I can't help it; watching the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games leaves me itching for this summer's FIBA World Championship in Turkey and the NBA season is not even in the books yet.
Maybe it's my wool sweater, but for the sake of this post I'll blame the itch on my initial anticipation for Team USA to try out and select its core unit to compete in the 24-team tournament.
Twenty-seven players have been named to the pool of talent that will rep the red, white and blue. Only 12 players will get selected.
Who's in your 12?
Will you favor continuity or break up the team a bit? Please leave your rosters below for fun. Did you notice a lack of quality outside shooters again?
That's a whole lot of hyphens above, but nothing gets between Star-Ledger's Brendan Prunty and NJ college basketball. He's one of my "trusted sources" on Twitter and NJ.com Sports, and can be found regularly covering hoops in college gymnasiums up and down "The Garden State."
We traded Qs & As today to preface tonight's Seton Hall-St. John's cross-river showdown.
Here's a link to my responses on NJ.com. Below's a transcript of BP's valuable insight about Jeremy Hazell, Seton Hall and the middle of the Big East pack.
See you at the game?
PRC: Seton Hall is 12-3 at home this season and recently extended their home win streak to give with a 79-71 victory over DePaul on Sunday. On the road, however, they're 2--6. What does Seton Hall need to do tonight to pick up a win in Queens? Why such struggles when away from South Orange, NJ?
Brendan Prunty: Great question. Most people forget that the Pirates have really struggled this season on the road since their only two wins — at Monmouth and at Cornell — came in the second and third games of the season. Not to make excuses, but Seton Hall has had a virtual Murderer's Row in Big East road games this season: Connecticut (when the Huskies were No. 13), Georgetown, South Florida (a game that the Pirates should have won), Villanova and Pittsburgh. But the thing that Seton Hall can't escape was that with the exception of the blowout against the Hoyas, the Pirates have been in every single one of their road games this season. The problem has been closing the deal. It seems like this team can play 35 or 36 minutes of solid road basketball, but then fizzles out in the final minutes.
Tonight against St. John's will be a great test of whether Seton Hall can overcome those road woes. Since moving the series to Carnesecca Arena in 2008, St. John's has won both games by five or less points. It's been a mini house of horrors for this program. They need to start off quick and get St. John's on its heels early. We've seen the Red Storm play well in the first half and the last thing that the Pirates need is to be staring at the prospect of a nip-and-tuck second half with how they've fared on the road so far this season.
PRC: If you were an NBA scout, how would you size up Jeremy Hazell? What areas of his game need improvement?
Brendan Prunty: I would size up Hazell like this: "He's a one-dimensional player who is slightly above-average at his one dimension." Look the thing that makes Hazell great is also the thing that makes him not so great. He can shoot it from your grandmother's driveway with ease, but in the NBA he'll never make — or stick with — a roster by jacking it up from 30-plus feet. He is tough to guard, but that's just simply because he'll pull up from anywhere on the court, in any situation because he thinks he can make it. Some nights he'll be money and go 12-for-16 for 35 points and some nights he'll go 14-for-33 for 41 points. The latter line only looks good because of the point total, but he'll never get that many shots in the NBA, so he'll never be able to score that much and therefore, not be as valuable to a team. What Hazell needs to get better at as getting baskets in the lane, slashing to the hoop and also pulling down some rebounds. He'd also need to bulk up his frame to get a serious NBA look. If he stays for next year and works on all those thing, he might get a look. But right now, I wouldn't touch him if I'm an NBA GM.
PRC: The middle of the Big East pile has become a dog fight. Which teams separate themselves over the next three weeks?
Brendan Prunty: Right now, it appears that there will be seven teams vying for that final two NCAA bids from the Big East. Maybe there will be three, but with the mid-majors leagues like the A-10 being so good, I think we're looking at just seven bids. So figure that the seven teams battling for the final spots are: UConn, Cincinnati, Louisville, USF, Marquette, Seton Hall and Notre Dame. It's going to come down to two things: Wins and wins on the road. The committee likes to see you finish strong and record in the last 10 games and road wins will likely split the hairs between these teams. Right now, Marquette (16-8, 7-5) and Louisville (16-9, 7-5) have the clear edge. But would you rule anything out in this conference in the final month? I wouldn't.
PRC: Who's Seton Hall's player of the decade (2000-2009), and why?
Brendan Prunty: No brainer here: Andre Barrett. The guy was everything that the Pirates thought he would be and more. He finished his career as the school's 7th-leading scorer, had over 650 assists, over 450 rebounds and played 122 games in his career. He was part of that amazing 2000 recruiting class with the late Eddie Griffin (the No. 1 recruit in the country that year) and Marcus Toney-El. Griffin's troubles and eventual flameout after leaving South Orange after his freshman year for the NBA, are well-documented. Toney-El was often-injured, but developed into a nice glue guy, but it was Barrett who carried that program during his four years. The basketball gods rewarded him in his senior year with an NCAA bid and then a first-round win over Arizona. Coincidentally enough, that was the last time the Pirates won a first-round NCAA game.
PRC: State the case (for or against) Seton Hall making the Big Dance? NIT?
Brendan Prunty: I'll play prosecution on this one: Seton Hall ain't making the dance. Why? Well, they've got three knocks against them — soft non-conference schedule, too many losses and really only one road win to hang their hats on. Bobby Gonzalez likes to make the big deal that the Pirates have the No. 1 in-conference SOS in the country — which is true — but that's only because they've played all of the big boys first. That number will drop as they finish out the year against the Rutgers', DePaul's and St. John's of the world. Once you combine that with a non-conference SOS of 186 and already nine wins (seven in conference play) and only a 2-8 record against the RPI Top 50 and it becomes very difficult to put Seton Hall in the field. The only way I think they make it is if they win out and make it to the semis of the Big East tournament. Not impossible, but with the way this team has played this season, hard to see happening.
At the start of the NBA season, I compiled a list of NBA team rankings based on Twitter followers. It was a big hit, being retweeted by the NBA and several NBA teams. To reiterate, the quantity of followers is nowhere near as important as the quality of conversation, community participation, and influence on the game; With that said, organizations still care about who's following them on social media outlets because it shows the results of their new age marketing efforts and it can help them to market their brand more effectively in the future.
After the most exciting All-Star weekend ever, it's time to start the second half of the NBA season and here's the updated NBA twitter rankings to go along with it:
I Love the NBA on ESPN RV Tour commercials. Kevin does, too, but the former rookie was relegated to the storage compartment on the initial road trip.
Clever commercials piqued my interest and provoked me to follow the Tour on YouTube, Facebook and via the website.
When I found out the NBA on ESPN was on Twitter, I sent an @ reply to find out when they'd be stopping in NYC. Here's the warm response I received:
With an invite like that, I had to jump on the chance to brave midtown traffic and the cold weather to see what the RV's all about. Kevin's sleeping area was replaced with an electric generator, among other things.
Anyway, it's quite obvious that the NBA on ESPN RV Tour "gets it" when it comes to being "human" on the social web. To engage more fans, NBA/ESPN just launched a new iPhone application - The NBA on ESPN RV Chase - that leverages the trend of location-based gaming and networking.
According to the ESPN team,
"The NBA on ESPN RV Chase is a FREE location and event based game for fans of the NBA where they can show off their fandom by watching games, visiting locations, and accumulating points while competing against friends for bragging rights and virtual trophies. Users can link up their Facebook and Twitter accounts to broadcast what they are doing to their social networks as an update.
The game is primarily made up of ESPN and NBA locations such as the Zones and the NBA Store, but also pulls information from Google on nearby spots where users may be watching a game. For All-Star Weekend, we are compiling an additional list of locations that events may be going on.
We want to give users the best experience possible, so any feedback can be sent through: http://getsatisfaction.com/rvchase. We obviously won’t be able to act on every suggestion, but we already have a couple of ideas on how to make the app better and we really value fan feedback."
Usually, where there's free, there's me. But I don't have an iPhone. I'd love to hear your feedback on the game below once it gets going.
Think your school is the best school on East coast? Whether it’s the sports, parties, dorms, or the cafeteria food, Madison Square Garden, the World’s Most Famous Arena wants to know: Why is your school so great? The best photos and articles each of the 16 Big East schools will be highlighted on the College Hoops page on MSG.com! Send photos or a short article explaining why your school is the best to collegehoops@thegarden.com with your school name in the subject. Be sure to include your full name and school name.
Don’t miss your chance to boast about YOUR SCHOOL and be featured on MSG.com’s College Hoops Hub! http://www.msg.com/collegehoops/
Blogging is the on-court equivalent of drawing a charge against a sprinting 6'8", 250 lb. LeBron James: you will put in effort; you will get run over; and you may get hurt or embarrassed; but if you anticipate his movement, get in the right position and protect your family jewels, you will ultimately be rewarded.
Now that I've scared off 90% of the basketball community, welcome to blogging!
Let's start with the last step first:
1) Protect your family jewels: Good blogging begins and ends with good listening--kind of like playing sound defense. If you don't listen to your teammates or your coach, you will run into a high ball screen one day from Cole Aldrich and you will get knocked flat on your a**; or you will be running more than you'd prefer in practice on any given day.
Listen.
Protecting your family jewels means wearing a jock strap on the court, and protecting your family name and blog/personal brand online. How do you do that? By setting up a 'listening station.' Here are a few tools you'll need that don't require opening your bank book:
Monitor Blogs:
Google Alerts - Alerts allow you to comprehensively monitor the web for any mentions of your blog and personal name (good or bad), keep tabs on your area of basketball (HS, college, pro, international), stay current on your competitors and get the latest news in the basketball space. You can subscribe for alerts via email or set up an RSS feed for the alerts to right to your reader. Here's some help with RSS/Google Reader set-up.
** If you fancy Yahoo or just want Google insurance, you can set up a similar search query with Yahoo alerts. Follow this 'how to' link.
IceRocket - Sometimes your brand/blog may slip through a Google halfcourt trap. Don't panic, IceRocket will rotate over to help out. And it's backed byMark Cuban. Go to the site, type in a query for your name, your blog's name, and your blog's URL address (all separately). Then, be sure to subscribe via RSS with your reader.
Monitor Twitter:
TweetBeep - Whether or not you have a Twitter account, it's important to keep track of who's dropping your name, tweeting your website or blog and who's talking about your products or services. TweetBeep updates will be sent right to your email inbox.
Monitor Comments:
BackType - Find, follow, and share comments about your blog/brand.
Monitor Other Social Channels:
socialmention: Get real-time email updates on your choice of search phrases. Make sure you select 'all' under type.
Now that your family jewels are protected, let's think ahead.
2) Anticipating movement - I'm going to swap sports metaphors here for a second. Wayne Gretzky once said, "Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been." This rule is timeless and applies really well to drawing a charge on an offensive player in basketball and drawing attention to your site.
There's hundreds, if not thousands, of sites out there that cover the NBA and its 30 teams (I mentioned 200 of them here). Add that to the number of blogs that offer commentary and news on the college game, high school recruiting and youth basketball skill development, and it's easy to discern that the space is saturated.
You can stay high and dry by focusing on a niche within a niche. Take College Chalktalk for example. My good friend, Chris DiSano, leveraged his relationships and built a site that gives you inside the lines coverage straight from the horse's mouth. Over 60 Division I college coaches (from head to assistant level ) spanning 20+ conferences write for the site's National Coaches Diary Series. If Chris continues to add quality, unbiased journalists (through his partnerships with the famed Blue Ribbon and NetScouts) to complement insider access from these coaches, he's going to crush it--mostly because he anticipated movement of college basketball bloggers trying to get access to the coaches. He "gatejumped" the crowd and "made his own game."
3) Get in the right position - I was very lucky. I spent a lot of my time going off-blog to Twitter before the critical mass of basketball community members succumbed to micro-blogging. Shaq and Charlie Villanueva's presence informed my decision to get in the trenches, stay consistent and figure out how to use to Twitter to crowdsource for blog ideas, search for and participate in relevant conversations, and connect with like-minded people.
Then, one day St. John's came calling with this opportunity. When my name kept appearing in their Sports Information Director's "People You May Know" box on LinkedIn, Facebook and the like, he decided to check out my blog. He saw that it was about marketing and social media in basketball, and the rest is history.
Getting in the right position really means:
* Committing yourself to the task of building a successful blog * Being consistent in your post frequency, style and voice * Creating remarkable, compelling content worthy of backlinks, comments, positive mentions, subscriptions and monetization * Covering a unique niche * Having a professional blog design that exudes credibility * Being useful, and of value * Using titles and keywords effectively in your posts * Building productive relationships with fellow basketball community members * Leveraging social media tools to connect and get found * Giving a lot more than you extract from the community * Learning from your mistakes * Being patient; success doesn't come overnight
If you're not up for the task, you can always just get out of the way. Tony Parker did:
What else? Please add your thoughts and comments below. They are very much welcomed and appreciated.
Forget the image of an overweight rodent emerging from its burrow in proverbial Punxsutawney to determine the remaining length of winter, or any allusions to Northern Ireland's political process.
I'm referring to the theme in the '93 comedy, Groundhog Day, where "today is tomorrow."
Excuse my lack of profanity, but we all know what it's like to follow the same routine and yield the same results over and over again.
Midway through 2008, I took a good look at where I was professionally in life and I wasn't pleased. Not one bit. Mediating conflicts between overstretched graduate students and an under-concerned insurance behemoth is not exactly what I call 'fun.'
For someone else it is, and that's exactly what makes the world go 'round.
Clearly my passions are basketball, marketing and building productive relationships. Yet I found myself far, far away from these activities that give me so much energy.
Sound familiar?
Luckily, 2008 also marked a year of positive change in my personal life. I married my sweet heart and collected a graduate sheepskin from Columbia University; both events occurring within 10 days of each other. With my wife's encouragement, I pledged to drive my future professional life with unrelenting passion and purpose.
Basically, I saw my shadow.
Here's what I did to escape the dreaded time loop in a 5-step nutshell. Groundhogs like nuts, too.
I:
1) Did a lot of listening: It's a well-known fact that people love to talk about themselves. And I have big ears and small lips, so listening comes natural to me. From May 2008 to July 2008, I set up numerous informational interviews with successful people that worked in or around basketball and sports business. I learned. A lot. And the education I received was much cheaper than the one Columbia charges its students. Cab fare and the occasional coffee and lunch in exchange for wisdom are light on the wallet and heavy on the usefulness scale.
2) Took action: As a self-confessed perfectionist, taking action was not easy. Fear of criticism and judgment prohibited my growth and obstructed my happiness. Forget Tony Robbins, all you need is an Eastern European spouse to set you straight: "Get over it, dammit." That was my wife's advice (or something along those lines), and she only needed to say it once. On Sunday, July 13, 2008, I fired over an email and LinkedIn connection request to Greg Marius, founder and CEO of the Entertainer's Basketball Classic(EBC), and offered to volunteer my services at his summer tournament.
Guess where I was on Monday, July 14th?
3) Stepped Out of My Comfort Zone: Remember, everything that is now comfortable was once uncomfortable. Making mistakes is a part of the learning process. Making mistakes in public is also part of the learning process. Intimidated? Get over it, dammit! When the summer of 2008 and EBC stint wound down, I needed a next action step. With that, I pitched the kind editors at SLAMonline on the idea of allowing me to cover the EBC Final for their website. Reluctantly or not, they obliged. Admittedly, I had no idea what I was doing and I probably still don't. But the worst they could have said was, "Thanks, but no thanks." Right?
4) Built a Content Factory: One article with SLAMonline turned into three. Three with the Basketball Bible turned into a guest blogging opportunity with Bounce. Both experiences led to some fun work with ESPN The Magazine. Then, on October 26, 2008, I created a "hub" at PeterRobertCasey.com. Of course, I continued to listen and continued to create content outside of my hub. Dan Schawbel, the personal branding dynamo for Gen Y, suggested using my full name (First, Middle, Last) because it was not too common and therefore wide open in SERPS and unused for social media handles. The content factory helps you establish authority in a particular niche community. For more on authority, read this post on Problogger. For more on feeding your factory system, click here.
5) Connected with People: Media is now social. The platforms we use to publish are now interactive networks that let you connect with people like never before. I take advantage of it, mostly by giving. It goes a long way, and it definitely comes back to you. Just don't expect it or ask for it (at least not frequently or aggressively). When I connected with a renowned sports radio broadcaster during those early informational interviews, he suggested that I "stop asking (by emailing my resume looking for work), and start giving by creating valuable content, connecting like-minded people in my network, and by promoting the good work of others.
Gary Vaynerchuk once said, "Your day job is no excuse. There's plenty of people that Crush It! between 7pm and 2am." Call it Grustle (grind + hustle); Call it Hustle 2.0; but don't make excuses. Excuses are for groundhogs
If you want something bad enough, and you have passion and patience, your desired tomorrow can become today.
I'm proud to say that January 15th was my last day mediating insurance quandaries. No more time loop for me. Now, if only I can do something about the overweight rodent look.
