In my opinion, the hardest thing for a college person to figure out is not the knowing right from wrong, or what they want to do with their life, or how to make a budget, or a hard equation in pyshics.

I feel that the hardest thing is humility.

According to the dictionary, humility is defined as the quality or state of being humble.  Pretty much, not being satisfied with what you have achieved.

If a student gets a 95 on a test and people say “Hey great job on that test!” the student feels satisfied and tends to stop improving because they feel its good enough (I’m guilty of this), instead of saying “How can I do better next time to get that other 5%?”

In college sports, one of the best examples of someone who has humility is University of North Carolina’s  Tyler Hansbrough. He is the reigning Associated Press Player of the Year and ACC Player of the Year. He returned to UNC instead of going to the NBA, partially because he enjoys being a college student, but also because he felt he wasn’t that ready to play in the NBA. He has the two awards and went to the Final Four last year, so he has proved that he is a talented player, but he still wants to get better.  

Another example is Stephen Curry of Davidson. Curry led his team to the Elite Eight and almost to the Final Four, before losing by 2 to eventual National Champion Kansas. According to an espn.com article about him, students state that he is still approachable and available to fans.

“Stephen deserves all of the attention,'’ senior Max Paulhus Gosselin said. “But he’s humble about it. He handles it great. It could have changed him, but Steph isn’t that type of person.'’

If  you stop being humble, you will stop progressing in whatever it is you do.

Gene 

I wasn’t actually taking scissors and cutting it up, no, I was taking it and copying clips from one VHS to another. I did individual player clips, guards/bigs, conversion sequences, and team clips. This was really time consuming, but very easy and enjoyable. I was able to see where our team made mistakes and did well very easily.

This is a task that may seem small, but it allows our coaches to worry about other things than having to cut the film up, and it gives me a chance to learn a very valuable task.

Gene

Returning this year are seniors Luke Postorino, Randy Jones, and Dusty Pflugner; juniors Anthony Balsam and Brandon Kennedy; and sophomores Michael Baptiste, Chris Hall, Michel Vidal, and Michael Woo. Adding to this strong unit are juniors John “JB” Brown and Kendall Butler; sophomore Mike Tanner; and freshmen Bo Jukic, Jonathon Johnson, Jared Paul, and Pascal Schuler.            

With all these newcomers, it only helps that the three seniors will be running the point guard position. Jones started 22 games last year for the Knights, while Postorino led the team in minutes played with 32 per game. Postorino also has the most experience on the team, entering his third year. Pflugner is coming off of an injury plagued season after transferring from Virginia Military Institute.           

 “It’s been a long road with plenty of ups and downs along the way in my career,” said Pflugner. “I’m excited to finally be healthy, get back in shape, and be a contributing member of this championship level team. We have experienced guards and athletic big men who are ready to get the job done. I’m looking for one last run deep into March.”           

Hall looks to build off a very successful year last year, which includes setting the Lynn single game scoring record with 42 in the SSC Tournament against Florida Tech.            

“That was just one game,” Hall said. “I still have a lot to get better at, including my defense. I need to  step up and prove my worth to this team.”           

The team was picked to finish fifth in the SSC by coaches and sports information directors around the league.            

“I’m looking forward to proving a lot of people wrong this season,” said Woo. “We feel that we can exceed the expectations that people outside of our team set for us. We are only going to take this ranking and use it as motivation.”            

 “I can’t wait for the games to start,” said Lauren Fry, junior. “I think there are some great games on tap for this year. I can’t wait for the FAU game, its been too long since I’ve watched the blue and white.”           

The Fighting Knights tip-off on Nov. 5 at FAU Arena against the cross-town foe FAU Owls. The home opener is Nov. 8 against Division I Bethune-Cookman.

I know our fans are going to do a great job of replicating this.

Hope everyone comes to the game and makes it as loud as possible!

Gene

While this may seem easy enough from the outside looking in, playing at that pace is harder than it looks. I have seen glimpses of it in my time here at Lynn. In the article, one of the assistants, Patrick Sellers, echoed that getting players to play hard is one of the most difficult things in coaching. There are some players that I have been around who don’t need a coach to get them to play, but I have seen just as many who no matter what coaches have said or done, think that their ways work, then learn the hard way that they don’t, and yet still don’t play hard to correct it.

I think Coach McMillin does an excellent job of knowing what each player responds to and coaching them as individuals rather than grouping everybody together. Coach knows what a championship pace is and relates that to our players in a way that is simplified and easy to understand.

3 weeks until tip-off!

Gene

Coach McMillin and I talked about my role this year. Starting tomorrow, I will be going into the office an hour earlier than normal, in order to meet with Coach McMillin, Coach Crislip, and Coach Hayes about that days practice schedule. As the season gets closer, I will also be starting to get involved in the film part of coaching. This will involve learning how to break down film, as well as helping with film exchange. This is a tremendous opportunity for me, now I need to take this open door and explode through it.

Gene

I feel that one should do what they want with their lives. Since my family owns a business, there are people that I’ve come to love and respect, that expect me to finish college then go back to Arkansas and take over the store. But that’s not what I want to do. Now yes, after awhile, I would like to do that, but I love sports and I want to become a basketball coach. Thats what I love. I love teaching and I’ve learned so much in the past two years from our coaches and the coaches I met at camps. That’s why the store isn’t my first option. As much as I love the store and the employees (past, present, and future), I need to do something that I wake up everyday and get excited about, and right now that’s basketball. Now maybe in 20 years that will be the store, but its not right now.

This summer, when Coach Tim Heskett called me and told me he wasn’t going to be coming back to Lynn and that he was getting out of coaching, he said something that has stuck with me, and will continue to stick with me, “If your heart isn’t 100% in something, then get out of it.” It’s only a couple of words, but they are so true and so powerful.

So again, “Live the life you love, not the life others want you to love.”

Gene

I think this will be a big year not only for our team, but also for me. I feel that our team has a good shot at going farther than the past two year’s teams did. I also feel that this year is going to be a huge stepping stone for me in my pursuit of a career in coaching. I am hoping to get more involved with what the coaches do outside of practice. I feel that if I can make big progress this year, then I can really be prepared for after graduation. After this summer, I met so many people and feel that I have a solid base of which to build upon over the next couple of years.

I am excited to find out what plays we will be running and how we’ll our guys will buy into our system.
Gene

A great quote about motivation comes from Vince Lombardi, one of the best football coaches ever: “If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”

Michael Jordan, highly regarded as the best basketball player was quoted as saying: I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiam to win. - Michael Jordan

As understanding as I am of other people’s beliefs, this made me want to just look at her and rip into her, but I decided to be polite and I explained to her that most of the students at Lynn could and are smart, yes some might not, but they are also the ones that are barely, if at all, making it through Lynn. I also explained that with the new admissions policy it is making it harder to get in.

She then proceeded to ask us where we were from, so we told her, and her response (since we were both from out of state) was that people from Florida didn’t like Lynn. Again this is false because a large number of students at Lyn are from Florida. Then she went further and said she works with some students from Lynn and that Lynn students are hood. Anthony and I looked at each other with confused looks and told her that wasn’t true. I kind of felt like the football coach from Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy, and saying “That’s not true!”

She walked away and Anthony and I started laughing and joking around afterwards. Anytime we saw her we just wanted to start acting hood to see what she would say. I told one of the basketball players the story and he gave me the funniest look of confusion and then started laughing.

Ahh, the joys of dealing with ignorance.