TORONTO - Sitting in the home of assistant coach Bill Bayno one February evening, Jonas Valanciunas fretted over the slump that had befallen him. "Im not scoring," the young centre griped, as he and his most devoted mentor watched film, hoping to get to the bottom of the recent on-court funk that was beginning to wear on his confidence. JV, youre 21-years-old," Bayno responded. "Theres no centres in the league your age that are even playing much less averaging 10 points a game. Youve had great games [but] when you have a two-point game, going up against a really good, tough [centre], you cant get upset about it." His message, the teams message, has never wavered. "Youve got to do the other things to help us win." With that in mind Bayno put pen to paper, drawing up a list of attainable goals for Valanciunas, a cheat sheet consisting of basic fundamentals that can now be found taped to the right side of his locker. Outwork, outrun, sprint[Set] great, legal screensStep to [your] manBlock out And it goes on like that. "He got really down on himself when he went through that tough stretch," Bayno explained. "So we just really sat down and talked and [I] said, look, its no secret, JV, these are the things youve got to do." "Youre going to have some ups and downs," he told the second-year pro, "but Im going to write it in your locker, so every day before the game you see, this is what you have to do on a nightly basis." "Everything thats on that sheet is what we work on." Its a simplistic tool but one that the Raptors first-year assistant feels strongly about, one that has yielded proven results throughout his coaching career. Admired for his innovative player development techniques and his passion for molding young talent, Bayno first adopted this method of teaching on one of his regular trips to Africa, about a decade ago. There he met Michael Scholl. The two would become good friends and Bayno eventually hired Scholl as his assistant at Loyola Marymount University in 2008. Scholl - who spent eight years in Africa running an AIDS prevention campaign and implementing youth basketball leagues - introduced Bayno to an old Harvard study, something he used himself to motivate the children he taught there. The study correlated the success of students with writing down their goals and displaying them in their dorms. Bayno, like Scholl before him, applied that principle to basketball. "Having those goals, having them written out where they see them every day I think is huge and its been proven," said Bayno, who is also planning on employing that strategy with the Raptors other sophomore, Terrence Ross. "The vets dont need it. The vets will laugh at you if you try to do it. They really dont need it anyway. I could say to Chuck (Hayes), remember five games ago, you had that kick out situation, you missed a kick out. Hell say, yep, and hell know exactly the play. But the young kids need it." Bayno has spent more one-on-one time with Valanciunas than anyone on the staff this season. Whether hes sparring with JV in the post - wearing his trademark forearm pads to simulate in-game physicality - throwing out-of-reach passes to him in practice or hosting him at his house for an extra film session, Baynos fingerprints are all over the sophomores continued development. "He works with me a lot actually," Valanciunas said of Bayno. "Hes helped me a lot, especially on the post-up moves. Now I feel much more comfortable going against those guys, like big centres. What were working on every day is helping." Bayno, like head coach Dwane Casey and the rest of the Raptors staff, has worked to manage Valanciunas own expectations and lesson the external pressure that he faces as an emerging star in the league. Theyre not overly concerned with his scoring totals or the number of touches he gets in the post. He shouldnt be either. They know his value, at least this season, cant be measured using a box score. Instead they hope to lay down a foundation for the future. His role is to do the things he can control, to master the basic fundamentals of the game that will ensure his longevity in the league. The "little things" as Bayno calls them. "Were a good team because hes accepted his role and hes done all the little things," said Bayno, formally an assistant in Portland and with the Timberwolves. "I really believe hes going to be a good scorer in this league." "Im not expecting a lot of point production every night out of him," echoed Casey. "If he gives it to us, its great but I dont want to put that kind of pressure on him. Hes growing, hes a second-year guy. Im not going to expect him to get 23 points, 24 points every night. If he does, its gravy. If he runs the floor, rebounds, plays defence, for this team, this year, thats great. I promise you, his offence is going to come. We all want it to hurry up and get here yesterday but Im more concerned about him picking up the speed of the game, the rebounding, defending the low post, defending his position and reacting in the half-court game. His career is going to be long enough. Hes going to be a scorer in this league two or three years from now." A month ago at this time Valanciunas was pressing. The touches were not there every night, his scoring numbers dipped, as did his playing time. More often than not Casey would opt for a smaller, more experienced lineup late in games. Valanciunas was frustrated. Then the card went up in his locker. He sees it nearly each day, before and after every home game. Currently, hes playing some of the best basketball of his young career. Whether his improved play is related or a happy coincidence, he has been carrying out the very tasks Casey and company have been emphasizing. In Sundays win over Atlanta, Valanciunas recorded his team-leading 19th double-double of the season after totaling eight as a rookie a year ago. He played 33 minutes, attempting just four shots while matching a career-high with nine made free throws. His impact on the game was understated, yet significant. His point production has gone up but, as Casey points out, hes not necessarily seeing more touches. Instead hes working for them. Hes running the floor, hes rebounding, hes getting to the line and as a result hes playing more and closing out games. He understands how his bread is buttered, at least for the time being. "Im not a scoring machine," Valanciunas acknowledged. "Im a worker. My job is to get a rebound, to set a screen to make DeMar (DeRozan) open, or Kyle (Lowry) open, or [Ross] open, whoever is playing on the perimeter. My job is to box out [and] go for offensive rebounds. Thats my job." In less than four weeks, Valanciunas will make his first playoff appearance. Although hes peaking at the right time of season, the internal expectations havent changed. Outwork your man, set hard screens, box out, run the floor, do the little things. Hes heard them every day since arriving in training camp five months ago. Hes practiced them. Only now, handwritten in bright, unmistakable lettering, they stare him in the face. John Stones England Jersey . The veteran NFL receiver received his work permit and is in Montreal for the start of the Alouettes rookie camp. Johnson even took in the Montreal Canadiens Game 5 win over the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre Tuesday night. Ashley Young Jersey . The Jets have now won three straight at home and four of the last five at the MTS Centre. After a scoreless first period, Brad Marchand scored his first goal in eight games eight seconds into the second. http://www.englandsoccerpro.com/John-Stones-England-Jersey/ . Blatter, a 75-year-old Swiss executive who has been in office since 1998, was handed a final four-year term as head of footballs governing body in a vote at FIFAs congress. He won 186 votes out of 203 ballots. Phil Jones Jersey .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at LeBron James and the Miami Heat winning their second straight NBA championship. England Jerseys . Hemsky left the Oilers Tuesday night loss to the Dallas Stars in the second period and did not return. Through 48 games this season, Hemsky has seven goals and a total of 24 points.Having served the first game of his suspension in Game 3 of the Blackhawks-Blues series, Seabrook will miss only two more if the series should end in five games, and regardless, thats all he will miss according to the NHLs handling of this affair. But my amendment will force him to miss one or two more games if the series goes that long and if Backes does not return. You see, Im interested in fairness, and theres no fairness if theres a discrepancy between the number of games Seabrook misses and the number of games Backes is forced to sit out. In short, Seabrook should only return to the series if Backes does. If Seabrook comes back and Backes doesnt, imagine the outcry if Seabrook scores the winning goal to eliminate the Blues. I dont want to see that. I dont think the NHL does either, but given the chance to prevent that scenario, the NHL took a pass. On fairness. Now, I will save both of us time by asking you to go to the top, insert the names of Matt Cooke and Tyson Barrie where Seabrook and Backes were mentioned, and read this again. Same deal—Cooke should not return to the Minnnesota-Colorado series unless Barrie does, and we know Barrie wont, due to an MCL injury, so Cooke is either finished for the season or waiting to play St. Louis or Chicago. No need for a hearing, NHL. ------- Heres item two - the 2015 NHL entry draft, to be known as the Conor McDavid-Jack Eichel sweepstakes. McDavid and Eichel are two so-called "franchise-changers". The NHL teams that land them wont just be better, they may succeed for many years to come solely because of them. So there will be more interest than normal in the draft lottery that will identify the teams with 2015s first and second picks, and more interest than normal, so the theory of "tanking" goes, in playing just badly enough to secure the most favourable lottery odds next year.Heres where I come in. I will create more interest than ever in the draft lottery and, at the same time, end all thought and any mention of tanking. I will do that by giving all 14 non-playoff teams an equal shot at the first draft pick in 2015. Fans of each of those 14 teams will hang on every second of the draft lottery. Itll be similar to, but better than, the draw that sent Sidney Crosby to Pittsburgh. It was packed with suspense, but it had odds attached that happened to favour the Penguins, so there wasnt the wide-open nature of competition and interest that pure luck creates. However, the biggest reason for eliminating draft lottery odds is to wipe out any incentive to gain a draft advantage on the ice, and to eliminnate all the talk that goes with it.dddddddddddd As the imaginary leader of the NHL, Im furious whenever I hear a team advised to think about winning a draft by losing a game. The NHL includes just one guarantee when it sells a ticket - it guarantees a contest that will see two teams trying their best to win. If there is any doubt that the customer is receiving that guarantee, the doubt must be removed. A "luck of the draw" draft order will do that. And before you, or the NHL complains that the worst teams should be the ones that land McDavid and Eichel, realize two things - the NHL could make it happen that way by eliminating the lottery, and chooses not to do so, and the NHLs current system allows for the possibility that its best non-playoff team will make the first draft selection. Its just unwilling to make that a stronger possibility. Im not. --------- Now its time to open the rule book and apply some common sense to it. The Tampa Bay Lightning will be complaining all the way to next season about a Ryan Callahan goal against Montreal that didnt count because…..well, because the referee thought it shouldnt count. I cant explain it better than that. When Alex Killorn was trying to put the puck past Carey Price and ended up in the net himself, all sorts of confusion ensued. The refs arms waved, play continued as Killorn extricated himself and tried to avoid Price and P.K. Subban, even as they didnt seem to be trying to avoid him, and Callahan eventually scored…..sorry…put the puck in the net. Then the refs arms waved again, and the goal was disallowed. My new rule wouldnt have allowed the Lightning to be tied with Montreal on the scoreboard, but it would have prevented all the controversy. The best new rules are simple ones. In this case, when Killorn plunged into the net, regardless of whether he did that on his own, was pushed, or did so because of contact with Price, the whistle should have blown to halt the play. Nothing good ever follows a net crash like the one involving Killorn. If he stays there, no goal can be scored. If he tries to get out, he can get mugged, or at least interfered with, and theres every chance hell be bothering the goalie enough to affect things and make any refs ruling subject to criticism. Just as the whistle blows if the puck enters the net, so should it blow if a player does. Thats all the time I have to run the NHL today. If Ive made any sense, pass it on. And if I havent, Ill try again next time. (English indie band - Im declaring this the official anthem of "Pass It On") Wholesale HoodiesNFL Shirts OutletJerseys NFL WholesaleCheap NFL Jerseys Free ShippingWholesale Jerseys CheapCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaWholesale JerseysWholesale NFL JerseysCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '