This Just In-Brad Stevens can Coach

First appeared on December 11th, 2013
in The Lebanon Reporter

Those of us with Midwestern roots are ingrained with certain inalienable virtues. And be it Rome, Tokyo, numerous careers of varying success or simply crossing the county line, these tend to travel well wherever we go. Webster’s would define these as “taking pride in hard work, maintaining a no-nonsense attitude and knowing when it’s cold enough to start using the buttons on your jacket”.

So it was Brad Stevens announced in July that he was leaving Butler for the NBA and, while those close to the program were rocked to their core, the talking heads declared it one of those rare occasions where both parties involved had made a colossal mistake. For Stevens, leaving Butler appeared a disastrous move. The Bulldogs were entering a new conference which meant new opportunities and wider exposure. All of which figured to reap stronger recruiting classes and the possibility of challenging once again for that elusive National Title he’d already been so close to snatching up from his tiny perch at Butler.

For the Celtics, it meant hiring a coach with no NBA experience and one that had been leading a Mid-Major program for only 6 seasons. His introduction to the NBA would include piloting a roster comprised largely of castaways and project players destined to wilt in the shadow of two cornerstone stars who’d bolted, chasing another ring out of town.

Stevens was walking into a meat-grinder. The NBA would slap that boyish grin from his face before he could call his first time out. He’d be a shell of his former pragmatic self by Thanksgiving. But when the Celtics took the floor last week and completely dismantled the New York Knickerbockers and their high priced roster 114-73, there they were; taking pride in hard work and approaching things with a no-nonsense attitude.

Of course all this should be prefaced by the fact the NBA’s Eastern Conference is a disaster unlike anything Professional Basketball, and more pointedly, professional sports has ever seen. Coming in to Tuesday night there were three teams in the entire Conference with winning records. I’ll pause to let that soak in. Still the reenergized Celtics had recorded 10 wins with what was really supposed to be a rudderless team reeling without Rajon Rondo (man, that’s a lot of R’s).

Seriously, who are these guys? Vitor Faverani, Phil Pressey, Kris Kardashian-Humphries? Bleeding 10 wins from this roster is enough for Stevens to walk away right now. Go try to hit a baseball for a while Brad, there’s nothing left to prove here. You’re obviously really good.

In fact, forget about Baseball. There are far more opportunities hocking whatever pixie dust Stevens sprinkled on the Boston roster before the season began. To this point the Celtics have been that movie the wife dragged you to that you just knew would be awful and you sit down, glancing around to make sure nobody within your inner circle of most trusted man-friends sees you in the theatre, only to discover it’s a surprisingly good film.

Much remains to be seen obviously. Can Boston sustain their winning ways until April? Will the impending return of an All Star caliber player in Rondo serve as a shot in the arm to a roster already light years ahead of the majority of the Eastern Conference? Or will the return of Rondo spawn a cancer that spells doom for the Celtics and Stevens?

One thing’s for sure, if the Celtics continue to take pride in outworking opponents and approach things with a no-nonsense attitude, the sky’s the limit; well at least in the Eastern Conference it is.

© 2013 Eric Walker Williams

Pudue dethaws against Illinois

First appeared on January 5th,
in The Lebanon Reporter

Pardon the cliché but while it was cold outside, inside Mackey Arena Wednesday night was red hot. So loyal Boilermaker fans by the hundreds trudged in on their snowshoes cloaked in bulky Arctic parkas lined with fur from the durable, and yet always fashionable, Musk Ox. They’d come most likely to see Illinois play, having given up on their beloved Boilers sometime after the Bucknell loss (three games into the season).

Illinois had been good. Scary good. After winning the Maui Invitational in a championship game in which they beat Butler by 17 points, first year head coach Jim Groce’s team had won six of seven coming in.

Seeing DJ Byrd play an integral role in winning a basketball game is nothing new to folks in this part of the state, but the number 11 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini were blindsided by the 6’5 Senior Wednesday night. The Purdue Boilermakers (7-6) did what nobody on Earth, including all 9,874 people inside Mackey, believed they could; they beat Groce’s upstart Illinois team 68-61.

Purdue came in with absolutely nothing to hang their hats on following a lackluster preseason. And clearly there was little for Purdue fans to look forward to coming in to the season what with all the attention their arch rivals downstate had garnered before anyone had even had a chance to embarrass a directional school.

So the near zero degree temperatures outside must have seemed balmy to Matt Painter as he took the court with his team, considering the fervor Purdue fans once had for the coach’s program was quickly freezing over.

The Boilers don’t boast the top recruiting class in the nation or a preseason All American, but what they do have is a coach who instills a faith in hard-nosed defense and hustle. The product is of course oftentimes a brand of basketball so ugly even Sports Illustrated doesn’t have enough airbrush artists on staff to make the average basketball fan interested in watching it. But more often than not, when players are on board, it produces wins; of course nothing helps a group buy in faster than winning a game nobody has given you a chance in.

The heat wave came after Purdue outrebounded the Illini 45-34. And in doing so Purdue not only helped themselves compensate for a lack of shot making but may have revealed a glaring weakness in this Illini team at the same time. Illinois is a flashy and athletic team that can shoot the basketball, but what we saw Wednesday was a much less talented and far less athletic team punch them square in the face.

This physical, Gene Keady style “football on the hardwood” was enough to put Painter’s team in a position to win, but as they came down the stretch Purdue began to tighten up. You could see their arms get shorter and feel their throats drying up.

Knowing you’re a terrible foul shooting team late in a game you have no business leading must be a lot like diving with sharks wearing a wetsuit lined with chum. But in the end the Boilers were able toss Byrd into the microwave long enough for him to reach just the right temperature and, after proving to have the perfect amount of seasoning, the senior was able to make all the plays necessary at the end to help his team win.

There’s nothing like a nice win to warm ones soul on a cold winter night. And while it may come as a welcome distraction to the Arctic conditions in which we currently exist, Purdue fans should temper their blue lips, for nobody wants January 2nd to be the high water mark of their season.

© 2013 Eric Walker Williams

Coming up 47 feet short of National Championship nothing to sneeze at

First appeared on April 7th, 2010
in The Lebanon Reporter

Somebody get Blue II some aspirin. Apparently in an effort to forget Butler’s loss Monday night he lapped up a bit too much of Duke’s celebratory champagne from the floor of Lucas Oil Stadium. So much so they found him passed out Tuesday morning on the front lawn of the Governor’s mansion.


So the Butler Bulldogs are not National Champions. Despite their heartbreaking loss to Duke, there are still so many feel good stories when it comes to Butler that you can’t fit them all into one column. I had decided, in the classic style of the part-time pretend sports columnist who takes himself too seriously, to take the easy way out and write the all-encompassing “Despite the loss, let not this Butler team be forgotten” piece. You know, the one peppered with words like “epic” and “improbable” all the while waxing poetic about Butler being a team of destiny. But that seems like a fairly obvious thing to do now.

I can’t begin to tell you how epic this column was going to be had Butler won however. Here’s a sampling of the flowery prose you could have expected: “Fifty years from now, when the Final Four returns to Indianapolis, officials will once again trot out basketball legends from bygone eras. Small children will look on with wonderment as an aged Gordon Heyward fondly recalls the soft-spoken, baby-faced coach who proved to his players that dreams can come true. The adults will whisper and scoff as if there were no way Butler could have really won it all.”

But alas even Heyward, with as great as he was during the Tournament, couldn’t get a half-court shot that would have won it all in front of 70,000 to fall. And so now I have nothing to write about. Lack of respect from those at the “Four Letter” (yes I mean you Digger) was one possible angle, but even that is somewhat understandable considering Butler’s advancing this far was never in the plans. Surely even Bulldog Head Coach Brad Stevens would admit it was really never in his plans either.

Sure Butler was given some recognition during the season with rankings in the Top 15. And, yes the Selection Committee likely felt charitable handing a 5 seed to a Mid Major. But once the ball was tossed up in the Tournament, the experts forewarned of the smothering 2-3 zone of Syracuse, K-State’s size and Michigan State’s experience, yet all the while Butler simply played harder, smarter and better than all those teams.

There are just so many things this team did to win that stat sheets don’t chart. But they belong to history now and history will remember them as an unselfish team with relentless desire and an uncommon understanding of basketball’s fundamentals. Despite the loss, history should define these players as champions and their rare attributes as the “Butler way”.

But alas, in the face of such an incredible run and heartbreaking loss, this column does not belong to Butler. This is more about one of the greatest NCAA Tournaments I’ve ever seen (and this is saying a lot considering Indiana wasn’t playing). More to the point this is about the NCAA proposing changes to their tournament in the face of one of the most dramatic on record.

Is it simply human nature that man feels compelled to change things when they appear to be at their best? Color Television to HD. The two-slot toaster to four, then six. Bigger is not always better (see Indiana Class Basketball for proof). So while you are firing off that health care letter to your local senator, throw in something about keeping the NCAA Tournament field at 64. Maybe then we’ll all get something worthwhile.