Wagner College - Kallista Yearbook (New York, NY)

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I think that the 1969-70 basketball season was the worst in my varsity career. Not for me - fOr team effort, it was the worst. Comparing this year's team to the two previous ones, we met easier opponents. The schedule was less stren- uous. IVe didn't travel to Syracuse. We didn't go to Valparaiso. And we came out with the worst record - ll and 14. But if you take into con- sideration games that we were winning and then lost, we should have come out with an 18 and 7, 17 and 8 season. And you can attribute that to some of the ballplayers themselves and to the coaching staff. In a sense, it would have to be more on the ballplayers than on the coaches. The coaches are supposed to give you some type of in- centive. But as a varsity athlete, you're supposed to be at the stage where you know what you're playing for. It's a game. You're representing your school. And in a lot of cases, it's your financial means through college. The more you excel, the more money you get. And that in itself is an in- centive to help you get your education. I think one of the reasons why we weren't as good this year is because of too much - I don't know if it's friction - dissension between the players. And that they used the coach as a scapegoat, saying that instead of him rectifying anything that was wrong, he just let it go on and on. NVe used to have talks on the way to away games. Wie used to bring tape recorders and record what we had to say - conduct interviews - and we'd try to talk honestly with each other. Some fellas, instead of speaking what they felt, held back. And in doing this, you never accom- plish anything. At least we didn't. And this hap- pened at a time when we were losing three, four games in a row. We were trying to find out what was wrong. That was when we went to Elizabeth- town. 1'Ve had just lost to Upsala and Susquehan- na. And we were traveling down there. And after the talk we won the game. I don't think we won the game because we had the talk on the bus down. I think we just won it because some of us played better than we had been playing in the two previous games. Me, myself, I played better. Seaman played better. And some other guys chipped in. But going back to why the dissension existed, some boys weren't playing as much as they thought they should. Others weren't playing the positions that they wanted to play. And others felt that they should have been playing in front of someone else that was playing. No matter what you think your ability is, you have to show it or prove it to the coach and the coaching staff. And it's true that our coach will keep a scholar- ship person over a non-scholarship person in some cases. But he also has to make a decision that will help the team or enhance our season or whatever. And he decided that he would go with a certain five. Now maybe he had this frm

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Plilnned after the 68-69 season and maybe he de- cided on this after two weeks of practice. It's hard to say when he decided. But he picked five. And he was going with five. And the only way someone else is going to get on the starting team IS to show they can play better than somebody else. Not to talk about it. Or sit down with a 8.f0Up and say, I know I should be playing and SIUCC I'm not playing, I just don't care. Because if that's the attitude that one possesses, then he shouldn't be playing basketball. He shouldn't be in sports, period. But he should just come out to practice, be serious, and show the coach that he's willing or trying to take away somebody's spot. And then another thing is when you're in the game, you have to produce also. See, some of the ballplayers complained that when they're in the game they're very conscious that the coach is watching them. And they feel that if they make a mistake, he's going to take them out. And in the past year, I used to observe this also. And I felt that if you made a mistake, you were coming out. But as I played more with the team, and as I got older, sophomore to junior, not in age, I realized that it wasn't one mistake that took you out of the game, but a series or a combination of mistakes. And that you were really given a good shot when you were in there. And again, some ol' the fellas didn't realize that you might play one game and make errors, come back and play an- other game and make about five mistakes, and come back and play a third game and make another four. lNell, if you have one bad game, it's excusable. Two bad games, we have to start thinking about you. And the type of season we were having this year, we had too many bad games back to back. W'ell, we just had to find another combination. IfVhen I say we, I mean the coaching staff, not me and the coaches. I sat down and I spoke with the head coach. And I gave him whatever suggestions I had. I felt that in the beginning of the season, he was too lenient with some of the guys trying out for the team. They really didn 't earn the spot. But they were given the spot. The first two weeks was our conditioning period and some of the boys missed four or five practices. Out of ten sessions, that's half of the condition- ing period. And I didn't think it was beneficial for the team and for the individual, just to be given a spot. I spoke to the coach and told him that I think since this happened, that we houldn't kee this bo on the team We could S . let him practiiie, but right now he has to earn the spot. And not just give it to him because he's getting financial aid or because he's been on the team before. But the coach and I didn't agree. And what happened was that we went through the season and some of the ballplayers were out of shape. And basketball is a game