July Evaluations Over

Coaches have accumulated frequent flyer miles, rapid rewards, and maybe a few speeding tickets for some. I would love to do a poll to see how many coaches received s ticket trying to make a game from a different gym. Isn't that just crazy.

Beginning this week questions will start to get answered by both sides. How interested is the prospect in your school and how interested your school is in the prospect. The chess match begins.

It would simplify things if the prospect could just say yes, but it is more complicated than that. They need to step on campus, meet the team, see a coach in action, get a feel for the community among a million other things, and they need to cut out schools before they get to that decision.

I think of it as a privilege that a prospect will decide to visit our program as one of her top choices, better yet when they decide to be a Bobcat.

Let the calls begin.

Coach Bin

Three Weekend Evaluations

The buzz this summer is about the possibility of July recruiting moving to three three day weekends instead of the entire month of July, excluding the Dead Period of course.

I am in favor of shortening our recruiting evaluations for a number of reasons.

1. Prospects won't have as many injuries. Every year it looks like more knee braces and sleeves because athletes don't get any rest.
2. It will save on everyone's budget especially the prospects although I would be extremely disappointed if I couldn't do anymore Red Eyes, lol.
3. Coaches could spend more time on campuses with their student athletes and help that transition during summer school.
4. It would open up more opportunity in between evals for athletes to visit some schools and narrow their lists.
5. I could really enjoy our beautiful July weather in Bozeman with my family.
6. Athletes would perform at a higher level of play.

We want our game to be great and we want prospects to have the opportunity to compete. Coaches get on board because this change would be great for everyone.

Coach Bin

Forehead Freeze

Have you ever had a cold forehead? It's kind of Annoying.

Examples:

Sitting in the passenger seat of the Mustang and the air conditioner blows directly on your forehead.

Sleeping in your hotel bed and the aircondtioner blows directly on your forehead as the rest of your body is snuggling under your comforter.

These are the two experiences Mandy and I had today.

I am just shocked she didn't have a brain freeze from eating ice cream as we all know she loves her sweets.

First day of the second round recruiting is a wrap. I will talk to you tomorrow from Las Vegas,

Coach Bin

California Girls

Mandy and I are here in Santa Clara watching the MSNM Tourney. I need to give all you Californians a hard time because it's warmer in Bozeman than it is here. So Destini and Symone, when it's January, no complaining.

What's hotter than either spot, however, is Mandy's rental, a fireball two-door red Mustang. I feel like a character from the movie "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" since the passenger's seat is extremely low.

We took a break from the morning games so I could introduce Mandy to the best spicy chicken in the U.S., Popeyes. She is still on staff after agreeing with me that it is incredible!


Tomorrow I head to Vegas for the day, yes to recruit. I will keep my money in my pocket, but today I will soak in the palm trees and sea level workouts.

Coach Bin

The Dress

As I touch down in Bozeman in between trips I continue to be amazed how quickly my children change in a day or two. The good news is that my husband seems to be consistent except the additional gray hairs that take place.

My daughter right now is a 2 year old going on sixteen. We have a constant battle of clothing and what she'll wear, much different than what we experienced with Justin. For him, if it had a ball or Transformer on it, he'd wear it.

Brooklyn, however, only has one dress that she wants to wear. She will wear it every day of the week, she'll wear it to bed, and even if it smells and stands on its own because it's so dirty, she doesn't really care.

My choices are to throw the dress away, let her scream her head off as I put on what I want her to wear or better yet, OUT SMART HER.

I first called my friend who purchased the dress to see where she bought it so I could buy another one in a bigger size. Unfortunately it's a store that we don't have.

The next plan was to take Brooklyn to the store and have her pick out a dress similar so we did. Once we got home, however, she didn't want to wear the new one anymore.

It doesn't help that in public everyone seems to acknowledge her "pretty dress". If you are one of those people, stop it, jk.

Last resort will be to throw it away, and although there will be a few tears she is tough and will eventually grab ahold of a new obsession.

I just hope that one is with a basketball in hand.

Coach Bin

Misconceptions

This morning we bracketed the 64teams for the NCAA Tournament. To simplify the challenging process of accomplishing this task I will cover a few points.

1. Teams from the same conference cannot play each other before regionals.

2. Teams are to play at home if they are a host site even if they are a higher seed.

3. Travel is taken into consideration so if a team can bus rather than fly you try and place them there if possible.

The software used to bracket has all kinds of tools to help the bracketing process more efficient.

For example, it shows you distance to each host site for the team being bracketed. It will inform you if you have made an error in placing a common conference opponent in the same bracket, kind of like spellcheck.

Despite all of these resources at our fingertips it still feels like piecing together a 1000+ puzzle piece.

In the end I have found an even greater respect and appreciation for the amount of research, time, and integrity by our committee that is put into the process of creating a solid tournament bracket.

Thank you to the NCAA, WBCA for creating this experience for us, to the coaches and commissioners, and the A Team.

When the MSU Bobcats make the tournament I am calling on Ralf to be our voice. He knows what "sparkle" from yesterday's discussion is all about.

Coach Bin

Seeding

We are now beginning the seeding process. Just kidding, we started, took a dinner break and tour of the NCAA facilities, and now are trying to wrap up the seeds.

The A Team has remained united throughout the process and each brought a unique skill. Danielle is our scribe wizard. Courtney-win or be forgotten! We learned "you need to have a sparkle about your schedule to get a number 2 seed.

Coach Bin, AKA RPI Genius is signing off.

The Bubble

Afternoon session has consisted of discussion and voting of teams that should be considered for post season play. We have found that it is easier to complain about the decisions made rather than finding a better solution.

I think I will stick with coaching for now.

What's for snacks you ask? The A Team, as we now call ourselves, or in my case "when all else fails look at the RPI", is having whoppers, pretzel nuggets, and reeses. If you know me, I am not eating the sweets,

Coach Bin

Danielle's I Pad Tutorial

She just showed me how to fold my cover so I can type easier.

Courtney's Automatic Qualifiers

I also forgot to tell you Courtney automatics qualifier is nothing short of remarkable. Danielle and I tried to challenge her five times and were incorrect. Her mind was quicker than our computer.

I am supposed to be working,

Coach Bin

Mock Bracketing

I just finished the morning session here in Indianapolis and already learned a ton. I want to be clear, however, that it is not rocket science how Montana State gets into the NCAA Tournament as my quotes might have sounded otherwise on our msubobcats.com website.

What I have learned so far is the process of scheduling officials and an in depth knowledge of the RPI which does not stand for Rest Peacefully Indoors.

I am paired up with Danielle Donehew from the Big East Conference and Courtney Banghart, the head coach at Princeton who both want you to know how beautiful and smart, and prepared they are.

Well, of course, Princeton!

Keep you posted,

COACH BIN

Frequent Flyer

After Oregon City Mandy and I covered the Midnight Summer Madness Tournament in Seattle while Justin flew to Chicago.

As the head coach I get to pick where I recruit so why wouldn't I choose Seattle who has the best sushi ever at Shiro's restaurant that my friend Janet and former teammate took me to last year? I took Mandy with me this time around and she had to agree with her boss that it is in fact the best!

We got to hang out with Janet for the evening up on top of the terrace of her condo overlooking Seattle, but then it was back into action at Arco Arena. Coaches were so impressed that I had an I Pad I actually had to act like I knew what I was doing with it. Unfortunately, I still had to take some notes with my pen for "new" recruits that weren't yet in our database. That allowed me to write on pretty much everything including my new shorts from the Nike store, the cover of my I Pad, and my former coach June Daughtery. I didn't know if I should tell her or not, but she was cool with it because she loves me so much.

I flew home to see my family, my student athletes in summer school, and our lone coach holding down the fort Amy. Our student athletes are doing great, transitioning well, and competing to break our Top 12 WBCA Academic Finish of last year.

I took my son Justin golfing. He enjoyed raking the sandtraps, taking out the flag, and had pretty good contact on the ball. Brooklyn got to hang out with me in the office, and Todd enjoyed a few hours rest before I take off again.

Tonight I head to Indianapolis for a Mock Bracketing exercise where I, along with 18 other head coaches across the nation learn how the NCAA charts their seeding for the tournament. I will try and blog in between sessions at lunch and dinner, but don't want to give too much information out because you might be angry with who I pick, LOL.

Aisle, or Exit row?

Coach Bin

End of the Trail

Justin, Mandy, and I finished The Oregon City Tournament today. Here are the highlights:

1. Mandy helping Jerry Rice pick out sports bras for his wife at the Nike Employee store. Jerry had a purple outfit picked out so Mandy suggested an orange bra because it's on the opposite end on the color wheel. He went with the purple.

2. Five Guys Burger and Fries. In N Out Burger is still the best for cost and quality, but these burgers are bigger and it's the only place where I can't finish the fries. They give you so many you leave feeling like a potato.

3. GPS-I still need to name my GPS. I will call her Sue. I have to give her a girl's name because no guy would ever ask for directions so why would they be a GPS? I didn't get lost once. Great work Sue.

4. The games. My last game of the tournament kept me on the edge as Montana Hoops went to the wire with Corona Force? Montana was down one, called a timeout for a back screen play. They got fouled, hit two free throws to go up one, and then Corona nails a three to win. What a battle.

My bumb is now in full padded mode, yet somewhat numb. I like to also sit up high so I can get more excited about how tall players are because they look bigger from above. Although when I sit lower they are still all bigger than me.

5. We told you more evaluation tips to come so here they are;

First rule of thumb-every player must be taller than me. That gets my list narrowed down by five percent.

Second they have to shoot at the right basket, another five percent.

Last, they should pass the ball to the people in the same color uniform as them, and stripes are not include in that.

That leaves me five percent now to watch and reel in for future bobcats.

Isn't recruiting easy?

Coach Bin

The Spider

Yesterday I am driving from One gym to another as the GPS takes me on the country road in between. As I am driving with hands on the 10 and 2 steering wheel a huge hairy black and white spider starts weaving down from my visor.

Trying not to wreck I am thinking hairy could mean poisonous almost tarantula style and then all of a sudden it jumps on my steering wheel. With no edge on the side of John Denver's Country Road I brake off the lip, jump out just barely escaping death. The spider then hops on my seat looking at me as if to say "thank you."

As I look to see what kind of spider this is I think it must be the "car camouflage" spider as it totally blended in. Nit wanting more of tHis I tried to sweep him out of the car but couldn't see if I got him or not.

Anyone want to trade cars today?

Coach Bin

Exercising with Mandy

ManDy and I went for a run to start off the day. Yesterday I ran the same loop without Mandy. What's the difference you ask? It's five minutes and feeling refreshed or nearly dying.

Mandy just slows me down I guess.

Coach Bin

Day 1 done!

Day 1 wrapped up! I went to the restroom more times than my two year old daughter because I stayed hydrated. It would be a miracle if they could get the gyms all the same temperature.... Do you wear a jacket or do you not? Do you wear flip flops or shoes and socks? I feel like I'm in a Katy Perry song- hot and cold!

Here are a few examples of sayings in our evaluations:
1.Wiry means skinny but tough
2. Smooth means it's ok if they are not the quickest because they make flowing decisions
3. Bulldozer means get out of her way!
4. Handsy means she can really get after it on defense (like latisha Adams)
5. Savvy means she is a coach on the floor and is a smart player (like Ashley Albert)

More to come tomorrow.... We need to do brackets and Mandy and I need to split our fish dinners!
Coach Bin

Fouls?

I am on my fourth game already montana hoops vs lady swift and am not sure if they do the bonus at this tourney.

Definitely july as no fouls are being called. It seems to be a hack fest or I should say no blood no foul.

Players are playing hard. I can still feel My bumb so life is great.

Random comment I know, but I don't understand why new bathroom sinks shut off so quickly. Aren't we supposed to wash our hands for at least 30sec or the duration of singing "happy birthday?"

Bin

Oregon city

It's the first day recruiting and I am sitting in the Oregon city gymnasium for the first game of JUly recruiting. I will also have a few typos as I am learning my new I pad that JUstin made me purchase.

The reason I think he got me an I pad is so I can type my notes when I evaluate directly to scout ware our recruitingnsoftware because they cam never read my handwriting or maybe it's so I buy them an I pad too.

Who knows, but it's a fun new toy.

Firstbday getting back into the swing I already forgot my clip to hold the book in place on the two teams that are playing each other. I guess I will just have tp flip through the book.

No worries, right Emily and Kate?

Coach Bin