Agree. But he’s also inflexible and will not or cannot adjust his coaching to his personnel. Bingham, Brown and Watts have, in particular, either not improved or have regressed in the past 2-3 years. And others to a lesser extent. That’s on Tom.
Yeah. And nobody benefits more from injuries than the coach that whines the most about them. He’s often better off once he loses a starter and he adopts a Plan B that’s more sensible than his original strategy. But when you add up the pros and cons, it’s still a pretty imbalanced list.
I think his win against Illinois is more impressive. Or OSU. But those were still really weird games. We lost Eli minutes in and had just hung a banner. We lost to Minnesota without Eli too. Is that guy a good coach over in Minny (or wherever he is now)?
I’m just not buying it. He has an excuse for everything and people eat it up.
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I think Izzo is a great coach but he did poorly this year with the roster. The fact that his team got noticeably better as soon as Loyer got injured and he dropped Kithier from the lineup is telling.
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Don’t get me wrong: I think Izzo WAS a great coach. And I think he belongs in a hall (but maybe a hallway of a nursing care facility at this point). I just believe he has lost it but folks will still carry the water for him because he is Izzo.
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Lol yeah, you’re not gonna want to go down this route. The players are not upset about being in Indy or having the tournament in one location. The gripes about food or staying in their rooms or not being compensated would be the same no matter how or where they play the tournament games.
This is the best shot at getting through the tournament without too much of a hiccup. We have already had two top players test positive this week. We had several other teams get eliminated from conference tournaments last week after positive tests. These positive tests have come when presumably players have been extremely strict knowing the importance of the tournament. If you “give the kids their freedom back,” then this entire thing would fly off the rails. Do you want the tournament or not?
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I can definitely say that in my experience, yelling can work, just not all the time. If a coach or teacher or boss etc. has my respect and I trust them, then more aggressive teaching can be really effective at times. On the other hand, if I don’t respect them or they don’t respect me, I pretty quickly go the other way.
I think back to two different baseball coaches I had in the past, both of them yelled plenty. One of them always held himself to a high standard and talked in terms of him helping us get better. The other complained when we played bad, (which was most of the time,) that we were making him look bad. I worked my butt off for the former, but I checked out pretty early for the latter.
I’m sure different people respond differently, and there’s definitely plenty of gray area where the coach has to read the situation and use the best method for that instance. As far as Izzo, it seems like he has the trust of his players, but I still don’t think there’s ever a good reason to be grabbing someone’s jersey to stop them from leaving either.
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Dude just won three straight conference titles before this season. Hypothetically taking cassius away is a nonsensical argument to make.
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I understand there’s a certain amount of yelling you might have to do because you’re in a gym and need to be heard. And I understand a physical competition might require firing up your players or getting them to play with requisite intensity. It’s the yelling in a player’s face and the physically grabbing someone that is out of bounds for me.
I can’t stand Izzo and think he’s a smarmy little troll. BUT this is much ado about nothing. Its a competition. Coaches yell and sometimes players yell back. This is totally being overblown.
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How many times do coaches put hands on players? How often is it the kid who is trying to walk away and defuse the situation and the adult—twice—who physically restrains the kid so he can continue to scream at him?
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For those who will be watching via a streaming device (Fire TV, Apple TV, etc.), I found last night that the quality of the stream on the native TBS app on my Fire TV was way better than on the March Madness Live one. Obviously, having access to all the games in one location is preferred, but I had a fair amount of stream buffers and quality degradation through the MM Live app and none through the TBS one. I’m guessing the TNT and TruTV apps will also provide a better stream quality. CBS games should be available in the CBS Sports app or OTA via antenna.
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A couple of timely anecdotes culled from my history as a mediocre youth sports coach:
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Some parents really want you to coach their kids hard. They want you to be a complete redass to their kids, believing it’s the only way to unlock some hidden potential they still have to offer. I can understand the combination of Izzo’s track record and his tough love approach being very appealing to certain parents.
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I’ve coached against or witnessed my share of jackass coaches. Some coaches are jackasses 100% of the time. It’s a personality disorder, it’s how they are wired. Other coaches can fall into jackassery when they get embarrassed. These are what I call the “I don’t teach that” moments and I find them really performative. A player reverts into bad habits or has a brain fart and the coach makes sure everyone in the stands knows how much they disapprove. Can’t have anyone thinking you are a colossally bad coach that teaches their kids to blow a defensive assignment, take ill-advised shots, try to dribble out of a triple-team, etc. Instead of doing the work to build that kid back up, it’s easier in that moment to bury that player. Stick over carrot in the moment…and I’ve seen this awful ego-shielding behavior from coaches who I have thought were otherwise decent people.
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Thank you! Excellent content advice.
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Just because it has always been this way does mean it has to stay that way. I think part of the problem is the way our culture has valorized this style in the name of “toughness.” I think another part of the problem is money. Coaches have a huge financial stake in winning games that distorts teaching and coaching in a way that makes me (as someone that works in academia) uncomfortable.
Again, this doesn’t mean you never get upset or show emotion in the heat of competition, it’s when it gets to the point of invading someone’s space and screaming in their face that I have a problem with.
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Come on. This was not Bobby Knight strangling Neil Reid. Izzo grabbed him to get his attention. This is a nothing burger.
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I disagree. Because what happened was less bad than a coach actually choking a kid doesn’t make it OK. I’m not suggesting he should be prosecuted for it. But I also believe that repeatedly grabbing a kid who is trying to walk away in the middle of a confrontation is wrong. And one more thing—MSU played like garbage after what happened, and Brown was completely non-existent. If Izzo gets credit for getting his team to play tough and hard and successfully, it’s not a nothing burger when what he does backfires spectacularly.
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So if Izzo is trying to get Gabe’s attention and Gabe continues to walk away ignoring the coach that’s acceptable??? Gabe made the decision to play for Tom I doubt Gabe was new to the situation.
I’m not condoning Brown’s behavior either. This isn’t a zero sum game though—both people can and should have acted differently. And Izzo is the adult. That it has happened before, and even that Brown knew it might happen before he came doesn’t make it right.
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Also, it was at the half so you could have handled it behind closed doors instead of performing for the cameras.
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