Are college basketball coaches OK?
I ask because the boiling-point pressure to make the NCAA Tournament is only just now beginning to truly percolate, and some of these guys appear to have lost it.
I recently saw a video of Marquette coach Shaka Smart out on the floor in a defensive stance during a game against Creighton. Not on the sideline. On the court. When a Creighton player had the ball near him, he waved his arms above his head and shuffled toward the player as if coming in for the trap. I thought artificial intelligence had created it at first. But it was real. And absurd.
Even the biggest Marquette backers out there — looking at you Channel 2 sports director Martin Kilcoyne — must have realized this was too far. Coaching with excitement is one thing. Becoming a sixth defender? Come on.
Smart wants his players to create havoc on the court, but he can’t be on the court. Or maybe he can. Nothing happened after he did it. He didn’t even get a coaching box warning. Officials let Smart’s slide slide.
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Tuesday night, Alabama coach Nate Oats got away with an even bigger, dumber mistake. When Missouri forward Aidan Shaw lingered too long for Oats’ liking near a Crimson Tide huddle, he shoved Shaw back toward the Tigers sideline. Coaches not putting hands on players, their own but especially an opponent’s, is pretty much rule No. 1. When you become a coach, you get two things: a whistle, and a lesson about not putting hands on players.
“Nate apologized after the game,†Mizzou coach Dennis Gates said. “But I just posed the question: If that was players in a huddle with a hand on an opponent, what would take place? It would be an automatic technical foul, right? I thought I saw two referees in the huddle. It wasn’t a technical foul. But that’s the question I would pose. If it was players making hand contact, what would take place?â€
Great point by Gates.
Officials in the same game who gave a rapid-fire (and unnecessary) technical foul to Alabama player Grant Nelson for celebrating a blocked shot did nothing to Oats. All he got was a soft pat on the wrist from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey in a public reprimand issued Wednesday. A public reprimand, for those who don’t know, has as much meaning as a timeout saved until after the game.
Punishing players for perceived taunts is said to be a point of emphasis for NCAA officials this season. That usually means the topic is over-officiated during the first half of the season and completely forgotten by February. There’s time then for a new point of emphasis for officials. How about keeping coaches, and all of their flailing body parts, in the coaching box. There’s 38 feet along the sideline to roam. There’s no need to drift out onto the court, especially when the action is on your side.
One more reminder for coaches: If you can’t handle the handshake line, abstain.
Wednesday night, it was Texas coach Rodney Terry who melted down moments after his Longhorns lost to the University of Central Florida. In between handshakes, Terry began berating UCF players who had celebrated their win by holding up a horns-down gesture often used to troll Texas. Terry reacted as if someone in his immediate family had been given a one-finger salute.
“I’m a big believer in ... you win the right way, you lose the right way,†whined Terry to reporters after the loss. “I always tell my guys that whether you win or lose, you win the right way, you lose the right way, you carry yourself the right way. You don’t go through the handshake line and have about six or seven guys putting the horns down. We don’t do that. When you do those kinds of things, it looks very classless.â€
Coach Terry is correct about one thing: It wouldn’t make much sense for Texas players to do a horns-down gesture. He’s dead wrong about who needed a lesson in grace. It wasn’t UCF. It was the coach whose team coughed up a 15-point second-half lead at home.
March is coming fast, coaches. If you can’t properly conduct yourself before the bulk of the nation starts paying attention to your sport, maybe schedule some time to swing by the nearest sports psychiatrist’s office. Until then jot these tips onto your dry-erase boards.
Stay off the court. Keep your hands off the players. Toughen up.
And maybe consider pulling the neckties back out from the closet. Give the pandemic-era quarter zip sweatshirts a break. Something about wearing a tie can remind a guy his job should be done with some poise.