By: jstevrtc

jstevrtc — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:48:12 +0000

Mark: Appreciate the comment, but your reaction strikes me as extreme. “Siberian banishment” and “irreparable harm” are a little strong. I said it would send a message, and it might not be the best one to send. I’m willing to bet that Bill Self knows his players better than Bob Knight knows them, and therefore knows how they’ll react to such a tactic. If I thought the temporary benching of Collins would have caused damage like that, I wouldn’t have even put up the post, because that’s not even worth the argument.

The tactic Knight proposed — while still used in many cases, I’m sure — strikes me as something players from Knight’s IU days would respond to, while today’s players would take more of an offense to it, even if they didn’t voice it. It’s my feeling that the drill sergeant, super-authoritarian method of coaching simply doesn’t work with kids these days. You can’t grab arms or jerseys or yell at kids in front of 15,000 people and make examples out of them these days, things that were more tolerated in an earlier time. I’m not implying that it’s better or worse than Knight’s prime coaching days — just different. Now, as for your assertion that players need to grow up and learn to take it when they disagree with their coach, you and I both know that players and coaches disagree all the time, and players deal with it and move on because they know that the coach knows better, he’s the authority and you do what he says if you want to play. Coaches are still authority figures and teachers, that goes without saying. They teach their players about growing up as players and adults all the time. But you don’t necessarily have to use Knight’s method to do that. It’s my opinion (not nec. the other guys’ on this site) that in his broadcasts Knight has confirmed how he’s now out of touch and the game has passed him by, so if he talks about a coaching tactic that he’d use to motivate a player, and Bill Self says that another method might be better, in the current day I’m probably going to side with Self.

Just for kicks, let’s use a hypothetical. Let’s say you — I don’t know, just spit-balling, here — work in the Poli-Sci department and you’re finishing up that doctorate. Doing some teaching, interviewing for jobs here and there, maybe wearing the same Shell jacket every day for the past 5-10 years. You’ve been doing a great job in your teaching, your bosses think you’re the best, and you take pride in it. But one day you give a lecture that’s a little off. Not your best work. You know nothing’s wrong, you were just having an off day. But, after coming back from a friend’s wedding in, say, Santa Barbara, where you spent a lot of time discussing lawn care (ahem) with parking lot attendants at your hotel of choice, you find that your superiors have suspended you for a few days in order to teach you a lesson as a result of your one bad lecture. How would you respond? Do you think you’d look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I’ll show them, I’m coming back better than ever!” Or, would you resent it a little, since your years of faithful and high-level service were forgotten after one bad lecture?

[To other readers: just ignore the previous paragraph. He understands.]

John Stevens
RTC

By: David

David — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:33:37 +0000

You are both missing the point. Knight made it obvious he was going to bench him because he didn’t play that great in one half. Sherron is the unquestioned leader on that team, it would have gone further than just affecting Sherron if Self told Sherron he was going to be benched because he wasn’t have that great of a night. Sherron was very effective on the defensive side of the ball that game in the 1st half, which is what Bill likes more anyway.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:44:04 +0000

It’s unusual to read such a dumb post on this site. Yeah, Collins is good — awesome in fact — but your argument seems to suggest that giving him a breather after a bad half would be tantamount to Siberian banishment, irreparably harming his relationship with coach and team. Maybe a rest could have done him some good. And what’s the big deal if a coach wants to make a decision that a player will disagree with? That’s why there’s a division of labor in the first place. Part of the college game is about maturing as a player and as an adult, but your logic leaves very little room for either.

By: uofmmarcum

uofmmarcum — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:20:39 +0000

I don’t know if you count John Beilein as a big time college coach but he uses this practice semi-often at Michigan. Manny Harris, after a terrible game at Iowa was benched in overtime last year. That loss, at the time, was considered a tournament killer. Harris and Michigan responded by beating #16 Purdue with Harris dropping 27 points.

Comments on: The Knight/Self Matter: Your Move, General

By: jstevrtc

By: David

By: Mark

By: uofmmarcum