Please TV guys: More on players, less on coaches

By Dan Lebatard, Miami Herald     Mar 19, 2002

Can we stop with this incessant coach worship in the NCAA basketball tournament?

Please?

I’m tired of seeing the bombardment of sideline shot after sideline shot of some basketball Einstein doing nothing more taxing than calling a timeout.

I’m tired of hearing Dick Vitale always shilling in exclamation points about what an absolutely phenomenal, superb, unbelievable job the victorious coach did as he sat there like the rest of us and watched one of his players dunk.

I’m tired of these games being about Tubby Smith’s substitutions instead of Tayshaun Prince’s 41 points, tired of them being about Jim Calhoun’s sideline theatrics instead of Caron Butler’s rugged ferocity, tired of celebrating Mike Krzyzewski just because he happens to be lottery-lucky enough that Jason Williams not only chose his school but opted to stay for three years.

And once, just once, just one measly time in the entire history of this sport, I’d like to hear a gushing broadcaster say with Vitale enthusiasm or Billy Packer pomposity something like, “You know what? Billy Donovan did an absolutely horrible-pathetic-dreadful job. He got exposed so spectacularly that he should have just left the court nude.”

In the absence of that, I’d even settle for someone merely questioning Bob Huggins’ graduation rates, Steve Lavin’s Xs or Lute Olson’s Os.

This game belongs to the kids. Why do we insist on making it about the adults?

Is it because we’re so busy reading coaches as self-help authors and listening to their $40,000-a-pop business speeches on how to motivate our sales team that we just sort of forget somehow that geniuses Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Jerry Tarkanian and John Chaney are doing their postseason work this March in something called the Owens Corning NIT?

Or is it because the coach is the only constant in a program, the college senior having gone the way of the dinosaur and Arsenio Hall, leaving the suit-wearing man who should remain on the sidelines at the center of the stage, his voice and face the easiest one to attach to the program?

Whatever it is, we should set something straight: There wasn’t a coach in this tournament, not one, who wouldn’t have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen if you had given him the players Duke, Maryland and Kansas have. Might not have been a coach in the NIT who couldn’t have done it, either.

Or a coach in the women’s NCAA tournament, for that matter. And there were plenty in all three tournaments who wouldn’t have gotten as undressed by Holy Cross, as even Kansas coach Roy Williams had to admit he did.

And yet television will give you vastly more close-ups of Maryland coach Gary Williams sweating than it will of star player Juan Dixon, whose story line only includes both parents dying of drug overdoses. And then the color man will faint talking about how a Williams substitution was courageous.

Bob Knight gets ad-nauseam credit for making dormant Texas Tech matter, but what happens when he loses in the first round?

Does he get criticized? Of course not. That coach for mighty Southern Illinois, he must have been a genius!

Jack Ramsay, a Hall of Famer, says a Pat Riley will do more coaching in five minutes of an NBA game than the average college coach will do in 40.

Players win.

Period.

Coaches merely help.

Let’s stop treating them at the college level as Santa when the elves are doing the work.

Please TV guys: More on players, less on coaches

By Dan Lebatard, Miami Herald     Mar 19, 2002

Can we stop with this incessant coach worship in the NCAA basketball tournament?

Please?

I’m tired of seeing the bombardment of sideline shot after sideline shot of some basketball Einstein doing nothing more taxing than calling a timeout.

I’m tired of hearing Dick Vitale always shilling in exclamation points about what an absolutely phenomenal, superb, unbelievable job the victorious coach did as he sat there like the rest of us and watched one of his players dunk.

I’m tired of these games being about Tubby Smith’s substitutions instead of Tayshaun Prince’s 41 points, tired of them being about Jim Calhoun’s sideline theatrics instead of Caron Butler’s rugged ferocity, tired of celebrating Mike Krzyzewski just because he happens to be lottery-lucky enough that Jason Williams not only chose his school but opted to stay for three years.

And once, just once, just one measly time in the entire history of this sport, I’d like to hear a gushing broadcaster say with Vitale enthusiasm or Billy Packer pomposity something like, “You know what? Billy Donovan did an absolutely horrible-pathetic-dreadful job. He got exposed so spectacularly that he should have just left the court nude.”

In the absence of that, I’d even settle for someone merely questioning Bob Huggins’ graduation rates, Steve Lavin’s Xs or Lute Olson’s Os.

This game belongs to the kids. Why do we insist on making it about the adults?

Is it because we’re so busy reading coaches as self-help authors and listening to their $40,000-a-pop business speeches on how to motivate our sales team that we just sort of forget somehow that geniuses Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Jerry Tarkanian and John Chaney are doing their postseason work this March in something called the Owens Corning NIT?

Or is it because the coach is the only constant in a program, the college senior having gone the way of the dinosaur and Arsenio Hall, leaving the suit-wearing man who should remain on the sidelines at the center of the stage, his voice and face the easiest one to attach to the program?

Whatever it is, we should set something straight: There wasn’t a coach in this tournament, not one, who wouldn’t have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen if you had given him the players Duke, Maryland and Kansas have. Might not have been a coach in the NIT who couldn’t have done it, either.

Or a coach in the women’s NCAA tournament, for that matter. And there were plenty in all three tournaments who wouldn’t have gotten as undressed by Holy Cross, as even Kansas coach Roy Williams had to admit he did.

And yet television will give you vastly more close-ups of Maryland coach Gary Williams sweating than it will of star player Juan Dixon, whose story line only includes both parents dying of drug overdoses. And then the color man will faint talking about how a Williams substitution was courageous.

Bob Knight gets ad-nauseam credit for making dormant Texas Tech matter, but what happens when he loses in the first round?

Does he get criticized? Of course not. That coach for mighty Southern Illinois, he must have been a genius!

Jack Ramsay, a Hall of Famer, says a Pat Riley will do more coaching in five minutes of an NBA game than the average college coach will do in 40.

Players win.

Period.

Coaches merely help.

Let’s stop treating them at the college level as Santa when the elves are doing the work.

Please TV guys: More on players, less on coaches

By Dan Lebatard, Miami Herald     Mar 19, 2002

Can we stop with this incessant coach worship in the NCAA basketball tournament?

Please?

I’m tired of seeing the bombardment of sideline shot after sideline shot of some basketball Einstein doing nothing more taxing than calling a timeout.

I’m tired of hearing Dick Vitale always shilling in exclamation points about what an absolutely phenomenal, superb, unbelievable job the victorious coach did as he sat there like the rest of us and watched one of his players dunk.

I’m tired of these games being about Tubby Smith’s substitutions instead of Tayshaun Prince’s 41 points, tired of them being about Jim Calhoun’s sideline theatrics instead of Caron Butler’s rugged ferocity, tired of celebrating Mike Krzyzewski just because he happens to be lottery-lucky enough that Jason Williams not only chose his school but opted to stay for three years.

And once, just once, just one measly time in the entire history of this sport, I’d like to hear a gushing broadcaster say with Vitale enthusiasm or Billy Packer pomposity something like, “You know what? Billy Donovan did an absolutely horrible-pathetic-dreadful job. He got exposed so spectacularly that he should have just left the court nude.”

In the absence of that, I’d even settle for someone merely questioning Bob Huggins’ graduation rates, Steve Lavin’s Xs or Lute Olson’s Os.

This game belongs to the kids. Why do we insist on making it about the adults?

Is it because we’re so busy reading coaches as self-help authors and listening to their $40,000-a-pop business speeches on how to motivate our sales team that we just sort of forget somehow that geniuses Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Jerry Tarkanian and John Chaney are doing their postseason work this March in something called the Owens Corning NIT?

Or is it because the coach is the only constant in a program, the college senior having gone the way of the dinosaur and Arsenio Hall, leaving the suit-wearing man who should remain on the sidelines at the center of the stage, his voice and face the easiest one to attach to the program?

Whatever it is, we should set something straight: There wasn’t a coach in this tournament, not one, who wouldn’t have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen if you had given him the players Duke, Maryland and Kansas have. Might not have been a coach in the NIT who couldn’t have done it, either.

Or a coach in the women’s NCAA tournament, for that matter. And there were plenty in all three tournaments who wouldn’t have gotten as undressed by Holy Cross, as even Kansas coach Roy Williams had to admit he did.

And yet television will give you vastly more close-ups of Maryland coach Gary Williams sweating than it will of star player Juan Dixon, whose story line only includes both parents dying of drug overdoses. And then the color man will faint talking about how a Williams substitution was courageous.

Bob Knight gets ad-nauseam credit for making dormant Texas Tech matter, but what happens when he loses in the first round?

Does he get criticized? Of course not. That coach for mighty Southern Illinois, he must have been a genius!

Jack Ramsay, a Hall of Famer, says a Pat Riley will do more coaching in five minutes of an NBA game than the average college coach will do in 40.

Players win.

Period.

Coaches merely help.

Let’s stop treating them at the college level as Santa when the elves are doing the work.

Please TV guys: More on players, less on coaches

By Dan Lebatard, Miami Herald     Mar 19, 2002

Can we stop with this incessant coach worship in the NCAA basketball tournament?

Please?

I’m tired of seeing the bombardment of sideline shot after sideline shot of some basketball Einstein doing nothing more taxing than calling a timeout.

I’m tired of hearing Dick Vitale always shilling in exclamation points about what an absolutely phenomenal, superb, unbelievable job the victorious coach did as he sat there like the rest of us and watched one of his players dunk.

I’m tired of these games being about Tubby Smith’s substitutions instead of Tayshaun Prince’s 41 points, tired of them being about Jim Calhoun’s sideline theatrics instead of Caron Butler’s rugged ferocity, tired of celebrating Mike Krzyzewski just because he happens to be lottery-lucky enough that Jason Williams not only chose his school but opted to stay for three years.

And once, just once, just one measly time in the entire history of this sport, I’d like to hear a gushing broadcaster say with Vitale enthusiasm or Billy Packer pomposity something like, “You know what? Billy Donovan did an absolutely horrible-pathetic-dreadful job. He got exposed so spectacularly that he should have just left the court nude.”

In the absence of that, I’d even settle for someone merely questioning Bob Huggins’ graduation rates, Steve Lavin’s Xs or Lute Olson’s Os.

This game belongs to the kids. Why do we insist on making it about the adults?

Is it because we’re so busy reading coaches as self-help authors and listening to their $40,000-a-pop business speeches on how to motivate our sales team that we just sort of forget somehow that geniuses Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Jerry Tarkanian and John Chaney are doing their postseason work this March in something called the Owens Corning NIT?

Or is it because the coach is the only constant in a program, the college senior having gone the way of the dinosaur and Arsenio Hall, leaving the suit-wearing man who should remain on the sidelines at the center of the stage, his voice and face the easiest one to attach to the program?

Whatever it is, we should set something straight: There wasn’t a coach in this tournament, not one, who wouldn’t have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen if you had given him the players Duke, Maryland and Kansas have. Might not have been a coach in the NIT who couldn’t have done it, either.

Or a coach in the women’s NCAA tournament, for that matter. And there were plenty in all three tournaments who wouldn’t have gotten as undressed by Holy Cross, as even Kansas coach Roy Williams had to admit he did.

And yet television will give you vastly more close-ups of Maryland coach Gary Williams sweating than it will of star player Juan Dixon, whose story line only includes both parents dying of drug overdoses. And then the color man will faint talking about how a Williams substitution was courageous.

Bob Knight gets ad-nauseam credit for making dormant Texas Tech matter, but what happens when he loses in the first round?

Does he get criticized? Of course not. That coach for mighty Southern Illinois, he must have been a genius!

Jack Ramsay, a Hall of Famer, says a Pat Riley will do more coaching in five minutes of an NBA game than the average college coach will do in 40.

Players win.

Period.

Coaches merely help.

Let’s stop treating them at the college level as Santa when the elves are doing the work.

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