October 2010

LONG, STRANGE TRIP FOR WVU SENIOR JOE MAZZULLA

Its been a long, and at times, strange trip for Joe Mazzulla through his college basketball career. Looking back to the fall of 2005 when Mazzulla made his commitment to then West Virginia head coach John Beilein, the 6-foot-2 native of Johnston (RI) never imagines how his college basketball career would twist and turn along the way.

“Not at all,” replied Mazzulla when asked by NBE’s Matt Whitfield Wednesday at the Big East Men’s Basketball annual media day gathering at Madison Square Garden if he could imagine his career going this way when he came out of high school, “but it’s obviously been a great experience and I’ve made the best of it.”

The ‘best of it’ was certainly highlighted last season when Mazzulla rose to the challenge of replacing an injuryed Darryl Bryant in the starting line-up down the stretch and into the NCAA Tournament. Mazzulla responded in a big way for coach Bob Huggins and his teammates earning honors as the East Region’s Most Outstanding Player as the Mountaineers advanced to last season’s Final Four.

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JIMMY BUTLER MIRRORS MARQUETTE CULTURE

by RAY MERNAGH

My first question to Marquette senior Jimmy Butler when I got him on the phone was about “Boot Camp,” the preseason period that MU players go through each Fall. Butler was going through his last one as a Marquette player and I wanted him to explain what it had been like — I mistakenly thought it was over. “It’s not over yet,” said Butler laughing, “we still have some more time left.” What does it consist of?

Butler described a series of workouts designed to tax he and his mates both physically and mentally. “Lots of running, along with just about every defensive drill you can think of,” he said. “Shell drills, slides, jump to the ball, defending against back screens and down screens.” I said it sounded as if the 14 days were spent down in a stance.

“Sounds like you probably have a pretty good idea of it,” said Butler, “it’s brings us together as a team.”

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DJ KENNEDY – HILL DISTRICT HOOP DREAMS

by RAY MERNAGH

Once upon a time they were just little boys walking the streets of Pittsburgh’s Hill District looking for a game.

On most days they’d take the short walk to the Ammon Rec Center or Kennard Park. On others they might grab the 81-B to the Boys Club in Shadyside if they had enough change in their pockets for bus fare. The conversation on those journeys — even as the walks and buses were replaced by flights to AAU events as they entered adolescence — inevitably would turn to the same topic: How they would some day play in the NBA.

“DeJuan (Blair) and I talked about it all the time,” says D.J. Kennedy, “and we always believed in our hearts it would happen.”

Despite the naysayers.

A woman I know once told me she thought the story of a particular group of basketball playing boys — a group that included Blair and Kennedy — would end up a tragic tale. She had a connection to them through a grade school coach and she was sure that they were bound to be exploited by the basketball machine and spit out. She didn’t believe they’d ever make it past a semester of college, let alone beyond that. She thought it was wrong that they were traveling all over the country for basketball when, in her words, they should be doing things that other kids their age were doing. I tried not to choke as she shared this, having been a kid that might have avoided all sorts of trouble if I’d been flying around every April-through-July playing basketball…You know, instead of doing what all the other kids my age were doing.

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