I was just thinking... how much better a coach I would have been with a guy like that playing for me! :-)

There were several good players there... and how much better Ricky made them... he drew so much attention.... and he had GREAT handles.

Good luck today....

Ben Coach Sars: Rubio is a great young player I watched him in Bejing last year however, I'm not sure if it were homesickness that prevented him from signing with Minnisota. Ricky is a hero in his home country and well known there but the expectations for him with the T-wolves may have been too much for an 18 year old to shoulder. This, in my opinion, may have added to his reluctance to sign. I further think that he entered the NBA draft to raise his stock in his home country with little intention of signing. Now with that being said, I believe once he matures and grows more as a player, he will eventually be in the NBA. Coach Mac

Coach Mac,

I get Dan Peterson's blogs daily and when I asked him Ricky could play NBA ball and why he wasn't signed - this is what he told me -

"He was taken at No. 5 in the 2009 Draft, by Minnesota.
He did not want to play in frozen Minnesota on a bad
team. He signed with sunny Barcelona, his home town
team for two years."

Your assesment might be correct too... 18 years old - away from home in that COLD weather.... might not be too much fun for a kid that comes from sunny Italy. AND you can tell from the way he plays.... HE LOVES PLAYING THERE and THEY LOVE HIM!

Dan is an X coach in Italy... pretty good from what I hear :-) I was friends with his younger brother Jim, we started hanging around when we were 17. I never knew Dan personally but when I met up with Jim last year he had Dan send me his blogs. He is an excellent writer too.

Todays game was blowout we won 36-17 but the game was worse than the score. We were holding it moving it around at 2:00 at a time beffore a shot. Only layups or short shots. The other team was not good at all.

I scored 4 points on 2-2 shooting 1 layup and a 3-5 footer off a good pass by my teammate. We barely shot at all and we probably could have scored 100 points on this team. But my dad said to work on moving the ball until we get a layup.

Congratulations on the win.... and your dad is a good guy and good coach, he understands that you don't blow out people.

I'm sure that you would want to play a little tougher team but you did learn a few things... how to pass the ball, run your offense and control the game.

Hopefully your next game will give you more of a challenge. Let us know how your season progresses.

By the way, do you ever get the chance to use any of the moves you are learning? Would you dad mind you doing that?

I did do some of the moves but I was just getting right around people. I was getting around their press very easy just crossing over and moving on to the next guy. This teamwas very bad.

Also do you know how Ricky Rubio gets so many steals.

Thats a tough question Ben -

Just off the top of my head I would say that he is very aggressive defensively and has quick hands. ( I had a player similar to that... very quick, great shooter, all over you defensively and little bit of a nasty attitude - hes Italian also - we still talk today )

Ricky seems to be a little more easy going on the outside as he plays... but he seems to anticipate what the other players are going to do with the ball...

I'll write Dan for you and ask him what he thinks.

I guess you could say that you were using this game as practice for those moves, as the teams get tougher you will have to get a little better, I'm sure that you are practicing them regularly. Keep up the good work.

Ben,

I am sure that you have looked at several of those videos, but here are a couple that I thought you might enjoy. Ricky Rubio is truly amazing and he's only 18. I'm sure that he will end up in the NBA some day.

YouTube - Ricky Rubio Story

YouTube - Ricky Rubio - Hero

Here is what Dan Peterson ( X coach and commentator in Italy )
says about him.
"He has Long arms, big hands, great positioning,
and he wants to steal every ball."

It's all about an attitude I guess, and he is NON STOP motion...

Well I don't have long arms or big hands but I'm working on that agression to steal everyball.

Not yet Ben, you're only 12? Everything is relative - Is there any size in your family?

Be patient... IF you can do some of those things NOW, just think about how good you will be when you get older. Be as active and aggressive as Ricky is and things will work out well for you.

Just keep working on your game... :-)