UWF VS COLUMBUS STATE
UWF 70, CSU 63
| I like old school
basketball. It's a simple game when you break it down.
There's only one ball so what you do without it is as important as what
the person with it does. Most plays are a version of a pick and
roll or the give and go. The open person gets the ball.
Passing beats dribbling. Defense wins games. You get back
on defense. Make your free throws. The great coaches will tell
you to rest on offense if you must—he or she will then replace you if
you rest on offense. You crash the boards. You win with character
and a team-minded attitude. That's character, not characters.
Good programs have good coaches and good, coach-able athletes. I
learned all of that from Clair Bee. The UWF Women's basketball
team plays the right (read: winning) way. They play the modern
game with an old school attitude. I learned that by watching them
defeat Columbus State yesterday. Check GoArgos.com for their upcoming
schedule. |
Defense wins games...the Argos collapse on an opponent. The shot obviously didn't go in.
Free throws...form and concentration
Crashing the boards...
Crashing the boards...the floor boards!
Defense...hands, feet and eyes!
Tight defense...note the other 2 players are "boxing-out" their players in anticipation.
No shot goes uncontested.
Defense is teamwork!
NOT tipping off your opponent about a pass!
Attacking the basket!
Shielding the ball...note another UWF player ready to hit the boards!
| Columbus State came into the
game UNDEFEATED. They are a good team. I think their good
shooting was nullified by good defense. UWF outshot CSU 51% to
36%. UWF out rebounded their opponents 46 to 24! In free
throws, UWF shot 74% to CSU's 72%. |
| I am not the regular UWF
photographer. I photographed this game in honor of Ron
Besser. We lost a good man this week. We lost a friend and
UWF lost its greatest supporter. Please allow me to say a few
words in his honor: IN MEMORY OF RON BESSER
I liked my
friend Ron Besser. That puts me in a group with a
population roughly that of the state of New York. Ron
made friends easily. He could talk your ear off and then listen
intently while you returned the favor. Ron liked people. He liked
to learn and he liked to share his knowledge. He had a lot to say
only because he really knew a lot.
My friend
and I disagreed on much. If you knew him you knew of his sincere
political beliefs. My beliefs are somewhere else on the political
spectrum. Still, we agreed on love of country and
flag. We shared a goal if not the path to get there. We disagreed
without being disagreeable…would that the politicians learned from my
friend.
In sports he was the Buffalo Bills and I
was the Cincinnati Bengals. Together we experienced the dubious
record of 6 Super Bowl losses in 6 attempts. We were "old school"
in our attitudes toward values in sports. We admired the people
who represented UWF. We were appreciative of the UWF
athletic leaders who exhibited values we respected while being
thoroughly modern and incredibly successful. In photography, he was Nikon with an emphasis on using the Sports Mode. I'm Canon and struggle with Aperture Value. Of course I'm right and the only reason his photographs were always better was because he was always better...a lot better. We agreed much
more than we disagreed. We were both Mac addicts and shared the
frustrations of processing photos via that path. We talked
about history and agreed on the need to encourage more people, not
fewer, to learn about the past. We commiserated over how the old radio
and TV of our youth required more thought than much of today's
offerings. Still, we remained observers, and critics, of those
same modern programs. Most of all, we agreed that we each
had a wife who couldn't have been more of a source of joy, love and
companionship.
The
community has lost a friend but gained fond memories and a shining
example of how one should approach learning and friendship. Some
will call him a Renaissance man. Others will just be content to
call him a friend. I'll miss Ron Besser. Confucius said it
best, "A faultless man I cannot hope ever to meet, the most I can hope
for is to meet a man of fixed principles."
Bill Stockland December, 2010 |