Pretty big name for UOP, good for them... he's been an assistant at Arizona and Memphis but this is his first head coaching gig... he should be able to recruit a little better players than UOP is used to getting...
UOP hires Damon Stoudamire
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It is important at this level to generate excitement with a hire. UOP has done this. Curious how he will do as an in game coach/developer and who he hires.
Great decision!! With Damon Stoudamire's name recognition and connections he can certainly generate interest from top HS athletes. Unfortunately, Stockton is not a great BB city IMO. Weren't the assistant coaches also fired? He may have to rebuild the entire coaching team.
Local kids may not be good enough to beat Gonzaga and BYU. Damon will get players, but they may not be local. Everyone always hopes for people to recruit locally, which Damon will do, but sometimes they may not be good enough.
He needs players and will go and try to get them.
If they are local, great, if not, he has to get guys to beat Gonzaga, BYU, and St. Mary's.
Often times a local kid comes with more baggage, HS coach in ear, dad in ear, AAU coach in ear, girlfriend in AAU, so sometimes a local kid does not work.
For example: Can't miss CJ Morgan from Franklin HS who signed with UOP and never turned out to be anything. He was a can't miss kid who once scored 52 in a playoff game.
Sometimes it does not matter, it is hit and miss, and every kid is different.
His cousin Madgesdiq (aka Antoine) is great. Listen to him regularly.
I imagine we might start seeing a few cats from PHX and Portland at UOP as Damon has contacts in both spots.
I imagine we might start seeing a few cats from PHX and Portland at UOP as Damon has contacts in both spots.
Hoops1124,
There may be some substance to your argument. Here is my opinion. Over the past few months I have in-person visited several college games and have seen the following schools in action: Chico State, Sonoma, UCSD (D2s), SJSU, UOP, Portland, USF, SM, UOP, Nevada (D1s) and a few others. As it relates to local players and their readiness for next level play, here is my factual observation:
2016: Ford, Rahtino, Frayer, Kone, Peters, Pridgett, Stansberry, Idehen, Kahrimah, to name a few, as of today, are better than most of the starting squads on some of the college teams above. The reason I combined both D1 and D2 is because some of the D2 schools such as Chico and UCSD are arguably, based on my watchful eyes, better than some D1s on this list.
2017: Milstead, Fadal, Falls, Calcaterra, Hollins, Smith, Persons; again, to name a few standouts, are better and clearly more talented than the starting squads on some D1 schools as of today.
Most of these high schools players have the skills and talent but are lacking in size and that is where the development in college comes to play. Have you visited some of these college games lately? Some of these players can’t shoot if their lives depended on it. They are great dunkers but their overall game IQ is suspect. Check out SJSU, Santa Clara, etc. These games are painful to watch.
As it relates to building teams that can compete with the likes of Gonzaga, you are right. Very few local high schools players are ready for that leap but then again, the talent of a player can’t be fully discovered at 16 or 17. Potential is what great coaches look for and the rest is up to next-level development tailored to the specific need of the coach.
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Interesting article. Damon is certainly a changed man.
Damon Stoudamire sees ‘turning point’ in the time a reporter asked him to pee in a cup
The inside track on Washington politics.
By Des BielerMarch 17
Damon Stoudamire was given his first head coaching job Wednesday at the University of the Pacific, and the former Memphis assistant and NBA star commemorated the occasion in an interesting way. The 42-year-old, Portland, Ore., native wrote a lengthy, deeply personal letter to his 12-year-old self in The Players’ Tribune.
In the essay, Stoudamire discussed his love for his late grandmother, his delight at getting drafted to the Toronto Raptors by his childhood idol Isaiah Thomas, and his admiration for Lute Olson, for whom he played at Arizona. He also went into detail about an episode that clearly made a huge impression on him, and why not? It’s not every day that a reporter goes to an NBA practice facility and asks a player to pee in a cup.
That’s exactly what happened in May, 2004, when Stoudamire was in his seventh season with his hometown team, the Trail Blazers. Several months before, he had been caught with marijuana at an airport — it had been wrapped in aluminum foil, adding to a litany of team-wide incidents that caused those Portland squads to be dubbed the “Jail Blazers” — prompting the point guard to declare that he was through smoking pot.
John Canzano, a columnist for The Oregonian, challenged Stoudamire to agree to submit to a drug test at a time of the reporter’s choosing during the upcoming season. The time came on that May day, and the player, who experienced several marijuana-related issues over the previous couple of years, proved as good as his word. While coach Maurice Cheeks stood at the door to a bathroom stall, Stoudamire peed in a cup, and he began to recount the episode right at the start of his Players’ Tribune essay:
“Dear 12-year-old Dame, Listen to me. When the reporter comes to your locker with the empty cup, don’t freak out. Don’t curse. Don’t get offended. Don’t even react. This is a very important test for you. Just smile and go pee in the cup. I can see you getting all fired up reading this. Why do they want me to pee in a cup? Naw. Naw. Forget it. Relax. I’m about to drop a bombshell on you. When the reporter comes to your locker, you’ll be in your 10th season in the NBA.”
Stoudamire then rewound to memories of “Grandma,” and he listed some of the great point guards against whom he squared off: Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson, John Stockton and Gary Payton. Of that last player, Stoudamire offered a hilarious anecdote about the notoriously gabby Payton harassing Scottie Pippen with a steady stream of remarks such as, “You ain’t nothin’ anymore, Scottie. Where’s Mike? Where’s Mike at? I ain’t scared of you now, Scottie.”
“This is the level of trash talk you’re up against now,” Stoudamire wrote to his younger self. “Don’t even open your mouth. If Gary’s going to do Scottie like that, he’ll send you to therapy.”
Eventually, Stoudamire returned to the practice facility episode, prefacing it with words he could still hear his grandmother, who died while he was in high school, say: “Damon, you know how you was raised. You was raised to act right.” Here is what Stoudamire wrote:
“The airport incident is going to be the turning point. One reporter in particular is really going to come after you for it. You’ll make a promise to him that it was just a dumb mistake, and that you’re done with marijuana. “You can test me,” you’ll say. You’re half joking. A few months later the reporter will show up at practice with a home drug test kit. Seriously. Don’t get mad at him. Just tell him, “You know what? Fine. But I don’t trust you with my pee. I trust Mo with my pee.” That’s your coach, Mo Cheeks. Go into the bathroom and fill the cup. Mo will politely hold the door for you while the reporter waits outside. Seriously. Hand the cup to Mo. Smile at the reporter. Thank him for his time. Get dressed. When the results come back, they will say what you already know. You’re clean. The reporter will write a column apologizing, and the Portland fans will give you a standing ovation before your next game. That’s going to be a bittersweet moment. I know you understand why, Dame. Do I even have to say it? They don’t know you. If they did, they would know your character isn’t about a mistake. Or one test. Or one game.”
As Stoudamire wrote, his urine sample came back negative for marijuana and other substances, prompting Canzano to tell Oregonian readers, “He’s removed doubt about whether Blazers ticket holders are getting a clean and sober Stoudamire when they buy a ticket.” The NBA players’ union was not pleased about his acquiescence to an ad hoc drug test, but the guard was happy to show that he had, as he put it at the time, “nothing to hide.”
If the airport bust, which caused Stoudamire to renounce marijuana, was the actual “turning point,” the moment at which a cup was handed to him by a local reporter was when that resolve was literally put to the test in a very public way. He’s been passing other tests since then, working his way up the assistant-coach ranks — not always an easy thing to do for a former player used to being treated as a star — until getting a chance Wednesday to run his own team.
Now Stoudamire can impart his wisdom to players much closer to his 12-year-old self than to his current age. Or as he put it in the essay, he’ll “get to look them in the eye and tell them the truth.” He ends his Players’ Tribune piece thusly:
Life is crazy. Sincerely, Dame
That was certainly a crazy episode he recounted, one fairly unthinkable a dozen years later in today’s NBA, where media access is more tightly controlled. But it was clearly one of Stoudamire’s formative moments, emblematic of a life change that led to “news that will really make [his grandmother] proud.”
Damon Stoudamire sees ‘turning point’ in the time a reporter asked him to pee in a cup
The inside track on Washington politics.
By Des BielerMarch 17
Damon Stoudamire was given his first head coaching job Wednesday at the University of the Pacific, and the former Memphis assistant and NBA star commemorated the occasion in an interesting way. The 42-year-old, Portland, Ore., native wrote a lengthy, deeply personal letter to his 12-year-old self in The Players’ Tribune.
In the essay, Stoudamire discussed his love for his late grandmother, his delight at getting drafted to the Toronto Raptors by his childhood idol Isaiah Thomas, and his admiration for Lute Olson, for whom he played at Arizona. He also went into detail about an episode that clearly made a huge impression on him, and why not? It’s not every day that a reporter goes to an NBA practice facility and asks a player to pee in a cup.
That’s exactly what happened in May, 2004, when Stoudamire was in his seventh season with his hometown team, the Trail Blazers. Several months before, he had been caught with marijuana at an airport — it had been wrapped in aluminum foil, adding to a litany of team-wide incidents that caused those Portland squads to be dubbed the “Jail Blazers” — prompting the point guard to declare that he was through smoking pot.
John Canzano, a columnist for The Oregonian, challenged Stoudamire to agree to submit to a drug test at a time of the reporter’s choosing during the upcoming season. The time came on that May day, and the player, who experienced several marijuana-related issues over the previous couple of years, proved as good as his word. While coach Maurice Cheeks stood at the door to a bathroom stall, Stoudamire peed in a cup, and he began to recount the episode right at the start of his Players’ Tribune essay:
“Dear 12-year-old Dame, Listen to me. When the reporter comes to your locker with the empty cup, don’t freak out. Don’t curse. Don’t get offended. Don’t even react. This is a very important test for you. Just smile and go pee in the cup. I can see you getting all fired up reading this. Why do they want me to pee in a cup? Naw. Naw. Forget it. Relax. I’m about to drop a bombshell on you. When the reporter comes to your locker, you’ll be in your 10th season in the NBA.”
Stoudamire then rewound to memories of “Grandma,” and he listed some of the great point guards against whom he squared off: Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson, John Stockton and Gary Payton. Of that last player, Stoudamire offered a hilarious anecdote about the notoriously gabby Payton harassing Scottie Pippen with a steady stream of remarks such as, “You ain’t nothin’ anymore, Scottie. Where’s Mike? Where’s Mike at? I ain’t scared of you now, Scottie.”
“This is the level of trash talk you’re up against now,” Stoudamire wrote to his younger self. “Don’t even open your mouth. If Gary’s going to do Scottie like that, he’ll send you to therapy.”
Eventually, Stoudamire returned to the practice facility episode, prefacing it with words he could still hear his grandmother, who died while he was in high school, say: “Damon, you know how you was raised. You was raised to act right.” Here is what Stoudamire wrote:
“The airport incident is going to be the turning point. One reporter in particular is really going to come after you for it. You’ll make a promise to him that it was just a dumb mistake, and that you’re done with marijuana. “You can test me,” you’ll say. You’re half joking. A few months later the reporter will show up at practice with a home drug test kit. Seriously. Don’t get mad at him. Just tell him, “You know what? Fine. But I don’t trust you with my pee. I trust Mo with my pee.” That’s your coach, Mo Cheeks. Go into the bathroom and fill the cup. Mo will politely hold the door for you while the reporter waits outside. Seriously. Hand the cup to Mo. Smile at the reporter. Thank him for his time. Get dressed. When the results come back, they will say what you already know. You’re clean. The reporter will write a column apologizing, and the Portland fans will give you a standing ovation before your next game. That’s going to be a bittersweet moment. I know you understand why, Dame. Do I even have to say it? They don’t know you. If they did, they would know your character isn’t about a mistake. Or one test. Or one game.”
As Stoudamire wrote, his urine sample came back negative for marijuana and other substances, prompting Canzano to tell Oregonian readers, “He’s removed doubt about whether Blazers ticket holders are getting a clean and sober Stoudamire when they buy a ticket.” The NBA players’ union was not pleased about his acquiescence to an ad hoc drug test, but the guard was happy to show that he had, as he put it at the time, “nothing to hide.”
If the airport bust, which caused Stoudamire to renounce marijuana, was the actual “turning point,” the moment at which a cup was handed to him by a local reporter was when that resolve was literally put to the test in a very public way. He’s been passing other tests since then, working his way up the assistant-coach ranks — not always an easy thing to do for a former player used to being treated as a star — until getting a chance Wednesday to run his own team.
Now Stoudamire can impart his wisdom to players much closer to his 12-year-old self than to his current age. Or as he put it in the essay, he’ll “get to look them in the eye and tell them the truth.” He ends his Players’ Tribune piece thusly:
Life is crazy. Sincerely, Dame
That was certainly a crazy episode he recounted, one fairly unthinkable a dozen years later in today’s NBA, where media access is more tightly controlled. But it was clearly one of Stoudamire’s formative moments, emblematic of a life change that led to “news that will really make [his grandmother] proud.”
Great analogy hoops1124, but also Damon's recruiting is also a daunting task due to the academic demands that UOP has, wasnt this part of the most recent issue at UOP?
Hoop Analyst: You are flat out wrong: What kid on the 2017 could handle Devon Watson at USF, Jared Brownridge at Santa Clara, Jahon and Narr at SM? The answer is none! Milstead will clearly be a great recruit. Falls, Calcatera, Fadal are average Low-Major guards at best. Speaking of Nevada, what kid in 2016 or 2017 is better than this year's Mountain West Freshman of the Year Cameron Oliver? Oliver is a 6'8 super athletic forward who can also step out to 22ft. Nothing wrong with an opinion, just have one that's realistic.
My take on this is he should go get two bay area kids right away that is going to fit his style of p!ay they are not going to be good right away but could be entertaining and create some local interest in the program. He has to get his foot in the door with the soilders
And oakland rebels organizations that he is going to need at somepoint anyway.getting fadal and milstead for example would be a huge step in putting a dent in the freeway to montana that travis decure
has built for local bay area kids coming to Missoula to play for the grizz
And oakland rebels organizations that he is going to need at somepoint anyway.getting fadal and milstead for example would be a huge step in putting a dent in the freeway to montana that travis decure
has built for local bay area kids coming to Missoula to play for the grizz
bones, that is probably a reason Montana goes after kids like Falls for early commits; to get them before a local coach gets aggressive.
Excellent point infofreak.
There is difference between good and great coaches. A great coach knows fundamentally, a tiny 16 year old, 165 or 170lb kid dominating at the high school level, effectively quarterbacking competitive games and displaying solid understanding of the game; will, all things being equal, ultimately develop into a solid college player. Enough said.
What i am saying is the warriors were entertaining for years before they became good. There style
Of play was good even when they were bad. If you are a program on the build and knowing its going to take some time to get good at least spark an interest to your program with some good local talent
and create some sort of local buzz about the program while you are rebuilding.I am not saying
Just bring in anybody local but there is enough talent here in the bay area that a couple 2017
Kids could help U O P to finish better then 9th in league play and help the bottom line with more Butt's
In the arena watching.
Of play was good even when they were bad. If you are a program on the build and knowing its going to take some time to get good at least spark an interest to your program with some good local talent
and create some sort of local buzz about the program while you are rebuilding.I am not saying
Just bring in anybody local but there is enough talent here in the bay area that a couple 2017
Kids could help U O P to finish better then 9th in league play and help the bottom line with more Butt's
In the arena watching.
It will still be a hard place to recruit to. They are loosing scholarships and its in Stockton. I give him 3 years max before he leaves or gets fired. Pacific's accademic requirements are tough. Most of soldiers and rebels kids won't even get accepted to school. USF, St.Mary's Santa Clara also. That why they do not recruit locally.
Interesting point sports09. The academic rigor is one we haven't talked about much but it is worth discussing. Some of the kids on the Oakland axis teams may not meet the academic requirement. In addition, there is the subject of discipline and staying out of trouble. As we speak, some on this forum are aware of one of the key Oakland Rebels 2017 players from last year currently in detention for drug related issue. That's why he was missing from his team's playoff game last week. It is a highly complex dynamic and the more reason why a good balance between academic readiness, discipline and ball skills should be weighed heavily when recruiting. Having said all that, I strongly believe we have enough local talents, mostly guards, qualified to play at any of the local colleges.
Well said. Been telling people that the high ranked d2 schools like Chico, UCSD, and Pomona are better than some of these d1. That shouldn't be!!
Hats off to the d2 schools but let's get the d1 programs back up.
Some 2017's that could give those named above some problems are 6'7 Wing Abu Kigab and and 6'9 PF Ira Lee. Both have Kansas offers and are elite competitors and extremely physical and tough and athletic.
Hoops1124: Would like to see those guys give HS kids MORE problems first. I saw both play 2x this year at Prolific. Up and coming talents, but lets remember the college guys are playing against men not HS aged boys. Don't discount Cameron Oliver, he will be in a NBA uniform in a few years.
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