- Another loss to an Eatern Conference leader wouldn't have been good. Good win here, especially considering the Maverick's history against Orlando.
Dallas Mavericks rebound with strong outing
11:38 PM CST on Monday, February 4, 2008
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
esefko@dallasnews.com
ORLANDO, Fla. – The Dallas Mavericks on Monday were wearing the same road uniforms that they wore the day before. The faces looked the same.
But, boy, can appearances be deceiving.
There was no resemblance whatsoever to the team that was so deplorable in Detroit.
Defying all logic, the Mavericks followed up their worst game of the season with one of their best, building a nice lead and then executing when they had to in a 107-98 win over the Southeast Division-leading Orlando Magic at Amway Arena.
In winning, the Mavs avoided a three-game sweep by Eastern Conference divisional leaders after dropping a heartbreaker at Boston and getting stomped at Detroit. They also showed that the difference between trashy and terrific can be as subtle as a tweak in the playing rotation.
Jason Terry, who had been forced into the starting lineup at point guard because of the injury to Devin Harris, returned to his sixth man role, with J.J. Barea starting at the point. Terry played his usual minutes, but the alteration made all the difference.
After the Mavericks had staved off Orlando's comeback attempt, coach Avery Johnson stood on the court as his players filed past him toward the locker room. He passed out high-fives and hugs in one of the most emotional moments of the season.
"I wanted the men to know that I'm in their corner," Johnson said. "I'm out there fighting. I think I stood up tonight more than I've stood up the whole season, just letting them know that if we're going to go down, then I'm going to go down with them."
The collective effort was amazing, considering how poorly the Mavs played in a 23-point loss to the Pistons on Sunday.
Terry needed to get back into a comfort zone, so the natural move was to get him out of the starting lineup. The move had the desired effect. Terry hit 8-of-14 shots, the first time since Jan. 19 that he's hit at least half of his shots (seven games).
Terry, who prides himself on being able to fill any role asked of him, admitted it might have been a good move to get him back in the sixth-man role that has been so good for him this season.
"It's an adjustment to make," he said. "I've been able to do it in the past, but the last two games, it just didn't go as smoothly as it usually does."
It certainly seemed to help his shot. But there have been suggestions coming from all sides about his shooting of late – in particular from his coach.
"With Jet, we've always said, when you're open, shoot," Johnson said. "And when you're not open, shoot, because we love for you to shoot."
Said Terry: "I was getting calls from here to Seattle, Washington, to shoot the ball. They thought I was a little hesitant the other night. But shooters shoot."
And so, he did. And so did Josh Howard, who scored a team-high 28 points. Dirk Nowitzki matched Terry's 20 points as the Mavericks led the entire game.
Dallas' lead reached 19 in the second quarter, but it was down to 83-80 in the fourth. Terry started a 10-0 blitz with an 18-foot running jumper and hit two more perimeter shots in the run.
"That's the money time of the basketball game," Terry said.
Orlando, which got 28 points from Dwight Howard, never got closer than six the rest of the way. The best thing Terry did was take the right shots, Johnson said. Against Detroit, he passed up an open 3-pointer when the game was still in reach, drawing his coach's ire.
"When he's open and he doesn't shoot, then we have a problem," Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Barea did a nice job of setting an early tempo. Johnson said he considered moving Barea into the lineup at Detroit but was concerned about matchup problems defensively.
It worked wonderfully against Orlando, which also starts a Puerto Rican point guard, Carlos Arroyo.
Technically, the Mavericks went 2-2 on this trip, since it started in Memphis. But they went home for a day before starting the Boston-Detroit-Orlando swing.
"O-2 road trip was not the way we wanted to start," Nowitzki said of the Celtics and Pistons games. "We definitely wanted to go home with a win."
- It's about time the Stars start having some home-grown youth that can actually contribute.
Young defensemen rewarding Dallas Stars for their patience
11:47 PM CST on Monday, February 4, 2008
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com
The Dallas Stars received a little reminder Saturday night of just how young their defensemen really are.
On one shift, Calgary captain Jarome Iginla made a deft stick lift on Niklas Grossman, creating a golden scoring opportunity. On another shift, Flames veteran Owen Nolan put a few tricky moves on Mark Fistric, also ending up with a great shot on net.
Stars goalie Marty Turco made both saves, but the Stars coaching staff made a save of another variety – protecting the confidence of the two young defensemen after the game with constructive criticism.
With veteran defenseman Sergei Zubov (foot/groin) still listed as week to week and fellow veteran Philippe Boucher (shoulder) probably a month away from returning, the trio of Fistric, 21, Grossman, 23, and Matt Niskanen, 21, will be expected to play a lot of minutes at important times for the Stars.
"I think you teach and you push and you direct, but you try to do it in a positive way," Stars associate coach Rick Wilson said. "They have to trust themselves, and we have to trust them, too, for that to happen."
So far, the coaches' trust in the young defensemen has paid off. Niskanen is averaging more than 23 minutes of ice time a game with Zubov out and is plus-14 this season. Grossman has seen his minutes increase to 18, and he is plus-1. Fistric has ranged from eight to 15 minutes in his 14 games, and he is plus-6.
"Part of it is there are no other options – patience on our part is forced," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "But I look at it as a two-way street: There's been patience on our part that has paid off for them, but they've also paid off the organization with good play."
Tippett praised Turco for cleaning up a lot of messes over the last three games. The Stars goalie went 3-0-0 on a trip through Western Canada with a 1.67 goals against average and a .948 save percentage. However, Tippett also said the defensemen are showing great intelligence and a knack for learning from their mistakes.
"The experience these guys are getting is excellent, and they've responded very well," Tippett said. "Sure, they're going to have hiccups, but the majority of times, they've dug in and found a way to get the job done."
Fistric said the learning process has been interesting. He said rubbing elbows with NHL superstars is a challenge mentally and physically.
"These are guys you watched on television, and that is kind of strange to be on the ice against them. But you have to get over it," he said. "You obviously have respect for the player, but you also know you have to do your job."
Wilson said that while the Stars are careful not to damage the young defensemen's confidence, they also are very upfront about the expectations that come with being an NHL player.
"It's a fine line, because as much as we are developing players, the majority of their development should be done before they get here," Wilson said. "This league is about winning, and you're measured by that every single game. So, yes, you need to have patience, but the bottom line is they need to know this is a job – and a job where they are required to do certain things the right way."
- Nebraska raids Texas for recruits.
Nebraska going deep into Texas for recruits
BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 - 12:27:47 am CST
Josh Williams knew nothing about the popularity of high school football in his new state when his family moved from Shreveport, La., to Denton, Texas, when he was about to start junior high.
Well, almost nothing, because even back then, it would have been next to impossible for Williams to be totally oblivious.
“The high school stadiums out here look like small-college stadiums,” he said.
To this day, Williams, now a senior at Denton’s Ryan High, still doesn’t completely get Texas’ infatuation with prep football. But he’s grateful for it. After all, becoming a star in one of the nation’s hotbeds of major college recruiting left him with almost limitless options.
Nebraska — along with schools from the Big 12, Southeastern and Pac-10 conferences, and other colleges in Texas — had no trouble finding and then offering the 6-foot-4, 200-pound defensive end a scholarship. Williams said yes to the Huskers last July, but then had to be won over again after Bill Callahan was fired at the end of the 2007 season.
As it turns out, Williams could pose as the poster boy for the “Deep in the Heart of Texas” strategy new coach Bo Pelini and his staff have used during their first eight weeks on the job.
Pelini’s first NU recruiting class, which will be announced Wednesday, currently includes nine Texans out of 25 recruits. Nebraska’s number of commitments had shrunk from 24 to 15 after Callahan was fired.
In building it back up, the Huskers got six Texas players after Pelini was hired. Williams also recommitted after he considered other offers.
Williams said Nebraska assistant Ted Gilmore didn’t mention the level of priority the Husker coaches were placing on signing kids from Texas. Then again, he probably didn’t have to.
“It seems Texas is going to be pretty big,” Williams said.
Oh, sure. Any school would like to make tracks for the Texas border, grab a couple handfuls of recruits each year and then start racking up championships. But getting kids from Texas isn’t as simple as just saying you’re going to recruit kids from Texas.
Ask Chad Morris, the coach of Nebraska quarterback recruit Kody Spano at Stephenville, Texas, who has spent 17 years coaching in that state.
“You don’t have a lot of outsiders come in here. You’ve got to have an ‘in,’” Morris said. “If someone on the outside is going to try and come and recruit here, the most important thing is for that coach to be straight-up and be honest. We get some coaches that try and come in and try and negatively recruit other schools. That’s a big turnoff. Kids can sense a bluff there.”
Morris completely understands, though, why schools like Nebraska would covet Texas kids. There, high school football is not just a part-time deal.
Morris, also the athletic director, is like many Texas high school head coaches and doesn’t teach classes. He has 12 assistants. He conducts spring practice — an option given to schools in the largest two of Texas’ five classifications.
“It’s a way of life for a lot of people,” Morris said, noting that his team has played in front of 32,000 people and regularly draws 9,000 for home games. “It’s a big business for high schools in the state of Texas.”
Nebraska running backs coach Tim Beck can relate.
Before spending the past three seasons as an assistant at the University of Kansas, he was head coach for three years each at two Texas high schools.
Beck took his first job there after the staff he was on at Southwest Missouri State was fired — and after turning down an opportunity to become offensive coordinator at Stephen F. Austin, an NCAA Division I-AA program in Texas.
Beck says Nebraska won’t count on getting a certain number of recruits from Texas every year, that it will go wherever to get the best talent. But he also noted how common it is for a coach to walk into a Texas high school and see four seniors who are Division I prospects, and have four or five underclassmen waiting in the wings.
And, yes, it helps to know the lay of the land.
“No question if you’ve been down there as a coach it helps,” Beck said. “If I want speed, I go here. If I want hard-nosed kid, I go here.
“It’s hard, I think, when you come in as an unknown. But your school has a lot to do with it. Anybody that would come in there from the Big 12 would be recognized, because there’s national exposure.”
The influx of Texans at Nebraska isn’t an entirely new phenomenon. The Huskers’ 2007 class had seven players from the state. The previous year’s class, though, had just one.
Williams said he didn’t give any advantage to Texas schools who were recruiting him, but admits he’s comforted by the fact that so many other players from the state will be joining him at NU “because I know Texas has some pretty good ‘ballers’ coming out this year.”
The majority of the state’s players will become Longhorns, Aggies, Red Raiders, Horned Frogs or wear the uniform of another state school.
The ones who get away — and many do because of sheer numbers — oftentimes become prize catches for schools such as Nebraska.
Although for Williams, the venture north comes at somewhat of a price.
Two of his closest friends are the younger twin brothers of Derek Lokey, a Ryan High alum who just finished his senior season at Texas — and were quick to razz Williams about his college choice.
“If I was a nail and you were putting me in some wood, I was through the board twice,” Williams said. “I was getting pounded.
“I just didn’t feel the same (about Texas) as Nebraska.”
Those words are lip-smacking tasty to the Huskers’ new, Texas-sweetened recipe.
- Great performance by Petty Sunday night. Another great one here.......
- Genius.
- Another great use of Where the Streets Have No Names. Fast forward to 1:20.
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