different NCAA committee promulgated a rule banning symbols and messages in players’ eyeblack—reportedly aimed at Pryor’s controversial gesture of support for the pro quarterback Michael Vick, and at Bible verses inscribed in the eyeblack of the former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.

The moral logic is hard to fathom: the NCAA bans personal messages on the bodies of the players, and penalizes players for trading their celebrity status for discounted tattoos—but it codifies precisely how and where commercial insignia from multinational corporations can be displayed on college players, for the financial benefit of the colleges. Last season, while the NCAA investigated him and his father for the recruiting fees they’d allegedly sought, Cam Newton compliantly wore at least 15 corporate logos—one on his jersey, four on his helmet visor, one on each wristband, one on his pants, six on his shoes, and one on the headband he wears under his helmet—as part of Auburn’s $10.6 million deal with Under Armour.

“Restitution”

Obscure NCAA rules have bedeviled Scott Boras, the preeminent sports agent for Major League Baseball stars, in cases that may ultimately prove more threatening to the NCAA than Ed O’Bannon’s antitrust suit. In 2008, Andrew Oliver, a sophomore pitcher for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, had been listed as the 12th-best professional prospect among sophomore players nationally. He decided to dismiss the two attorneys who had represented him out of high school, Robert and Tim Baratta, and retain Boras instead. Infuriated, the Barattas sent a spiteful letter to the NCAA. Oliver didn’t learn about this until the night before he was scheduled to pitch in the regional final for a place in the College World Series, when an NCAA investigator showed up to question him in the presence of lawyers for Oklahoma State. The investigator also questioned his father, Dave, a truck driver.

Had Tim Baratta been present in their home when the Minnesota Twins offered $390,000 for Oliver to sign out of high school? A yes would mean trouble. While the NCAA did not forbid all professional advice—indeed, Baseball America used to publish the names of agents representing draft-likely underclassmen—NCAA Bylaw 12.3.2.1 prohibited actual negotiation with any professional team by an adviser, on pain of disqualification for the college athlete. The questioning lasted past midnight.

Just hours before the game was to start the next day, Oklahoma State officials summoned Oliver to tell him he would not be pitching. Only later did he learn that the university feared that by letting him play while the NCAA adjudicated his case, the university would open not only the baseball team but all other Oklahoma State teams to broad punishment under the NCAA’s “restitution rule” (Bylaw 19.7), under which the NCAA threatens schools with sanctions if they obey any temporary court order benefiting a college athlete, should that order eventually be modified or removed. The baseball coach did not even let his ace tell his teammates the sad news in person. “He said, ‘It’s probably not a good idea for you to be at the game,’” Oliver recalls.

The Olivers went home to Ohio to find a lawyer. Rick Johnson, a solo practitioner specializing in legal ethics, was aghast that the Baratta brothers had turned in their own client to the NCAA, divulging attorney-client details likely to invite wrath upon Oliver. But for the next 15 months, Johnson directed his litigation against the two NCAA bylaws at issue. Judge Tygh M. Tone, of Erie County, came to share his outrage. On February 12, 2009, Tone struck down the ban on lawyers negotiating for student-athletes as a capricious, exploitative attempt by a private association to “dictate to an attorney where, what, how, or when he should represent his client,” violating accepted legal practice in every state. He also struck down the NCAA’s restitution rule as an intimidation that attempted to supersede the judicial system. Finally, Judge Tone ordered the NCAA to reinstate Oliver’s eligibility at Oklahoma State for his junior season, which started several days later.

The NCAA sought to disqualify Oliver again, with several appellate motions to stay “an unprecedented Order purporting to void a fundamental Bylaw.” Oliver did get to pitch that season, but he dropped into the second round of the June 2009 draft, signing for considerably less than if he’d been picked earlier. Now 23, Oliver says sadly that the whole experience “made me grow up a little quicker.” His lawyer claimed victory. “Andy Oliver is the first college athlete ever to win against the NCAA in court,” said Rick Johnson.
Yet the victory was only temporary. Wounded, the NCAA fought back with a vengeance. Its battery of lawyers prepared for a damages trial, ultimately overwhelming Oliver’s side eight months later with an offer to resolve the dispute for $750,000. When Oliver and Johnson accepted, to extricate themselves ahead of burgeoning legal costs, Judge Tone was compelled to vacate his orders as part of the final settlement. This freed NCAA officials to reassert the two bylaws that Judge Tone had so forcefully overturned, and they moved swiftly to ramp up rather than curtail enforcement. First, the NCAA’s Eligibility Center devised a survey for every drafted undergraduate athlete who sought to stay in college another year. The survey asked whether an agent had conducted negotiations. It also requested a signed release waiving privacy rights and authorizing professional teams to disclose details of any interaction to the NCAA Eligibility Center. Second, NCAA enforcement officials went after another Scott Boras client.

The Toronto Blue Jays had made the left-handed pitcher James Paxton, of the University of Kentucky, the 37th pick in the 2009 draft. Paxton decided to reject a reported $1 million offer and return to school for his senior year, pursuing a dream to pitch for his team in the College World Series. But then he ran into the new NCAA survey. Had Boras negotiated with the Blue Jays? Boras has denied that he did, but it would have made sense that he had—that was his job, to test the market for his client. But saying so would get Paxton banished under the same NCAA bylaw that had derailed Andrew Oliver’s career. Since Paxton was planning to go back to school and not accept their draft offer, the Blue Jays no longer had any incentive to protect him—indeed, they had every incentive to turn him in. The Blue Jays’ president, by telling reporters that Boras had negotiated on Paxton’s behalf, demonstrated to future recruits and other teams that they could use the NCAA’s rules to punish college players who wasted their draft picks by returning to college. The NCAA’s enforcement staff raised the pressure by requesting to interview Paxton.

Though Paxton had no legal obligation to talk to an investigator, NCAA Bylaw 10.1(j) specified that anything short of complete cooperation could be interpreted as unethical conduct, affecting his amateur status. Under its restitution rule, the NCAA had leverage to compel the University of Kentucky to ensure obedience.

As the 2010 season approached, Gary Henderson, the Kentucky coach, sorely wanted Paxton, one of Baseball America’s top-ranked players, to return. Rick Johnson, Andrew Oliver’s lawyer, filed for a declaratory judgment on Paxton’s behalf, arguing that the state constitution—plus the university’s code of student conduct—barred arbitrary discipline at the request of a third party. Kentucky courts deferred to the university, however, and Paxton was suspended from the team. “Due to the possibility of future penalties, including forfeiture of games,” the university stated, it “could not put the other 32 players of the team and the entire UK 22-sport intercollegiate athletics department at risk by having James compete.” The NCAA appraised the result with satisfaction. “When negotiations occur on behalf of student-athletes,” Erik Christianson, the NCAA spokesperson, told The New York Times in reference to the Oliver case, “those negotiations indicate that the student-athlete intends to become a professional athlete and no longer remain an amateur.”

Paxton was stranded. Not only could he not play for Kentucky, but his draft rights with the Blue Jays had lapsed for the year, meaning he could not play for any minor-league affiliate of Major League Baseball. Boras wrangled a holdover job for him in Texas with the independent Grand Prairie AirHogs, pitching against the Pensacola Pelicans and Wichita Wingnuts. Once projected to be a first-round draft pick, Paxton saw his stock plummet into the fourth round. He remained unsigned until late in spring training, when he signed with the Seattle Mariners and reported to their minor-league camp in Peoria, Arizona.

“You Might As Well Shoot Them in the Head”

“When you dream about playing in college,” Joseph Agnew told me not long ago, “you don’t ever think about being in a lawsuit.” Agnew, a student at Rice University in Houston, had been cut from the football team and had his scholarship revoked by Rice before his senior year, meaning that he faced at least $35,000 in tuition and other bills if he wanted to complete his degree in sociology. Bereft of his scholarship, he was flailing about for help when he discovered the National College Players Association, which claims 7,000 active members and seeks modest reforms such as safety guidelines and better death benefits for college athletes. Agnew was struck by the NCPA scholarship data on players from top Division I basketball teams, which showed that 22 percent were not renewed from 2008 to 2009—the same fate he had suffered.
In October 2010, Agnew filed a class-action antitrust suit over the cancellation of his scholarship and to remove the cap on the total number of scholarships that can be awarded by NCAA schools. In his suit, Agnew did not claim the right to free tuition. He merely asked the federal court to strike down an NCAA rule, dating to 1973, that prohibited colleges and universities from offering any athletic scholarship longer than a one-year commitment, to be renewed or not, unilaterally, by the school—which in practice means that coaches get to decide each year whose scholarships to renew or cancel. (After the coach who had recruited Agnew had moved on to Tulsa, the new Rice coach switched Agnew’s scholarship to a recruit of his own.) Agnew argued that without the one-year rule, he would have been free to bargain with all eight colleges that had recruited him, and each college could have decided how long to guarantee his scholarship.

Agnew’s suit rested on a claim of an NCAA antitrust violation combined with a laudable academic goal—making it possible for students to finish their educations. Around the same time, lawyers from President Obama’s Justice Department initiated a series of meetings with NCAA officials and universities in which they asked what possible educational rationale there was for allowing the NCAA—an organization that did not itself pay for scholarships—to impose a blanket restriction on the length of scholarships offered by colleges. Tidbits leaked into the press. In response, the NCAA contended that an athletic scholarship was a “merit award” that should be reviewed annually, presumably because the degree of “merit” could change. Justice Department lawyers reportedly suggested that a free market in scholarships would expand learning opportunities in accord with the stated rationale for the NCAA’s tax-exempt status—that it promotes education through athletics. The one-year rule effectively allows colleges to cut underperforming “student-athletes,” just as pro sports teams cut their players. “Plenty of them don’t stay in school,” said one of Agnew’s lawyers, Stuart Paynter. “They’re just gone. You might as well shoot them in the head.”
Agnew’s lawsuit has made him a pariah to former friends in the athletic department at Rice, where everyone identified so thoroughly with the NCAA that they seemed to feel he was attacking them personally. But if the premise of Agnew’s case is upheld by the courts, it will make a sham of the NCAA’s claim that its highest priority is protecting education.

“They Want to Crush These Kids”

Academic performance has always been difficult for the NCAA to address. Any detailed regulation would intrude upon the free choice of widely varying schools, and any academic standard broad enough to fit both MIT and Ole Miss would have little force. From time to time, a scandal will expose extreme lapses. In 1989, Dexter Manley, by then the famous “Secretary of Defense” for the NFL’s Washington Redskins, teared up before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities, when admitting that he had been functionally illiterate in college.

Within big-time college athletic departments, the financial pressure to disregard obvious academic shortcomings and shortcuts is just too strong. In the 1980s, Jan Kemp, an English instructor at the University of Georgia, publicly alleged that university officials had demoted and then fired her because she refused to inflate grades in her remedial English courses. Documents showed that administrators replaced the grades she’d given athletes with higher ones, providing fake passing grades on one notable occasion to nine Bulldog football players who otherwise would have been ineligible to compete in the 1982 Sugar Bowl. (Georgia lost anyway, 24–20, to a University of Pittsburgh team led by the future Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino.) When Kemp filed a lawsuit against the university, she was publicly vilified as a troublemaker, but she persisted bravely in her testimony. Once, Kemp said, a supervisor demanding that she fix a grade had bellowed, “Who do you think is more important to this university, you or Dominique Wilkins?” (Wilkins was a star on the basketball team.) Traumatized, Kemp twice attempted suicide.

In trying to defend themselves, Georgia officials portrayed Kemp as naive about sports. “We have to compete on a level playing field,” said Fred Davison, the university president. During the Kemp civil trial, in 1986, Hale Almand, Georgia’s defense lawyer, explained the university’s patronizing aspirations for its typical less-than-scholarly athlete. “We may not make a university student out of him,” Almand told the court, “but if we can teach him to read and write, maybe he can work at the post office rather than as a garbage man when he gets through with his athletic career.” This argument backfired with the jurors: finding in favor of Kemp, they rejected her polite request for $100,000, and awarded her $2.6 million in damages instead. (This was later reduced to $1.08 million.) Jan Kemp embodied what is ostensibly the NCAA’s reason for being—to enforce standards fairly and put studies above sports—but no one from the organization ever spoke up on her behalf.

The NCAA body charged with identifying violations of any of the Division I league rules, the Committee on Infractions, operates in the shadows. Josephine Potuto, a professor of law at the University of Nebraska and a longtime committee member who was then serving as its vice chair, told Congress in 2004 that one reason her group worked in secret was that it hoped to avoid a “media circus.” The committee preferred to deliberate in private, she said, guiding member schools to punish themselves. “The enforcement process is cooperative, not adversarial,” Potuto testified. The committee consisted of an elite coterie of judges, athletic directors, and authors of legal treatises. “The committee also is savvy about intercollegiate athletics,” she added. “They cannot be conned.”

In 2009, a series of unlikely circumstances peeled back the veil of secrecy to reveal NCAA procedures so contorted that even victims marveled at their comical wonder. The saga began in March of 2007, shortly after the Florida State Seminoles basketball team was knocked out of the NIT basketball tournament, which each spring invites the best teams not selected for the March Madness tournament. At an athletic-department study hall, Al Thornton, a star forward for the team, completed a sports-psychology quiz but then abandoned it without posting his written answers electronically by computer. Brenda Monk, an academic tutor for the Seminoles, says she noticed the error and asked a teammate to finish entering Thornton’s answers onscreen and hit “submit,” as required for credit. The teammate complied, steaming silently, and then complained at the athletic office about getting stuck with clean-up chores for the superstar Thornton (who was soon to be selected by the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the NBA draft). Monk promptly resigned when questioned by FSU officials, saying her fatigue at the time could not excuse her asking the teammate to submit the answers to another student’s completed test.

Monk’s act of guileless responsibility set off a chain reaction. First, FSU had to give the NCAA preliminary notice of a confessed academic fraud. Second, because this would be its seventh major infraction case since 1968, FSU mounted a vigorous self-investigation to demonstrate compliance with NCAA academic rules. Third, interviews with 129 Seminoles athletes unleashed a nightmare of matter-of-fact replies about absentee professors who allowed group consultations and unlimited retakes of open-computer assignments and tests. Fourth, FSU suspended 61 of its athletes in 10 sports. Fifth, the infractions committee applied the byzantine NCAA bylaws to FSU’s violations. Sixth, one of the penalties announced in March of 2009 caused a howl of protest across the sports universe.

Twenty-seven news organizations filed a lawsuit in hopes of finding out how and why the NCAA proposed to invalidate 14 prior victories in FSU football. Such a penalty, if upheld, would doom coach Bobby Bowden’s chance of overtaking Joe Paterno of Penn State for the most football wins in Division I history. This was sacrosanct territory. Sports reporters followed the litigation for six months, reporting that 25 of the 61 suspended FSU athletes were football players, some of whom were ruled ineligible retroactively from the time they had heard or yelled out answers to online test questions in, of all things, a music-appreciation course.

When reporters sought access to the transcript of the infractions committee’s hearing in Indianapolis, NCAA lawyers said the 695-page document was private. (The NCAA claimed it was entitled to keep all such records secret because of a landmark Supreme Court ruling that it had won in 1988, in NCAA v. Tarkanian, which exempted the organization from any due-process obligations because it was not a government organization.) Media outlets pressed the judge to let Florida State share its own copy of the hearing transcript, whereupon NCAA lawyers objected that the school had never actually “possessed” the document; it had only seen the transcript via a defendant’s guest access to the carefully restricted NCAA Web site. This claim, in turn, prompted intercession on the side of the media by Florida’s attorney general, arguing that letting the NCAA use a technical loophole like this would undermine the state’s sunshine law mandating open public records. After tumultuous appeals, the Florida courts agreed and ordered the NCAA transcript released in October of 2009.

News interest quickly evaporated when the sports media found nothing in the record about Coach Bowden or the canceled football victories. But the transcript revealed plenty about the NCAA. On page 37, T. K. Wetherell, the bewildered Florida State president, lamented that his university had hurt itself by cooperating with the investigation. “We self-reported this case,” he said during the hearing, and he later complained that the most ingenuous athletes—those who asked “What’s the big deal, this happens all the time?”—received the harshest suspensions, while those who clammed up on the advice of lawyers went free. The music-appreciation professor was apparently never questioned. Brenda Monk, the only instructor who consistently cooperated with the investigation, appeared voluntarily to explain her work with learning-disabled athletes, only to be grilled about her credentials by Potuto in a pettifogging inquisition of remarkable stamina.

In January of last year, the NCAA’s Infractions Appeals Committee sustained all the sanctions imposed on FSU except the number of vacated football victories, which it dropped, ex cathedra, from 14 to 12. The final penalty locked Bobby Bowden’s official win total on retirement at 377 instead of 389, behind Joe Paterno’s 401 (and counting). This carried stinging symbolism for fans, without bringing down on the NCAA the harsh repercussions it would have risked if it had issued a television ban or substantial fine.

Cruelly, but typically, the NCAA concentrated public censure on powerless scapegoats. A dreaded “show cause” order rendered Brenda Monk, the tutor, effectively unhirable at any college in the United States. Cloaking an old-fashioned blackball in the stately language of law, the order gave notice that any school hiring Monk before a specified date in 2013 “shall, pursuant to the provisions of Bylaw 19.5.2.2(l), show cause why it should not be penalized if it does not restrict the former learning specialist [Monk] from having any contact with student-athletes.” Today she works as an education supervisor at a prison in Florida.

The Florida State verdict hardly surprised Rick Johnson, the lawyer who had represented the college pitchers Andrew Oliver and James Paxton. “All the NCAA’s enforcements are random and selective,” he told me, calling the organization’s appeals process a travesty. (Johnson says the NCAA has never admitted to having wrongly suspended an athlete.) Johnson’s scalding experience prompted him to undertake a law-review article on the subject, which in turn sent him trawling through NCAA archives. From the summary tax forms required of nonprofits, he found out that the NCAA had spent nearly $1 million chartering private jets in 2006. “What kind of nonprofit organization leases private jets?,” Johnson asks. It’s hard to determine from tax returns what money goes where, but it looks as if the NCAA spent less than 1 percent of its budget on enforcement that year. Even after its plump cut for its own overhead, the NCAA dispersed huge sums to its 1,200 member schools, in the manner of a professional sports league. These annual payments are universal—every college gets something—but widely uneven. They keep the disparate shareholders (barely) united and speaking for all of college sports. The payments coerce unity within the structure of a private association that is unincorporated and unregulated, exercising amorphous powers not delegated by any government.

Searching through the archives, Johnson came across a 1973 memo from the NCAA general counsel recommending the adoption of a due-process procedure for athletes in disciplinary cases. Without it, warned the organization’s lawyer, the association risked big liability claims for deprivation of rights. His proposal went nowhere. Instead, apparently to limit costs to the universities, Walter Byers had implemented the year-by-year scholarship rule that Joseph Agnew would challenge in court 37 years later. Moreover, the NCAA’s 1975 convention adopted a second recommendation “to discourage legal actions against the NCAA,” according to the minutes. The members voted to create Bylaw 19.7, Restitution, to intimidate college athletes in disputes with the NCAA. Johnson recognized this provision all too well, having won the temporary court judgment that the rule was illegal if not downright despotic. It made him nearly apoplectic to learn that the NCAA had deliberately drawn up the restitution rule as an obstacle to due process, contrary to the recommendation of its own lawyer. “They want to crush these kids,” he says.

The NCAA, of course, has never expressed such a desire, and its public comments on due process tend to be anodyne. At a congressional hearing in 2004, the infractions-committee vice chair, Josephine Potuto, repeatedly argued that although the NCAA is “not bound by any judicial due process standards,” its enforcement, infractions, and hearing procedures meet and “very likely exceed” those of other public institutions. Yet when pressed, Potuto declared that athletes would have no standing for due process even if the Supreme Court had not exempted the NCAA in the 1988 Tarkanian decision. “In order to reach due-process issues as a legal Constitutional principle, the individual challenging has to have a substantive property or liberty interest,” she testified. “The opportunity to play intercollegiate athletics does not rise to that level.”
To translate this from the legal jargon, Potuto used a circular argument to confine college athletes beneath any right to freedom or property in their own athletic effort. They have no stake to seek their rights, she claimed, because they have no rights at stake.

Potuto’s assertion might be judged preposterous, an heir of the Dred Scott dictum that slaves possessed no rights a white person was bound to respect. But she was merely being honest, articulating assumptions almost everyone shares without question. Whether motivated by hostility for students (as critics like Johnson allege), or by noble and paternalistic tough love (as the NCAA professes), the denial of fundamental due process for college athletes has stood unchallenged in public discourse. Like other NCAA rules, it emanates naturally from the premise that college athletes own no interest in sports beyond exercise, character-building, and good fun. Who represents these young men and women? No one asks.

Video: Taylor Branch explains the circular logic that keeps college athletes from getting a slice of the enormous industry that surrounds them (part 3 of 3)

The debates and commissions about reforming college sports nibble around the edges—trying to reduce corruption, to prevent the “contamination” of athletes by lucre, and to maintain at least a pretense of concern for academic integrity. Everything stands on the implicit presumption that preserving amateurism is necessary for the well-being of college athletes. But while amateurism—and the free labor it provides—may be necessary to the preservation of the NCAA, and perhaps to the profit margins of various interested corporations and educational institutions, what if it doesn’t benefit the athletes? What if it hurts them?

“The Plantation Mentality”

“Ninety percent of the NCAA revenue is produced by 1 percent of the athletes,” Sonny Vaccaro says. “Go to the skill positions”—the stars. “Ninety percent African Americans.” The NCAA made its money off those kids, and so did he. They were not all bad people, the NCAA officials, but they were blind, Vaccaro believes. “Their organization is a fraud.”

Vaccaro retired from Reebok in 2007 to make a clean break for a crusade. “The kids and their parents gave me a good life,” he says in his peppery staccato. “I want to give something back.” Call it redemption, he told me. Call it education or a good cause. “Here’s what I preach,” said Vaccaro. “This goes beyond race, to human rights. The least educated are the most exploited. I’m probably closer to the kids than anyone else, and I’m 71 years old.”

Vaccaro is officially an unpaid consultant to the plaintiffs in O’Bannon v. NCAA. He connected Ed O’Bannon with the attorneys who now represent him, and he talked to some of the additional co-plaintiffs who have joined the suit, among them Oscar Robertson, a basketball Hall of Famer who was incensed that the NCAA was still selling his image on playing cards 50 years after he left the University of Cincinnati.

Jon King, an antitrust lawyer at Hausfeld LLP in San Francisco, told me that Vaccaro “opened our eyes to massive revenue streams hidden in college sports.” King and his colleagues have drawn on Vaccaro’s vast knowledge of athletic-department finances, which include off-budget accounts for shoe contracts. Sonny Vaccaro and his wife, Pam, “had a mountain of documents,” he said. The outcome of the 1984 Regents decision validated an antitrust approach for O’Bannon, King argues, as well as for Joseph Agnew in his continuing case against the one-year scholarship rule. Lawyers for Sam Keller—a former quarterback for the University of Nebraska who is featured in video games—are pursuing a parallel “right of publicity” track based on the First Amendment. Still other lawyers could revive Rick Johnson’s case against NCAA bylaws on a larger scale, and King thinks claims for the rights of college players may be viable also under laws pertaining to contracts, employment, and civil rights.

Vaccaro had sought a law firm for O’Bannon with pockets deep enough to withstand an expensive war of attrition, fearing that NCAA officials would fight discovery to the end. So far, though, they have been forthcoming. “The numbers are off the wall,” Vaccaro says. “The public will see for the first time how all the money is distributed.”

Vaccaro has been traveling the after-dinner circuit, proselytizing against what he sees as the NCAA’s exploitation of young athletes. Late in 2008, someone who heard his stump speech at Howard University mentioned it to Michael Hausfeld, a prominent antitrust and human-rights lawyer, whose firm had won suits against Exxon for Native Alaskans and against Union Bank of Switzerland for Holocaust victims’ families. Someone tracked down Vaccaro on vacation in Athens, Greece, and he flew back directly to meet Hausfeld. The shoe salesman and the white-shoe lawyer made common cause.

Hausfeld LLP has offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and London. Its headquarters are on K Street in Washington, D.C., about three blocks from the White House. When I talked with Hausfeld there not long ago, he sat in a cavernous conference room, tidy in pinstripes, hands folded on a spotless table that reflected the skyline. He spoke softly, without pause, condensing the complex fugue of antitrust litigation into simple sentences. “Let’s start with the basic question,” he said, noting that the NCAA claims that student-athletes have no property rights in their own athletic accomplishments. Yet, in order to be eligible to play, college athletes have to waive their rights to proceeds from any sales based on their athletic performance.

“What right is it that they’re waiving?,” Hausfeld asked. “You can’t waive something you don’t have. So they had a right that they gave up in consideration to the principle of amateurism, if there be such.” (At an April hearing in a U.S. District Court in California, Gregory Curtner, a representative for the NCAA, stunned O’Bannon’s lawyers by saying: “There is no document, there is no substance, that the NCAA ever takes from the student-athletes their rights of publicity or their rights of likeness. They are at all times owned by the student-athlete.” Jon King says this is “like telling someone they have the winning lottery ticket, but by the way, it can only be cashed in on Mars.” The court denied for a second time an NCAA motion to dismiss the O’Bannon complaint.)

The waiver clause is nestled among the paragraphs of the “Student-Athlete Statement” that NCAA rules require be collected yearly from every college athlete. In signing the statement, the athletes attest that they have amateur status, that their stated SAT scores are valid, that they are willing to disclose any educational documents requested, and so forth. Already, Hausfeld said, the defendants in the Ed O’Bannon case have said in court filings that college athletes thereby transferred their promotional rights forever. He paused. “That’s ludicrous,” he said. “Nobody assigns rights like that. Nobody can assert rights like that.” He said the pattern demonstrated clear abuse by the collective power of the schools and all their conferences under the NCAA umbrella—“a most effective cartel.”

The faux ideal of amateurism is “the elephant in the room,” Hausfeld said, sending for a book. “You can’t get to the bottom of our case without exposing the hypocrisy of amateurism, and Walter Byers says it eloquently.” An assistant brought in Byers’s memoir. It looked garish on the shiny table because dozens of pink Post-its protruded from the text. Hausfeld read to me from page 390:

The college player cannot sell his own feet (the coach does that) nor can he sell his own name (the college will do that). This is the plantation mentality resurrected and blessed by today’s campus executives.

He looked up. “That wasn’t me,” he said. “That was the NCAA’s architect.” He found a key recommendation on page 388:

Prosecutors and the courts, with the support of the public, should use antitrust laws to break up the collegiate cartel—not just in athletics but possibly in other aspects of collegiate life as well.

Could the book become evidence? Might the aged Byers testify? (He is now 89.) Was that part of the plaintiffs’ strategy for the O’Bannon trial? Hausfeld smiled faintly. “I’d rather the NCAA lawyers not fully understand the strategy,” he said.

He put the spiny book away and previewed what lies ahead. The court soon would qualify his clients as a class. Then the Sherman Antitrust Act would provide for thorough discovery to break down exactly what the NCAA receives on everything from video clips to jerseys, contract by contract. “And we want to know what they’re carrying on their books as the value of their archival footage,” he concluded. “They say it’s a lot of money. We agree. How much?”

The work will be hard, but Hausfeld said he will win in the courts, unless the NCAA folds first. “Why?” Hausfeld asked rhetorically. “We know our clients are foreclosed: neither the NCAA nor its members will permit them to participate in any of that licensing revenue. Under the law, it’s up to them [the defendants] to give a pro-competitive justification. They can’t. End of story.”

In 2010 the third Knight Commission, complementing a previous commission’s recommendation for published reports on academic progress, called for the finances of college sports to be made transparent and public—television contracts, conference budgets, shoe deals, coaches’ salaries, stadium bonds, everything. The recommendation was based on the worthy truism that sunlight is a proven disinfectant. But in practice, it has not been applied at all. Conferences, coaches, and other stakeholders resisted disclosure; college players still have no way of determining their value to the university.

“Money surrounds college sports,” says Domonique Foxworth, who is a cornerback for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and an executive-committee member for the NFL Players Association, and played for the University of Maryland. “And every player knows those millions are floating around only because of the 18-to-22-year-olds.” Yes, he told me, even the second-string punter believes a miracle might lift him into the NFL, and why not? In all the many pages of the three voluminous Knight Commission reports, there is but one paragraph that addresses the real-life choices for college athletes. “Approximately 1 percent of NCAA men’s basketball players and 2 percent of NCAA football players are drafted by NBA or NFL teams,” stated the 2001 report, basing its figures on a review of the previous 10 years, “and just being drafted is no assurance of a successful professional career.” Warning that the odds against professional athletic success are “astronomically high,” the Knight Commission counsels college athletes to avoid a “rude surprise” and to stick to regular studies. This is sound advice as far as it goes, but it’s a bromide that pinches off discussion. Nothing in the typical college curriculum teaches a sweat-stained guard at Clemson or Purdue what his monetary value to the university is. Nothing prods students to think independently about amateurism—because the universities themselves have too much invested in its preservation. Stifling thought, the universities, in league with the NCAA, have failed their own primary mission by providing an empty, cynical education on college sports.

The most basic reform would treat the students as what they are—adults, with rights and reason of their own—and grant them a meaningful voice in NCAA deliberations. A restoration of full citizenship to “student-athletes” would facilitate open governance, making it possible to enforce pledges of transparency in both academic standards and athletic finances. Without that, the NCAA has no effective checks and balances, no way for the students to provide informed consent regarding the way they are governed. A thousand questions lie willfully silenced because the NCAA is naturally afraid of giving “student-athletes” a true voice. Would college players be content with the augmented scholarship or allowance now requested by the National College Players Association? If a player’s worth to the university is greater than the value of his scholarship (as it clearly is in some cases), should he be paid a salary? If so, would teammates in revenue sports want to be paid equally, or in salaries stratified according to talent or value on the field? What would the athletes want in Division III, where athletic budgets keep rising without scholarships or substantial sports revenue? Would athletes seek more or less variance in admissions standards? Should non-athletes also have a voice, especially where involuntary student fees support more and more of college sports? Might some schools choose to specialize, paying players only in elite leagues for football, or lacrosse? In athletic councils, how much would high-revenue athletes value a simple thank you from the tennis or field-hockey players for the newly specified subsidies to their facilities?

University administrators, already besieged from all sides, do not want to even think about such questions. Most cringe at the thought of bargaining with athletes as a general manager does in professional sports, with untold effects on the budgets for coaches and every other sports item. “I would not want to be part of it,” North Carolina Athletic Director Dick Baddour told me flatly. After 44 years at UNC, he could scarcely contemplate a world without amateur rules. “We would have to think long and hard,” Baddour added gravely, “about whether this university would continue those sports at all.”

I, too, once reflexively recoiled at the idea of paying college athletes and treating them like employees or professionals. It feels abhorrent—but for reasons having to do more with sentiment than with practicality or law. Not just fans and university presidents but judges have often found cursory, non-statutory excuses to leave amateur traditions intact. “Even in the increasingly commercial modern world,” said a federal-court judge in Gaines v. NCAA in 1990, “this Court believes there is still validity to the Athenian concept of a complete education derived from fostering the full growth of both mind and body.” The fact that “the NCAA has not distilled amateurism to its purest form,” said the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1988, “does not mean its attempts to maintain a mixture containing some amateur elements are unreasonable.”
But one way or another, the smokescreen of amateurism may soon be swept away. For one thing, a victory by the plaintiffs in O’Bannon’s case would radically transform college sports. Colleges would likely have to either stop profiting from students or start paying them. The NCAA could also be forced to pay tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in damages. If O’Bannon and Vaccaro and company win, “it will turn college sports on its ear,” said Richard Lapchick, the president of the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, in a recent interview with The New York Times.

Though the O’Bannon case may take several years yet to reach resolution, developments on other fronts are chipping away at amateurism, and at the NCAA. This past summer, Sports Illustrated editorialized in favor of allowing college athletes to be paid by non-university sources without jeopardizing their eligibility. At a press conference last June, Steve Spurrier, the coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks football team (and the winner of the 1966 Heisman Trophy as a Florida Gator), proposed that coaches start paying players $300 a game out of their own pockets. The coaches at six other SEC schools (Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU, and Tennessee) all endorsed Spurrier’s proposal. And Mark Emmert, the NCAA president, recently conceded that big changes must come. “The integrity of collegiate athletics is seriously challenged today by rapidly growing pressures coming from many directions,” Emmert said in July. “We have reached a point where incremental change is not sufficient to meet these challenges. I want us to act more aggressively and in a more comprehensive way than we have in the past. A few new tweaks of the rules won’t get the job done.”

Threats to NCAA dominion also percolate in Congress. Aggrieved legislators have sponsored numerous bills. Senator Orrin Hatch, citing mistreatment of his Utah Utes, has called witnesses to discuss possible antitrust remedies for the Bowl Championship Series. Congressional committees have already held hearings critical of the NCAA’s refusal to follow due process in disciplinary matters; other committees have explored a rise in football concussions. Last January, calls went up to investigate “informal” football workouts at the University of Iowa just after the season-ending bowl games—workouts so grueling that 41 of the 56 amateur student-athletes collapsed, and 13 were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis, a life-threatening kidney condition often caused by excessive exercise.

The greatest threat to the viability of the NCAA may come from its member universities. Many experts believe that the churning instability within college football will drive the next major change. President Obama himself has endorsed the drumbeat cry for a national playoff in college football. This past spring, the Justice Department questioned the BCS about its adherence to antitrust standards. Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big Ten, has estimated that a national playoff system could produce three or four times as much money as the existing bowl system does. If a significant band of football schools were to demonstrate that they could orchestrate a true national playoff, without the NCAA’s assistance, the association would be terrified—and with good reason. Because if the big sports colleges don’t need the NCAA to administer a national playoff in football, then they don’t need it to do so in basketball. In which case, they could cut out the middleman in March Madness and run the tournament themselves. Which would deprive the NCAA of close to $1 billion a year, more than 95 percent of its revenue. The organization would be reduced to a rule book without money—an organization aspiring to enforce its rules but without the financial authority to enforce anything.

Thus the playoff dreamed of and hankered for by millions of football fans haunts the NCAA. “There will be some kind of playoff in college football, and it will not be run by the NCAA,” says Todd Turner, a former athletic director in four conferences (Big East, ACC, SEC, and Pac-10). “If I’m at the NCAA, I have to worry that the playoff group can get basketball to break away, too.”

This danger helps explain why the NCAA steps gingerly in enforcements against powerful colleges. To alienate member colleges would be to jeopardize its own existence. Long gone are television bans and the “death penalty” sentences (commanding season-long shutdowns of offending teams) once meted out to Kentucky (1952), Southwestern Louisiana (1973), and Southern Methodist University (1987). Institutions receive mostly symbolic slaps nowadays. Real punishments fall heavily on players and on scapegoats like literacy tutors.

A deeper reason explains why, in its predicament, the NCAA has no recourse to any principle or law that can justify amateurism. There is no such thing. Scholars and sportswriters yearn for grand juries to ferret out every forbidden bauble that reaches a college athlete, but the NCAA’s ersatz courts can only masquerade as public authority. How could any statute impose amateur status on college athletes, or on anyone else? No legal definition of amateur exists, and any attempt to create one in enforceable law would expose its repulsive and unconstitutional nature—a bill of attainder, stripping from college athletes the rights of American citizenship.

For all our queasiness about what would happen if some athletes were to get paid, there is a successful precedent for the professionalization of an amateur sports system: the Olympics. For years, Walter Byers waged war with the NCAA’s older and more powerful nemesis, the Amateur Athletic Union, which since 1894 had overseen U.S. Olympic athletes. Run in high-handed fashion, the AAU had infamously banned Jesse Owens for life in 1936—weeks after his four heroic gold medals punctured the Nazi claim of Aryan supremacy—because instead of using his sudden fame to tour and make money for the AAU at track meets across Europe, he came home early. In the early 1960s, the fights between the NCAA and the AAU over who should manage Olympic athletes become so bitter that President Kennedy called in General Douglas MacArthur to try to mediate a truce before the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Ultimately, Byers prevailed and effectively neutered the AAU. In November 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the bipartisan Amateur Sports Act. Amateurism in the Olympics soon dissolved—and the world did not end. Athletes, granted a 20 percent voting stake on every Olympic sport’s governing body, tipped balances in the United States and then inexorably around the world. First in marathon races, then in tennis tournaments, players soon were allowed to accept prize money and keep their Olympic eligibility. Athletes profited from sponsorships and endorsements. The International Olympic Committee expunged the word amateur from its charter in 1986. Olympic officials, who had once disdained the NCAA for offering scholarships in exchange for athletic performance, came to welcome millionaire athletes from every quarter, while the NCAA still refused to let the pro Olympian Michael Phelps swim for his college team at Michigan.
This sweeping shift left the Olympic reputation intact, and perhaps improved. Only hardened romantics mourned the amateur code. “Hey, come on,” said Anne Audain, a track-and-field star who once held the world record for the 5,000 meters. “It’s like losing your virginity. You’re a little misty for awhile, but then you realize, Wow, there’s a whole new world out there!”

Without logic or practicality or fairness to support amateurism, the NCAA’s final retreat is to sentiment. The Knight Commission endorsed its heartfelt cry that to pay college athletes would be “an unacceptable surrender to despair.” Many of the people I spoke with while reporting this article felt the same way. “I don’t want to pay college players,” said Wade Smith, a tough criminal lawyer and former star running back at North Carolina. “I just don’t want to do it. We’d lose something precious.”

“Scholarship athletes are already paid,” declared the Knight Commission members, “in the most meaningful way poss-ible: with a free education.” This evasion by prominent educators severed my last reluctant, emotional tie with imposed amateurism. I found it worse than self-serving. It echoes masters who once claimed that heavenly salvation would outweigh earthly injustice to slaves. In the era when our college sports first arose, colonial powers were turning the whole world upside down to define their own interests as all-inclusive and benevolent. Just so, the NCAA calls it heinous exploitation to pay college athletes a fair portion of what they earn.

This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/

The Huddle: Recapping Week 1 in EMASS

2011-09-14T06:06:00.001-07:00

Former Celtic Kenny Anderson finds calling coaching at a South Florida Jewish school

2011-09-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

By Dieter Kurtenbach / Sun Sentinel | Saturday, September 10, 2011 |

Boston Celtics

DAVIE, Fla. — Kenny Anderson stands in the hallway of Davie’s David Posnack Jewish Day School, surrounded by a few dozen high school students, wearing backpacks and kippahs, who take photos of the former NBA All-Star.

Seemingly every one of Posnack’s 138 students wants to steal a moment with the star; after all, it’s the first time that a former NBA player has walked the halls of the school.

But it won’t be the last time. Anderson, after a 14-year NBA career, agreed last week to become the boys basketball coach at Posnack, replacing a local referee who coached the Class 1A team last year as a favor to the school’s athletic director.

Wait, what?

Yes, Kenny Anderson will coach a small Jewish high school in South Florida.

"This is where I belong, this is a good fit for me," Anderson said.

Anderson, 40, ended his NBA playing career in 2005. He filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter. The more than $50 million that he had earned as a player had dwindled down to nothing. Anderson was broke, twice divorced and a distant father of the seven children he had with five different mothers.

He didn’t know what came after life in the NBA. He knew he wanted to coach — he wanted to teach the game that he knew so well, but the opportunities didn’t come.

He had a chance to be a head coach in the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association and the made-for-TV sport Slamball. But coaching the Atlanta Krunk and in a trampoline-basketball hybrid sport offered little credibility.

"It’s been a real humbling experience," Anderson said of his post-NBA life. "... I was eating humble pie for a couple, four or five years."

But after meeting his third wife, Natasha, Anderson began to come to grips with his new life station. He graduated from Miami’s St. Thomas University this past May at the request of his late mother, Joan. He focused on running basketball camps, motivational speaking and being a better father.

But Anderson still wanted to coach. An interview with University of Miami coach Jim Larranaga didn’t lead to a job.

"I’m sitting, pondering, for months, ’What am I going to do? What am I going to do?’." Anderson said.
Then, a harmless twitter conversation between a Georgia Tech basketball fan and Anderson developed into an opportunity.

Jay Doobrow (@JayDoobrow) tweets at plenty of celebrities and athletes, but few send messages back. Anderson, a stay-at-home dad in Pembroke Pines, did respond. Doobrow, whose two children attend Posnack, sent Anderson a message with his phone number, asking if he was interested in coaching at the school.

Anderson was, but he was also concerned that the school really wanted him.

Posnack Athletic Director Mitch Evron had a similar, although reversed, concern.

"I said ’Yeah, I’ll talk to Kenny Anderson, I’ll talk to Dwyane Wade, too,’." Evron said of Doobrow’s proposal.

Three meetings later, Kenny Anderson was hired.

"When I found out, I was pretty psyched," Jonah Wassersterom, a 10th-grade basketball player said. "He’s really coming here. It’s awesome. It’s a little shock, because, you know, (we’re a) small Jewish school."

It’s not about the money. Anderson will make little more than the normal coach’s stipend of $2,500, Evron said. For Anderson, it was about rekindling the competitive spirit that drove him during his NBA career in his new life.

"My challenge after leaving the pros was going back to school, that’s the only challenge I had. And I did that," Anderson said. "This is another challenge, and that’s what I feed off of."

Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1364772

Tom Brady, offense produce stirring win over Dolphins

2011-09-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

By Ian R. Rapoport | Tuesday, September 13, 2011 | N.E. Patriots

Photo by Matt Stone

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — To those who have seen it before, there wasn’t much surprise. A little awe, maybe, but not surprise.

When Tom lines up behind the center, the limits of what can transpire are nonexistent. And even when the quarterback turns in a career performance, abusing the Miami Dolphins defense in last night’s 38-24 season-opening victory, his teammates are more amused than shocked.

Brady threw for a team-record 517 yards? Four touchdowns? Leading an offense that gained 622 yards?
“That’s crazy,” receiver Matthew Slater said. “It’s like a video game. I don’t even think you can do that in a video game.”

Maybe if Brady was playing. And with the way he toyed with the Dolphins, it was like he was holding the joystick — even if most of the 66,860 fans at Sun Life Stadium didn’t stay around to see the end of the game.

“Look, it’s a team sport,” Brady insisted after going 32-of-48 with an interception. “Those guys were catching the ball on some tough looks out there. We made enough plays to win, and that’s the goal.”
When Brady found Wes Welker for a 99-yard touchdown reception with 5:44 left, the Pats had administered the exclamation point. The receiver stiff-arming Miami cornerback Benny Sapp to the ground only made it sweeter.

“You can’t make a big deal out of this or that,” Welker said. “It’s whatever we had to do to win. How many catches do I need? How many yards do I need? How many yards will Tom throw for? Whatever it takes to win. We have some high expectations for ourselves and we expect to be able to move the ball down the field.”

True, Brady wasn’t alone, even if the reigning NFL MVP looked like the future MVP in the Pats’ ninth straight 30-plus point game.

The tight end tandem of Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski combined for 189 yards and two touchdowns, while Welker finished with 160 yards and two TDs. Receiver Deion Branch, who had no catches in the preseason, had seven receptions for 93 yards. Even center Dan Koppen suffering a broken ankle didn’t ruin a feel-good opener.

“Today was phenomenal,” said veteran guard Brian Waters, who joined the team last week as a free agent. “And there’s still some things that we can still get better at. That’s kind of scary.”

The defense flashed some positives, administering some pressure with two sacks, but allowing Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne to throw for 416 yards. Brady’s crew made sure it didn’t matter.
“You just sit back and admire it,” linebacker Jerod Mayo said.

The Dolphins came out swinging, taking a seven-point lead on Henne’s 9-yard run seven minutes in. But the response came like lightning.

Facing little pressure, even with rookie tackler Nate Solder and Waters starting on the right side of the line, Brady was surgical in his precision. Sprung by a 46-yard reception from Slater, the Pats tied it at 7 when BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran the ball in from the 4.

After Miami went three-and-out, Brady hit Gronkowski for a 10-yard touchdown to make it 14-7. Through two drives, Brady was 8-of-8 for 127 yards. With the Dolphins suffering in the South Florida heat, Brady poured it on.

“We definitely knew what the game plan was,” Miami cornerback Sean Smith said, “but that doesn’t make it easy.”

Last night was also the debut of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who made two tackles and drew two holding penalties. New receiver Chad Ochocinco had just a 14-yard catch. The machine simply rolled on.
In the second half, Brady offered a rare miscue, as a batted pass was intercepted by defensive end Jared Odrick intercepted it. Brian Hartline’s 10-yard catch tied it at 14 in the third quarter.

A 2-yard touchdown toss to Welker and a 1-yard scoring pass to Hernandez, answering a Dolphins field goal, later, and it was a 28-17 game at the end of three quarters.

The defense forced Henne into an incompletion on fourth down from the Patriots 1 with 6:02 left. Brady hit Welker with the 99-yarder from there.

“It was no one-man band out there,” coach Bill Belichick said. “We had a lot of contributions from everybody, and that’s what a good offensive team should do.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1365383

Everett eases into the season

2011-09-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

DiBiaso (4 TDs), Tide open by rolling over Leominster

By Juan Rivera

Globe Correspondent

EVERETT - After a Super Bowl ring ceremony, Everett showed last night why it is again one of the best teams in the state, beating Leominster for the 10th straight time.

Jonathan DiBiaso threw four touchdown passes for the Crimson Tide.

Everett’s defensive front was able to impose its will early, stopping Leominster on its first possession. The Blue Devils were forced to punt, allowing DiBiaso to get under center for the first time.

The lefthander didn’t take long to get into a groove.

DiBiaso dropped back to pass seven times in the opening possession, which ended with a 2-yard TD pass off play-action to senior tailback Vondell Langston.

“It’s good to get off on the right foot by scoring on our first possession,’’ said Langston. “Jon was able to shovel the pass to me and it got us ahead.’’

It took Leominster 28 seconds and two plays to answer, the first a 78-yard connection between quarterback Garrett Delle-Chiaie and Kyle Sanders. Delle-Chiaie then hooked up with Kevin O’Connor for the touchdown to make it 7-6.

DiBiaso got back to work quickly. On the second play of the possession, he connected with Jayle McRae for a 65-yard touchdown. The extra point failed, and Everett was on top, 13-6, after the first quarter.

“[McRae] was great all game,’’ said DiBiaso. “As a matter a fact, all of our players were. It was nice to be able to put points on the board so often in the opener.’’

The Crimson Tide continued their aerial attack on their next possession as DiBiaso threw a slant to Ralph Jonathas for a 19-yard touchdown. Jonathas muscled his way through the final 9 yards en route to the end zone. Kenny Calaj added the conversion rush.

The Blue Devils tacked on another touchdown after Delle-Chiaie threw a 10-yard fade up the left sideline to Joshua Caoutte. The Blue Devils were stuffed at the line on a 2-point attempt, making it 21-12.

DiBiaso threw his fourth touchdown pass with 54 seconds left in the half, giving the Crimson Tide a 28-12 lead.

Everett’s running game took over after intermission, with Langston and Calaj rushing for touchdowns in the third quarter.

Despite losing two of his favorite targets to graduation, DiBiaso dropped back to pass 32 times, completing 15, before leaving in the fourth with a 41-12 lead.

“It was good that we were able to come out and play the way that we did,’’ said coach John DiBiaso. “We need to clean some things up and just be ready to play next week.’’

Link: http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/football/articles/2011/09/10/dibiaso_4_tds_everett_open_high_school_football_season_by_rolling_over_leominster/

BC High routs Brockton

2011-09-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Two top-10 teams in Eastern Mass. met under the lights at James Cotter Field last night, but only one team looked like it deserved to be called one of the best in the state as third-ranked BC High crushed No. 5 Brockton, 42-0.

Preston Cooper showed why he is one of the top running backs in the state with 124 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries.

“When you don’t think there’s a hole, Preston makes one,’’ BC High coach Jon Bartlett said. “It’s great to have a back like that. The lines did well but Preston is one of those guys who can make the plays on his own.’’

Right away it seemed this would be a game Brockton would like to forget. If not for a 45-yard kickoff return by Jesse Monteiro - which was followed by a three-and-out - Brockton’s offense would not have reached Eagles’ territory in the first half. The Boxers finished the half with 11 total yards on 24 plays.

The Eagles’ defensive strategy was to render Brockton’s standout quarterback, Paul Mroz, ineffective. They did just that.

“We had good help over the top,’’ Bartlett said. “He likes to tuck it away and get to the outside, so I think we did a good job containing him.’’

The Eagles’ physical play put Mroz on his heels, and back, all night. He finished 2-for-15 passing with an interception and two fumbles.

To make matters worse for Brockton, the Eagles found a rhythm early. They opened the scoring by staying on the ground, a six-play, 40-yard drive that resulted in Cooper’s first touchdown, from just inside the 5-yard line. They would tack on another 21 points before the half on two Cooper touchdowns - including an explosive 41-yard run up the middle - and a Zach West fumble return of 25 yards.

But even with a 28-0 lead, the Eagles had too much respect for Brockton to let up.

“Brockton’s always a second-half team,’’ said Cooper. “So we had to pick it up, the intensity, and we did that . . . it went well for us.’’

The Eagles’ next score came with 7:27 left in the third quarter, on a 42-yard screen pass from Bartley Regan to Gordon McLeod.

On the Boxers’ ensuing possession, Mike McAuley intercepted Mroz. A 20-yard run by Skyler Evans, an 18-yard run by James Moynahan, and a 14-yard touchdown run by Evans put the Eagles on the board for the final time.

Bartlett is aware that BC High has a tough Catholic Conference schedule ahead. After the game, he told his team that it has more to work on and it needs to get better.

The Eagles looked ready last night.

Link to article: http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/football/articles/2011/09/10/bc_high_routs_brockton/

Exclusive: NBA wants 3rd round in draft

2011-09-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Posted By Chris Sheridan

VILNIUS, Lithuania — After an overnight flight connecting through Helsinki, Finland, I bumped into a scout for the Denver Nuggets near the tourist information booth at the quaint little airport here where the second round of EuroBasket is taking place.

Whether he knows it or not, he may be here scouting future third-round draft picks.

That’s right: Third round.

SheridanHoops.com has learned that NBA owners have proposed adding a third round to the annual draft, a proposal that the players’ union has countered by offering an array of changes to the draft that would help address the owners’ desire for more competitive balance.

According to sources involved in the league’s collective bargaining discussions, the union has proposed various changes to the draft:

_ Under one proposal, the 15 teams with the worst records would continue to pick 1st through 15th, but then would also have the 16th through 30th picks. The teams with the top 15 records would have the first 15 picks of the second round, then would have the 44th through 60th picks, too. Under this proposal, the Chicago Bulls (whose 62-20 record was the league’s best last season) would have the 45th and 60th picks instead of the 30th and 30th picks. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who had the NBA’s worst record (17-65), would have their lottery pick and the 16th pick, but would no longer have the first pick of the second round — No. 31 overall.

_ Under another proposal, the teams with the eight worst records would get an additional first round pick, beginning with selection No. 22, and the teams with the eight best records would have no first-round picks but would select at the top of the second round (picks 31 through 38), then also would get the final eight picks of the second round.

There hasn’t been a third round in an NBA draft since 1988 (Anthony Mason, selected by Portland, was the most memorable pick of that third round), as the following season the draft was shortened to two rounds. The draft was seven rounds from 1985-87, and longer before that (Little-known fact: The Chicago Bulls drafted sprinter Carl Lewis in the 10th round in 1984, even though he had not played high school or college basketball. That was the same year Chicago drafted Michael Jordan No. 3 overall).

The draft negotiations have been one of the few side issues that have been discussed during the labor talks, which have centered mainly on the split of revenues between the owners and players. As reported here yesterday, the sides are closer on the money than they have been leading everyone to believe.

Labor talks will resume today in New York.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://sheridanhoops.com/2011/09/07/exclusive-nba-wants-3rd-round-in-draft/

Father and son in NBA grudge

2011-08-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

By Ashley Hammond, Staff Reporter

Rivers senior and junior heading for a dream of competing against each other

Image Credit: Arshad Ali/Gulf News

Dubai: The NBA has seen only two father and son match-ups in its 65-year history, but Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and his son Austin, a freshman with collegiate side Duke University, aim to make it three.
For the record the other two were Jan and Butch Van Breda Kolff in 1976 and more recently Mike Dunleavy junior and senior in 2003.

With 19-year-old Austin having only made three appearances for the Blue Devils so far its still very early days for the youngster but both father and son interestingly dream of competing against each other in the NBA as coach and player as opposed to shooting toward the same hoop.

Legendary Doc Rivers, the 2008 NBA Championship winning coach with the Celtics, was in Dubai watching his son make his fourth appearance in an exhibition game against the UAE national side last night at Al Wasl Club, ahead of November's proposed NBA re-start.
Rivers, aged 49, told Gulf News from the sidelines: "He's [Austin] doing alright. He's played three games so far and he's playing pretty well. Offensively he's really good that's where he excels. Defensively he's getting better and I think going to college will help him improve."

Austin, initially shrouded by his father's success as a coach and player started to make his own name for himself at Winter Park High School winning back-to-back Florida 6A state championships and later named Naismith Prep Player of the Year in March.

Rivers senior added: "I hope that one day he plays [in the NBA] that would be great but I need to play against him. I mean coach a team against him. That would be fun because I know all his strengths and weaknesses.

"That's his dream too to play against one of my sides someday. I wouldn't mind him in my team but you know that would be tough because I have to go home to his mum every night."

Rivers junior said: "I've been playing okay, it's a learning curve and I'm still adapting to the system. We're not playing a lot of minutes at the moment they are trying to sub everyone to let everybody get a taste, so it's hard to get a feel for the game."

Valuable lessons
"Playing in the NBA is a dream but right now it's about getting better as a player and a person. I want to win a National Championship before I can talk about the NBA — my dad has taught me to stay humble and hungry and work hard, that's what you have to do to win and achieve your dreams — because there are a lot that have grown big headed and never lived up to the hype."

Speaking about the potential of perhaps joining his dad one day at the Celtics, Austin said: "I would love to play for any NBA team and that's always been the goal. I would never say no to anything like that but it would be more fun to go against him."

Contrary to what his father believes about Austin's strengths and weaknesses, the youngster adds: "He doesn't know. He thinks he knows but I've got more tricks up my sleeve that he doesn't know about."
A self-confessed playmaker who models himself on the likes of Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade and Deron Williams (interestingly none of which have ever played for the Celtics) Austin is anxious to cut ties with his dad, albeit in a good way.

Austin said: "I'm very proud of my dad and the way he handles everything. You'll never see my dad get into trouble with the law or be the guy on TV who says something ridiculous. He's very humble and does things the right way and I've learnt a lot from him more importantly as a person.

"Having him at the Celtics has given me an insight as to what it's like to be an NBA player, what it takes to get there and how to handle yourself once you are there. How to act and how not to act," said Austin.
Despite the praise for his father, if he is to make it all the way to the NBA one day don't be surprised if it's not for the Celtics.

BABC gets recognized by Five-Star

2011-08-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

Boston Herald Highschool Insider

The BABC had a summer to remember, standing out against the best AAU programs in the country. Their achievements were so impressive Five-Star named the BABC the “Five-Star Summer Program of the Year” for its dominant top-to-bottom performance throughout the entire spring and summer, headlined by its 17U-14U squads.

The success was across the board in each of the BABC’s age group.

17U: Winners of the prestigious Nike Peach Jam title, BABC’s 17U squad rattled off an unparalled 92-4 ledger over the course of four months. They also claimed the Boston Shootout, earned a spot in the Super Showcase finale and notched 11 wins against Top 25 teams. BABC spent 17 weeks inside the Top 25, four weeks at No. 1 and finished second overall in our final rankings.

16U: Got ‘chips? BABC’s ultra-talented 16U squad piled up the hardware this summer behind the efforts of Nerlens Noel, Jaylen Brantley, Wayne Selden and Goodluck Okonoboh, who all were good enough to play up for the 17U team, too. They captured the Hall of Fame New England Championships, 16U Massachusetts State Tournament, Boston Shootout Championship, Hoopville Spring Finale and AAU National Championship. To top it off, they finished at No. 1 in the final Five-Star Top 25 with a 30-0 overall record.

15U: Success trickles downward for BABC. This mighty 15U team won the 9th Grade National Championship, and Boston Shootout, and even made a run all the way to the Super Showcase finals before losing to Team Takeover, 61-54, to secure the silver medal. Final record: 67-3. Not bad, eh?

14U: BABC 14s went 6-0 en route to a Rumble in the Bronx tournament championship. At Super Showcase, they went unblemished in pool play (3-0) and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Gold Bracket. BABC also won a pair of gold medals at the 2011 NEAAU District and Super Regional tournaments, but were surprisingly knocked out in the first round of bracket play at 14U AAU Nationals after going 2-1 in pool play action.

All-Stars and Olympic Athletes Headline the RCC Foundation’s Sixth Annual Golf Outing

2011-08-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

Fenway News Staff

The following press release was sent out by Roxbury Community College:

Tournament to Benefit the RCC Foundation and Reggie Lewis Center

Boston, MA – Boston Celtics legend Dana Barros, former Olympic Track Team Coach Russ Rogers, Track Gold Medalist Harvey Glance, and Olympian Ben Fields will headline the Roxbury Community College (RCC) Foundation and Sixth Annual Golf Outing on July 31, 2009, at Franklin Park Golf Course. The Honorary Co-Chairs of the Outing are Massachusetts State Auditor Joe DeNucci and RCC Trustee John Jenkins.

(Photo by Jamarhl Crawford)

The goal of the event is to raise funds to support community outreach programs at the Reggie Lewis Center and provide necessary funds to deserving students in the Greater Boston Community. In addition to a great day of golf, 150 participants will test their skills with hole-in-one, longest drive, and closest-to-the-pin contests. Following the competition, a luncheon, catered by Kowloon of Saugus, MA, will be held for over 200 participants, local business leaders, elected officials, and supporters of the programs.

(Photo by Jamarhl Crawford)

State Auditor DeNucci is glad to be partnering with the Golf Organizing Committee for the second straight year. “It is with great pleasure that I once again take part in this terrific event,” said DeNucci. “The Roxbury Community College Foundation and the Reggie Lewis Center provide our inner-city youth with both educational and athletic opportunities that were once unattainable. This worthwhile event raises the necessary funds, especially in these tough fiscal times, to benefit programs that help so many realize their dreams.”

(Photo by Jamarhl Crawford)

Additional participants in this year’s Outing include NESN’s “Coach” Willie Maye, President of the Urban Strategy America Fund Kirk Sykes, Stanley and Bobby Wong of Kowloon, Owens Companies’ President and CEO Ed Owens, Monster’s Chief Diversity Officer Steve Pemberton, Roxbury Community College President Dr. Terrence Gomes, former Miami Dolphin and current Boston area attorney Eddie Jenkins, and Rom Homer of Conway, Homer &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Chin-Caplan Law Offices.

(Photo by Jamarhl Crawford)

About the Roxbury Community College Foundation: Originating in 1983, The Roxbury Community College Foundation is an independent organization, fiscally separate from the College, organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of Roxbury Community College and the furtherance of the education of its students. The Board of Trustees of the College certified the Foundation as the official foundation and sole fundraising agent for the college.

(Photo by Jamarhl Crawford)

About the Reggie Lewis Track &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Athletic Center: Now in it’s 14th year, the Reggie Lewis Track &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Athletic Center, named after the local humanitarian and basketball hero, is home to a 70,000 square foot state of the art track – which hosts events such as the Nike High School Nationals, the USA Track &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Field Championships, and the Boston Indoor Games. The Center is also involved in the community in numerous ways, hosting charity events and outreach programs throughout the year.

Corey Lowe signs a contract to play overseas

2011-08-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

By: Dan Ventura - High School Insider

     Former two-time Boston Herald Dream Teamer Corey Lowe of Newton North inked a deal to play basketball for Maccabi Ashdod in the Israeli League.

    After leading the Tigers to pair of Division 1 state basketball titles as well as two Bay State Carey football crowns, the 6-foot-2 guard went on to have a stellar career at Boston University.

    A four-year starter under Dennis Wolff and Pat Chambers, Lowe ended his career among the school’s all-time leader in points (fourth, 1,815), field goals (fifth, 612), 3-pointers made (first, 313), assists (fifth, 411) and minutes played (second, 3,829).

Patriots take chance on veteran misfits

2011-07-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Bill shakes up league

By Ian R. Rapoport |

Photo by Ted Fitzgerald

FOXBORO — The Patriots [team stats] spent the first two days of free agency in near silence, watching and waiting as opponents threw fistfuls of dollars at countless players. Fans no doubt clamored for signs of life underneath Bill Belichick’s hoodie.

He came alive yesterday.

In a training camp opening day no one will forget, the Patriots coach once again turned all eyes on his team by trading for former Pro Bowl players Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco.

Suddenly, thanks to the addition of the former Redskins defensive tackle and the ex-Bengals wide receiver, the Patriots received a jolt of energy and expertise deemed necessary by Belichick even after a 14-2 season. And the world noticed, with the Pats dominating the headlines, beginning when the Haynesworth deal broke before 6:20 a.m. By 7 p.m., Ochocinco was trending worldwide on Twitter.

While neither trade has been made official, Ochocinco said in a tweet, “God is so Good” after the news broke. Both players headed to the facility last night to meet with Belichick, a coach Ochocinco called “a friend” in 2010.

Suddenly, Trader Bill was back. Belichick left players shaking their heads in awe, aware that their world was quickly changing.

“It’s huge,” defensive end Ty Warren [stats] said of Haynesworth’s trade. “I mean, he’s got some freakish ability.”

When Belichick addressed the media, he acknowledged a deal for Haynesworth was in the works but cautioned it wasn’t done yet. By late last night, it was.

Ochocinco has been a character off the field, whether starring in a television show, emerging as a national brand on Twitter or trying his hand at riding a bull. And he’s no longer young at age 33.

Haynesworth, 30, has battled character concerns for years, from stomping on an opponent to several arrests to refusing to play in the Redskins’ base defense.

Both are talented. Both have question marks. For any trade, Belichick does the research.

“Anytime you acquire a player, however you do it, you want to be comfortable putting that player into your team,” Belichick said. “So whether you draft them, sign them, trade for them, however you do it, that’s what you want to try to do.”

The Ochocinco deal was in the works for days, with the 49ers, Raiders and Patriots having permission to trade for him. The Patriots won out, and Ochocinco had final say.

Of course, this is not unprecedented. The Patriots have taken on erstwhile reclamation projects, disgruntled talents and players with poor reputations before. The success stories of Randy Moss and Corey Dillon [stats] stand out.

Perhaps adding two low-risk high-reward question marks is a sign that Belichick is comfortable with his locker room, even though he said when asked, “I have no idea. This team is a new team.”

“If you’re here, we’ll welcome you with open arms,” nose tackle Vince Wilfork [stats] said. “We always want to be on the same page no matter how you slice it. When you step on the field you have to be on the same page or that’s where mistakes happen.”

To make the deals happen, it doesn’t look like Belichick mortgaged the future. Haynesworth, who will earn a non-guaranteed salary of $5.4 million this season, came over for a fifth-round pick in 2013. The team will try to motivate him.

Ochocinco was reportedly traded for two future late-round picks and restructured his contract into a three-year deal. He will still earn $6 million in 2011, ProFootballTalk.com reported, after just 67 catches for 831 yards last year.

What the Patriots will get remains to be seen. But both Ochocinco and Haynesworth figure to be ecstatic, and a good fit, on their new homes.

The Patriots need pass-rush help, and Haynesworth (51 tackles, 81⁄2 sacks in 2008) providing a push up the middle should assist everyone. Still, one veteran executive familiar with Haynesworth described him as a player “who can dominate when motivated but can quit instantly.”

As was clear in the playoff loss to the Jets, the Patriots need help from an outside receiver. That’s what Ochocinco brings, averaging more than 10 yards per catch each year of his career. He’s just, well, different.

“I think he’d be fine,” receiver Wes Welker said this summer. “I think he’s pretty harmless. He does all the extra stuff that Bill is not too fond of. It’s never anything too bad.”

Article URL: http://bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1354863

18th anniversary of Reggie Lewis’ death

2011-07-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Reggie Lewis, 1965-1993

Muggsy Bogues reflects on his friend’s tragic death.

by Tzvi Twersky | @ttwersky

Eighteen years ago today, Reggie Lewis’ heart gave out on him at the all-too-young age of 27.
An NBA veteran of six seasons and one All-Star game at the time of his death, Lewis, a former No. 22 overall pick by the Boston Celtics, was on the cusp of entering the best years of his career—and life. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.

Lewis, who first collapsed during his final NBA game—a first round Playoff game against the Charlotte Hornets—fell to the floor while playing offseason basketball at Brandeis University and never recovered. His passing was later attributed to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, one of the leading causes of sudden deaths among young athletes.

A star who was just beginning to fully shine, Lewis’ career numbers are locked at 17.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg and 1.3 spg for all of eternity, never to be bloated by a peak season, nor shrunk by a twilight one.

Life overlooked, death oversimplified, we could write thousands of more words on Lewis. Instead, we’ll let Muggsy Bogues, a lifelong friend, high school teammate (Dunbar High) and eye witness to Lewis’ first collapse, tell you.

We spoke with Bogues—an always congenial man who nearly broke down when discussing his friend—late last year for a different purpose and have yet to publish his words about Reggie Lewis. Now is the perfect time to do so.

Reggie may be gone, but 18 years later, his memory lives on.

SLAM: Three guys from your high school team at Dunbar were all taken in the same Draft (Bogues, Lewis and Reggie Williams). That’s pretty special.

Muggsy Bogues: Yeah, from the same high school in ’87. David [Wingate] was a year ahead of us. But those are the things that kind of stand out. It was sad, when we played in the ’93 Playoffs and I had to see one of my good friends [Reggie Lewis] fall and collapse out while we were playing. And me and David [Wingate] just happened to be on the court that same time.

SLAM: Man, his passing was so hard on everybody. I can only imagine how difficult it must’ve been for you.

MB: Words can’t describe the pain. Reg was such a great friend of ours, such a great person, so humble, and he was just starting to reach his stardom. That was his team, the Boston Celtics. The Big Three (Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish), had passed the torch down to him and that was something that he felt so grateful for, so respected, because he respected those guys and he earned their respect—it wasn’t something that they just gave him, he earned it. He’s always been that type of humble guy. Even though he was the sixth man on a high school team, you know Reg could start on anybody’s team, but he was able to accept that role to allow us to do what we was able to do—to win the national championship two years in a row. And he always had been that way, and that’s one of the reasons why he was able to put Boston on his shoulders and able to do the things he was able to do and get the respect from the Big Three, as he called it. So now I know he’s smiling up there, watching over his kids, just wishing everybody can continue to keep doing what their supposed to do, because that’s what he would want us to do.

SLAM: It must’ve been so hard for you to get beyond his passing on a certain level.

MB: Yeah, you never get over it. What I do—I celebrate their lives. Because he’s in a much better place right now, and I know if he could he would say to me, ‘Muggs, I don’t wanna come back. I’m happy where I’m at, but I’m waiting on you! We got the door open, and we’re waiting on you. When it’s your time, we’ll be right here with open arms.’ And those are the things that you go through. You see life; you see death. That’s just what it is. You just gotta appreciate the time that you’re here.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/07/reggie-lewis-1965-1993/

The Perkins trade saga continues …

2011-07-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

By: cnnsi.com

Former Celtic Kendrick Perkins swapped teams with Jeff Green in a midseason trade. (Elsa/Getty Images)

Boston fans adore Kendrick Perkins, which is why so much of the discussion over a trade involving a marginal NBA starter has been heated and sometimes irrational. Few trades centered around a guy who will almost certainly never reach All-Star status have created such controversy or been deemed so central to the fate of a team. It is not a stretch to say some blame the Perkins/Jeff Green swap for the Celtics’ postseason failure.

The debate reaches such extremes in part because the Perkins deal represents a clash between numbers and the ephemeral notion of “chemistry.” It is very difficult — and perhaps impossible — to find a shred of statistical evidence that the Celtics suffered a drop-off in play because they lost Perkins. (Remember: Correlation does not equal causation. The Celtics’ performed slightly worse after January, but they have mastered the late-season fade over the last few years. Pinning a late-season scoring decline over a small sample size on Perkins seems like a stretch.) But those who believe in the power of a positive, united locker room hold strong to the notion that the loss of a long-term centerpiece deflated the team in ways stats could never measure. It is an appealing argument, in part because it is impossible to disprove.

Rajon Rondo gives voice to that idea in this interview with Yahoo! Sports:

[Rondo] also believes the trade of Perkins, his closest friend on the team, affected the Celtics “more than it should have.”
“It wasn’t like the man passed away or something,” Rondo said. “I think we put too much emphasis on it. It’s a business. He got traded. He’s very happy where he’s at. We still talk and I’m always going to have his back. It shouldn’t have affected us the way it affected us.”

The Perkins trade has always struck me as something of a red herring for Boston fans trying to explain why their team flamed out against Miami. It’s a convenient excuse, and easy “what if?” scapegoat that ignores the context of the 2010-11 season and the Celtics.

Boston’s problem for two years running has been a below-average offense prone to team-killing dry spells. At best, Perkins was not someone who was going to help solve that problem; at worst, he was part of it. Toss in the fact that Boston was going to have trouble re-signing Perkins, and you get what the C’s were going for, especially considering the injury to Marquis Daniels left the team bereft of legit wing backups.

The issue with the deal has always been Green, on both sides. He was a consistent anchor in Oklahoma City; lineups featuring Green almost always performed worse than those that did not include him. The addition of Perkins brought the Thunder a beefy, defensive-oriented center and cleared the power forward spot for Serge Ibaka. It was a double win.

The following things are also true:

• Perkins played just 313 minutes for Boston over 12 games last season. Far too many critics of the trade used the Celtics’ outstanding pre-trade record as evidence the deal was a mistake without acknowledging that Perkins had essentially nothing to do with that record.

• The Celtics’ defense was outstanding all season and remained so in the playoffs. Defense is Perkins’ strength, obviously. If you’re looking for evidence that the team suffered in his absence, you have to find it here. And you can’t. The team’s defense put up stingy numbers when any of the core units were on the floor, save for those involving — you guessed it! – Green. (To be clear, Green didn’t play enough minutes to have a notable impact on the team’s overall defensive performance.) This is true for both Glen Davis, Boston’s crunch-time choice at “center” all season, and Jermaine O’Neal, who put up some of the best individual defensive numbers in the league this season.

• Perkins’ knee was not close to 100 percent, and he flailed badly in the postseason, particularly against Memphis. He gave Nene fits in the first round, but he could not duplicate that against the Grizzlies, who happily ignored him when Oklahoma City had the ball. The Thunder scored 11 fewer points per 100 possessions during the playoffs with Perkins on the floor, and John Hollinger of ESPN.com detailed these problems at length during the series.

• Was a hobbled Perkins equipped to play effectively against the Heat, a team that was (at least at that point in the playoffs) comfortable using small lineups? It’s a counter-factual thing, but it’s not obvious Perkins would have been a huge help against that particular Heat team — especially given his health issues. It’s easy to say the C’s needed someone to knock LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on their rear ends, but that alone wouldn’t have tipped the series Boston’s way.

Perkins has never been a plus offensive player, but in the past he could help by setting vicious screens, finishing the open looks he did get and making an acceptable percentage of his foul shots. In 2010-11 — and in that season alone — the negatives outweighed the positives, and it wasn’t close.

This is not an endorsement of the Perkins/Green trade. The stance here from the moment the deal happened was a mixture of understanding what Boston was going for and nervousness that they had targeted the wrong player (Green) to execute that plan. The Thunder will probably “win” the deal in the long haul, and Boston could get themselves in trouble by over-paying Green. But it has long been time to move away from the idea that the Perkins swap was the single most important factor in Boston’s failure to win the 2010-11 title. The deal may well have affected team chemistry, as Rondo seems to indicate, but the ability to magically heal Rondo’s dislocated left elbow (or perhaps Davis’ psyche) would have helped Boston’s chances in that particular series more than Perkins.

BABC Freshman rise to the challenge

2011-07-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Posted by Danny Ventura (Boston Herald - High School Insider)

The BABC Freshmen added to the program’s illustrious history by knocking off the Louisiana Jaguars, 78-66, to bring home the program’s 14th national championship.

Former Brookline star Jeff Adrien attends a pre-ESPY event

2011-07-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Posted by Danny Ventura (Boston Herald - High School Insider)

Former Herald Dream Teamer Jeff Adrien of Brookline was among those at the iRenew Pre-ESPY dinner for nominee Kemba Walker, the standout guard, who led UConn to the National Basketball title. Like Walker, Adrien attended UConn, playing there from 2006-2009. The 6-foot-7, 245-pounder played all four years for the Huskies, finishing with 1,600 points and 1,100 rebounds (only the second player to reach those stats under coach Jim Calhoun.

Madison Park football coach Roosevelt Robinson selected to attend an NFL event

2011-07-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

Posted by Danny Ventura (Boston Herald - High School Insider)

Madison Park football coach Roosevelt Robinson is among 51 top high school football coaches selected by the NFL to participate in the eleventh annual NFL-USA Football Youth Football Summit July 20-21 during the lead up to the 2011 Hall of Fame Weekend in Canton.

Local basketball stars making a difference

2011-07-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

Posted by Danny Ventura (Boston Herald - High School Insider)

Malcolm Wynn couldn’t help but chuckle during a recent session at the MB Sports Camps on the campus of Curry College.

The head instructor for the boys and girls basketball camp, Wynn watched as former local hoop stars Wayne Turner (Beaver CD/Kentucky), Monty Mack (South Boston/UMass), Steve Hailey (Worcester Academy/Boston College) and Courtney Eldridge (Thayer/UNC-Greensboro) regaled a group of nearly 140 kids with their basketball tales.

“As they were talking, I started to realize that I’m getting old,” Wynn said with a laugh. “I can remember coaching against them when they were kids and now here they are giving advice.”

While the MB Sports Camps has been around since 1995, this is just the second year that the camp has branched out to include basketball. After drawing 50 kids in the two-week session last year (24 the first week, 26 the second), the camp has expanded to nearly 300 this year.

“The whole thing has been great,” Wynn said. “But the best thing is seeing these young men giving back to the community.”

Wynn just turned 55, but he has no plans of slowing down. He is heading into his ninth season as head men’s basketball coach at Curry, but Wynn is adding a familiar face to the Colonels bench – Lance Tucker. Tucker was the longtime head hoop coach at Brookline and Wynn served as his assistant for 13 years.

“Lance will always be the head coach to me,” Wynn said. “I’m so excited to be able to bring someone like Lance back here.”

For more information, visit the website http://www.mbsportscamps.com/

Karl Hobbs returns to UConn men's basketball

2011-07-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

Storrs, Conn. — Karl Hobbs was named Director of Men’s Basketball Administration at UConn, it was announced Tuesday by head coach Jim Calhoun.

“I am very excited to have Karl rejoin our staff here at UConn,” Calhoun said in a statement. “Karl is a proven professional and is a Husky. He will be a great fit and I know that the team and staff will benefit from his return.”

“I am blessed with the opportunity to work with such incredible coaches, administrators and student-athletes,” Hobbs said. “I consider everyone at UConn to be family to me and I take great pride in returning under the tutelage of such a phenomenal Hall of Famer and mentor in Coach Calhoun. I credit Coach for so much of the success that I have had in my career and to be back working for him is a thrill. It is an exciting time to be at UConn, under the direction of new President Susan Herbst, and I have such gratitude and respect for Jeff Hathaway and the impact that he has had on my career. I look forward to getting started and jumping in with both feet, getting to know the players and reconnecting with the many people still on the staff from my previous time on campus.”

In his 10 seasons at GW, Hobbs led the Colonials to unprecedented heights, capturing a pair of Atlantic 10 Tournament titles, one regular season championship and making five postseason appearances, including three straight NCAA Tournament trips from 2004-06. Hobbs compiled a record of 166-129 in his ten seasons.

Hobbs spent the 1993-94 through 2000-01 seasons as an assistant coach for UConn, helping the Huskies earn five BIG EAST Regular Season titles, three BIG EAST Tournament crowns and the 1999 NCAA National Championship. UConn had a record of 216-56 in his eight seasons on the staff.

College athletes deserve to be paid

2011-07-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

By Michael Wilbon
ESPN.com
I used to argue vehemently against paying college athletes. Tuition, room, board and books were compensation enough. And even if, increasingly, it wasn't enough and virtually every kid who accepted a scholarship was in the red before Christmas of his freshman year, the notion of pay-for-play was at best a logistical nightmare. Where exactly would the money come from? How could you pay college football players but not baseball players or members of the women's field hockey team? And how in the world would you pay men in a way that wouldn't violate Title IX?

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Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesThe UConn basketball team's run to the NCAA championship generated millions for the NCAA and the university.

So you know what caused me to do a 180 on the issue? That $11 billion deal -- OK, it's $10.8 billion to be exact -- between the NCAA and CBS/Turner Sports for March Madness between 2011 and 2024. We're talking $11 billion for three weekends of television per year. On top of that, there's a new four-year deal with ESPN that pays the BCS $500 million. So, if those two deals were worth, say, a combined $10 billion instead of $11.3 billion, would the games not be televised? Would the quality of the broadcasts or the coverage or the staging of the events be somehow diminished? What if people in the business of money took $1.3 billion off the top, invested it, sheltered it and made it available to provide a stipend to college athletes, how could anybody stand on principal and argue against paying the people who make the events possible in the first place?

Let me declare up front I wouldn't be the slightest bit interested in distributing the funds equitably or even paying every college athlete. I'm interested in seeing the people who produce the revenue share a teeny, tiny slice of it. That's right, football and men's basketball players get paid; lacrosse, field hockey, softball, baseball, soccer players get nothing. You know what that's called? Capitalism. Not everything is equal, not everything is fair. The most distinguished professor at the University of Alabama won't make $5.9 million in his entire tenure in Tuscaloosa; Nick Saban will make that this year. So I don't want to hear that it's "unfair" to pay the quarterback of Alabama more than all the sociology students in the undergraduate college.

Using the inability to distribute the funds equally as an impediment is an excuse, a rather intellectually lazy one at that. Nothing about the way hundreds of millions of dollars is distributed is equitable or even fair. The BCS' new deal with ESPN was based, in part, on paying more money to schools/conferences with regard to what has been called "population centers." Of the $174 million distributed from five bowl games, 83.4 percent went to six conferences in 2011. In question right now is whether the BCS even conducts its business dealings in a manner consistent with principles expressed in federal anti-trust laws. So, the equitable-application excuse for not paying athletes doesn't hold water; at the very least there's a level of hypocrisy here that ought to make the opponents of paying athletes uncomfortable.

Don't get me wrong, paying players out of individual athletic department budgets is beyond impractical; it's probably not feasible. Because so many athletic departments run at a deficit, it's difficult to make the case that schools should pay regular salaries to athletes, even football players who produce more income than anybody. But it's another thing entirely for the students who play for revenue-producing teams (at UConn and the University of Tennessee, this would include the women's basketball teams) to be somehow compensated from the lucrative television/radio/Internet rights fees they make wholly possible.

It's commendable that the NCAA has paid millions into a fund for in-need athletes to cover clothing purchases, emergency travel and medical expenses. There's also a special assistance fund and a student-athlete opportunity fund. Why can't hundreds of millions of dollars be directed into those, and in turn make money much more accessible to athletes for the kinds of regular day-to-day expenses regular college students pay by working jobs that are off-limits to intercollegiate athletes?

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David Madison/Getty ImagesPlayers like Andrew Luck, who are the face of their university, deserve to be compensated.

In the meantime, if they cannot be paid outright, surely the scholarship athletes should be able to engage in entrepreneurial pursuits that currently leads to costly NCAA investigations that have proven to be mostly a waste of time since, one, such activities historically haven't been checked and, two, the kids who commit the "infractions" aren't effectively punished. Their revelations, short of Heisman Trophy winners having to return their statues, wind up penalizing only the kids and coaches who remain on the team and in the vast majority of cases have done nothing to merit a penalty themselves.

If somebody is willing to give A.J. Green $750 or $1,000 or even $2,500 for his Georgia Bulldogs jersey, fine, good. If one of his teammates, a tackle, can fetch only $50 for his jersey, then it'll be a good marketing lesson for both of them. It's called supply and demand, and if both men are fortunate enough to reach the NFL it'll be a lesson worth learning because that dynamic will exist their entire careers. If a soccer player can't get a dime for his jersey, well, there's a realization in that, too.

The question from the opponents of paying college athletes inevitably comes back, "What would stop a star player from agreeing to shake hands at a local car dealership for $50,000?" The answer is, nothing. If a car dealer wants to strike that deal then good for the player in question. If a music student goes out in the summer and earns 50 grand, who objects? Who even knows? The student-musician is no less a college student because he struck a lucrative deal. Neither is the student-journalist who spends his nights writing freelance stories and picking up as much money along the way as he can.

If the student as athlete can find a way, he/she should be able to endorse products, to have paid-speaking gigs, to sell memorabilia, as Allen Sack, the author and professor at the college of business at the University of New Haven has suggested in recent years. The best college athletes in the two revenue-producing sports have always been worth much more than tuition, room, board and books. The best football and basketball players in the Big Ten have produced to the degree that a television network has become the model for every conference in America, a network worth at least tens of millions of dollars to the member institutions. Yet, no player can benefit from that work. The players have become employees of the universities and conferences as much as students -- employees with no compensation, which not only violates common decency but perhaps even the law.

Michael Wilbon is a featured columnist for ESPN.com and ESPNChicago.com. He is the longtime co-host of "Pardon the Interruption" on ESPN and appears on the "NBA Sunday Countdown" pregame show on ABC in addition to ESPN. Wilbon joined ESPN.com after three decades with The Washington Post, where he earned a reputation as one of the nation's most respected sports journalists.

Bostonians Weigh-in on Bill Russell Statue Site

2011-07-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Akosa: 'Chambers would be there at my wedding'

2011-06-30T11:50:00.001-07:00

By Brendan Hall
Akosa Maduegbunam's commitment to Penn State yesterday, confirmed this afternoon by ESPNBoston.com, was a function of the academic and social amenities offered in Happy Valley. But more than anything, it was the product of a special bond the former Charlestown swingman forged with new Nittany Lions head coach Pat Chambers, dating back to when he first offered Maduegbunam as the head man at Boston University.

"I would say Coach Chambers is probably one of the best recruiters ever," Maduegbunam said this afternoon by phone. "He just makes you feel really welcome, really wanted. I tried to evaluate coaches as to where they'll be down the road.

"Somewhere along the line of life, I'll stop playing basketball, and Coach Chambers is a guy who would be there at my wedding. He is more than just a college coach. It's more than just basketball for him, it's about character and personality. He found that in me, and I found that in him."

Brendan Hall/ESPNBoston.com

The 6-foot-4 Maduegbunam was also considering offers from Temple, Drexel, New Hampshire and Iona at the time of his commitment, while Northeastern and St. Bonaventure had also expressed interest.

Maduegbunam, who transferred into Charlestown from Cushing Academy as a sophomore, will finish his high school career at Winchendon School starting in the fall. In his two seasons with the Townies, he averaged 20.5 points, seven rebounds, three assists and was a two-time All-City selection. This past winter, he was named to ESPNBoston's inaugural MIAA All-State Team after averaging 22 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, and leading the Townies to their first Boston City League title since 2006.

With a long, lean frame that allows him accelerate quickly when defending the perimeter, and finish at the rim, Maduegbunam could be a prospect that flies under the radar as he continues to develop his ballhandling skills. His three-point range and finishes in transition will likely fit well with Chambers, who prefers an uptempo style and isn't afraid to give the green-light from deep.

Earlier this month, Maduegbunam went toe-to-toe with New Hampton's Jared Terrell at the Reebok Headliner tryout in Dorchester, and was named one of the finalists selected to next month's Breakout Challenge in Philadelphia. His ceiling is considered high, and he could see his stock rise this summer running with the Expressions AAU club.

So at the questions of his ability to hang in the Big Ten, Maduegbunam is calmly dismissive.

"It's not a thing of whether I'm ready or not, it's a level I was born to play at," Maduegbunam said. "The schools I was getting offers from was because of connections. I never got to display myself at the national level, the AAU circuit; I could have been in the likes of any high-major school. It just so happens that I got lucky, but I like to say that that's where preparation and opportunity meet, and my number's been called to Penn State."

Asked to describe his emotions after making the phone call to Chambers, Maduegbunam struggled to put the right thoughts into words.

"It didn’t really hit me until I guess today, when I started telling people over the phone where I was going," Maduegbunam said. "I'd say my emotions were...late? I don’t know, I'm still going through it, it's so surreal."

Speaking on his later father Ofili Maduegbunam, who passed away a decade ago, Akosa continued, "Some people that were with me from the beginning and saw I had a vision with this basketball dream, they aren’t with me today. I find that kinda heart-aching, but these are the people I do it for. Of course you're gonna have a lot of doubters, but that's not what I play for. I play for the love of the game."

Featured MMA Fighter: Kin "Kong" Moy

2011-06-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Kin Moy, is 5-0 with a recent victory over Matt Dohert. Moy is widely regarded as the man to beat in the 135 weight class.

1) When and why did you get into mma?

That's a doozy of a question for me, as there was a lot that went into it. I've been doing martial arts since I was 9, but in a totally half-assed way. I would train once a week and think I was the shit. I was more into traditional martial arts at the time and one of my buddies showed me UFC, which got my attention -- but not in the way you might think! I was always into the 'style vs style' question, so I liked the concept of an 'anything goes' type of match, BUT I couldn't stand the grappling.

I was 16 or so when I first started watching MMA with my friend, and it really wasn't because I enjoyed it; it was because I liked to critique it. "That grappling stuff wouldn't work in a real fight!" "These guys suck at striking, why don't they chamber their kicks?!" I was essentially one of those fantasy-land d-bags that drive me insane now...

But that all changed when I saw Anderson Silva destroy Chris Leben in his UFC debut. That opened my eyes to the beauty and artistry of combat sports. Fascinated by Anderson Silva, I decided that I had to see more of him, so I would watch UFC events that featured him. Eventually I began to like other fighters and slowly but surely, I actually grew to enjoy the sport itself. From there, the natural next step was to give it a shot myself!

2) Do you have a background in martial arts, boxing , wrestling etc?

I've trained (again, half-assed) in many different martial arts over the last 11 years. But, since I didn't put enough time into it, I suck at almost all of them so there hasn't been tons of carry over into MMA. I guess you could say that I have a slight background in striking, since I have been training it in one form or another for so long... But at the same time, if you condense all of that once-a-week-training that took place between the age of 9 and 17 (when I started training for real), it'd probably equal a year of intense training.

I definitely don't have the physical skills of someone that's been striking since he was 9, but my conceptual understanding is pretty strong because of my 'background.' It's definitely helped improve faster than I otherwise would.

3) What's you nickname, how did you get it?

My nickname is 'Kong.' One of my teammate's started calling me that because I so strongly objected to the generic ones like 'killer-Kin.' Not only does Kin 'Kong' roll off the tongue well, but there was definitely some ironic humor in the name because at the time, I was the smallest male fighter in the gym. Everyone else was at least 180+ and towering over me.

4) What are your ultimate goals in the sport?

My ultimate goal in the sport is to be the UFC 135 champion. I don't know if I'll ever be able to pull that off, but you might as well shoot for the stars right? I also hope to become a full-time instructor someday. I really love teaching and I have a real talent for it, if I do say so myself. I'm far better at passing on my knowledge of techniques than executing them. Unfortunately I don't know shit -- at least in the grand scheme of things! And that's why I've got to earn myself some credentials first. So yeah, my goal is to get as far as I can in the sport and then train others to go even further.

5) What do you think about your next opponent?

My next opponent is Rico Disciullo and I think he's freaking DANGEROUS! He's fast, he's explosive, and he hits like a sledgehammer. No hyperbole there -- he literally broke his last opponent's face with like 3 punches. On top of that, he's from a really superb camp and has top-notch training partners.

There's a lot of hype behind him right now because he's made such short work of his opponent's. He's dangerous, for sure, but I still see him as untested. I am a huge step up in competition for him. And in a sense, he's also a step up in competition for me.

Though I'd consider Mike Campanella, for example, to be a more well-rounded obstacle than Rico, I haven't faced anyone with even half his stopping power. Although he hasn't shown it in his MMA matches yet, Dat has some serious head kick KOs under his belt, but kicks don't come in bunches. On the other hand, I've seen Rico swarm people with a hailstorm of killer punches. So yeah, again, he'll be the most dangerous opponent yet.

6) How do you see the fight going/being finished?

Someone is going to get overwhelmed. Either I'm going to get KO'd in a whirlwind of haymakers like all of Rico's past opponents or I'm going beat him down with a winning combination of finesse and grit.

I've seen what he can do, and I have to respect the power and ferocity that he brings to the table. Yet, I don't see myself being another clip on his highlight reel. I can take a serious shot without even blinking, but even more importantly, I'm not the type to just stand around and wait for him to T off on my face. Yeah, that's definitely not on my agenda. I'm more interested in finding out if he can take as much as he can dish.

7) What weight do you walk at/how much do you cut to fight?

If I'm eating whatever I feel like (read: everything within a square mile), I tend to weigh 150-152. If I'm watching my weight, I'll be between 147-149. So I usually begin my drop from somewhere on that range. I shed the weight with a combination of dieting and sweating. I've lost as much as 8 pounds in the sauna before, but lately I've been trying to keep it closer to 5.

8) What's your favorite part about fighting?

My favorite part about fighting is knowing that I'm actually doing something. I hate people who talk and talk but never gear up and do the damn thing. I also hate when people don't realized that 'the damn thing,' isn't just stepping into the cage -- it's training and preparing for the fight. That's the real work; any clown can sign up and climb the stairs. And conversely, plenty of jokers train half-assed and talk about their skills without putting it to the test.

But when I fight, no matter what, I ALWAYS put in the work in the gym. I've always paid my dues before I walk down the aisle call myself a fighter. The actual combat is the climax to the grueling, thrilling, agonizing, beautiful process that is a training camp, that is a fight, that is 3 months of this lifestyle. All of it -- doing all of it right is my favorite part.

9) What's the worst part about fighting?

The worst part about fighting is facing my own doubts and demons. I hate those days when I can't do anything right or when I quit on myself in training and question why I've given up so much of my time and energy on an activity that consists largely of me getting beat up. Like any other fighter, sometimes I leave the gym feeling chewed up and spit out -- earnestly wondering if I actually have what it takes or if I'm just waisting my brain cells on a pipe dream. That takes so much out of me mentally, but I always have to go back for another helping tomorrow, because the show must go on. That moment inbetween agonizing about today's failures and dreading tomorrow's training session is least favorite part about this sport. Oh, and dieting. And sprints... sprints suck.

10) Anyone locally or in the big's that you really would love to fight, and why?

Actually the guy I really want to fight right now is Rico Disciullo, so I'm in luck! I also want to fight Colton Blanchette since he's ranked #3 out of the 135 lbs amateurs (Dave Lachapelle who was ranked #2 is a friend of mine and he went pro). I don't give the rankings tons of weight, but at the same time, they were given for a reason.

I'm much quicker to doubt myself than pat myself on the back, so I feel the need to prove (mostly to myself) that I've earned the #1 ranking and that it wasn't just some mistake or misinterpretation. And the best way to do that is to fight the most dangerous mofos around, such as Rico or Colton.

11)What do you feel is your best weapon in your fights?

I think my biggest weapon is my well-roundedness. Though I'm not amazing at any one aspect of the game, I'm a legitimate threat anywhere (to a 135 lbs amateur, at least). Even more importantly, I put these skills together and use them in combination rather than in isolation.

A close second would be my uniqueness. My striking style is an uncommon martial art in the United States. My gym is a San Da school, which is a Chinese form of kickboxing that's very similar to Muay Thai -- yet markedly distinct! I've got a lot of weapons at my disposal that other people haven't really been exposed to, so they're unprepared to counter my somewhat unorthodox techniques and tactics.

In closing I would like to thank and acknowledge my coaches -- Paul Rosado, Eric Grossman, Lyle Lashley, David Ginsberg, and Marvin Perry! I would also like to thank all of my teammates, but especially the ones who got me started -- Leo Akiki, Jeremiah 'Dr Doom' Diruzzo, and Sonia Mejia!

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, my father David Moy! Sometimes I think that root of my passion for martial arts stemmed from my aspiration to one day be as badass as him! Plus he gave me my foundation in striking.

Thank you all so much! If it weren't for all of you, I'd still be a lonely fat kid playing video games and eating icecream... As opposed to a lonely but fit 20 year old with an eating disorder (read: fighters diet) who daydreams constantly about playing video games and eating icecream. .

Thanks again to Kin, for the very interesting read!!

Posted by Jeremy at 4/19/2011

Ray Allen's daughter commits to Quinnipiac

2011-06-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

By Lenny Neslin, Boston.com Staff

Wellesley High School product Tierra Allen will play volleyball for Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., the university's athletics department announced. Tierra is Celtics shooting guard Ray Allen's daughter.

"Tierra is one of the most powerful athletes I saw last season," Quinnipiac head coach Robin Sparks said. "She has a fantastic jump serve and hits the ball with authority. Once she adjusts to the pace of the collegiate game, she is going to be a terrific contributor."

Allen, who played her first three high school years in South Carolina at Crestwood High School, was a four-time league all-star and a two-time all-area selection between the two schools. She averaged 10 kills, 10 service points and three assists per match as a senior, and was named a Boston Globe Bay State All-Star.

OK by Reggie Jackson

2011-06-24T11:15:00.001-07:00

BC guard storms into NBA with Thunder

By Rich Thompson | Friday, June 24, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | NBA Coverage

Al Skinner recruited him.
Steve Donahue wanted to keep him.
Scott Brooks has him now.

The Oklahoma City Thunder last night selected Boston College junior point guard Reggie Jackson with the 24th pick in the first round of the NBA draft. Jackson elected to bypass his senior year at The Heights and transform his Atlantic Coast Conference experience into a professional career.

“Well obviously I’m ecstatic, I’ve been drafted in the first round by a great organization and I feel truly blessed,” Jackson said. “I’m pretty excited about going to a team that can win a championship for many years.

“I loved BC, I loved my experience there but I felt that this was the best time to pursue my NBA dream.”
Jackson is going to a young playoff team that is poised to contend for the NBA title. The Thunder’s commander on the floor is guard Russell Westbrook, a 6-foot-3, third-year pro out of UCLA who averaged 21.9 points per game last season. Jackson has a good idea on what he has to finesse and incorporate into his game to complement Westbrook before he reports to training camp.

“I have watched him and he is somebody I can help on the attack and take some pressure off him,” Jackson said. “I have to work hard on my shot and I need to improve my defensive approach. I’m focused on helping out on defense and fine-tuning my shot into their offense.

“I have to increase my court vision and get people the ball in positions where they can be successful.”
Jackson was the Colorado High School Player of the Year at Palmer High where he averaged 29.6 points per game. He appeared in 34 games as a freshman at BC playing behind Tyrese Rice.

The 6-foot-3 guard started 20-of-31 games as a sophomore during Skinner’s last season on the Eagles bench.

“I felt Reggie definitely had the capability to do that and he was driven to try and be the best player he can be,” said Skinner, who built a 247-165 record in 13 seasons at BC.

“I honestly think his best basketball is in front of him and he is only going to continue to get better. Offensively he just has to be a little more consistent. He can shoot the ball, shoot the floater, finish in the lane and just be more consistent with his game and he’s going to do that.”

Donahue replaced Skinner at the start of the 2010-11 season and built his program around Jackson, who started 32-of-34 games, played 1,161 minutes (34.1 avg.) and scored 618 points (18.2) with 146 rebounds, 152 assists and 36 steals. He converted 219-of-435 field goals including 71-of-169 from behind the arc.
“I think the thing that makes Reggie fairly unique in the sense for an NBA player is that with his size and his athleticism, he still plays with a great deal of poise, IQ and vision,” said Donahue.

“He attacks the rim but he still understands the game so well. He has that nice combination of cerebral player, yet honestly, has the athleticism to play in that league.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1347663

Celtics go big, go Boilers

2011-06-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

Swap picks with Nets to add JaJuan Johnson

By Mark Murphy | Friday, June 24, 2011 | http://bostonherald.com/ | Boston Celtics

In a sense, the Celtics [team stats] went into last night’s draft as one of the most restricted teams in the field.
Though they picked in a position (No. 25) where the only option is generally to take the best player available, they stayed true to their greatest need. With only one true center on their roster in Jermaine O’Neal, the C’s really had no choice but to go big last night.

The result is JaJuan Johnson, a lanky 6-foot-10 scorer from Purdue who will have to add considerable weight and strength to play post defense in the NBA.

They also guaranteed a more comfortable transition for Johnson — though not by design — when they picked his four-year college teammate with the 55th pick. Johnson and guard E’Twaun Moore, a 6-3 shooter, became the two most successful basketball players in Purdue history, with 107 career wins.
But the Celtics are looking for more tangible qualities right now, and believe that in the case of a young big man, Johnson has skill that wouldn’t necessarily be as apparent in a younger big man.
Rivers actually saw Johnson and Moore play during a game against his son Jeremiah’s Indiana team.

“Jeremiah loved him,” Rivers said last night of Johnson. “He thought that was one of the best players he’s played against. I was (ticked) because Purdue was kicking their butts. But Jeremiah actually said that kid can really play. I didn’t project later on that the kid would be on my team.”

The Celtics may have never drafted Johnson had Reggie Jackson still been on the board, but the Boston College guard went No. 24 to Oklahoma City. They drafted Providence scorer Marshon Brooks at No. 25 for New Jersey, which — following Dallas’ selection of Jordan Hamilton at No. 26 — picked Johnson for the Celtics.

The C’s also received New Jersey’s second round pick in 2014 as part of the deal.

“There were three guys we wanted — Reggie was one of them and he went right in front of us,” said Rivers. “There was the guy we got, and someone else who went right behind us who would think very much like us.
“We knew Reggie was off the board, so it was a quick deal,” he said. “We had to make sure the guy we wanted would still be there if we moved down, and we found out (Dallas) was taking someone else, so it worked out. It’s tough to get out of the draft that late.”

The other player who interested the Celtics was Marquette small forward Jimmy Butler, taken No. 30 by Chicago.

Johnson, an offensively skilled player who needs to add muscle and strength in his lower body, displayed a well-rounded arsenal that included range out to the college 3-point line. He averaged 20.5 points and 6.1 rebounds for the Boilermakers last season, and also shot a healthy 49.4 percent.

His immediate value will be as a pick-and-pop shooter and a good scorer in transition. Though he was named both Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten, Johnson has seasons to go before he is able to defend the post. He is considered too thin to hold his own against an NBA-level center, and can expect to spend a lot of time in the weight room.

“Just have him eat dinners with me,” joked Rivers. “I don’t know if he needs to put on weight, but he needs to get stronger, and that includes weight. I’m not that concerned by that right now.

“He’s terrifically athletic. He was a great rebounder in college, which you hope translates over. But we’ve proven we can get big shots. So if we can get him shots and he can make them, it will work. All of those wins tells you he can play with a team. He was able to fit in and be a winner on that team and still play well, which is important.”

Article URL: http://bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1347607

Cathedral parts ways with hoop coach Carnell Suttles

2011-06-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

By Dan Ventura | Thursday, June 9, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com |

Carnell Suttles was part of Cathedral’s first class of Hall of Fame inductees in February. Four months later, the successful Cathedral boys basketball coach was told the school was heading in another direction.
Suttles recently learned of his fate after meeting with second-year athletic director Jimmy Lynch, who didn’t return repeated calls seeking comment.

“They handed me a piece of paper saying in the best interests of the students, they were going to hire another coach,” said Suttles. “I asked them to explain what they meant by that and they couldn’t do it. We didn’t cut any kids here, our kids were graduating and getting into colleges.”

Under Suttles and assistant coach Tree Washington, who was also let go, Cathedral was the premier Division 4 program in the state. Over the last six years, the Panthers won three state titles and reached the South sectional final each year, going 115-30 overall.

“It’s a sad day,” said the personable Suttles. “If the program wasn’t doing well, I would be the first guy to say that we need to make a change. But we made the tournament every year I coached except for the first one when we took a winless team from the year before and went 9-11.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1344153

Inspirational Jalen Brantley guides BABC to a title

2011-06-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

By Tom Layman / Boston Shootout | Monday, June 6, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com |

Photo by Dominick Reuter

MEDFORD — It was an early-morning message that Leo Papile probably wasn’t expecting.
Papile found out around 6 a.m. from an early text that his guard Jalen Brantley would be on a morning bus and ready to be picked up at South Station to play in the final day of the Boston Shootout.

What Brantley did on the court could count as normal, as his team-high 22 points helped BABC U-17 (63-1) claim the Boston Shootout Championship with a 75-56 win over Albany City Rocks at Tufts University’s Cousens Gymnasium — the squad’s 11th Shootout title since 1999.
But Brantley’s week has been anything but normal.

The 16-year-old Springfield native lost his family home in last week’s debilitating storms out west. And Saturday, Brantley had to lay to rest his 37-year-old uncle after he died unexpectedly.

“It was tough coming,” said Brantley. “My mom really didn’t want me to come because of what is going on. I just tried to come and play like every other normal game. I knew I had to be here and (my teammates) wanted me to be here, so I just came.”

Brantley was pivotal for an undermanned BABC squad that only played seven players. He went 4-of-8 from behind the arc, and his good decisions on the pick-and-roll created good shots.

“He’s extremely efficient on both ends of the floor,” Papile said of Brantley. “In the pick-and-rolls, he is very, very clever.”

Brantley wasn’t the only player to come back in the final day of the tournament. Nerlens Noel, who Papile said was running a 100-plus degree fever over the weekend, returned to post eight points, six rebounds and two blocks in limited minutes. Most importantly, the 6-foot-9 forward dished out four assists, most of them to Georges Niang (21 points, 10 rebounds) in the post.

“He didn’t really have the normal energy that he has,” said Papile. “The fact that he’s here and he’s sick tells you something about him.”

BABC was getting all it could handle from Albany in early. BABC jumped out to a 8-0 start, but Albany was took a 15-14 lead with less than 13 minutes left in the first half. But Noel’s put-back dunk off a missed 3-pointer by Jake Layman (17 points), and another slam helped BABC go on a 7-3 run for a 40-31 lead at intermission.

Niang’s successful 3-point play after grabbing an offensive rebound gave BABC a 61-48 lead with over eight minutes to go, and Brantley scored seven of the final 10 points to close out the victory.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1343320

Brockton’s Vanessa Clerveaux broke a 31-year-old record in the hurdles.

2011-05-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

A-B leads the way

Colonials’ boys roll despite absent coach

By Mike Carraggi

Globe Correspondent / May 29, 2011

Four girls’ records fell on the day. Brockton junior Vanessa Clerveaux broke a 31-year-old record in the 100-meter hurdles by finishing in 14.37. The old record had been 14.40, set in 1980.

“I was born in 1994, what were they doing all this time?’ said Clerveaux, who was also on the victorious 4 x 100 team (49.06) and finished second in the triple jump. “Wow, they were waiting for someone to break it, I guess they found me.’’

Madison Park makes it 3-peat

2011-05-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

By Tom Layman / City Baseball | Tuesday, May 31, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com |

Photo by Angela Rowlings

The “MP Breakdown” has become synonymous with any significant win by Madison Park teams.
And yesterday that animated celebration took place on the baseball diamond.

Behind the powerful left arm of Manny Garcia and a late-arriving offense, the Cardinals staked claim to their third straight Boston City League title with a 7-2 victory against West Roxbury at Boston English High in Jamaica Plain.

“To my knowledge it’s the first time any Boston public school baseball team has won it three times in a row,” Cardinals fourth-year coach Mike Viggiano said. “What’s special is that they never gave up their resilience.”
Garcia struck out 10 and scattered three hits in his seven solid innings of work for MP (8-12), but had to overcome a bout of wildness with runners on third on two separate occasions.

West Roxbury (11-9) never hit the ball hard with runners in scoring position as the tall left-hander allowed both runs to come home on wild pitches in the third and fourth innings.

“I told him that we don’t need the funny stuff when we are ahead in the count,” Viggiano said. “That’s all I said, and he took care of the rest.”

Garcia settled in to get the final nine outs without breaking a sweat. When West Roxbury did put a runner on to lead off the seventh, the Cardinals defense was there to back up their pitcher with a game-ending double play.

“I had to calm myself. I was getting frustrated because I’m usually not like that,” Garcia said. “I usually control my pitches, but everyone told me as soon as I got to the dugout to not worry about it because we got your back.”

The offense picked up its starter with six runs in the fifth inning and beyond.

Frank Polanco (2-for-4, RBI) and Kevin Arroyo (2-for-3, RBI) began the fifth with hits. A wild pitch moved the two into scoring position, and Joan Figueroa tied the game at 2 with a sacrifice fly to right.

Alfred Santana came up with runners on second and third and his hot shot past third brought in the go-ahead run. William Miranda hustled around from second to score on the play after the ball was mishandled in the outfield for the 4-2 lead.

The Cardinals tacked on three more runs in the sixth.

Madison Park opened with four straight hits with Polanco narrowly missing a home run as he sent an RBI double deep to left.

“Top to bottom, these kids can play the game,” Viggiano said.

West Roxbury’s Jordan Matos went the first five innings, allowing four runs (two earned) and striking out five.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1341812

Boston Herald Girls Basketball All-Scholastics

2011-04-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

By Herald staff
Monday, April 11, 2011 / http://www.bostonherald.com

NICOLE BERESFORD
MARSHFIELD
The 6-foot senior small forward leaves as the most decorated player in school history. The all-time leading scorer with 1,804 points, Beresford averaged 23 points and 11 rebounds per game in leading the Rams to the Atlantic Coast League title and a 19-5 record. A member of the National Honor Society, Beresford will play her college basketball at Dartmouth.

NICOLE BOUDREAU
ANDOVER
The Mass. Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-9 shooting guard helped lead the Golden Warriors to their second straight Division 1 state title. Boudreau averaged 23.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.9 steals and 3.4 assists per game, sinking 102 3-pointers. For her career, Boudreau has 1,585 points and 278 3-point baskets. She has verbally committed to Boston College in the fall of 2012.

BLAKE DIETRICK
WELLESLEY
A standout two-sport athlete, the 5-foot-10 senior point guard earned Bay State Conference MVP honors after averaging 20 points, nine rebounds, 4.7 assists and 3.5 steals per game. She leaves as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,480 points. A member of the National Honor Society and a two-time All-American lacrosse player, Dietrick will play hoops at Princeton.

NATALIE GOMEZ-MARTINEZ
ANDOVER
A three-time Dream Team selection, the 5-foot-7 senior point guard poured in 13.5 points, dished out five assists and added four rebounds and four steals per game for the two-time Division 1 state champions. The MVP of the Spartan Classic, Gomez-Martinez ended her career with 1,412 points. She will attend Marist College on a basketball scholarship.

BRENNA GONSALVES
COYLE-CASSIDY
A three-time Eastern Athletic Conference All-Star, the 5-foot-10 senior guard averaged 19.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in guiding the Warriors to the Division 3 South sectional title. A member of the National Honor Society, Gonsalves concluded her career as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,615 points. She accepted a basketball scholarship to Adelphi.

ELIZABETH BELANGER
ACTON-BOXBORO
A 5-foot-10 junior, Belanger averaged 20.5 points per game in leading her team to the Division 1 North final. She eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau for her career, finishing the season with 1,081. A two-time Dual County League All-Star, Belanger earned MVP honors for the league this winter. An honor roll student, Belanger also plays volleyball.

SOPHIE BIKOFSKY
NEWTON SOUTH
A 5-foot-11 shooting guard, this senior earned Dual County League co-MVP honors for the league-champion Lions. Bikofsky averaged 18.5 points, seven rebounds and four 3-pointers per game, eclipsing the 1,000-point mark for her career in the process. A four-time DCL All-Star, Bikofsky led the Lions to a 21-2 record and a spot in the Division 1 South final. She will attend Brown.

MOLLY BROWN
DARTMOUTH
The leader of the back-to-back Old Colony League champions, this senior averaged 22.7 points and eight rebounds per game to go along with 82 steals, 86 assists and 36 blocks this season. For her career, the 5-foot-9 senior totaled 1,204 points (17.4 average), 419 rebounds (six per game), 249 steals and 191 assists. An all-star volleyball player and a National Honor Society student, she will attend Bates.

KENDALL BURTON
NEWTON SOUTH
The co-MVP of the Dual County League and three-time league all-star averaged 15.5 points and six rebounds for the Lions to combine with Sophie Bikofsky to form one of the best backcourts in the area. The senior eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career and helped lead the Lions to the Division 1 South final this year. The 5-foot-7 shooting guard will continue her career at Villanova.

HANNAH CAIN
GLOUCESTER
A four-year mainstay in the Gloucester backcourt, this 5-foot-6 point guard scored her 1,000th point this season, averaging 16 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and four steals per game. A two-year captain and four-year Northeastern Conference All-Star, Cain led Gloucester to four straight tournament appearances and a trip to the Division 2 North final this winter. Cain plans to attend Brandeis in the fall.

TORI FAIETA
ST. MARY’S
A 6-foot-1 senior center for the Division 4 state champions, Faieta averaged 13 points and 11 rebounds per game. The all-time leading scorer and rebounder in program history, Faieta earned co-MVP honors in the league and her fourth all-league honor. Also a two-time Spartan Classic MVP, Faieta competes on the Spartans’ volleyball team in the fall. The Lynn native will attend Stonehill in the fall.

KELSEY GARRITY
SOMERVILLE
A 5-foot-5 senior point guard, she started three years for the Highlanders and earned Greater Boston League All-Star status for each one, leading the league in scoring twice. This season, Garrity averaged 18.3 points per game on her way to 1,055 for her career, the third female in school history to eclipse the 1,000-point mark. Garrity will attend UMass-Dartmouth.

OLIVIA HEALY
READING
The 5-foot-10 sophomore averaged 17 points, 12 rebounds and four steals per game in her second year starting for the Rockets, who won the Middlesex League, went 21-2 and reached the Division 2 North semifinals. Healy earned league MVP honors and is on pace (with 709 points) to surpass the 1,000 barrier next season. Healy is also an all-league volleyball performer.

NICOLE HEAVERN
HULL
This 5-foot-10 senior forward powered Hull’s run to a Division 4 state title, averaging 19 points and 13 rebounds per game. Heavern put up 23 double-doubles for the season and ended her career with 1,157 points. Also a South Shore League All-Star in lacrosse, Heavern was the soccer team’s captain in the fall and holds a 3.8 GPA in the classroom.

MORGAN JENKINS
REVERE
The leader of a Revere team that ran the table in the regular season, this 5-foot-7 senior averaged 18.2 points and 19 rebounds on her way to Northeastern Conference MVP honors. The four-time NEC All-Star pulled off the rare feat of eclipsing both the 1,000-point and rebound barrier, with more than 1,300 points and 1,031 rebounds. She will continue her career at St. Michael’s.

TIANNA JOHNSON
NEW MISSION
This 5-foot-5 junior stood out as one of the top point guards in the city and Eastern Mass., leading the Titans to a spot in the Division 4 state championship game for the first time since 2007. A Boston City League All-Star, the Dorchester native finished the season averaging 22.4 points per game. Johnson plans on continuing her career at the next level.

KELLIE MACDONALD
DANVERS
A two-time Northeastern Conference Small Division MVP, the senior captain led the Falcons to a 16-6 record and second consecutive division title. Macdonald averaged 15 points and nine rebounds per contest this season and scored her 1,000th point. Also an All-Scholastic soccer player, Macdonald is a National Honor Society member and will play basketball at Williams.

CASEY McLAUGHLIN
CENTRAL CATHOLIC
The rest of the Merrimack Valley Conference is not looking forward to having to face this 6-foot sophomore forward for another two years after she averaged 15.8 points and eight rebounds per game, shooting 54.2 percent from the field. An MVC All-Conference selection and Comcast Tournament MVP, McLaughlin led Central to a 21-2 record.

AMY PELLETIER
BISHOP FENWICK
This 5-foot-6 Beverly native averaged 19.1 points, 5.9 assists and 3.9 steals per game from her point guard position this season, earning her second-straight Catholic Central League All-Star nod. She also hit 64 3-pointers at a 43.9 percent clip; for her career, Pelletier scored 1,129 points with 168 trifectas. A National Honor Society member with a 4.25 GPA, Pelletier will attend Stonehill on a full scholarship.

ALYSSA ROACH
NEW BEDFORD
Led by this 5-foot-8 point guard, the Whalers ran the table in the regular season and won the Division 1 South title. The senior averaged 17.7 points per game and finished her career with 1,284 points, good for second in program history. Also a standout soccer player, this National Honor Society member will attend American International College on a full basketball scholarship.

EMMA ROBERSON
ARLINGTON CATHOLIC
The leader of the Division 2 state champion Cougars, this 5-foot-8 junior guard averaged 18 points and seven rebounds per game to earn Catholic Central League All-Star status for the second year in a row. Roberson also earned all-tournament honors for both the Masconomet and Comcast tournaments. A league all-star in soccer, Roberson is a member of the Spanish and National honor societies student.

LEXI SELLS
BISHOP FEEHAN
This 5-foot-9 junior filled the stat sheet for the Eastern Athletic Conference co-champion Shamrocks, averaging 19.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists and four steals per game. An EAC All-Star, Sells powered the Shamrocks to a 16-7 record and a spot in the Division 2 South sectional semifinals. A National Honor Society student, Sells is also an EAC All-Star in volleyball.

BROOKE STEWART
MASCONOMET
A 6-foot junior guard, Stewart was the Cape Ann League Player of the Year; she averaged 20.2 points and seven rebounds per game to go along with 62 assists. Stewart is well on her way to scoring 1,000 career points with 880 heading into next season to go along with 395 rebounds and 118 steals. A CAL All-Star two years in a row, Stewart also plays field hockey for the Chieftains.

ALEXIS UDOJI
CARDINAL SPELLMAN
Spellman’s run to the Division 3 South semifinals was due largely to the efforts of this 6-foot-3 senior center from Randolph. Udoji was the Catholic Central League Large Division MVP for the league co-champion Cardinals. Udoji, who was also a league all-star last winter, plays her AAU basketball with the Bay State Gators and will attend the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore next fall.

LIZ WLUKA
SHARON
This 6-foot senior captain produced a double-double from her center position in 20 of 22 games, finishing with an average of 19 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and two blocks per game in leading the Eagles to a spot in the Division 2 South quarterfinals. The Hockomock League MVP and two-time league all-star is also the Eagles’ captain in soccer and lacrosse, and will attend Syracuse in the fall.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1329796

Boston Herald Boys Basketball All-Scholastics

2011-04-12T12:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 10, 2011 / http://www.bostonherald.com

JOE BRAMANTI
ANDOVER
The senior swingman averaged 23 points a game for the Golden Warriors. He was named the MVP of both the Christmas Tournament as well as the Merrimack Valley Conference. Bramanti surpassed the 1,000-point mark late in the season, finishing with 1,084 points. An honor roll student, Bramanti is looking to attend prep school next year.

PAT CONNAUGHTON
ST. JOHN’S PREP
The Gatorade Player of the Year, the 6-foot-5 senior guard averaged 22.5 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists a game in leading the Eagles to their first Division 1 state boys basketball title. In addition to basketball, Connaughton is one of the top pitching prospects in the area and will play both sports at Notre Dame in the fall.

MARCO COPPOLA
WATERTOWN
The MVP of the Middlesex League, the 6-foot-2 senior point guard averaged 25.2 points a game in leading the Raiders to the Division 3 state finals. A part of three Division 3 North sectional title teams, Coppola ended his career with 1,461 points. He recently committed to play college basketball at WPI.

JAKE LAYMAN
KING PHILIP
The 6-foot-8 swingman averaged 24.6 points, 13.6 rebounds, 4.6 blocks and 2.3 assists a game in leading the Warriors to the Division 2 South sectional finals. A two-time Hockomock League All-Star and league MVP, Laymam surpassed the 1,000-point mark earlier this season and his 1,196 career points is the most for any boy in school history. In the offseason, Layman competes for the BABC.

JIMMY ZENEVITCH
CENTRAL CATHOLIC
The 6-foot-8 senior forward was a nightly double-double for the Raiders, averaging 21.4 points, 11.5 rebounds and four assists a game as the Raiders reached the Division 1 North sectional semifinals. Zenevitch was part of two state championship teams, concluding his career with 1,084 points. A volleyball standout, Zenevitch will attend Assumption on a basketball scholarship.

JAYLEN ALICEA
LAWRENCE
One of the quickest guards in the state, Alicea sparked the Lancers’ deep run through the Division 1 North tournament by averaging 30 points over five postseason games. A two-time MVC All-Conference performer and Greater Lawrence All-Tournament Team member this season, the 5-foot-10 senior point guard eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career and averaged 19 points per game this season.

JEFF AMAZAN
EAST BOSTON
This 6-foot-3 shooting guard powered the Jets to a Boston City League championship appearance with 22.1 points per game and 5.2 rebounds. One of the area’s top outside shooters, Amazan buried 43.7 percent of his 3-point attempts. A two-year starter, Amazan averaged 15.7 points as a junior, hitting 41.2 percent from beyond the arc, while pulling down 3.1 boards. He will attend the Taft School.

TRAVONNE BERRY-ROGERS
LYNN ENGLISH
Berry-Rogers produced in bunches for the Bulldogs, as the 6-foot-1 swingman averaged 25 points, six assists and eight rebounds to lead his team to a 21-3 record and a spot in the Division 1 North sectional semifinals. The two-time Northeastern Conference All-Star and honor roll student is considering Merrimack, Western Connecticut State, Johnson & Wales and Anna Maria.

MARK CORNELIUS
WESTFORD
A standout wide receiver in the fall, Cornelius proved to be just as dangerous as a forward in the winter, as he earned MVP honors in an ultra-competitive season in the Dual County League. A two-time DCL All-Star in both football and basketball, this 6-foot-3 senior poured in 21 points per game and grabbed 13 rebounds. An honor roll student, Cornelius is looking at both New Hampshire and Bentley.

DARIUS DAVIS
NEW MISSION
A key piece of the Titans’ Division 2 state championship squad, Davis helped control the tempo on offense from his point guard position and always seemed to hit a jumper when his team needed it. A Boston City League All-Star, the 6-foot-3 senior finished with 15 points and eight rebounds per game on a team that had a balanced scoring sheet on a nightly basis. Davis will attend Bentley University.

JOEY GLYNN
CARDINAL SPELLMAN
A junior from Abington, Glynn filled the stat sheet with 21.1 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, four assists and two steals per game as the Cardinals won the Division 3 South sectional title. The 6-foot-5 forward won the Catholic Central League’s MVP award this winter after making the all-star team a year ago. Glynn, who also plays football for Spellman, is a National Honor Society student.

BRYAN HURLEY
BC HIGH
A senior from Watertown, Hurley averaged 18 points, five assists and four steals as he earned Catholic Conference All-Star status and led the Eagles to a 14-9 record and a spot in the Division 1 South semifinals this season. For his career, Hurley averaged 15 points and six assists. A Catholic Conference All-Star in soccer and an honors student, Hurley will continue his basketball career at Bowdoin.

ROBERT JONES
COHASSET
This 5-foot-8 point guard earned South Shore League MVP honors and led the Skippers to both a league title and a Division 4 South sectional crown. A three-time league all-star, Jones averaged 18 points and eight assists to go along with a tenacious attitude on the defensive end. A 1,000- point scorer and two-time captain, Jones is the school’s all-time assist leader and will attend Framingham State.

MICHAEL LOFTON
MANSFIELD
The leader of a Hornets team that won the program’s first Division 1 South title this season, this senior did a little bit of everything, averaging 13.5 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals per game. A truly unselfish player, the 6-foot-5 forward also handled point guard duties and made the assist on his team’s game-winning basket in its South sectional final victory.

SAM LONGWELL
ACTON-BOXBORO
The 6-foot-3 senior averaged 17.5 points per game to go along with 5.5 rebounds. Longwell, who also led the Colonials in assists, was a two-time Dual County League All-Star for an A-B squad that earned back- to-back league titles and finished with a 20-4 record this winter. An honor roll student, Longwell is looking to play at the Division 2 or 3 level next winter.

AKOSA MADUEGBUNAM
CHARLESTOWN
The 6-foot-3 junior guard guided the Townies to the Boston City League title with an MVP performance in that tournament and led Charlestown to the Division 1 North quarterfinals. An athletic and skilled perimeter player, Maduegbunam averaged 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals as he made the league all-star team for the second year in a row.

SAMIR McDANIELS
NEW MISSION
This 6-foot-4 guard was one of the more valuable players in the city, as the Titans improved drastically when McDaniels returned from an early injury. A Boston City League All-Star, McDaniels surpassed the 1,000-point barrier as a junior and averaged 19 points, 12 rebounds and five assists this season. A senior, McDaniels will continue his playing career at the University of New Haven.

BARRETT MURPHY
MARSHFIELD
One of the premier scorers in the area, this 6-foot-2 point guard averaged 24 points, six rebounds and six assists for the 16-5 Rams, who went unbeaten in Atlantic Coast League play. A three-time league all-star, Murphy averaged 14 points as a sophomore and 17.5 as a junior. A National Honor Society student, Murphy is looking at NESCAC schools but is undecided on his college destination.

JOSEPH MUSSACHIA
MANCHESTER ESSEX
The 6-foot-5 senior won Cape Ann League MVP honors in his third straight all-league season for the Hornets, as he averaged 24.2 points, 17 rebounds and five assists. Mussachia owns the school career scoring record with over 1,700 points and led his team to the Cape Ann Small Division title this winter. A National Honor Society student, Mussachia will continue his career at Amherst College.

ANDREW SCOCCA
MELROSE
A 6-foot-8 force in the paint, the four-year varsity player finished his senior season averaging 20 points, 20 rebounds, five blocks and three assists. A Middlesex League All-Star, Scocca missed his junior season to injury but finished his career with 650 points, 750 rebounds and 200 blocks. Also a baseball and football player, Scocca is undecided on his college plans.

MICKEL SIMPSON
WOBURN
A standout both on the court and off, this senior guard averaged 19.4 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks for the 18-7 Tanners, who won the Division 2 North title his junior year. The four-year letterman is a 1,000-point scorer and among the school’s top five for his career. A high honors student and class representative, Simpson will attend Trinity College in the fall.

JOHN SWORDS
LINCOLN-SUDBURY
One of the more imposing presences in the area, the 7-foot center averaged 16 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks for the Warriors, who reached the Division 1 North quarterfinals before falling to eventual state champion St. John’s Prep. The senior is a two-time Dual County League All-Star and the co-MVP for this season. Swords will continue his basketball career at Bowdoin College.

JACQUIL TAYLOR
CAMBRIDGE
Only a sophomore, the 6-foot-8 center has already made quite an impression on the Eastern Mass. basketball scene. Taylor averaged 13.5 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.8 blocks to earn the Greater Boston League MVP award. A two-time GBL All-Star, Taylor averaged nine points, 10 rebounds and three blocks as a freshman. An honor roll student, Taylor plays for the Prodigy AAU program.

NOAH VONLEH
HAVERHILL
At 6-foot-7, the sophomore can play either guard or forward and do both at a very high level, as the rest of the Merrimack Valley Conference learned this season. Vonleh averaged 26 points and 22 rebounds for the Hillies. The highly skilled Vonleh’s versatility has several national recruiting publications projecting him as a high-major Division 1 prospect and one of the tops in his class.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1329565

New Mission top final boys high school basketball poll

2011-04-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

MIAA TOP 25

1. New Mission

2. St. John’s Prep

3. Charlestown

4. Central Catholic

5. Cambridge

6. Lawrence

7. Lynn English

8. Newton North

9. Lincoln-Sudbury

10. Mansfield

11. New Bedford

12. Hopkinton

13. Woburn

14. King Philip

15. Brighton

16. North Andover

17. Falmouth

18. Oliver Ames

19. Wellesley

20. Duxbury

21. Watertown

22. Cardinal Spellman

23. Winthrop
24. Bishop Feehan

25. Cathedral
-KR

UCONN tops final NCAA poll of season

2011-04-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

NCAA TOP 25

1 UCONN

2 Kentucky

3 Kansas

4 Duke

5 Ohio State

6 VCU

7 North Carolina

8 Butler

9 Arizona

10 Florida

11 Pittsburgh

12 San Diego State

13 Louisville

14 Notre Dame

15 Texas

16 BYU

17 Purdue

18 Syracuse

19 Florida State

20 Marquette

21 Richmond

22 Missouri

23 Baylor

24 Kansas State

25 Memphis

-KR

Shabazz Napier had help along the way

2011-04-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

By Diamond Leung ESPN.com

HOUSTON -- Shabazz Napier called it one of the scariest moments of his life when he stepped to the free throw line with an opportunity to put away Kentucky and send Connecticut to the national championship game.

“When I made the second one, I just turned to the bench and was like, ‘I got you guys,’” Napier said. “You guys had my back when I had the turnovers. You guys didn’t look at me down when I made that costly mistake.’”

Napier rewarded his teammates for quickly forgetting his turnover on the previous possession. On the eve of the national title game, the freshman credited the mentors in his life who got him to where he is: Connecticut's key bench player who shares a backcourt with Kemba Walker.

The 6-foot Napier grew up without his father in the Mission Hill projects of Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. His mother, Carmen Velasquez, raised three children and did her best to keep her youngest off the streets. “Certain days I would get into the nonsense,” Napier said. “She told me, ‘You have something special. Do something with it.’”

When times got tough for Velasquez, Napier at a young age went to live with Will Blalock, the former Iowa State standout and Detroit Piston. Blalock was 10 years older and willing to let Napier into his home, serving as a mentor to a boy who needed direction.

Napier at that point wasn’t serious about basketball, but Blalock was among those who taught him lessons on the court and made him realize his talent. “He was pretty mean to him in a good way,” recalled UConn forward Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who also grew up in the Boston area.

“I felt like it was the best time of my life because he was the biggest brother to me in my life,” Napier said of Blalock. “He didn’t have to do what he did. He didn’t have to put me under his wing. He didn’t have to show me the ropes. But he decided to.

“Without him, I wouldn’t be here in this position.”

Napier developed into a tough point guard and defender through high school. At UConn he has come to represent the type of fearless player that coach Jim Calhoun cherishes and awards with early playing time. He is the fourth-leading scorer on the team (7.9) and also is second in assists, with Calhoun pushing him along the way.

“For someone to give me criticism, it’s great for me because they want to see me get better,” Napier said. “For him to give me criticism, it’s like 'Wow, this guy’s a Hall of Fame coach. He doesn’t really have to say anything to me.' When he tells you something, you have to listen.”

After a poor shooting performance in his first college loss on Nov. 27 at Pittsburgh, Napier cried. There to console him was Walker. “He came over to me in the locker room and told me I wasn’t my fault,“ Napier said. “He took me under his wing and has given me great advice.”

Now UConn relies on Napier to take the pressure off Walker. With his ability to handle the point guard position, Napier frees Walker to focus on playing shooting guard -- better utilizing Walker's speed and energy toward becoming the lethal scorer the nation has come to know.

Napier has found many opportunities to score as well, and those crucial points from him have gotten the Huskies to the title game. He scored 10 in the West Regional final against Arizona and again had the ball in his hands late in the national semifinal game against Kentucky.

After missing his first six field goals, Napier drove past Brandon Knight and scored on an acrobatic layup to give UConn a six-point lead with 2:30 left. He then dribbled the ball right into the teeth of the defense in the final minute. Unfortunately for him, he lost the handle trying to split a double-team, giving the Wildcats a chance to win the game.

But it was Napier who corralled the rebound on the other end of the floor. Despite looking into the stands and seeing the frightened look on Velasquez’s face, he sank the game-winning free throws that extended the lead to four with two seconds left.

Now UConn, because of the cool confidence of a freshman, has a chance to win its third national championship in Monday's game against Butler.

“I was so concerned during the timeout that he’d be so concerned about losing the basketball, dribbling into traffic,” Calhoun said. “He looked to me and said, ‘Coach, I’ll make it up next play.’ What am going to say? Of course, he makes two foul shots.

“We can’t have Kemba do everything. Obviously Shabazz as a freshman has been invaluable to us.”

Local flavor lifts UConn to the top of the heap

2011-04-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Posted by Danny Ventura at 1:53 pm

From head man Jim Calhoun down to reserve Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, Connecticut’s march to the NCAA men’s basketball title was sprinkled with good old-fashioned home cooking.

Last night’s 53-41 win over Butler made Calhoun the oldest coach (68) to win an NCAA men’s basketball title. The championship was Calhoun’s third at the school, making him just the fifth coach to win at least three titles joining a crowd which includes the likes of John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Mike Krzyzewski and Bobby Knight.

Not bad for a Braintree kid who spent two years at Dedham (1969-1970) before taking over the Northeastern program. Jerry Morelli was one of the millions watching UConn pull away from Butler in the second half. An assistant to Calhoun at Dedham High, Morelli thought he was getting flashbacks seeing some of the Huskies’ plays.

“A lot of what they ran was exactly what we did at Dedham,” said Morelli, who succeeded Calhoun at Dedham. “The only difference is that he has 6-foot-10 kids running the plays.”

Morelli said there is no secret to why Calhoun has thrived at Northeastern and Connecticut.

“He has such a passion for the game and the fundamentals that go along with it. We’d practice for hours on the fundamentals,” recalled Morelli. “He’s very demanding of his team, but just look at how many kids he coached made it to the NBA.”

Morelli ended his coaching career at BC High in 2004 after leading the Eagles to the Division 1 South sectional finals. Ironically, his replacement, Bill Loughnane, played for Calhoun at Northeastern from 1977-1980. A three-year starter for the Huskies, Loughnane still holds the single-game assist record (15) and ranks third on the all-time assist chart (500).

“It’s always nice when you know someone and see him do well,” said Loughnane. “I know my kids were sitting there cheering him on.”

As for Calhoun’s reputation for being tough on point guards, Loughnane chuckled when discussing his former coach.

“One thing he said always stuck with me,” he said. “He would always say if you don’t like the yelling, you can always sit on the bench because I am going to let you know when you made a mistake.”

As Calhoun, Morelli and Loughnane would be the first to attest, you’re only as good as your players. Last night, one of those locals played a large part in the win. Lowell’s Alex Oriahki (Brooks/Tilton) was a beast in the paint with 11 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

His former high school and AAU teammate Jamal Coombs-McDaniel chipped in with a couple of points. Coombs-McDaniel (a Dorchester native) began his high school career at Charlestown High, spending a year on the junior varsity before winding up at Tilton. Both Oriahki and Coombs-McDaniels verbally committed to UConn as sophomores in high school.

The third member of the Local Three, Shabazz Napier, had a similar start to Coombs-McDaniels. The freshman point guard spent three years at Charlestown before transferring to Lawrence Academy. Napier played 27 minutes last night, scoring four points, but his ability to run the offense allowed tournament MVP Kemba Walker to freelance a bit more.

As anyone who saw Napier play at Charlestown and Lawrence Academy can attest, he loves the big stage. Check out his comments in the Hartford Courant following the win.

“You can’t call us Kemba and the little guys anymore,” he said. ”Now I feel we’re playing to the max and helping him out. He’s still our hero. He’s still the guy he was in the beginning of the year. But we all understand how to work around him.”

And having the locals guys around made it all work in the end.

Three for Jim Calhoun in the blink of an eye

2011-04-05T09:35:00.001-07:00

HOUSTON — In one of those simple, brilliant leads that occasionally grace the sports pages, Hartford Courant beat writer Michael Arace sent 17 words back to Connecticut from St. Petersburg, Fla., on March 29, 1999.

"The UConn Huskies won the national championship Monday night.

"There.

"It has been written in your lifetime."

The 17 words were 98 years in the making, of course, yet they so concisely captured the sweeping nature a most unlikely achievement.

Jim Calhoun’s first grandchild, Emily, had been born that month in 1999, 24 days earlier to be exact, and as she sat there with the other five Calhoun grandchildren Monday night at Reliant Stadium, a thought flashed through the mind. Emily’s grandpa stood to win three national championships in her lifetime.

Yes, the first one took forever.

And three happened in the blink of a young girl’s eye.

As Kemba Walker fell into Calhoun’s arms and buried his tired head into his coach’s shoulder after UConn’s 53-41 national championship victory over Butler, both the import of a coach’s most improbable achievement and crowning moment of a remarkable young athlete’s life came together in one sweet, sweet embrace.

What seemed impossible once has been made possible three times, by players like Richard Hamilton and Khalid El-Amin, by players like Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon and now by players like Walker, Alex Oriakhi and Jeremy Lamb. What seemed impossible once has been made possible by the fiercest competitor, the best winner, the worst loser, Connecticut has ever seen.

On Sunday, Calhoun talked about pumping gas, making candy, cutting stone, collecting metal in a shipyard among the many jobs he held as he hardened his youth in support of his family after his dad had died. He called himself a high school coach. He said he wasn’t coaching blueblood.

Yet as he peered through the shining moment of a special night in Houston into the rising sun of the morning, Jim Calhoun can see his face on the Mount Rushmore of coaches. Up there with John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight as the only men ever to win three national titles. Amazing.

UConn had been playing basketball since 1901, back when it was called Connecticut Agricultural College and it played a single game that year against Windham High School. Ninety-eight years would pass before the school won its first national title.

All those decades, the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, folks in our state grew up and grew old, worked and retired, lived and died. It went on for generations. Who among them, from Thompson to Greenwich, from Stonington to Danbury, thought a national title was possible?

The game was invented in Springfield and their savior eventually would go to college there, at AIC, but the legends would lie to the west. At Kentucky, Rupp won three in four years during the Truman administration and, in 1958, would add a fourth in 11 years. Wooden, of course, won 10 times in 12 years, at UCLA with names like Alcindor and Walton between 1964 and 1975. His record was one that bridged American culture, a record never to be broken. Indiana’s Knight won three times 12 years, an imperfect man with a perfect season. More recently, Duke’s Krzyzewski won three in 11 years and four in 20.

These men had nicknames for the ages. Baron of the Bluegrass, Wizard of Westwood, the General ... UConn only had the Yankee Conference and bus rides to Orono. With Dave Gavitt’s son, Dan, at the press conference, Calhoun went out of his way to thank Gavitt for the vision that became the Big East Conference. UConn basketball doesn’t turn into what it became without the Big East, no way, now how. Not even the Maniac, Brainiac From Braintree could have built all this without a league that would give and take so much each winter.

Yet there was a time when Calhoun himself looked as if he could leave the game unfulfilled. For a time he was called the best coach in America without a Final Four appearance. He denied such a tag bothered him, but he also cried that day in Phoenix when the Huskies beat Gonzaga in the 1999 Elite Eight.

And now here he was on Monday morning at the ceremony to honor Walker as the winner of the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard.

"He’s as fast as you ever seen," Calhoun would say, "and he might be quicker than that."

Yes, the long, forever road that it took for UConn to gain national respect, at least by historical perspective, suddenly has brought dividends that never could have been expected.

On March 10, Walker broke Gary McGhee’s ankles with his step-back, last-second shot to beat Pitt. He did nothing but break hearts since then. Broke them in New York. Broke them in Washington. Broke them in Anaheim and, finally, in Houston.

Perhaps it’s fitting we bring up names like Adolph Rupp, because this game played like the 1946 national title game. Nobody could score. There was good defense. There was bad shooting. The difficulties of shooting in a dome, with the sightlines and slight breeze, are evident. The rims seemed tight. The players definitely were. Butler had a three-point lead at halftime after sinking only six baskets. At one point in the second half, the Bulldogs were 8-for-52.

Make no mistake, most of America was pulling for Butler. In was never accurate to portray Butler as David, the Bulldogs made the final last year, but convenient stereotypes rule the national landscape. Butler was Milan High. UConn was the Evil Empire. Butler was good. UConn was bad. UConn was the cheater, although, in truth, NCAA violations had nothing to do with this team.. Even on Monday night, Nate Miles, who had been at the center of two years of hardship, contacted The Courant. He’s not making any further claims to the NCAA. And now, media and folks, far and wide will call this the worst title game ever.

There will be nothing to clog the arteries of joy for this UConn team. The way they played nine game in 19 days. They way they won them all and then in two exhausting fights to the finish, the way they outlasted Kentucky and Butler.

Derrick Williams’ three or Jamelle Horne’s three at the buzzer could have gone in for Arizona in the Elite Eight and UConn could have gone home. They didn’t.

DeAndre Liggins’ three, although contested big-time, could have gone in for Kentucky in the Final Four and UConn could have gone home. It didn’t .

Shelvin Mack’s did make a three- pointer from the top of the key to beat the buzzer to give Butler a 22-19 halftime lead. But it was a three-pointer that hurt no more than a rubber dagger. Butler could do no further damage.

Yes, the UConn Huskies won the national championship Monday night.

There.

It has been written ... three times in Emily Calhoun’s lifetime.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/college/basketball/view.bg?articleid=1328440

Titans take over

2011-03-20T08:27:00.000-07:00

Move up two divisions, win another

By Brian Lowe / Division 2 Boys
Sunday, March 20, 2011

WORCESTER — From beginning to end, New Mission was in control of yesterday’s Division 2 state final, and the Titans’ 10-point margin of victory did not fully reflect their dominance over Northbridge at the DCU Center.

New Mission jumped out to a 6-0 lead and led by 17 at halftime on the way to a 67-57 triumph.

“It feels real good because, at the beginning of the year, we set the goal that we wanted to be here competing for a state championship,” said senior guard Darius Davis, who was part of last year’s Div. 4 state title team. “We knew we had to get the job done.”

And Davis, who led the Titans with 17 points, was at the forefront. He nailed a pair of long jumpers in the first three minutes, part of a hot-shooting start for New Mission, which also used its full-court press to frustrate Northbridge.

Samir McDaniels (16 points) scored on a spin move under the hoop to open the second quarter, putting the Titans ahead 18-8, and Leroy Hamilton followed with a 3-pointer from the right wing.

From that point, they led by more than 10 points until Harrison Murphy of Northbridge scored the game’s final basket with four seconds to play.

“Oddly enough, we had some good shooting, but the idea is really to get the ball inside,” New Mission coach Cory McCarthy said. “And once we got the ball inside, even if we missed, we would have the offensive rebound. That was the game plan from the time we scouted them on Wednesday.”

The success from the field forced Northbridge coach Paul Baker to alter his defense.

“We were hoping to play a sagging man-to-man, and that kind of went out the window when they started sticking jumpers from the outside,” Baker said. “And when they’re making shots from the outside, they’re tough.”

New Mission went ahead 44-24 with 4:22 left in the third quarter on a dunk by Isshiah Coleman following a Northbridge turnover. Kachi Nzerem sunk a 3-pointer with 3.4 seconds to play in the quarter to put the Titans ahead 55-34.

New Mission forced 10 turnovers in the first half, several thanks to its press. McCarthy attributed that success to their attitude as well as their length.

“We just knew we had to come in and get a jump on them early,” McDaniels said. “This was our last game as high school students, as New Mission players. We wanted to go out with a bang, and that’s what we did.”

2011-03-16T08:40:00.001-07:00

Brockton edges Westie in OT in D1 South

2011-03-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

By Ryan Kilian (ESPN Boston)

BOSTON -- It was only fitting that Thursday night’s first round tournament game between West Roxbury and Brockton would end in overtime. Neither team could mount any type of substantial run until Brockton executed on both ends of the floor in overtime and pulled away with the 76-72 victory.

“There were times when they looked like they were going to put us away and there were times when we looked like we were going to put them away,” Brockton head coach Bob Boen said. “Neither team gave in.”

Both teams struggled to find any offensive rhythm out of the gate. The game would go back and forth, with each team causing chaos in the full court leading to numerous turnovers, layups and fouls on the other end.

West Roxbury senior forward Jason Hall was everywhere early. Hall scored six points, grabbed four rebounds and blocked two shots in the opening quarter giving West Roxbury a, 18-15, lead.

Each time one team looked to get rolling the other team would steal back the momentum, leading to a 32-32 halftime draw.
Brockton (14-7) came out with some fire in the third as senior Shane Sims (13 points) slammed home an inbounds pass to bring the crowd to their feet. Brockton also went to an effective zone that shut down Westie’s slashing attack. Sims scored five points in the quarter and senior Carl Joseph (14 points) sank two huge three-pointers to give the Boxers a, 53-47, lead heading into the final quarter.

The Raiders (15-7) battled back in the fourth behind Hall (14 points) and freshman guard Damion Smith, who scored all nine of his points in the final quarter. Westie a 66-63, lead with under a minute remaining but Brockton junior Jamal Reuben came up with a the answer on a big hoop to cut the lead to one. With under 20 seconds remaining freshman point guard Jonathan Joseph got a steal at midcourt and passed it up ahead to Sims, who was fouled on the play. Sims would make one free throw and Brockton’s defense would hold to send the game into overtime.

In overtime Brockton’s Reuben, Sims and Alain Lenord all scored, as the Boxer defense held strong to pull out the victory.

“The seniors came through in overtime for us,” Boen said. “Shane Sims and Alain Lenord stepped up and the seniors made the difference in the game. We were here last year going to the South finals and a lot of these guys were important players for us.”

“We came into the game underdogs,” Sims said. “We wanted to prove everybody wrong that we were not the underdog team. Our seniors kept our heads and that helped us get the win today.”

Brockton will take on a familiar foe in the next round when they travel to New Bedford, on Saturday at 7 p.m., to take on the Whalers in the rubber match between the two Big 3 rivals.

Mission begins a-New

2011-03-05T07:22:00.000-08:00

Titans start 1st trek in Div. 2 with win
By Dan Keats / Basketball | Friday, March 4, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com |

After conquering Division 4 a year ago, New Mission gave itself a new mission to conquer bigger fish on the hardwood.

The No. 2-seeded Titans passed their first test in Div. 2 North with flying colors last night, routing No. 15 Reading, 61-43, at the Reggie Lewis Center.

After being assessed a technical for dunking in pregame warmups, Kachi Nzerem made up for the mental mistake by matching the Rockets’ first-half offensive output with 14 points. He finished with 20 points, while Samir McDaniels added 15 to go along with nine rebounds. Nzerem opened up the Rockets zone defense to get a number of layups and second-chance buckets.

New Mission (17-4) will face No. 10 Lynn Classical in a sectional quarterfinal on Sunday.

“I was happy with our defense tonight; to hold a good team like that to 43 points, it was good,” said Titans coach Cory McCarthy. “We dominated from start to finish and that’s what I wanted to do.”

The Titans led 21-10 after one quarter and then held Reading (10-11) to just four points in the second for a 34-14 halftime advantage. The lead got as high as 30 at 59-29 with 5:05 left in the game when Leroy Hamilton buried a 3-pointer in the corner, one of eight in the contest for a team that McCarthy considers to only have one true outside shooter in Nzerem, who hit five of the team’s eight.

Jerry Ellis-Williams led Reading with 19 points.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1320934

Cambridge out

2011-03-05T07:20:00.001-08:00

Lawrence pulls off stunner in first round
By Adam Kurkjian / Boys Basketball | Saturday, March 5, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com |

The biggest shake-up of last night’s tournament action came in the Division 1 North sectional, where visiting Lawrence stunned No. 2 Cambridge, 82-78, in a first-round contest.

The No. 15 Lancers (14-8) were led by standout guard Jaylen Alicea, who recorded a triple-double with 35 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

“Jaylen did a lot, and we needed him to, but a lot of other players came out and played a great supporting role,” Lawrence coach Paul Neal said.

One of those players was Jessy Hiraldo, who played less than a quarter because of foul trouble but still managed 14 points and 10 rebounds and helped the Lancers handle the length and athleticism of the Falcons in the post.

“(Hiraldo) gave us some good minutes, and then after that it was really just a good team win,” Neal said.

Cambridge (19-2) led at the half, 44-41, and extended the lead to 11 points in the third quarter. The Lancers came storming back to take an 11-point lead of their own in the fourth.

Cambridge made a late run at the lead, but Alicea (15-of-19 free throws) hit 11-of-13 from the line in the quarter to seal the win.

Lawrence will face No. 7 Westford Academy in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

In the Div. 4 South quarterfinals, Cohasset coach Bo Ruggiero feels his team’s strength is its “spunk.”

“It’s all coming from energy,” he said.

That energy, in the form of a jump ball, turned out to be the difference for the No. 3 Skippers, who held off South Shore League rival and sixth-seeded Mashpee, 54-51, in Cohasset.

With Cohasset (20-2) clinging to a one-point lead, Mashpee’s Zak Orcutt missed a jumper with less than five seconds to go. The Skippers, who made 10 steals, were able to tie the ball up near midcourt, and the possession arrow went their way. After Mashpee fouled Sam Richardson (22 points) with 1.4 seconds left, the Cohasset senior calmly sank both.

“We had to make a stop and the ball was on the floor,” Richardson said. “We all just went on it and we got it.”

Richardson and junior Kyrel Jaundoo (six points, eight rebounds, five steals, two blocks) sparked an early 12-0 run.

But the Falcons (18-4), who split the regular-season series with Cohasset, rallied behind Nico Hendricks, whose 10 first-half points allowed his team to slice the deficit to 28-25 by the break. Then free throws did it for Cohasset.

In Div. 4 South action, Kyle Lawyer led No. 5 Cathedral (19-3) with 26 points in a 76-51 win against No. 4 Westport. Joe Greene added 17 points for the Panthers. . . .

No. 5 Winthrop (15-6), behind 19 points from Michael Griffin and 18 points from Quinton Dale, knocked off No. 4 Mystic Valley in a Div. 4 North quarterfinal.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1321159

Focus lands on Madison Park

2011-03-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

New film follows basketball team

Film Trailer: http://vimeo.com/18521014

Flash back to four years ago. Coach Dennis Wilson and the 19-0 Madison Park Cardinals are destined for basketball greatness. The team is the top seed heading into the state tournament, but a slew of interior problems are festering and dissolving the team chemistry.

“Every week, there was always something going on,’’ Wilson said. “One of my players’ mothers was beaten up by a boyfriend who was an ex-boxer. There were constant social problems — whether they would be stemming from the community, a friend, or a cousin. And neighbors were shot and stabbed.’’

The biggest problem involved captain Raheem “Radio’’ Singleton and Malik Smith, who represented rivalry neighborhoods — the Heath Street and Academy project homes. Each party felt the other was getting too much publicity, which resulted in the selfish play of two star athletes and compromised the strength of the team.

Meanwhile, Boston-area filmmaker Rudy Hypolite, who was captivated by Wilson’s relationship with the athletes behind the scenes, captured the roller coaster season that ultimately fell short of its goal and turned it into a documentary, “Push: Madison versus Madison.’’

“The team was No. 1 and was a great team — very talented,’’ said Hypolite, who has known Wilson for nearly two decades. “In my mind, I said, ‘Wow, I’d love to capture that journey whether they go all the way or not. Dennis is also a history teacher, so I wanted to capture the sense of what was happening in the school system. It was a great way of telling the story about the challenges that teachers and these kids deal with, the backgrounds they come from.’’

The documentary was one of 100 films selected from 2,500 entries to air at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, Calif., which begins tomorrow and runs through March 13.

Hypolite praised his supporting cast, including cinematographer Mike Pecci, writer Ian McFarland, and musician Malik Williams, who developed a soundtrack solely for the film.

The 25-year coach said that the purpose of the documentary wasn’t just to capture the struggles at Madison Park, but to show troubled athletes across the country that they can make it, and to not give up.

Wilson hopes that players will end up like Singleton, who is now the starting point guard at the University of Maine.

“I want to inspire coaches like myself, teachers like myself, and kids that are going through what my kids are going through, that they can make it,’’ said Wilson, whose current team opens tournament play Thursday against Franklin. “You got to be strong and you got to persevere. Is everyone going to make it? No, and that’s the sad reality. But if the word gets out, the kid who’s thinking about giving up won’t give up, because he knows I can make it like [Singleton].’’

However, it’s not just the success on the court that motivates Wilson to help students. He also sees himself as a mentor and a resource to students who look up to him in a time of need.

But even with the success of some athletes, Hypolite and Wilson believe it is not enough. Hypolite said that the purpose of the documentary is to reach out to the inner cities and help restore values, morals, and an appreciation for life.

“Outside of [the success], do we keep leaving the system like it is?’’ Hypolite said. “Life isn’t valued anymore. And even with someone like Dennis, who’s a mentor and a father figure, it’s not enough — the neighborhoods have changed. There are no programs like math teams and book clubs to help these kids, and that makes it so much harder to combat these circumstances.

“We want this documentary to serve as an insight to the inner city, and show that something needs to be done.’’

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

Eye-opening MP basketball documentary

2011-03-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

Push Madison V Madison Trailer from Rudy Hypolite on Vimeo.

By Dan Ventura | Monday, February 28, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Other High School

Dennis Wilson and Rudy Hypolite didn’t set out to become the next Steven Spielbergs of the movie world.

Their goal was simple — open people’s eyes to the everyday challenges facing inner-city students.

The two spent more than three years working on a documentary featuring the Madison Park boys basketball program. The 90-minute film, called “Push: Madison versus Madison,” recently was accepted by the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose and will be shown three times in early March.

A sneak preview can be found on their website, www.pushmadison.com.

“We’re so excited that we were one of the few selected,” said Wilson, the Madison Park coach. “Our goal is for someone like ESPN, HBO or Showtime to see the movie, pick it up and show it nationally.”

Push Madison V Madison Trailer from Rudy Hypolite on Vimeo.

The genesis of the documentary came about shortly after the 2005-06 season, one in which a youthful Cardinals team advanced to the Division 1 South sectional final. With the bulk of the squad returning the following season, Hypolite approached his good friend Wilson and suggested combining forces on a documentary following the 2006-07 team.

“Dennis and I worked together on his sports show on cable access, so we would always talk about the challenges he faced in dealing with players,” said Hypolite. “I knew they were ranked No. 1 in the preseason, so I asked Dennis about following the team and he said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ ”

Much of the film focuses on the ’06-07 season, one in which Madison Park went through the regular season undefeated. While things looked good on the surface, the film displays the daily battles Wilson faced in keeping the train on the right track.

The petty issues reared their ugly head in the sectional semifinals, when Madison Park was stunned by Braintree. To this day, it pains Wilson to talk about a golden opportunity wasted away for selfish reasons.

“I will never forget seeing the blue and white of Braintree celebrating after that game,” said Wilson. “We had cut down 30 hours of film into 90 minutes and what happened in that game was one of the toughest things I had to see.

“I know Radio (star point guard Raheem Singleton) was very bitter, feeling we didn’t do enough to stop the selfish attitudes. I think when he sees the film, he’ll see I tried to do everything possible to address it.”

The film also takes a look at the senseless murders of two of Wilson’s most successful student-athletes, Lloyd Industrious and Errol Morrison. While Wilson tries to keep their memories alive, he wonders whether the newer generation fully grasps what transpired to Industrious and Morrison.

“Unfortunately, many of the young kids we deal with have already dealt with a friend or relative having been murdered,” said Wilson. “I just hope they understand what special young men Lloyd and Errol were, but I am not so sure that they always do.

“Young people nowadays tend to devalue their life and not value the life of others. Too many times, they just don’t value life enough and that’s sick. That has to stop.”

The movie closes with footage from the 2009-10 season. Many of those seniors were freshmen on the ’06-07 team and Wilson constantly leaned on them to avoid the pratfalls which derailed that squad.

With seniors Spencer Brathwaite and David Campbell leading the way, the Cardinals captured the Boston City League title, went on to win the Div. 1 South sectional championship, before falling to Central Catholic at the Garden.

“They saw firsthand what happened when you don’t play as a team,” Wilson said. “We kept telling them the 2007 team was a more talented team, but you are a better team.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1319837

Barros's mission to change lives - Basketball his vehicle for good will

2011-03-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

‘ I want the kids out there to know there are alternatives
to the life they see on the streets.’
- TOME BARROS

By Bob Hohler
GLOBE STAFF

Bullets would fly and someone from his neighborhood
would die. The law of averages told him so.
When Tome Barros departed UphamsCorner in
Dorchester last summer to try to change the
world —Barros is the first recipient of a $25,000
international sabbatical grant aimed at improving
children’s lives through basketball —he anticipated hearing along the way about another senseless killing back home.

The moment came 44 days after he began his 10-month odyssey. The son of Cape Verdean immigrants, Barros, 24, was teaching children in Senegal about striving for the best in life and basketball when word arrived that his cousin, David Martins, was shot to death on a Dorchester sidewalk. Martins was murdered 10 years after Barros lost another cousin, Michael Tavares, to gunfire on the streets.

To be young and Cape Verdean in parts of Dorchester and Roxbury has spelled danger since a conflict between Cape Verdean factions in 1995 turned into a street war. The death toll has topped 25, according to police estimates, while dozens have been wounded, and many others are behind bars.

His community in crisis, Barros is training to help rescue it. When he returns in April, he plans to honor his slain cousins and help save the next generation of Dorchester’s Cape Verdean youth by applying the teaching experience he gained in the back country of Senegal and the violent slums of Brazil on the streets of Boston.

Barros is the face of a better tomorrow in a city scarred by a rising tide of homicides. Of the 72 murders last year in Boston —up nearly 50 percent from 2009 —few were more shocking than the shooting death of a 14-year-old who was allegedly ambushed on his scooter by two Cape Verdean youths a mile from Barros’s home.

“I want the kids out there to know there are alternatives to the life they see on the streets,’’ said Barros, who has embraced the values he learned from his parents, teachers, priests, and mentors.

“I want the kids to see me as a role model they can follow away from all of that,’’ he said by phone from Cape Verde, an island nation off northwest Africa.

Cape Verde is the last stop on Barros’s 10,000-mile mission, a journey on which he has exemplified the spirit of the Peace Corps and the power of sports to improve society. On each stop, he has spent days inviting boys and girls to basketball clinics, then weeks teaching them not only about the game but the power of education, leadership, and healthy living.
He carries with him the hopes of a South Boston couple —Justin and Lindsey Kittredge —who four years ago launched Shooting Touch Inc., a nonprofit that first served needy children in Boston, then went global.

“Tome has surpassed our expectations on every level,’’ said Lindsey Kittredge. “He has been a gift for us.’’

His greatest contribution could be helping to transform the culture of crime and violence back home. For 19 years, the challenge has largely fallen to Paulo De Barros, director of the Catholic Charities Teen Center at St. Peter’s Church in Dorchester and president of Cape Verdean Community UNIDO.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino last year honored De Barros’s peace efforts by naming him Crime Fighter of the Year.

“I’ve been doing this work 19 years and the community has been lacking the young leaders we need to step up,’’ De Barros said. “Tome has it all: the vision, the innovation, and a special talent for connecting with kids. He could make a huge difference.’’

Connection through ‘Touch’ De Barros has twice led youths, including Barros, on goodwill basketball missions to Cape Verde. On each trip, Barros lugged extra clothes to give to poor children, some of whom had no shoes. Barros said he lives by a motto he learned at Boston College High School: “Be a man for others.’’

Now he is a humanitarian for the Kittredges, who once knew little about the deadly violence in Dorchester. They had privileged youths —Justin playing basketball for Northfield-Mount Hermon, Lindsey for Rivers —before Justin played hoop at James Madison University and Lindsey joined the lacrosse team at the University of Vermont.

Mayor Thomas M. Meninolast year honored De Barros’s peace efforts by naming him Crime Fighter of the Year.

“I’ve been doing this work 19 years and the community has been lacking the young leaders we need to step up,’’ De Barros said. “Tome has it all: the vision, the innovation, and a special talent for connecting with kids. He could make a huge difference.’’

Connection through ‘Touch’ De Barros has twice led youths, including Barros, on goodwill basketball missions to Cape Verde. On each trip, Barros lugged extra clothes to give to poor children, some of whom had no shoes. Barros said he lives by a motto he learned at Boston College High School: “Be a man for others.’’

Now he is a humanitarian for the Kittredges, who once knew little about the deadly violence in Dorchester. They had privileged youths —Justin playing basketball for Northfield-Mount Hermon, Lindsey for Rivers —before Justin played hoop at James Madison University and Lindsey joined the lacrosse team at the University of Vermont.

Justin, 34, was so consumed by basketball that he joined Canton-based Reebok International in 2000 because employees can play in the company gym on their lunch hours. He made such good use of the court that he set Guinness world records there in 2009 for the most blindfolded free throws made in one minute (16) and the most unassisted free throws made in two minutes (64).

He also scaled the corporate ladder, most recently taking charge of basketball and tennis products for the sneaker and apparel giant. But he worked at the grassroots level along the way and learned about the unmet challenges in the inner city.

“I saw a lot of kids who needed mentoring,’’ Justin said, “but I didn’t see a lot of it going on.’’

Shooting Touch’s early years were dedicated to running clinics and providing academic incentives through a Gear 4 Grades program for urban high school athletes. (The boys’ basketball team at Boston’s New Mission High School was among the first recipients.)

Then the Kittredgesdreamed bigger, designing a sabbatical program similar in spirit to the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders. Through Shooting Touch, they grant graduating college seniors $25,000 for independent study programs, including travel expenses, anywhere on the planet. The traveling ambassadors are free to design their own journeys and programs so long as they use basketball to promote social change.

Enter Barros. With two days to go last year before the Kittredgesclosed their first application process, Barros contacted them with an urgent appeal. A senior at Hampton University in Virginia, he had been tipped off about the sabbatical by a cousin who was helping Shooting Touch produce a promotional video.

“Tome came in and blew us away,’’ Lindsey said. “A lot of applicants talked about using basketball to escape from the streets, but in Tome’s case it seemed a lot more real.’’

Barros told of avoiding the bloodshed by exercising extreme caution and deft street diplomacy. He found safe havens at schools —St. Patrick in Roxbury through eighth grade, then BC High. And while some friends aligned with gangs, Barros found refuge on the basketball court at the Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester —the same court where mentors once helped a troubled kid named Mark Wahlbergturn his life around. (The club was recently featured in a “60 Minutes’’ segment on Wahlberg.)

Barros quickly established himself as one of the club’s stars. He immersed himself in basketball, community service, and the Keystone Club leadership program, and in 2004 received the center’s top honor as Youth of the Year.
“Tome came here to be safe from the streets, but he evolved into a leader and made a profound impact on his peers,’’ said Mike Joyce, the club’s vice president for programming, who has mentored youths there since 1979. “He’s one of the finest kids we’ve had.’’

Barros grew up in the club with EdsonCardoso, who is widely respected in the Cape Verdean community as a teacher and the boys’ basketball coach at Charlestown High School.

“Tome and I went through the same struggles,’’ Cardoso said. “He has grown up to be a very passionate and positive leader. He’s really going to make an impact when he gets home.’’

The journey continues Barros already has made a difference overseas. In Senegal, he restored dilapidated basketball courts, organized clinics, and taught impoverished children about leadership, the value of education, and AIDS prevention. He befriended strangers who gave him places to live. He also learned enough French and Portuguese —he already knew Cape Verdean Creole —to communicate in Senegal, then Brazil, the second stop on his mission, and the most jarring.

As bleak as life seemed for many children in Africa, nothing prepared Barros for the desperate poverty in the sprawling shanty towns of Rio de Janeiro. Soon after he arrived in October, government forces cracked down on drug gangs in advance of the 2016 Olympic Games. Dozens were killed, and heavily armed troops continue to patrol the slums.

Amid the danger, Barros reached out to scores of homeless and hungry children, some of whom followed him after his clinics in the hope he would house and feed them.

“The best thing was, I was able to give them the experience of feeling like kids again,’’ Barros said. “I felt like I was making a difference every single day.’’

Barros has tried to ensure his legacy continues overseas by mentoring young adults in each country to carry on his work.

He already has established a nonprofit, Basketball Outreach Unifying Neighborhood Communities Everywhere (BOUNCE), to fund his efforts to use basketball as a way to guide high-risk youths in Dorchester toward peace and prosperity through educational programs.

Shooting Touch measures the success of its sabbatical ambassadors by monitoring their personal development and requiring them to chronicle the impact they make on each step of their journeys.

Now he is back to his family’s roots in Cape Verde, mentoring children too young to grasp the depth of their poverty.

“When I see them, I see myself as a child,’’ Barros said. “I realize I would be one of them if my parents hadn’t strived to go to America and find better opportunities for us.’’
He tells the Cape Verdean children anything is possible if they get their educations —a message he plans to make a cornerstone of his campaign back home.

His journey, he said, has primed him for the challenge.
“I’ve changed countless lives and learned how to change many more,’’ Barros said. “It’s been a dream come true.’’
The dream could help him shape a better Boston.
Bob Hohlercan be reached at hohler@globe.com.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

Lasting friendship buoys Woburn duo

2011-02-17T08:28:00.001-08:00

WOBURN — Mickel Simpson and Ricky Aponte had the course all charted out — play basketball together on club teams, get to high school and lead Woburn to glory.

But fate dealt the duo a cruel hand.

Aponte was diagnosed with a heart condition following his freshman year and had to give up basketball. The news was a crushing blow for Simpson, but the 6-foot-3 senior guard has used it as personal motivation.

“I was devastated. I was there when he found out. I was shocked,” Simpson said. “Now, I play for him, I don’t want to let him down. I know if he was out there, he would be giving it his all, so I want to give it my all.

“I don’t want to look back and see what I could have done better. I want to give it 100 percent all the time.”

Aponte’s name may not appear in the box score, but his presence clearly can be felt. From his spot on the Woburn bench, Aponte is quick to offer encouragement or advice when the situation calls for it.

“We’ve played together since the sixth grade and we’re like family now,” Aponte said. “I see things on the court and I make sure to tell him what’s going on out there.”

Simpson hasn’t needed much advice, relying on his god-given talent to make an impact on the Woburn program. Coach Tom Sullivan had so much faith in Simpson’s ability from the start that he didn’t think twice about putting him out there against defending Division 1 state champion BC High on the road.

“They had the big shot blocker (Jake O‘Brien), one of the best around,” Sullivan said. “Mickel went right at him and finished with 18 points. He played like a seasoned veteran even though he was a baby at the time.”

Simpson blossomed as a sophomore, playing a key role in Woburn’s march to the Division 2 sectional title. Even though the dream ended in a crushing last-second loss to Milton at the Garden, it was a joyride Simpson gladly would take again.

“Oh it was a great experience,” Simpson said, “to play at the Tsongas (Arena) and the Garden, oh my goodness. Not everyone gets that opportunity. I’m hoping we get back there this year.

“I have that 2009 orange sticker (signifying Woburn’s postseason run) on my wall. I see it every morning, it’s an incentive. I want to get back there.”

The Simpson of today is a far cry from the youngster who played a secondary role on the championship squad.

“The beauty of Mickel is that he is a terrific athlete. He was a great athlete as a young kid,” Sullivan said. “His ballhandling, shooting and his knowledge has increased immeasurably over the last three years, and it’s all because he wants to get better.”

Those skills have caught the eye of several colleges. Simpson already has been accepted at Trinity, while other schools would be more than happy to see him land on their doorstep.

“As competitive as he is on the court, he’s a great kid off the court,” Sullivan said. “He truly is a coach’s dream.”

Do you have a similar story in your community? Let us know at dventura@bostonherald.com or e-mail your own Hot Shots-worthy video (max. 25 megabytes) to hotshots@heraldinteractive.com.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1317343

BLACK HISTORY MONTH CLASSIC >>> MONDAY 2/21 @ EMMANUEL COLLEGE

2011-02-17T08:00:00.001-08:00

Time Monday, February 21 · 10:00am - 5:00pm

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location Emmanuel College Gym

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Created By Basketball X-Perts

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Black History Month Classic 2/21 @ Emmanuel College (PRESIDENTS DAY/ NO SCHOOL)

Public School Event I (Emmanuel College)

12:30pm - New Mission HS vs. East Boston HS
2:00pm - Everett HS vs. Lowell HS

Independant School Event II (Emmanuel College)

3:30pm - Lee Academy (ME) vs. NIA Prep National Team (NJ)

FOOTAGE OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMvmlK9A9zI

Teamwork from Townies

2011-02-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

Sophomore Tyrese Hoxter scored 27 points for Charlestown, but it was juniors Akosa Maduegbunam and Iser Barnes who carried the No. 4 Townies to an 86-75 overtime victory at Madison Park last night.

Maduegbunam scored 8 of his 18 points in the extra frame, highlighted by a fast-break slam that gave the Townies a 80-73 lead with just under three minutes to play.

“When your number’s called, you have to be ready to answer,’’ Maduegbunam said. “My team needed someone to step up and I was happy to take that role.’’

The high-flying guard hit a jumper to start overtime and sparked a 12-2 run, in which Barnes contributed 6 points.

The Townies were ahead comfortably, 66-54, with 3:59 to play when Madison Park coach Dennis Wilson called a timeout.
By Anthony Gulizia
Globe Correspondent / February 16, 2011

The Cardinals went on a 10-0 run and cut the lead to 2, forcing Charlestown to call time. Madison Park’s Ray Matthews then hit two free throws to tie the score at 66 with 1:28 to play.

Junior Rony Fernandes hit a jumper for the Townies, but the Cardinals’ Khayree Hudson answered. The teams traded free throws, then Hudson drove the lane, scored, and was fouled.

After Hudson missed the free throw, Hoxter took the inbounds pass and drove up the court, tying the game at 71 with 10 seconds to play.

Globe correspondent Paul Sulzer contributed to this report.

Article URL: http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/basketball/articles/2011/02/16/teamwork_from_townies/

Jacquil Taylor carries on Cambridge tradition

2011-02-03T10:24:00.001-08:00

Any time a promising player makes his way through the Cambridge basketball program, the inevitable comparisons to Patrick Ewing begin.

The latest prodigy is 6-foot-8 sophomore Jacquil Taylor. Long and lean, Taylor is averaging more than 14 points and nearly five blocks a game for the top-ranked Falcons. With each passing contest, Taylor sees his name beginning to rise nationally.

Cambridge coach Lance Dottin knows all about expectations, having starred in the backcourt for the Falcons in the mid-1980s. He cautions those who want to call Taylor the next Ewing to slow down the enthusiasm just a tad.

“It is unfair because of what Patrick was able to accomplish in high school, both as an individual and as part of a (winning) team,” Dottin said. “But this young man is special, he’s developing every single day. As I’ve stated before, he’s the first one in the gym and the last one out.

“He has the desire and determination to become better. You can see that he’s come a long way offensively since his freshman year.”

Taylor might be only 15, but he knows the tradition of Cambridge basketball. Alumni always can be spotted at War Memorial Gymnasium during games, chatting with Taylor afterward.

“I know it’s a special thing to wear the Cambridge uniform,” the soft-spoken Taylor said. “I’ve heard about the past, I’ve been told that (Ewing) was a special player here.”

Dottin knows he has a potential gem in Taylor, who is ranked among the top five public players in New England for the class of 2013. That’s precisely why Dottin is pushing the envelope this season, asking more of his sophomore sensation.

“He’s 15 years old, he’s still a baby, but for us, now is the time for Jacquil to step up, and we need him to step up,” Dottin said. “There is a lot of great competition in the North, and we think he gives us a chance.”

Dottin isn’t referring to winning the Greater Boston League title. The measuring stick in Cambridge isn’t how many points you score or how many rebounds you snare. It’s all about the ultimate team prize in high school basketball — the Division 1 state title.

“That’s our only goal, to win it all,” said Taylor, without a hint of cockiness. “We need to stay humble, stay focused and work hard every single day.”

Just like Patrick Ewing did in his heyday.

Do you have a similar story in your community? Let us know at dventura@bostonherald.com or e-mail your own Hot Shots-worthy video (max. 25 megabytes) to hotshots@heraldinteractive.com.

Boston City League basketball championship information

2011-01-31T11:59:00.001-08:00

Here are the dates and times for the Boston City League hoop championships

GIRLS SEMIFINALS: Wednesday, February 23, 4:00 and 5:30 p.m. at Madison Park

BOYS SEMIFINALS: Thursday, February 24, 4:00 and 5:30 p.m. at Madison Park

GIRLS FINAL: Friday, February 25, 5 p.m. at Madison Park

BOYS FINAL: Friday, February 25, 6:30 p.m. at Madison Park

Charlestown hands No. 1 SJP its first loss in boys hoops

2011-01-31T11:54:00.001-08:00

by Danny Ventura (Boston Herald Blog)

The five massive championship banners hanging on the wall behind one of the baskets serves as a constant reminder of the legacy which was once Charlestown basketball.

Maybe we saw the dawning of a new era earlier Saturday afternoon.

Facing the No. 1 team in the state, Charlestown not only took St. John’s Prep’s best punches, but showed some knockout power of its own. Locked in a life-and-death struggle through the better part of 28 minutes, Charlestown responded with a devastating 15-1 closing kick to hand the Eagles their first loss, 72-56.

“We had our worst practice of the year yesterday and I let them know about it,” said Charlestown coach Edson Cardoso. “They came in today, apologized and went out and played great defense against the top-ranked team in the state.”

Added Akosa Maduegbunam: “We believed in our heart we could do it. When we get out there and run, there aren’t too many teams who can run with us.”

In the eyes of one neutral observer, the difference was plain and simple: Charlestown’s top player (Maduegbunam) received much more support than St. John’s Prep’s ace (Pat Connaughtion).

Connaughton was his usual splendid self, scoring 29 points and pulling down 13 rebounds, He also supplied a pair of crowd-pleasers, converting an alley-oop feed into a dunk as well as a gorgeous behind-the-back drive to the hoop in traffic for a layup.

But to beat a good team, Connaughton can not do it alone and today was a prime example. The rest of the Eagles accounted for just 27 points, making 11-of-45 shots. In the fateful fourth quarter, the non-Connaughtons were 0-for-12 from the field.

On the other side of the ledger, Maduegbunam scored 22 points (though he took 27 shots) and grabbed five rebounds. Where the 6-foot-3 junior was more impressive was at the other end of the floor where he took the assignment of stopping Connaughton.

One would look at the 29 points and figure Maduegbunam didn’t get the job done. That couldn’t be further from the truth as Connaughton had to work for each and every point and let’s face it, he’s going to get his points - that’s why he’s going to Notre Dame.

But the rest of the Townies certainly came to play. Starting with point guard Rony Fernandes. He scored 23 points, but dished out seven assists and run the offense smoothly.

“That’s my job - get the ball to the other guys,” said Fernandes. “If the shot is there, I’m going to take it.”

Then you have the warriors in the paint. Tyrik Jackson pulled down 14 rebounds, Tyerese Hoxter had nine points and five rebounds, C.J. Dowdell went for six points and six rebounds.

“We’re more than just one guy,” said Cardoso. “If Akosa isn’t scoring, then Omar (Orriols) can score. If he isn’t scoring, then Rony can score.”

Yesterday, all of them proved to be more than enough to take down the top dogs.

Boston Herald Hot Shots: Samir McDaniels

2011-01-27T13:38:00.001-08:00

New Mission boys basketball coach Cory McCarthy knew something was amiss when he saw Samir McDaniels land awkwardly on his tailbone.

Normally, the 6-foot-4 senior swingman would bounce right back up and head down court. But this time, McDaniels remained down, the pain clearly etched across his face.

He would eventually get up and remain in the game against St. John’s Prep, but his effectiveness for the rest of the two-day BABC holiday tournament was greatly diminished.

“Samir is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met,” said McCarthy. “But I could see it in his face that he was hurting and wasn’t sure he could continue. He played but everyone could see that the injury bothered Samir. He didn’t have that explosiveness he usually has.”

This wasn’t quite the way McDaniels, a Herald All-Scholastic last year, envisioned his senior season would unfold. A preseason ankle injury forced him to miss all the scrimmages as well as a season-opening loss to St. Mary’s (N.Y.). The bruised tailbone limited him to single digits in losses to St. John’s Prep and Mansfield.

“It was frustrating for me,” said McDaniels, who helped guide New Mission to the Division 4 state title last season. “I knew I couldn’t do some of things I wanted to do, but I felt I had to be out there for my teammates.”

The saving grace proved to be a week-long break in the schedule. The seven-day respite allowed McDaniels time to rest and recuperate fully from the ankle and tailbone injuries. With a healthy McDaniels back in top form, the Titans are ready to assume their place among the elite in Div. 2, where the Titans moved up two divisions to this season.

In a recent win over previously undefeated Brighton, McDaniels had 19 points and 10 rebounds, constantly beating his man to the basket.

It’s those skills and several others which McCarthy feels make McDaniels a solid college prospect, if schools would take a look.

“I think one of the reasons that Samir is being under-recruited is that they don’t think he can shoot from the outside,” said McCarthy. “In high school, he hasn’t had to do that because he’s quick enough to get right by his man. If you watch him in AAU tournament against some of the top competition, Samir has shown he can handle the ball and shoot from the outside.

“Some college is going to be very lucky to get him.”

Do you have a similar story in your community? Let us know at dventura@bostonherald.com or e-mail your own Hot Shots-worthy video (max. 25 megabytes) to hotshots@heraldinteractive.com.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1312262