Kori Ellis
04-07-2005, 04:37 PM
Of Title Games and Team Play
Caught the NCAA tournament championship game on Monday. I wasn't in a pool, but my picks came to fruition because I had Illinois and North Carolina in the championship game. I was actually sad for Illinois and only from this standpoint:
I felt like they had played consistently all year and to come up short at the end, that really was unfortunate. That's the way the ball bounces sometimes. They played together as a team the whole year and they accomplished goals as a team.
Other teams had certain guys that were very good, but they didn't play as a team and they didn't do as well. And that's what we've lost in the game of basketball is the partnership of the team.
And that's the cool thing about us, is that team aspect. If someone goes down, we always have some one to step in. Yeah, we depend a lot on Tim, but we put players around Tim to make our team better. In Chicago, they put guys around Mike to make their team better. The had role players around Mike to allow Mike to do even more on the court. That's what we have in San Antonio.
Speaking of which, I noticed Tony Parker was featured on NBA.com this week. Tony has grown since he's been here because he's been in the system a while now and people are recognizing that.
As far as Tony breaking out, as some would say, I couldn't point to something and say: "Well, he's done this, done that and done that," because it's been part of the plan all along. He's grown within the system and become the point guard we thought he could be.
That's what I mean when we talk about being a team. We have Tony, who's not an All-Star caliber guard if Tim's not on the floor. But those two feed off one another and they get better with one another. And Manu Ginobili isn't an All-Star guard without Tim, Tony or myself.
As for how we're playing now, if you remember last week's blog, I mentioned how we came out tentatively without Tim. We've been doing better of late. There are still some things we do better and go from there. I think we're playing with more urgency and it's not just "Hey, we've lost Tim and we're pitying ourselves." We're coming out and competing.
Right now, we have 54 wins. We're close to 60 wins, but it wasn't in our thought process this season to get 60 wins. It's great if you can, it's a bonus in itself. That definitely wasn't something that came across this year. We understand that may happen or that it may not happen, but the important thing is that we play with the urgency to get victories -- any victories.
Posted by Bruce Bowen - Apr 7 2005 3:39PM
http://www.nba.com/blog/blog31.html
Caught the NCAA tournament championship game on Monday. I wasn't in a pool, but my picks came to fruition because I had Illinois and North Carolina in the championship game. I was actually sad for Illinois and only from this standpoint:
I felt like they had played consistently all year and to come up short at the end, that really was unfortunate. That's the way the ball bounces sometimes. They played together as a team the whole year and they accomplished goals as a team.
Other teams had certain guys that were very good, but they didn't play as a team and they didn't do as well. And that's what we've lost in the game of basketball is the partnership of the team.
And that's the cool thing about us, is that team aspect. If someone goes down, we always have some one to step in. Yeah, we depend a lot on Tim, but we put players around Tim to make our team better. In Chicago, they put guys around Mike to make their team better. The had role players around Mike to allow Mike to do even more on the court. That's what we have in San Antonio.
Speaking of which, I noticed Tony Parker was featured on NBA.com this week. Tony has grown since he's been here because he's been in the system a while now and people are recognizing that.
As far as Tony breaking out, as some would say, I couldn't point to something and say: "Well, he's done this, done that and done that," because it's been part of the plan all along. He's grown within the system and become the point guard we thought he could be.
That's what I mean when we talk about being a team. We have Tony, who's not an All-Star caliber guard if Tim's not on the floor. But those two feed off one another and they get better with one another. And Manu Ginobili isn't an All-Star guard without Tim, Tony or myself.
As for how we're playing now, if you remember last week's blog, I mentioned how we came out tentatively without Tim. We've been doing better of late. There are still some things we do better and go from there. I think we're playing with more urgency and it's not just "Hey, we've lost Tim and we're pitying ourselves." We're coming out and competing.
Right now, we have 54 wins. We're close to 60 wins, but it wasn't in our thought process this season to get 60 wins. It's great if you can, it's a bonus in itself. That definitely wasn't something that came across this year. We understand that may happen or that it may not happen, but the important thing is that we play with the urgency to get victories -- any victories.
Posted by Bruce Bowen - Apr 7 2005 3:39PM
http://www.nba.com/blog/blog31.html