Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Holy Crap, Morehead State Coach Sean Woods Is PISSED (w/ VIDEO)


For college basketball fans of my generation, watching the legendarily irascible Bobby Knight berate and occasionally manhandle a player usually drew yawns. It happened so often with The General that the shock value wore off.

It's been long enough since Knight left coaching that we thought the "mouth off to me and I will whip your ass in front of everyone here and yo' mama" coach-on-player rant was obsolete in the college game.

Thankfully, we have first-year Morehead State coach Sean Woods bringing cranky back.

Video of a public evisceration after the jump.




That's Sean Woods absolutely going HAM on guard Devon Atkinson after the senior fouled out of the Eagles' loss to Kentucky, aka The Coach's Alma Mater.

Not only does Woods try to throw Atkinson bodily back to the bench, he nose-backs him out of the huddle, twice turns with nostrils flaring after Atkinson had the balls to talk back, and multiple times rips into Atkinson from kissably-close point-blank range.

Now, some full disclosure. Before the season, I bigged up Woods as one of the five best new coaching hires in America. A school just up the road from Lexington could not have done better with its choice than a young up-and-comer who had once been a member of Rick Pitino's "Unforgettables." (Just as long as it wasn't Richie Farmer. Of course, it doesn't sound like he's looking all that hard for work these days anyway.)

For all the Kentucky parents who remember the Pitino era and have kids who aren't McDonald's All-American enough to even shine John Calipari's hair, sending those kids to play for Woods at Morehead would be a perfect compromise.

Not if he's going to make something like this a habit, though.

Four words of advice, Coach Woods:

You.

Ain't.

Bob.

Knight.

You can instill discipline in your team without attempting to rip their balls off on the sideline in front of God and everyone.

Players watching this game (and rest assured, nearly every basketball-playing kid in the state of Kentucky was probably making an effort to do so) will be left to wonder, "Jeez, if he's this pissed about losing to Kentucky, what would he do to me if we lost to EASTERN Kentucky?"

Suggestions on Twitter give the impression that Atkinson told his coach to go fuck himself once he got back to the bench. If that was the case, Woods' rage is understandable. Nobody did that to Bobby or Rick and they damn sure don't do it to Cal today. Of course, all those guys have championships. Woods has little more than his jersey hanging at Rupp for being part of Jamal Mashburn's backup band.

Some coach somewhere is going to look at the publicity Woods is getting and decide that he, too, can get abrasive with one of his players. That coach may not be the one to see the player knock him on his ass, but some grumpy bastard will, trust me.

And he'll richly deserve it.

3 comments:

  1. Yea, after seeing that, I wanted to go in there and swing on Sean Woods myself. Especially after he shoved him. That warrants physical interaction in return imo. This isn't the first time he's gotten in the face of his players like that.

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  2. Bobby knight should not have been allowed to happen and neither should Woods. Why should coaches berate, verbally abuse, menace and generally be allowed to be out of control and players (particularly young men) be expected to be the opposite?

    What I used to see with Knight is a total abuse of power and imbalance in power, not a coach who ocassionally lost his temper. And at the risk of going broader - the Penn State tragedy is yet another example. I hope Woods is disciplined as he should be.

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    1. Good thoughts, and honestly, if Bob Knight was beginning his career in today's hyper-PC climate, he wouldn't have lasted four years.

      He had the good fortune to start during the days when authority figures had full carte blanche to instill discipline by any means necessary. Coaches today need to be cognizant of how they talk to and interact with their players, while also realizing that the camera's everywhere, especially when you're playing an opponent like Kentucky.

      Woods has gotten a game off, which I'd consider reasonable. It's like making your kid stand in the corner after he's been bad. He should calm down as he goes on, and if he doesn't, he's not smart enough to know there are consequences and therefore isn't fit to be a head coach. Such is life.

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