I just read that Steve Francis was waived by the Memphis Grizzlies today. Whenever I hear that name a lot of memories come flooding back to me for several reasons. I first met Steve Francis, though I didn’t know his name at the time, at Gary William’s Basketball Camp in College Park back in 1990. At the time, I was working for Gary as Camp Commissioner, basically just overseeing the coaches and players at the camp. It was a summer ritual for me from 1989, Gary’s first year, right up until the National Championship run in 2002. I met a lot of great coaches and players over those years, and many of the coaches have moved on to other positions in the years since. Guys like Billy Hahn (who was the reason I was there in the first place), now at West Virginia with Bob Huggins, Dave Dickerson (Head Coach at Tulane), Jimmy Patsos (Loyola of MD), and Mike Lonergan (Vermont). There was always a ton of talented high school coaches there as well, guys like Mike Glick (now at Gwynn Park, formally at St. Vincent Pallotti and Archbishop Spalding) and Josh Pratt, now at Towson Catholic. But I digress . . . back to Steve Francis.During camps there is a break between morning and afternoon sessions as well as afternoon and evening sessions. During these so-called “free times” the campers would organize pickup games in Cole Field House. They would also do this before Roll Call in the morning and after camp concluded in the evening (There was always a couple of hours to kill before curfew at 11:00 P.M.) These games would normally involve the older campers, and usually some of the camp coaches would participate, usually younger guys who were players at colleges along the east coast. Sometimes pro players would stop in for the late games. I remember Chris Webber and Manute Bol along with several others stopping in.
Man, I love the Buckeyes. They've been buried by the national media over the past few years so much that I hesitate to even talk negatively about them. The many positives about Jim Tressell's program have been overlooked recently, with the talking heads instead focusing on the big-game losses, the Maurice Clarett fiasco and the general incompetence of the Big 10. Hell, every time the 2002 National Championship has been mentioned the last year or so there seems to be this perception that the interference call "gave" Ohio State the game. Not true. The Buckeyes earned that win by outplaying, outcoaching, and outhitting Miami, plain and simple. I watched a replay of the game just the other day. It couldn't be clearer.
