Another member of Barcelonas 1992 European Cup-winning Dream Team, Ronald Koeman, | Forum

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- The Lahaina Civic Center sits on a hill above Honoapiilani Highway in western Maui, barely visible among the tropical trees and police station. Asics Womens Shoes Grey .The outside of the building is nondescript even up close, looking more like a school auditorium than a basketball arena. Same thing on the inside, with its upstairs, YMCA-style lockers and cage-like windows overlooking the court.Yet every November, the Lahaina Civic Center transforms into something else: one of college basketballs most raucous venues.Its like a high school gym being there, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Sunday, the eve of the Maui Invitational. The noise is loud, people are close to you. I think its neat. This time of year you want to play in front of an excited crowd, an arena where everything is close. Theres just so much you can gain from an experience like this and in a building like that. Theres really nothing like it.The Maui Invitational has become the top in-season tournament on the college basketball schedule, annually luring some of the best teams from across the country to the second-largest island in the Hawaiian chain.This years eight-team field has combined for 14 national championships and 40 Final Fours, and three teams are ranked in the top 10 of The Associated Press poll : No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 North Carolina and No. 9 Wisconsin.The three-day tournament, which starts Monday, also includes Tennessee, Oklahoma State, UConn, Georgetown and host Chaminade.At the center of this basketball-topia is the 2,400-seat Lahaina Civic Center.Built in 1972, the building is used as a public civic center 50 weeks out of the year, hosting high school basketball leagues, volleyball games, karate practices and community events.The two weeks of the Maui Invitational brings some changes to the civic center -- signs and banners, TV lights, cushioned chairs in front of the bleachers -- but its still nowhere near matching the massive, modern arenas found across the rest of college basketball. It didnt even have air conditioning until the 2005 tournament -- after North Carolina coach Roy Williams complained about condensation on the floor.Its hard to adapt an old building with such character into a 2016 basketball arena that everyones used to, said Mark Starsiak, director of events for KemperLesnik, which operates the Maui Invitational.I tell teams every year: `Its the most unique experience youll have walking from the locker room all season. If you have any questions, Ill try to answer them.Calling the Lahaina Civic Center quirky is like saying basketball players are tall.The court, outside of the massive Maui Invitational logo at midcourt, is like a high school hardwood, with volleyball court and vertical basketball lines crisscrossing the court.The seats are like something out of Hoosiers, old bleachers that are practically on top of the court and only go up a dozen-or-so rows.The locker rooms are unlike anything in college basketball.Those are on the second floor, up a narrow stairwell that leads to a common area with taekwondo and wrestling lines on the floor, with nothing but a black curtain separating the teams. The common room also has cage-like windows that overlook the floor, though the view has been obscured a bit with the massive Hawaiian-themed banner at the west side of the arena.The lockers are the old, metal bring-your-own variety, with four concrete chairs, a single whiteboard and showers that dont always work.Because of the small confines, teams waiting for the next game have to set up in the common area and often can be seen at the bottom of the stairwells as the previous game is about to end.Leave your strategy for the hotel because your opponent is right through there, Starsiak said, pointing at the black curtain. Anything you say can and will be used against you on the court.With all the pampering teams and players usually get, it might seem like the civic centers inconveniences would be a drawback.Instead, the quirkiness and quaintness adds to the charm of the building and the tournament, often making the players feel like theyre back in high school.And because of the venues size, the noise and atmosphere inside the Lahaina Civic Center is like nothing else in college basketball.The environments great, Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. The fans are right on top of you, you feel the emotion of the fans the whole time. Much like this entire tournament, the game is a unique experience.---For more AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org Asics Womens Shoes White . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. Asics Womens Shoes Cheap . The news was first reported on Gonzalezs Twitter account and confirmed by the Rockies. Gonzalez has a six-week window before position players have their first workout at spring training in Arizona. http://www.cheapasicswomensshoes.com/ .com) - Following a late-game loss to the reigning NBA champs, the Toronto Raptors will look to sustain their recent high-level play as they travel to Indiana to take on the Pacers.Sky Sports’ David Tanner has been reflecting on his time with Dutch great Johan Cruyff, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 68. If you dont play football to entertain the people, then whats the point of playing at all? - Johan Cruyff.One quote. One man and his ethos summed-up. I became acquainted with Cruyff over many years of interviewing him when he visited Scotland to play golf and I was also invited to meet him at his foundation in Barcelona.His views were always thought provoking, relevant and, unlike many footballers and administrators in this age of PR non-speak, he spoke his mind. And then some. A meeting with the former Netherlands international was, for me, the journalistic highlight of any year. Cruyff plays against Rangers for Ajax at Ibrox in the European Super Cup - but he chose not to play domestically in Scotland If a man was a business - and Johan made all aspects of football his business - that quote he gave me about entertaining football could easily have served as the Cruyff corporation mission statement.It certainly fits his approach through the various stages of his career as a football man: player, captain, coach, director, commentator, entrepreneur, visionary and, through the auspices of his foundation, a social benefactor and football missionary.His interviews, if he was in the mood, ran long and always had the feel of a sermon. This is my way and my way is the right way. You did not have to show blind faith to believe in this messiah - the evidence was there for all to see. As a player he won three consecutive European Cups with Ajax, before coaching Barcelona to their first European Cup win, laying out the plans for the Nou Camp sides youth system and style of play that produced the greatest team - a sequence of them now, actually - in the history of club football. Dutch legend Cruyff dies Dutch legend Johan Cruyff has died after a long battle with lung cancer at the age of 68. Without Cruyff there is no tiki-taka and, who knows, Lionel Messi may have just been an entertainer in a good side rather than the shining jewel in Barcelonas crown.I last spoke to Cruyff in the splendour of The Old Course Hotel in St Andrews after he had finished his round in the Dunhill Championship last October. He was late for our interview but this was no great surprise as word had reached me that he had been slow to get around the course. Cruyff in quotes Johan Cruyff: The Barcelona and Netherlands legend in quotes It did not seem important at the time, but the suggestion around the golf course was that it had been a struggle for the 68-year old to finish his round. Cruyff, with trademark confidence (I never found him to be arrogant), strode into the Road Hole restaurant looking fit and wearing a pair of his own brand of stylish trainers.He presented the figure of a strong and healthy man, which was at odds with the rumours of him finding his four-ball a test. I was genuinely shocked, therefore, to discover that days after our conversation, he had been given bad news by cancer specialists. Sky Sports’ David Tanner during a meeting with Johan Cruyff When I read the statement he issued just last month, I was convinced he was standing up bravely to cancer if he felt he was 2-0 up and promised that he would hold on to win his match with the disease.As a player, Cruyff was not as protected by the rules as Messi is now. The ban on the tackle from behind was introduced a decade after Cruyff had hung up his boots, outlawed after another Dutch icon Marco van Basten had been hacked into early retirement.A couple of years ago, I took former Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood to the Dunhill to meet Cruyff. After Calderwood had almost been knocked off his feet by the strength of a Ruud Gullit embrace, he steadied himself in time to hear the shout of CALDA-VOOD as Johan made a bee-line for him.Calderwood, like Cruyff, had taken his coaching badges under the legendary Rinus Michels at the Dutch FA and the Glaswegian played for Sparta Rotterdam against a veteran Cruyff in the Eredivisie. He admitted: Louis van Gaal [Calderwoods midfield team-mate] and I tried to kick him! Cruyff laughed at the memory before adding: I jumped over the tackles...easily.If Calderwood and Van Gaal could not stop him in his tracks, Cruyffs smoking habit did catch up with him in later life. Cruyff won three Ballon dOrs during the 1970s Ex-Aberdeen and Manchester City striker Duncan Davidson told me recently he had turned out for Toronto Blizzards against Cruyff, who played in the old North American Soccer League for LA Aztecs and Washington Diplomats. Duncy was the last Blizzards player out after the interval and was surprised to see a cloud of cigarette smoke in the tunnel.Cruyff was responsible for the pollution and was happy to keep the rest of the players waiting uuntil he had finished his cigarette. Asics Womens Shoes Blue. Davidson was surprised that a top athlete was such a heavy smoker. He was amazed when Cruyff then scored from the centre circle from the re-start.The greatness of Hendrik Johannes Cruyff is all the more startling when put into historical context; he was only the third full-time professional football player in the Netherlands. I noticed that he smiled when he spoke about that historical curiosity.The KNVB had resisted calls for the introduction of professionalism until the mid-1950s but those first pro-contracts were part-time arrangements. Had Cruyff been born just a few months earlier, his development could have been stunted by the semi-professional players need to divide sporting activities with work outside the game. His timing was always immaculate, of course. Cruyff changed football Johan Cruyff changed the shape of football forever through his philosophy, says Guillem Balague With his formative years played out against a backdrop of revolution in the Dutch game, it is perhaps no surprise that he was not short of an opinion on how the game should be played. And he certainly knew how to deliver his views.The quote at the start of this article was typical of his many bites at Jose Mourinho. Cruyff accused the former Real Madrid boss of having a win at all costs approach to the game which was the polar opposite of his footballing vision.In our last sit down in October, he surveyed the flux at Chelsea and blamed the extraordinary collapse of the defending Premier League champions on Joses ego and what Cruyff felt was his desire to be centre of the attention at his club. Some famous names from the game pay their respects to Johan Cruyff He said: Its probably because of his background, where he has never been cheered by 100,000 people, or whistled at by 100,000 people. Maybe its because of that, maybe because of the interest from the press, but I dont think he is educating children to play football or educating for life.Even Lionel Messi was not exempt from a tongue-lashing. Cruyff felt it wrong that the worlds greatest player could not speak English, saying: Barcelona is a global club. Messi is a global player. So he should learn to speak to everybody using the language of the world - English.He loathed Mourinhos behaviour but Cruyff adored Josep Guardiola.Cruyff told me of his first meeting with the teenage Pep upon taking the head coachs job at the Nou Camp in 1988: I was being given a tour of the training facilities. I asked one of the coaches who he thought was the best youth player at the club. The answer was Guardiola. At the time he was in the third team! I immediately promoted him to play with the better players. The Barcelona team celebrate after beating Sampdoria 1-0 to win the 1992 European Cup final He told me of his regrets at not being able to play in England and the wonderful ambience of the stadiums in Britain.He had offers but deals did not quite come off. In the early 1980s, Leicester Citys Jock Wallace tried to lure him to Filbert Street after falling in love with the player while watching him play for Ajax against his Rangers side in the first European Super Cup in 1972.Around the same time, Scottish Division One side Dumbarton made a bold attempt to sign the Dutch great. Manager Sean Fallon, assistant to Jock Stein when Celtic lifted the European Cup, travelled to meet Cruyff in Holland but, despite considering the unlikely move, he spurned Dumbartons offer.I was shocked and saddened by Johan Cruyffs death and will miss my annual drink with him in the Old Course Hotel, but I suspect we will all be cheered by watching his legacy in action when his star pupil, Pep, takes over at Manchester City next season. Another member of Barcelonas 1992 European Cup-winning Dream Team, Ronald Koeman, is already sprinkling some of the Cruyff stardust on the Premier League with Southampton.Footballs greatest visionary will still inspire on-field greatness long after his passing. Cruyff as Barcelona manager in 1992 Also See: Cruyff changed football Dutch legend Cruyff dies Cruyffs dream team Tributes paid to Cruyff Cheap NFL JerseysCheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys' ' '