MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[David Collinge]

"I wouldn't trade our group of perimeter players with any coach in the league," says Djurickovic, "and maybe anywhere in the country."

Oh boy...here we go again with Bosko hyperbole.

I think it's a good sign that he's not overly anxious to trade away his own son.

[Gregory Sager]

"I wouldn't trade our group of perimeter players with any coach in the league," says Djurickovic, "and maybe anywhere in the country."

Oh boy...here we go again with Bosko hyperbole.

I think it's a good sign that he's not overly anxious to trade away his own son.

Heh! Yeah, imagine having to say at the dinner table, "Well, son, you're a fine ballplayer and all, but I'd swap you and the rest of our perimeter players for Amherst's or Augie's in a New York minute."

Speaking of rosters, NPU's is posted on the school's new-look athletics page.

http://www.northpark.edu/npuvikings/sport.cfm?pageCall=3

Not all of the player profiles are posted yet.

[tjcummingsfan]

I definitely like the new look of the NP athletic page.  And I'm not going to lie I got very excited reading through the players.  First off, granted this is just at an appearance level, I read through and found only 4 guys on the roster who are under 6'0 which is a nice change from the years past, and the great thing is that 2 of these 4 are guys I think we're real high on, Bruce Durham, the freshman from Lockport, and our returning PG Joe Capalbo.  The other thing that gets me real excited is there are a grand total of 3 seniors on this squad, only two of whom will probably be starters (correct me if I'm wrong Greg, but I don't think Ed is a starter), but who's shoes can definitely be filled by players younger next year (with guys like Nick Williams and Antonio Stevens).  Man I really think this is going to be a good year for North Park basketball. 

[iwumichigander]

"I wouldn't trade our group of perimeter players with any coach in the league," says Djurickovic, "and maybe anywhere in the country."

Oh boy...here we go again with Bosko hyperbole.

I think it's a good sign that he's not overly anxious to trade away his own son.

Well. does this mean Bosko would trade his bigs (oh, excuse me, "smaller players at other positions)?  And, "we'll have problems matching up with size-type teams" or is this just Bosko-speak for the rest of the CCIW?  Stay tuned 'cause if Bosko starts out talking this way before playing a game, his quotes the rest of the season should be priceless!

[AndOne]

It appears the Bosko-isms have already begun:

Rumor has it that today at practice he was heard to tell the team----

"Half you guys go to the north basket, half go to the south basket, and the other half stay right here!"       

[petemcb]

It appears the Bosko-isms have already begun:

Rumor has it that today at practice he was heard to tell the team----

"Half you guys go to the north basket, half go to the south basket, and the other half stay right here!"       

That's vintage Bosko Berra right there, fellas.

[petemcb]

and, yes, I'm comfortable using the moniker "fellas", given the continued e-hiatus of the cookie mistress formerly known as Diehard.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm not sure how you three guys have come to the conclusion that Bosko is some English-mangling idiot savant, a la Yogi Berra. He's actually a very articulate individual (his notorious sideline grunts and barks notwithstanding), and he's careful and precise with his words when he talks publicly about his basketball team -- particularly with the words he gives to Carthage SID Steve Marovich to be disseminated on the team webpage.

You're confusing inarticulateness with Coachspeak. Bosko is not only fluent in Coachspeak, he could teach a seminar in it for Carthage's foreign languages department. Some of the principles of Coachspeak are well-known, such as:

* don't let your words draw undue attention to you;
* never say more than you have to;
* use cliches as often as possible, because they're safe;
* state the obvious again and again, as though you hold stock in Obvious, Inc.;
* always praise an opponent (although if you're excessive about it the way that Lou Holtz used to be, you'll only draw further attention to yourself); and
* never give an opponent locker-room bulletin board material

One of the more overlooked facets of the philosophy behind Coachspeak is what I call the Hippocratic Principle: First, do no harm to your team. If your team is struggling, either overall or in one particular area, you can use the media or your SID to draw attention to those struggles if the team needs a public kick in the pants in order to improve. But you never badmouth your team before the season has begun. Every season begins with the promise of it being your best ever; you're looking to improve upon last season's record; you like your players in terms of talent; your team appears to consist of hard workers and guys who catch on fast; and if there's one area in which your team promises to excel, you drive it home with a vengeance.

The idea behind the preseason aspect of the Hippocratic Principle of Coachspeak should be obvious: You don't want to discourage your players before the season has even begun. You want to build them up, instill confidence in them, and using an indirect medium to do this (e.g., coach's comments in player profiles or a coach's season outlook on the team website) can be even more effective than giving them verbal warm fuzzies in preseason practice. It's pretty apparent to me that this is exactly what Bosko is doing in praising his perimeter players, as well as in his attempt to deflect looming questions about his team's lack of size by couching his discussion of it in nebulous terms such as "we'll have problems matching up with size-type teams."

What he's saying is entirely accurate. It's hard to defend against a team of quick, smart, and well-coached smaller players who can drive, pass, and shoot the ball well. We've all seen teams like that run circles around bigger opponents. On the other hand, that bigger team (at least theoretically) should have an advantage when it comes to rebounding and shot-blocking, and at the other end of the floor that bigger team should have advantages in terms of shooting over the top of the defense and posting up. So there's nothing "priceless" at all about what Bosko's saying in that regard. He's merely following the dictates of Coachspeak by stating the obvious.

Where Bosko has puzzled me in recent years is with what Bob correctly identified on Monday as a growing tendency to hyperbole. It started back during Antoine McDaniel's playing days, when Bosko said in a comment found on McDaniel's player profile that he could turn out to be as good as North Park's legendary Michael Thomas. I was gobsmacked by that comment, because everyone connected to North Park basketball (including Bosko) has always held up Michael Thomas as the quintessential CCIW point guard. But when I confronted Bosko about this, he stood his ground: "Yeah, Sages, I really do think that Twan could turn out to be every bit as good as Michael T. was." Even given the unmistakeable similarities in McDaniel's game to Thomas's, it seemed to me that Bosko had set the bar too high for McDaniel.

Well, as it turned out McDaniel was not the next Michael Thomas, although he was a darned good CCIW point guard -- one of the best we've seen in this decade. But I understood the basic idea of what Bosko was trying to do. I'm sure that McDaniel heard Thomas's name bandied about enough to realize what a huge compliment his coach was paying him -- and it probably drove him to elevate his game accordingly. Positive reinforcement taken to the nth degree, in other words.

Then Bosko said something similarly hyperbolic in Trey Bowens' profile. And now he's doing sort of the same thing with his entire perimeter rotation this year. I understand his intent -- give your players high praise, and they'll run through a wall for you just to prove that your faith in them was warranted -- but I wonder if he's gonna reach a point of diminishing returns with this sort of hyperbole. And it is hyperbole, as Bob said; while I think that Carthage is going to have an excellent collection of perimeter players this year, I just don't see them outclassing everyone else on the D3 stage. They may not even be the best collection within their own conference.

But the thing that you have to remember is that Bosko is not the least bit interested in what a gaggle of Internet bozos thinks of his comments. He's interested in what his players think of his comments, because that's his intended audience. (Carthage's fan base is also an intended audience to a lesser degree; he wants to see fannies occupying the seats in the Carthage gym this winter, so his praise of his team serves the dual purpose of getting the Red Men faithful excited.) The next time that Bosko reads CCIW Chat will be the first time. We are not on his radar in terms of those to whom he feels he needs to explain himself. As K-Mark will tell you, the existence of this room is a source of amusement to Bosko. Don't be offended by that; K-Mark isn't offended, and I'm not, either. Armchair generals (and armchair coaches) ought to have a healthy sense of their own relative lack of importance.

I have to temper my suspicion that he's cranked up his hype machine too high with the realization that he's the expert on basketball player psychology and I'm not. He's earned the benefit of the doubt. I, like every other Internet bozo, do not have five national championship rings in my sock drawer.

and, yes, I'm comfortable using the moniker "fellas", given the continued e-hiatus of the cookie mistress formerly known as Diehard.

"Cookie Mistress"? Isn't that a Muppet on Sesame Street?

[Gregory Sager]

I definitely like the new look of the NP athletic page. 

While I agree that NPU's new athletic page looks pretty spiffy, and I take a backseat to no one in terms of my aesthetic appreciation of the royal-blue-and-gold color combo (well, at least no one who doesn't have a drop of Swedish or Ukrainian blood in his or her veins), I have to say that the gold lettering on the buttons is a little hard to read with that background.

And I'm not going to lie I got very excited reading through the players.  First off, granted this is just at an appearance level, I read through and found only 4 guys on the roster who are under 6'0 which is a nice change from the years past, and the great thing is that 2 of these 4 are guys I think we're real high on, Bruce Durham, the freshman from Lockport, and our returning PG Joe Capalbo.  The other thing that gets me real excited is there are a grand total of 3 seniors on this squad, only two of whom will probably be starters (correct me if I'm wrong Greg, but I don't think Ed is a starter), but who's shoes can definitely be filled by players younger next year (with guys like Nick Williams and Antonio Stevens).  Man I really think this is going to be a good year for North Park basketball.

Yes, my guess is that senior guard Ed Whitaker is going to have a hard time finding the floor for the varsity this season; however, he provides excellent and experienced insurance in the backcourt.

Joe Capalbo probably shouldn't be considered to be a PG anymore. Last season it became apparent that, like Jason Gordon, his game is most effective when he's playing off the ball. Although Capalbo (and Antonio Stevens as well) can play the point in a pinch, it's more than likely that the position will be filled by sophomore Chris Brown and freshman Bruce Durham. Dan Oziminski is also a dark horse to see some time at PG this season; the NPU coaching staff remains very high on his potential.

I think that your excitement is warranted. While I'm apt to be accused of homerism for saying this, it appears to me that NPU stands to field a very deep, athletic, and skilled team this season that has a surprising amount of experience on it in spite of being relatively young. I think that the Vikings could make some noise in 2007-08. I haven't been this pumped to see the season begin since the days of Alspach, Pates, Berki, Donaldson, and Peterson at NPU.

Again, if you're a North Park fan, make it a point to see the team's grand unveiling this Saturday evening at 7 pm in the gym!

[Titan Q]

But the thing that you have to remember is that Bosko is not the least bit interested in what a gaggle of Internet bozos thinks of his comments. He's interested in what his players think of his comments, because that's his intended audience. (Carthage's fan base is also an intended audience to a lesser degree; he wants to see fannies occupying the seats in the Carthage gym this winter, so his praise of his team serves the dual purpose of getting the Red Men faithful excited.) The next time that Bosko reads CCIW Chat will be the first time. We are not on his radar in terms of those to whom he feels he needs to explain himself. As K-Mark will tell you, the existence of this room is a source of amusement to Bosko. Don't be offended by that; K-Mark isn't offended, and I'm not, either. Armchair generals (and armchair coaches) ought to have a healthy sense of their own relative lack of importance.

I'm sure this is true Greg, but the fact that the Trey Bowen quote (something like "he is better as a freshman than Antoine McDaniel was a freshman") disappeared from Bowen's profile a few weeks into that season - after it was absolutely picked apart here - makes me think that he just might care about how it sounds.   

Also, you mention the principles of "coachspeak" and that Bosko is a master at it:

* don't let your words draw undue attention to you;
* never say more than you have to;
* use cliches as often as possible, because they're safe;
* state the obvious again and again, as though you hold stock in Obvious, Inc.;
* always praise an opponent (although if you're excessive about it the way that Lou Holtz used to be, you'll only draw further attention to yourself); and
* never give an opponent locker-room bulletin board material

Is it possible that the quote, "I wouldn't trade our group of perimeter players with any coach in the league" goes against at least a couple of those above?  This is a league with Kent Raymond and Ryan Burks and Jordan Delp/Matt Pelton/Brett Wessels among other good backcourt players.  We all know that a lot of players and coaches read this board -- it would seem to me that a quote like that (about a cast that has never contended for a CCIW title) might just fire up opposing perimeter players just a bit.

I like Bosko, and what he says about his team and players is certainly his deal.  I guess it is just that after a string of these quotes over the years (and there have been many others regarding players and the team as a whole), I never really know how to take them anymore.

[tjcummingsfan]

I'm definitely disappointed that I'm going to have to miss the showcase Saturday night, as I'll be in Michigan for a church retreat. I know I can count on a full recap from you though Greg. 


And you better be careful praising teams Berki was on, he'll get a bigger head than he already has.

[Titan Q]

I have to temper my suspicion that he's cranked up his hype machine too high with the realization that he's the expert on basketball player psychology and I'm not. He's earned the benefit of the doubt. I, like every other Internet bozo, do not have five national championship rings in my sock drawer.

True, but he is also just 28-28 in CCIW play over the course of the last four seasons and I would guess that the Red Men are heading for about 7-7 again.  If some internet bozos want to call his recent "basketball player psychology" into question, it's pretty fair. 

[tyrone]

Did the CCIW media day take place yet? Was there a predicted order of finish (or an unofficial "fan" poll)?

[devildog29]

Q, any details on the Titans' trip out here to SoCal in December?  Will you be enjoying a warm weather New Year's Eve party?

[petemcb]

I'm not sure how you three guys have come to the conclusion that Bosko is some English-mangling idiot savant, a la Yogi Berra. He's actually a very articulate individual (his notorious sideline grunts and barks notwithstanding), and he's careful and precise with his words when he talks publicly about his basketball team -- particularly with the words he gives to Carthage SID Steve Marovich to be disseminated on the team webpage.

Greg, mine was the only reference to the beloved Yogi Berra and it was only in relation to the mathematical impossibility of half of you over here, half of you over there, and the rest stay with me..........unless, of course, he was just looking for a little privacy at that point of the practice.  In that case, it makes perfect sense and is, in fact, a crystal clear, highly effective semantical delight.  Possible.