[JRutledge]

I had a game recently where the visiting team was from another part of the state. The visiting team coach implied almost from the beginning that he was getting hommered. Now it was not very obvious that was what he was saying, but it was clear in the accumulation of his comments. I came to him when I had a chance and confronted him without anyone knowing it. I was the Center on a ball about to be put in and I told him in no uncertain terms, "I have no problem with you complaining about calls, but I grew up an hour away from your school, I am not going to have you question the integrity of my crew." Now I said all this to the coach while my back was basically facing him or I was standing right beside him. I never turned around or looked at him directly. So no one even knew I was having much of a conversation with him. The coach quickly backed down and tried to suggest that he was not complaining about me. I said to him, "Coach I do not care, you complain about my crew member and you are talking about me. I am not going to tolerate you questioning the integrity of my crew again." The coach got the message because he did not make any similar comments the rest of the game. Now he did get upset and he did complain about individual calls (so was the other coach so I have no problem with that) but he did not talk about foul counts or what his kids could not do the rest of the night. This coach even at one time said that, "My two All-Americans are sitting on the bench because you guys keep calling fouls." I did not hear that comment and if I did I probably would have laughed. Only one of his players was anything of an All-American, the other was too young to probably be considered at that point. It was a fun game but a game where I learned more about how to handle coaches.

Peace