VT Massacre and Aftermath

If I haven't said it before, I'm saying it now. I hate the media. I hate their self serving, scandalizing, over the top, 'anything for drama' attitudes. What kind of organization(s) capitalizes on this kind of situation. They're creating the story. They somehow only talk to the people who want to blame the school. They don't talk to other school administrators, they don't talk to experts, they just talk to anyone that will throw the University under the bus. Its a sad sad situation.

This kind of event cannot push us to a 'lockdown' society. Every shooting can't stop life, every event cannot cancel school or evacuate 8 buildings. I'm sure that in the near future we'll be in a period of overkill, where anyone will be evacuated for anything. Then they cycle will go back around, and people will stop taking threats seriously, because they're so often empty. The media won't be there for that part. They won't pay much attention to the natural progression. I read a stat this morning in a TIME article (which I disagreed with on other grounds) that cites a Department of Justice Study:

"...in 2004 less than .1% of all homicides involved five or more victims."

This is not a crime that can be easily prepared for. This is not a fire drill, or a tornado drill. Every single instance is different, every single event could involve an entirely different approach. In some circumstance, mandating a 'lockdown' could work in favor of a sociopathic murderer. In other situations, mandating an evecuation could do the same. In all reality, even regulating such, can be of benefit to a sociopath, because they're going to do what they want to do, and if a uniform plan has been made, they know whats coming.

On another note, I am somewhat appalled at this idea that everyone who shows a little mental instability should be locked up. That seems to be what the newspapers are saying. Is there no where left for civil liberties? You can't judge individuals on their writings, their personal decisions in the way they act or dress, or socialize. There are thousands of Americans who are strange, anti-social, unfriendly, and indeed mentally disturbed. You can't lock them all up, you can't watch them all, all the time. This is not the Soviet Union.

Freedom is worth every cost. Even those people who died at Virginia Tech. Freedom, in the end, is all we really have. Once we let terrorists, lone gunmen, and the media scare us all into barricading ourselves inside, then they win. We might as well stop voting, stop working, stop going to school.

This shooter violated the social contract. But that doesn't mean its no longer valid. I would hope that through time and patience, we could look beyond the devestating events that took place at Virginia Tech, and that the Nation will heal. Because we can't walk with fear, afraid of what might happen.

March Madness

I've recently discovered that I'm not interested in high powered basketball. I find no joy in a power conference team with blue chip recruits, and traditional, boring basketball. I want to be clear that its not any one of those things in itself that I find boring, but the combination. Georgetown for example is both a power conference school, with blue chip recruits, but it plays a very innovative Princeton-styled offense. Syracuse is a great example of a combination that doesn't interest me. I realize its a great program, I realize they're good at basketball. I just wouldn't watch them play if you paid me.

West Virginia. Air Force. Butler. Gonzaga. Marist. VMI. Winthrop. Princeton.

Those teams interest me. Princeton is included more for its historical relevance than for its current success. The others, at least in the past few years have been successful with somewhat unorthodox styles of play (in the case of Marist, success is relative. Honestly I just like the way they play, regardless of the outcome).

I love the Three point field goal. I feel like it is the greatest of equalizers. A team that can do it consistently and successfully can use that ability to overcome height or athleticism disadvantages. As much as I'd like to say that you could win on the three alone, I feel that the three point shot only opens up the game for said 'unathletic' team to be able to operate. Much like a dominant big man can open up space for his team mates, a great three point shooting team can create similar opportunities, from the opposite perspective (inside/out vs. outside/in).

The problems with this particular style of basketball is the necessity to have every player on your team be a perimeter scoring threat. Recruiting a college team like that is probably just as difficult as finding a top-20 recruiting class, just from a different perspective.

Unorthodox defenses also rank high on my list. Just last night I watched West Virginia and Air Force play (unfortunately not against each other) and saw WVU's 1-3-1 defense, interspersed with constantly changing man and zone schemes. The ability to change defenses on the fly is an underrated team skill. Air Force was running some sort of hybrid man-zone matchup. It confused the players from Clemson all night. The Air Force loss had more to do with ineffective offense, than defense.

I need these things to be interested. As a coach, I can appreciate the need to pound the ball inside to the big man, or to run your typical flex/motion/4-low/double post sets. They just bore the hell out of me. I guess if I coached teams that had more traditional players, then I could play more traditionally. The truth of the matter is that I'd rather coach a team that shot more three's and trapped the half court in a 1-3-1.