“It was a magical win, it was an unbelievable win. The thing is: these kids really never get the credit a team [not] coached by me or [a team not] at Duke would get. There are eight guys. Four of them are freshmen! Are you kidding me? But because I’ve coached national championships….We understood it as a staff the whole year. This is like: Holy mackerel! How are they doing all this? But they have.”
– Coach Mike Kryzewski
“I can’t even tell you who we had. All I know is I had confidence in all our guys, so what the heck? I would like to say there was some great strategy or something.”
– Kryzewski on the second-half lineups
NEW YORK, NY (April 7, 2015) – Following an epic fifth championship win, Sports Illustrated features freshman point guard and late game hero Tyus Jones. This season just ended but Seth Davis is already thinking about the fall as he breaks down next season’s top 10 teams and who will be at the top of the polls. Luke Winn discusses Kentucky’s magical run in a season that seemed made for Hollywood – until Wisconsin flipped the script as he takes us into the world of the Wildcats following their semifinal loss to the Badgers.
Also in the issue, Joan Niesen tells us the story of Jayson Tatum, the Missouri high school star who could play for any college in the nation and who – and what – could lead him to stay in the city he loves. Jack Dickey documents the New York Islanders last season in the suburbs and their push for another Stanley Cup before they flee for Brooklyn. Michael McCarthy, an internal medicine doctor at Columbia Presbyterian, examines the science of sleep and how it has helped one slugger overcome three decades of sleep apnea.
Below is the link to the high res cover
https://app.box.com/files/0/f/3397251846/1/f_28460732686
Michael Rosenberg: Deal With the Devils
Too many, this was Kentucky’s year and everybody could see it. Then Wisconsin beat Kentucky and Duke beat Wisconsin and instead of a team making history and going 40-0, the coach with the most wins ever led the most successful program of the modern era to another national title. Behind it all was a team that was loaded but young, selfless but sometimes sloppy, occasionally overpowering but laughably thin. They weren’t expected to win the championship half-way through the season, but with Coach K at the helm, a series of tweaks and tinkering and a standout performance by an unlikely hero, the Blue Devils won another championship in Indianapolis.
“I can’t get to the level of playing defense like my 2001 [championship] team unless I have a number of older guys. It takes that long to be that good. So I have to accept a certain amount of slippage both offensively and defensively, and that means maybe trying out some other things.” – Mike Kryzewski
Joan Niesen: Home Game
Jayson Tatum is the most coveted high school player in the country, his 6’ 9” frame resembles Kevin Durant’s and his style of play does too. With the end of the college hoops season in sight, the recruiting season is soon to begin and the biggest names in basketball want Jayson in their uniforms. The pull to the elite programs is strong, but home is where the heart is: his father, his mother, best friends and mentors all stayed and played in St. Louis and they would love to keep that tradition going. But one thing is for certain, Jayson’s decision is one that will surely shock the basketball world.
“Be a trendsetter, you don’t have to go on this road because it was made for Shane Battier or Grant Hill. You can do what they did – at home.” – Justin Tatum, Jayson’s father
Jack Dickey: The Last Waltz
The New York Islanders have spent the better part of the last three decades as a laughingstock. From slow decline to flat-out bad, the Islanders have been reborn – they are fifth best in the Eastern Conference and are having their best season in points since 1984 and are no longer a joke. The Islanders were are proud to be one of the last remaining professional teams to play in the suburbs, but are headed to Brooklyn next year in hopes of bringing the franchise exactly what their old arena brought when it was developed in 1950 amongst the Levittown homes: a new way of life.
Matt McCarthy: Nap Time
Finding new competitive advantages has been at the heart of baseball for the last dozen years, but it has been a statistically-driven narrative. Now, Opening Day behind us and with the playoff race wide open, players and teams are looking for anything that will give them an advantage – medicine, sleep behavior and nutrition. The biggest advantage though may also be the most basic of human needs: sleep. With 162 games in the span of approximately 182 days, sleep control has become baseball’s new secret weapon as the Red Sox’ Mike Napoli, who has been plagued with sleep apnea, shows.
“I used to wake up 50 or a hundred times a night, now I’m actually sleeping, I’m not tired all the time.” – Mike Napoli
“Our research shows that sleepy players don’t tend to stay in major league baseball as long as well-rested players. You need sleep to do all kinds of things: to produce growth hormone, to fight infections and to heal.” – Dr. Christopher Winter, Medical Director of the Martha Jefferson Sleep Medicine Center
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