A Manual for Success

The basketball pounds out an uneven rhythm. The sharp burst of sneakers squeaking across the court is punctuated by coach Jimmy Just pushing his players through a mid-afternoon practice at Louisville's duPont Manual High School. "Deny! Weakside: Get in the lane. Get up, Alex (Nikolic). You've got to jump. You got to work. We've got to get better!" This workout began 18-hours after the Louisville DeSales hung a 28-point loss on Manual. However, there was no sense of panic in this practice. Manual senior guard Aaron Williams knows why the Crimsons were clobbered by the Colts. "Our center James Britt got into foul trouble early. They killed us on the boards getting second-chance shots." Manual is a team that knows little about second chances because few basketball fans are ever willing to give this program ANY chance of tasting basketball success. After all, this team has so much going against it. First of all, their head coach is in his first season at the school whose historic campus shares a border with the University of Louisville. Jimmy Just came to Manual after an impressive string of victories at Iroquois High School. Secondly, Manual's best-known player transferred to another Jefferson County School two games into this basketball season. Aaron Cosby has already committed to play college basketball for Travis Ford at the University of Massachusetts, but the sophomore guard opted not to play high school hoops for Just. "For the most part, we want the people here who want to be here," said the coach. "We only want the people who have their heart into making us better. We wish him well." The other thing Manual has to overcome is it's own history. Williams says, "it seems as though Manual is always looking up at other teams in the seventh region. We seem to be just below the surface of other teams. It motivates us a lot. We want to make Manual a sports school. It's already a great academic school." Junior Jacob Jenkins says he and his teammates are trying to shake the shadows of the past at Manual. "I have thought sometimes that we aren't "THE" team," said the 6-foot-4 forward. "We had to get over that mentality. The coach kept saying we've got to get over that hump." Manual cleared that hump when they became the first Crimsons team in nearly 50 years to win the Republic Bank/Coca-Cola Boys' Louisville Invitational Tournament. "Man, it felt great! It was almost like the state tournament," said Williams. "Plus everybody thought we would lose the first round. We played team basketball. We shared the ball. We rebounded well. Plus a whole bunch of teams overlooked us a little bit. Once a team realized we were serious, it was too late for them to catch up." The first-year coach deserves much of the credit for bringing the LIT banner back to Manual. But Just isn't the only newcomer who is turning heads across the Commonwealth. Tony Kimbro Jr., is a 14-year old phenomenon in the making. The 6-foot-4 freshman leads Manual in rebounding, blocked shots and plays that make you say, "Can you believe he just did that?" "In practice one time," recalls teammate Sean Samsel, "he crossed over at the top of the key, Britt slid in to take a charge, and Tony just jumped right over him and dunked it. It was kinda nasty." Tony's father is the former University of Louisville basketball star of the same name who helped the Cardinals win the 1986 NCAA National Championship. But Junior says he will follow his father's footsteps only so far. Tony Senior, Kentucky's Mister Basketball in 1985, went from Seneca High School to U of L. Tony Junior says he wants to go from Manual to Duke to play basketball for Mike Krzyzewski. "I don't want to go to Louisville. I don't want the same dreams my daddy has," said the freshman guard/forward. "I want my own dreams. I want to start my own beginning. That's why I don't wear his number." Even without his dad's number, Kimbro carries his father's name and heavy expectations onto the court every time he slips on his game jersey. Aaron Williams isn't just Kimbro's teammate; he is Tony's older brother. Juanita Williams is the mother to both Manual stars. "When we go to parks, they already know who he is. He has to work hard. It's big expectations when he walks into the gym," she says. "It would be different if I had a different name. Having this name pushes me," said Tony Junior as he toweled his face after practice. "People expect me to be just like my dad. They compare me to my father, and tell me I am better than he was at my age. I feel like I have pressure on me because many people want to see me succeed and some want to see me fail." His teammates and coaches are pulling for Kimbro to shoulder not only lofty expectations but also carry this team toward a Kentucky high school basketball state championship. "Tony is very capable," says Coach Just. "He has handled it very well. Tony has a lot of ability. I think he's going to be a special player down the road. People here in Louisville expect him to be a fabulous player because of his dad. One of the complements I gave him is that he is very unselfish. He takes more pride in being a good passer than a good scorer." Any team with enough talent to win the LIT in January is a threat to claim the Sweet 16 title in March. And that has been the goal for this often-overlooked program since Just took over as coach. "We've talked about making it to state since Day 1 of practice," said sophomore guard Miles Mitchell. "The coach said it should be one of our goals all along." "That's what we keep trying to throw into their heads: You are as good as anybody you'll play in the state," says Just who has coached two ball clubs to the Kentucky state championship tournament. "We've tried to put in their minds that if you are not aiming at winning the state, you are shooting way too low." "It's realistic," said Williams."It would be a player's dream to win it all. We haven't won state since 1931." And rewriting that piece of duPont Manual history is why it is a sense of purpose not a sense of panic that animates Coach Just to push his players through the closing paces of this practice: "You got to be in better position so you don't get beat on the cut. Come on! We got to get it done. Got to get better..." Garry Gupton is a play-by-play broadcaster for Fox Sports Network, Insight Communications and Big Blue Sports, and an associate pastor at Highview Baptist Church.