03-23-2013, 07:14 AM
I don't really know anything about MBB coaches, but I found the behavior of the players described in that SI article to be positively revolting. It did not sound like Howland handled it well, either.
Down my way, George Nessman suspended the top SJSU player (James Kinney) for a year, and the team promptly lost nearly every remaining game, leading to Nessman's firing. Maybe Nessman was not a good coach and should have been fired anyway. However, it is easy to see how coaches can be made fearful of their own players if an administration values winning more than running a disciplined, ethical operation. Didn't the Kentucky coach say something similar about appeasing his players after his team's recent loss?
Come to think of it, these examples might make me soften my distaste for Johnny Dawkins a bit. Has he ever had players doing ecstasy at raves, drinking before practice, or beating each other up? I'd rather have an ethical coach who wins than an ethical coach who loses--so I would replace Dawkins--but not without some misgivings.
But what the legion of stories about MBB do more than anything is to discourage me from watching MBB in general. It just seems like stories like Howland's have been circulating in this game for decades. Maybe--like politics--we only hear about the corruption and dysfunction and this creates an unduly negative impression. But if I have a limited amount of fan energy to invest, perhaps I should spend it all on the women, whose worst offense in living memory appears to be a DUI on a golf cart.
Down my way, George Nessman suspended the top SJSU player (James Kinney) for a year, and the team promptly lost nearly every remaining game, leading to Nessman's firing. Maybe Nessman was not a good coach and should have been fired anyway. However, it is easy to see how coaches can be made fearful of their own players if an administration values winning more than running a disciplined, ethical operation. Didn't the Kentucky coach say something similar about appeasing his players after his team's recent loss?
Come to think of it, these examples might make me soften my distaste for Johnny Dawkins a bit. Has he ever had players doing ecstasy at raves, drinking before practice, or beating each other up? I'd rather have an ethical coach who wins than an ethical coach who loses--so I would replace Dawkins--but not without some misgivings.
But what the legion of stories about MBB do more than anything is to discourage me from watching MBB in general. It just seems like stories like Howland's have been circulating in this game for decades. Maybe--like politics--we only hear about the corruption and dysfunction and this creates an unduly negative impression. But if I have a limited amount of fan energy to invest, perhaps I should spend it all on the women, whose worst offense in living memory appears to be a DUI on a golf cart.