NY Daily NewsThe basketball skills camp Saturday at St. John's had been planned for more than two weeks, and as he looked over the collection of 50 high school players, new Red Storm coach Steve Lavin thought the best way to open it was to tell them a little about John Wooden. The man many consider the game's best teacher and coach was a mentor to Lavin, so the remarks would be only fitting on the day after the UCLA legend died at age 99.
After recounting all the success - the 10 national titles, the four perfect seasons, the 38-game NCAA Tournament win streak - Lavin implored the players to "bring an appetite" to the day's lessons and "celebrate Coach Wooden's life" by learning the game.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2010/06/06/2010-06-06_woodens_words_lessons_to_lavin.html#ixzz0q5JXsbinNY PostGene Keady, the former great Purdue coach, can't understand why more of John Wooden's assistants didn't see the genius of the UCLA coach's way.
Wooden's first practice session each season was devoted to teaching players the proper way of putting on their socks and sneakers. Honest.
He rarely spent more than 10 minutes on any drill.
"I would tell people that he had a simple system and for some reason people didn't think that was good enough," Keady told The Post by telephone from Puerto Rico. "Ten national titles and his system wasn't good enough?"
John Robert Wooden, the most successful college basketball the game will ever know, died of natural causes late Friday night at the age of 99. Much will be made of his remarkable run at UCLA, but the 10 titles in 12 seasons from 1964-75 are footnotes to Wooden's legacy.
* He coached 27 seasons and reportedly was called for one technical foul.
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http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/college/basketball/even_the_best_could_learn_from_this_fzkciyfE7yxJ6FLu7aBgFN#ixzz0q5JRBetENewsday (Subscription needed)Here is the statement St. John's basketball coach Steve Lavin released on the passing of the great UCL coach John Wodden, 99, who died of natural causes on Friday:
St. John’s mentor Steve Lavin forged his coaching career over 15 years in head and assistant roles at both UCLA and Purdue University; the former is the program with which Wooden is most-closely associated, and the latter...
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http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/college-hoops-scoops-1.1620561/st-john-s-steve-lavin-on-the-passing-of-john-wooden-1.1983825