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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Chaminade not
focused on upsets
LAHAINA, Maui » Yesterday, Chaminade did not win the EA Sports Maui Invitational.Chaminade will never win the Maui Invitational.
I don't think it's a slap at those young men to say that. There's no shame in that. Chaminade has plenty to be proud of, with an unmatched tradition of incredible, epic, shock-the-world upsets.
But history and magic only get you so far, and only every so often. Those epic upsets have been fewer and fewer (though the Silverswords did it again, to Villanova, last year). The 'Swords are now 4-57 all-time in their Maui tournament.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino put it this way: "We did a great job today of respecting our opponent," he said.
Chaminade coach Aaron Griess knows the score. "The same thing happened that's been happening to Chaminade for years," he said. "We were just outscored and outplayed, outcoached from the sideline."
And so, before he brought his team to this year's tournament, he'd had an epiphany.
"This was about a week ago," he said.
He didn't want to be a Cinderella, and he definitely didn't want to turn into a pumpkin. He didn't want to gear his whole season toward one big win, then let down, win or lose.
"I'm very competitive, a very competitive person," Griess said. "I would get caught up in losing these games to these teams. These games -- I'm starting to learn, it's not about winning and losing for us. It's about how we conduct ourselves on the floor, how we handle the pressure and how we handle adversity. And that's what it's about. Not just the guys on the floor, but me too."
He didn't want the Maui Invitational to be Chaminade's highlight, then lowlight, and all before December began.
"I just started thinking about it," he said. "I think about it all the time. I was saying, 'What's going to help us be better?' A lot of times (Chaminade) teams take this tournament out of perspective and they put all their weight and all their eggs in this basket and it doesn't turn out for them, they think like we've failed. You can't do that. We play Saturday and Sunday back at home in Honolulu."
So from now on there would be no gimmicks, no "crazy scheme." No more holding the ball, no more defenses they'd never use again, no more getting out of their game. No more taking a chance on throwing the rest of the season away in hopes of pulling off a one-in-a-million miracle.
He wanted a good basketball team, not one improbable win.
He'd made his decision. At Maui, Chaminade would play to win, every game. But they would use their regular game plan. They would play these giants straight up.
Chaminade won't gear up for epic upsets any more.
MEDIA GUIDES AREN'T just for media. They set the tone, show the world what your program is about. Iowa's goes on and on about the great atmosphere at Carver Hawkeye Arena. North Carolina's has a two-page spread devoted to alum Michael Jordan and another page dedicated to the memory of the team's mother figure, an academic advisor who died this past summer.
Louisville's is hard cover, so it would really hurt if your mother hit you with it, if you said you might turn down a full-ride to U of L.
Coaches think about these things, in recruiting.
You would think Chaminade's would have pages and pages dedicated to that 1982 win over Virginia, and a comprehensive list of every great upset the 'Swords ever pulled off. Instead there are barely two throwaway sentences, buried, all but impossible to find.
Short on space?
"That's actually me personally," Griess said. "You don't see a whole lot about the Villanova win (which he coached) either, and you won't hear me talk about that too much. Because that was last season when it happened and now it's over. That doesn't concern me any more. It was a good win, and last year when we played Hawaii-Hilo at Hilo in the last game of the year that was a good win, too."
You see what he's getting at. But what about recruiting? What about history? What about the very basis for the founding of the Maui Invitational? Is Chaminade "Chaminade" without the occasional upset?
"It's always a recruiting draw," Griess said. "But we'll find that too, that when it really comes down to it it's more than just the (Maui Invitational) tournament. It's more than just winning that game.
"I don't care if your school is in backwoods Iowa. You can find good players to come to your school. The location is nice and it gets them in the door, but you've got to have the whole package. You've got to have a campus, you've got to have academics, you've got to have good people in your program, the right academic people in your program -- you know, the whole package."
And one win, no matter how big, does not a total package make.
Griess is not turning away from Chaminade tradition; he tells his teams about all those upsets before every Maui trip.
"I'm proud to say Coach Merv's a friend, and I love talking to him," Griess said.
Rather, Griess just might be learning how to win at Chaminade.
In fact, he might be getting back to actual Chaminade tradition, the best aspect of those teams coached by Merv Lopes. That 1982 team didn't beat Ralph Sampson and Virginia because it was trying for the greatest upset in college basketball history. Those Silverswords won that game because they were good.
"Oh, yeah," Griess said. "We talk about that all the time."