by Kent Sterling Indiana Pacers coach Frank “Iceman” Vogel made the call to rest his starters Wednesday night despite the Pacers training the Miami Heat by only 1/2 game for the top spot in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. The gamble initially paid off as the subs eked out a 104-102 win in Milwaukee. Chris Copeland’s […]
by Kent Sterling University presidents have made the NCAA so completely useless that they have created an alliance of two people normally at total odds about college athletics – Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari and me. Calipari makes so much sense in his new book, “Players First: Coaching From the Inside Out” that I may drive […]
by Kent Sterling The details are arduous to plow through, and the clauses dealing with the potential death of team owner Herb Simon a little darkly pragmatic, but the important takeaway from the deal between the Pacers and Capital Improvement Board is that come hell, high water, or financial collapse, the Indiana Pacers will be […]
by Kent Sterling For 30 minutes prior to every game he coached for several years in the mid-to-late 1980, Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight taught a master class in roundball. This was the most informative pre-game in the history of televised sports with Knight sharing the specific game plan for how his Hoosiers would […]
by Kent Sterling The Indiana Pacers needed a win last night, a loss by the Miami Heat, and to get its starters some rest. Check, check, and a big check as coach “Riverboat” Franky Vogel rolled the dice like a pro and went on a serious heater at the NBA’s late season craps table. It […]
by Kent Sterling Northwestern Football coach Pat Fitzgerald is never going to be portrayed on film by Lee J. Cobb, nor quarterback Trevor Siemian by Marlon Brando – and not just because both actors are dead. Fitzgerald would never threaten to kill Siemian, as Cobb did with Brando in “On the Waterfront,” but he did […]
by Kent Sterling The joke is that John Calipari is the college coach most ready to succeed in the NBA because he has the most experience coaching professionals. True, but not the reason why he should leave Blue Grass for the high tides of Los Angeles to lead the Lakers back from the dead. On […]
by Kent Sterling If the Indiana Pacers were penalized in proportion to their level of pathetic play for Sunday’s home loss against Atlanta, they might have dropped out of the playoffs all together, but that’s not the way the standings work, so despite losing eight-of-11 the Pacers are only one-half game out of the top […]
by Kent Sterling There is something special about a coach who dedicates a life to helping 18-year old kids become 22-year old men. They leave a legacy more enduring than wealth or celebrity. Like teachers, coaches have a long list of those whose lives they have touched to prove they were here. When Royce Waltman […]
by Kent Sterling Color coordination between a tie and highlighter isn’t enough anymore to keep a job at ESPN. A lack of preparation and the insipid commentary that followed gives fans a reason to rejoice the departure of a source of great annoyance – Richard “Digger” Phelps. The end of a career, even one earned […]