The tornado that damaged the Georgia Dome led to an unusual rescheduling of the SEC Tournament and forced Georgia to play two games in one day. And when Georgia won both games, coach Dennis Felton was praised by someone who knows a little bit about coaching basketball, ESPN analyst Bob Knight:
"I think this is a real credit for the coaching staff, not for what they did today necessarily, but the kind of practices they had throughout the whole course of the year," Knight said. "They had to have been tough, good practices that have enabled these kids to look at two games and say, 'Hey, we practiced hard, we practiced long, we scrimmaged, we can do this. This is what we've prepared for.' I think their coaches did a great job a long time before today in getting them ready for something like this. You never expect this, and yet what they did certainly prepared them to be able to play."
Wisconsin is having a fairly easy time of it in today's Big Ten Tournament game against Michigan, but there was one little glitch during the first half, when Badgers coach Bo Ryan got a technical foul for yelling at his own player, Brian Butch:
After Butch was out-played in the paint, Ryan got up off his chair and yelled at Butch. But referee Steve Skiles though Ryan was yelling at him, and gave him a technical foul. Here's how ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews explained it:
"Bo Ryan was screaming to Brian Butch, 'Be strong. Stay strong inside.' Skiles thought he was talking to him, and when he came over and explained it to Bo Ryan, he said, 'It wasn't what you said, it was the fact that you stomped your foot.'"
ESPN announcer Steve Lavin said, "That must be a new amendment to the rulebook, no stomping of the feet. We're never going to get through a game if that becomes a rule."
If Ryan actually stepped foot onto the floor while play was in progress, I could understand giving him a technical for that. But if the technical was just for stomping his foot while yelling something to one of his players, well, that's pretty dumb.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption today, and he had some interesting thoughts about his mentor, Bob Knight, who resigned -- but didn't retire -- this season:
"I still don't think he's through with coaching," Krzyzewski said. "I think he'll come back -- not that he's told me that, but he loves the game so much."
I think he'll return to coaching, too, but it's odd to think of Knight as someone who "loves the game so much," just because he never seems happy when he's in the process of coaching.
Krzyzewski also said he hopes Knight, in his work as an ESPN analyst during March Madness, spends time actually teaching the viewers about the game and its history. I'd love to see that, but I'd love it even more if Knight would answer legitimate questions from his co-workers.
Hard to believe that it has been 15 years since those magical first ESPY awards when former NC State coach Jim Valvano gave his famous "Don't Give Up" speech. Back on March 3, 1993, Jimmy V stood in front of a packed house to accep the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award when he gave his now legendary speech.
"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
"Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all."
Valvano would pass away less than two months later.
Appearing on ESPN2 this morning, Dick Vitale asked the obvious question about the recently fired Indiana basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson:
"My big question, that day when I did the game, is why?" Vitale said. "Why in the world would you take a chance with phone calls that really aren't going to change the complexion of your recruiting? ... Why in the world would Kelvin Sampson, who can motivate, he can inspire, he can X-and-O, he can coach, jeopardize that opportunity after he was under penalties at Oklahoma? I just don't understand, but again, you have to get into the psyche of what makes a guy, I guess."
That's the question I can't figure out either. Why does Kelvin Sampson simply have no interest at all in following the rules of the NCAA? I can understand why Sampson might not agree with the rules, but I can't understand why he would allow his contempt for the rules to ruin his coaching career. As Vitale said, you have to get into the psyche of what makes a guy, I guess.
Here's the way ESPN's Brent Musberger signed off on Tuesday night's Indiana-Purdue game:
"We certainly hope that we see coach Sampson Saturday, still on the sideline with the Indiana Hoosiers," Musberger said, referring to Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, who is expected to be suspended or fired in the next three days because of the multiple rules violations the NCAA says he has committed.
Let's unpack that quote a little bit. If Musberger wants to see Sampson coach on Saturday, that means he doesn't want Sampson to get suspended or fired. So either Musberger doesn't think Sampson committed the violations the NCAA has accused him of, or he doesn't think these violations are offenses worthy of firing a coach.
If it's the former, Musberger is sitting on a huge story. All of the ESPN reporters who have investigated this story, led by Pat Forde and Andy Katz, have given strong indications that Sampson did, in fact, commit the violations he's accused of. If Musberger has information that his colleagues haven't reported, why hasn't he shared that information with ESPN's viewers?
If it's the latter, Musberger ought to explain himself a bit better: If Sampson did break these NCAA rules, repeatedly and after being warned, why on earth shouldn't Indiana fire him? Does Musberger just believe coaches shouldn't be held accountable when they break the rules?
Either way, Musberger's statement doesn't make a lot of sense.
The most frequent criticism that ESPN basketball commentator Dick Vitale faces is that he's too positive: Every player is sensational, every coach is brilliant. But at least that means you know that when Vitale criticizes someone, that person really deserves it. And since Vitale is calling for Indiana Athletic Director Rick Greenspan to get fired, you know Greenspan really deserves it. Here's what Vitale said this morning:
Vitale said of Greenspan's decision to hire disgraced coach Kelvin Sampson, "The athletic director needs to be held accountable as well. ... When you're an athletic director and you hire a guy from a school that has already had penalties and you know that ... and you're an unbelievably prestigious university like Indiana in the world of basketball, you hire that guy and now he goes out and does it again, you've got to be held accountable."
Vitale also correctly called Greenspan's claim that he's not the only one who was involved in hiring Sampson "a cop out." The buck stops with Greenspan, and if Sampson deserves to get fired then Greenspan deserves to get fired.
I'm on the record as saying that not only should Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson lose his job over his latest NCAA rules violations, but so should Athletic DirectorRick Greenspan. Many in the basketball media have said the same, but ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb disagrees:
Although Gottlieb, like everyone, thinks Sampson is about to get fired, he defends Greenspan, saying, "People like Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas are saying that Rick Greenspan needs to be broomed as well, I disagree with that ... Who possibly could have thought that Kelvin Sampson, a bright man, a good basketball coach -- it's one thing to have another NCAA violation, but to do the exact same thing is dumbfounding, he's going to be out by the end of the week, but I think Greenspan should keep his job."
I like Gottlieb as an analyst, but he couldn't possibly be more wrong here. The entire reason Greenspan should have seen this coming is that Sampson has done it before. To answer Gottlieb's question, "Who possibly could have thought?" I would merely say: Anyone who has followed Sampson's career.
As FanHouse's Charles Rich noted yesterday, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino changed suits at halftime of his team's game against Georgetown, and it worked: The Cardinals went from trailing 31-23 to winning 59-51. ESPN's Erin Andrews made the wardrobe change the focal point of her post-game interview:
"My suit was fine, I just spilled Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke all over it at halftime," Pitino said.
After the jump, ESPN makes even more of an issue out of the wardrobe change.
For a guy who often acts as though he hates nothing more than the media, Bob Knight spent an awful lot of time making media appearances during the week after he resigned as head coach at Texas Tech. I thought his interview on ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning was one of the more revealing:
Knight talked about the differences of players today and players from a few decades back, when Knight began his coaching career, and he said he missed the good old days of 1962, when he was a high school teacher and was permitted to paddle students who acted up.
"Think about that in schools today," Knight said. "That just doesn't happen. I think we've become such a lenient society and a society that not only accepts mediocrity in a lot of ways but condones mediocrity simply because you don't infringe on the rights of a student and you don't take a kid to task."
