ESPN: Coaches Behaving Badly
 

Interesting piece done by ESPN:

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My favorite part is when the coach says "I'm not a dog" when talking about officials telling him to stay in the box. Sure, let's just allow coaches to roam freely up and down the sideline. Plus, we didn't make this rule that makes you feel like a "dog." Basically it sounds like that coach thinks he's entitled to act however he pleases, which is a big problem in the college game.

I wouldn't be completely against a "seatbelt rule" in the college game similar to NFHS if it gets the behavior we see out of the game. Or officials can start putting their foot down and clamping down on awful behavior more than they are now. It's bad for the game and it sends a bad message to young people.

Honestly, these coaches sounded like a bunch of hypocrites and idiots in this piece.

It's ironic that we're reading about coaches complaining about added scrutiny due to increased presence of media and amateur technology.

Tell us something we don't know.

A bunch of well-placed technical fouls would fix this kind of thing.

I mean, look at Shashevsky this afternoon -- he doesn't like a conversation he has with Luckie, turns and throws his marker, and seems genuinely shocked that he got whacked. He was still shocked much later.

Perhaps if the conferences got a bit tougher and told officials to hold coaches accountable maybe the behavior would iimprove.

Absolutely.

And when a coach does not want to be treated like a dog, but then they talk to us like we are a dog.

Funny on so many levels how these coaches sound so stupid. Yes, I said stupid.

Peace

As long as there are conferences where coaches have a say in rating an official (which in turn affects their pay tier) or constantly have influence on the assignor, you'd be hard pressed to have referees issue more T's on the coaches.

I agree. Wasn't Barakat, when he was head of ACC officials friends with Coach K and Dean Smith?

A bit ironic these days, because coaches ejections are rare in the NBA these days. I remember the days where Larry Brown and Jerry Sloan were good for a few ejections each year and in the super old days, Red Auerbach was thrown out of an All-Star game.

BTW, I do not know if anyone saw the overall "Outside the Lines" show where Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Mike Wood (Supervisor of officials now) spoke about this issue further.

Bilas was amazing in his critique of coaches and their behavior. I thought his comments were the best out of all the panelist in taking on how it makes little sense in how officials should be treated.

Peace

Interesting that no officials--even retired ones--were interviewed in that segment. Someone like Hank Nichols would have an interesting perspective.

As for the old days in the NBA, I always think about a quote from Sid Borgia (I think): "I don't call fouls, I dispense justice."

Let's ask a bunch of coaches how they think about the conduct of their breathen and themselves...

What we basically heard was a bunch of platitudes and all the basic justifications for why some of these coaches act a fool: emotional game, job on the line, caught up in the emotions of the game, etc.

You know why you don't see all this kind of conduct in the NBA? Because the NBA has taken a stand on these kind of issues, and officials don't have to worry about negative repercussions with one's schedule if a warranted technical foul or ejection was handed out. This goes for veterans such as Joe Crawford and Scott Foster to the less experienced officials.. Coach K's act of ranting and raving on the sidelines wouldn't last long in the NBA.

If college really wants this behavior out of the game, it'll be up to the conference assignors. NCAA-M can come out with directives and POE's, but it doesn't matter if the conference assignors aren't 100 percent behind it, and officials (except for the big dogs) are worried about how a T/ejection might effect his coaches' rating or future schedule.

College administrators/presidents/trustee boards will also help. Coaches represent the schools. They all have to ask themselves the question: Is this how you want the person who is probably the most visible representative of your school to act in public, especially when they're on TV? They're not going to like what we do. I get that. It's part of the relationship. But it makes no sense when you act worse than one of your kids ever would.

We'll get the help when we know conference coordinators are full behind us. We're told the coaches want certain rules enforced, such as the coaches' box, but if we enforce them and hand out Ts there's the chance we're seen as too "thin-skinned." It can't work both ways. Another thing regarding the box: It's 28 feet long. The court is 94 feet long. That's 7+ yards to roam all they want and they can go behind the chairs as well. That should be more than enough room. There's no need to go up to the division line to make yourself heard. If you have something to ask an official in most cases they'll be back your way within less than a minute.

We also have to change the way we act/react. Realistically, if we all enforced those rules better - I'm not saying to the exact letter of the law - and took less "stuff," it would change. It's not as though they can fire all of us.

ESPN and others like it don't help, either. Vitale complaining how "you can't end a game like that" when Boeheim went bananas and got tossed at the end of the Duke game enhances the perception that we're the bad guys when we handle our business. Vitale, again, complaining when Kevin Ollie went flying down the sideline does the same thing. They go nuts like that, we T them and we're the bad guys? The fact it was even a debate among some people in the non-officiating world is a huge problem.

I really do not see the issue as what officials are scared to do. I think we have just bought into this crap that "A good officials does not need to....." crap that you see when we turn the other way often.

Then we say things like, "A technical foul is just like any other foul." But the reality that is not true. It is not close to true. I know if I T anyone during the season, I have to give information as to why. I am sure that is looked at the D1 level with a higher level of scrutinty.

We have to get support from the higher ups. And one thing Bilas said in the interview portion of this show was, "The NBA owns the officials and are protected by any mandate the NBA makes." He went on to say that is not the case in the NCAA and if there is going to be a change he feels it will have to come form administrators. Because ratings should never come into a factor when coaches are acting like fools.

Peace

Funny how the article asks the same knuckleheads who act like kids on their opinion about their behavior. It's like asking an inmate if they are innocent or guilty.

The simple fact is that coaches, for the most part, have been enabled by all involved to act this way. It's not really their fault. Dogs act how you train them to :).

I don't think it's a matter of being "scared" per se. It's a matter of self-preservation IMO. Call a T and have possible fallback (i.e. losing high dollar/high profile games because of coaches' ratings and/or complaints) or let the coaches do whatever (and keep your schedule and pay).

Bilias is right...NBA officials are protected by any mandate they put out. Amongst those are its respect for the game guidelines which largely means coaches are lot more under control than their college counterparts. Until officials have the backing from those in power of giving them games, this problem will get lip service at best.

Agreed...having worked for a commissioner/supervisor who did NOT back officials when we called T's on out of control coaches, I can tell you that it sucks. And it does affect game assignments and how much money you make...all because some out of control coach gets whacked (rightly so) and then calls and complains. So was I/were we hesitant to call T's? Hell, yes.

The NCAA could clean it up very quickly if they wanted to.

Only in the tournament. The rest of the season, it would have to be done by the respective individual conferences.

It happens at the HS level, too.

I flagged a football coach for unsportsmanlike conduct in 2004 when he came out to the hashmarks screaming at me. Had a previously assigned game pulled and didn't get offers to work in that conference again until the previous assignor retired.

Interesting thing, though -- been asked to give that conference some Friday nights the past few years and I just don't have any openings. Not being spiteful -- I just moved on and found other places to work (which, in football, isn't that hard to do considering 90% of the games are played at 7PM Fridays).

Most good officials I know have a place or two where they aren't welcome. Happens. Life goes on.

Maybe...or the NCAA could say that they won't take officials into the tournament who don't enforce bench decorum and sportsmanship POE's.

Most officials would choose working their conference schedules, with multiple games and better money over working a game or two in the NCAA tournament. The amount of money made in the regular season more than makes up for the prestige of working a tournament game.

The repeat of the "Outside the Lines" program is on right now.

Peace

So Coach, what would you have us do?
 

I've seen so many interviews like these. I've never heard a reporter ask the question, "So Coach, you ran halfway across the court screaming at the top of your lungs, spit flying everywhere, and berated the official. What do you think that official should have done differently, besides change the call of course?"

And even the less hysterical, like the coaches' box. "So coach, you're not a dog. Which other rules shouldn't apply to you? What should the official do when you break the rules? Be honest, now."

Wouldn't have been great if someone had asked them, "So let me get this straight. You completely lost your sh*t on national TV, and the problem is cell phone cameras and facebook?"

"So coach, why did your colleagues put a coaching box in the rule book?"

They could, but as johnny notes, do you really think many would choose the tournament over a solid regular season?

I don't necessarily think the choice is that stark, but it's not far. They need to get conference buy-in, which is going to be hard as long as krewshewoooski and company run the assylum.

Yes I do. And think of it this way, if a certain conference will not hire you, then there are other conferences that will gladly take a guy that has been in the tournament for years. The key really is what the top dogs would do. Those are the ones that have a lot to lose and can set the standard. And I think more college officials call Technical fouls than high school officials at the varsity level do. Just look at some to the stats and you see a lot of Ts with certain officials on their games.

The thing is no one if firing Teddy V for what he did a few weeks ago with the Cincinnati coach. They might do something to a guy working one game in that league. But this is an issue for the Commissioner of a conference, not the supervisor of officials. The Supervisor of Officials is going to follow what they are told ultimately.

Peace

This is key. If the Conference Commissioner lets it be known to the ADs and HCs in his conference that the Supervisor of Officials has his/her full backing, then coaches will not be running the asylum. This is probably easier to do in a Mid-Major where the HCs are still trying to move up, as opposed to the BCS type conferences where the some coaches names are synonomous with the schools' programs.

As I noted in the Teddy V-Mick Cronin thread, big-name coaches are under the delusion that if they get a technical it is only because: they wanted one, or, the official made a mistake. There is no room in their mind for getting a technical as punishment for their behavior.