05/14/2008 -
NEW YORK (AP) -Before giving Mike D'Antoni a job, Donnie Walsh gave him a warning.
The Knicks president told D'Antoni and all the candidates he interviewed for his team's coaching position that his goal was a difficult one: Find a way to turn a loser into a winner now, without messing up plans for the future.
``This is just a tough situation we're coming into. It's going to be a coaching and teaching job, it is not a manager job where you're coming in and just take over a team that's good and do a couple of things and it'll be good,'' Walsh said of those conversations.
``This is going to be a tough thing to deal with. And what we've got to try to do is try to get better right away, get more competitive right away, but at the same time protect our ability to stay under the cap where maybe we can make a significant signing in the future.''
Walsh thinks D'Antoni is the man to help the Knicks do both.
The Knicks introduced D'Antoni as their new coach Tuesday, hoping one of the NBA's top offensive minds can turn around a team with seven straight losing seasons - and make New York an exciting future destination for free agents who want to play his entertaining style.
The former Phoenix Suns coach believes he can win right away, even though the mismatched group of players he inherits makes that difficult to imagine.
``I look at the roster and that's the roster I'm going to win with,'' D'Antoni said. ``My focus is to win this coming year.''
The Knicks probably can't make too many changes to it, since Walsh's desire is to be under the salary cap in the summer of 2010, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all can be free agents. Perhaps the allure of D'Antoni's style would get the Knicks on their list of teams to consider.
``Who wouldn't love to play that way?'' said Knicks forward Quentin Richardson, who tied for the NBA lead with 226 3-pointers while playing for D'Antoni in 2004-05.
The question is whether the Knicks have the personnel to do it. D'Antoni had two-time MVP Steve Nash and a number of quick players who could shoot from the outside in Phoenix, where he won at least 54 games each of the last four seasons and earned coach of the year honors in 2005.
The Knicks are a slower group, with Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph in the frontcourt, and their point guard is uncertain with Stephon Marbury coming off ankle surgery that ended the worst season of his career.
No matter. D'Antoni figures he'll come up with something that works.
``I will adapt what I do. Now I like to play fast, move the ball and all that stuff, and we'll try to do that as best as we can,'' D'Antoni said. ``Obviously you're going to be a little slower than (the Suns), but at the same time there's no reason why you can't run, be exciting and have good ball movement.''
The Knicks are counting on it, giving D'Antoni a $24 million, four-year contract to become their 24th coach. Walsh is certain he has the right man - though he referred to his new coach as Mike ``D'Antonio,'' before quickly correcting himself.
``I thought that Mike was the best guy to choose because I think he's been in situations like we have right now and he did a good job with those situations,'' Walsh said.
D'Antoni replaces Isiah Thomas, who was fired last month after going 56-108 in two seasons. New York was 23-59 last season, matching the franchise record for losses.
The 57-year-old D'Antoni went 253-136 in Phoenix, but the Suns let him talk to other clubs about their jobs after losing to San Antonio in the first round. He chose the Knicks over the Chicago Bulls, citing his comfort with Walsh and his desire to live in New York.
After firing Thomas, Walsh took his time with his search, interviewing TV analyst Mark Jackson, coaches Rick Carlisle and Avery Johnson, and Knicks assistant Herb Williams before settling on D'Antoni.
Despite his impressive record, D'Antoni's hiring has drawn criticism because his teams in Phoenix were never strong defensively - a critique that both amuses and annoys him.
``I know one thing for sure,'' D'Antoni said. ``We averaged 58 wins in four years, so 58 times a year we were the best defensive team on the floor, I do know that.''
There's no questioning D'Antoni's offense. He turned the Suns into the NBA's most potent team, relying on a system that focused on taking a shot in the first 7 seconds of the shot clock, many of them 3-pointers.
D'Antoni said he still wants to play fast and believes many of his new players are capable of it.
``We were 7 seconds or less and the rules say you have to be 24 seconds or less,'' D'Antoni said. ``So we can adjust it to anything we want.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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The Hornets, who grabbed a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven W
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Weaver actually had a no-hitte
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Giants edged the Houston Astros, 4-2, in the second of a four-game set at AT&T
Par
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Tuesday's NHL Playoff Sum >>
Pittsburgh 2 0 2-4Philadelphia 1 0 0-1First Period-1, Pittsburgh, Whitney 1 (Crosby, Gonchar), 5:03 (pp). 2, Pittsburgh, Hossa 7 (Crosby), 7:41. 3, Philadelphia, Umberger 10 (Prospal, Briere), 10:59.Second Period-None.Third Period-4, Pittsburgh, M
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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