Define "loses control".
I'd say that some kids can hack the tough love, in your face approach. Watch Tom Izzo tonight. He's eyeball to eyeball with his guys and they're eyeball to eyeball right back. It's a man coaching men, it's not a man coaching kids. At 18-22, these are grown adults. They're going to all experience much more difficult situations in life than their basketball coach yelling at them. Life happens. Adversity happens. It's how you deal with it that defines you.
People say that they want players with a "dog attitude". It's highly unlikely you can get that from guys who crumble under distress. Winning games whether it be on the road, gutting games out when not playing well, having to out tough the other guy seems pretty unlikely if you can't look your coach in the eye, refuse to check back in when things aren't going well or feeling picked on when things get loud. BU is trying to install toughness. That's his style. He's gone on record that he wants winners and tough guys and those who aren't need not apply. Just my take.
Well, I am really disinterested in engaging in a back and forth. So I will offer a couple opinions or points. I don’t really care to “debate” so I will just say my peace and go back to watching Michigan St and K St.
Loses control as per this topic: When one is talking about emotional outbursts of a 59 year old coach, or any coach, on the sideline of a nationally televised basketball game, and the coach is screaming, being at times restrained by numerous staff members, red in the face and inches from the face of an 18 year old kid, (a kid that is 6 months removed from high school) while using repeated m-f profanities, which continues for perhaps 30 seconds….many to most would say that the coach kinda lost it. (Or, has “lost control”) Hope that helps.
No one, and not a single post that I’ve seen on this topic….not one, has said coaches shouldn’t be “allowed” to yell at players. Please stop with that yelling narrative. If you can find that post that says “no yelling” please go ahead and waste your time searching ….but if there is one, I haven’t seen it.
Most (including me) would agree that yelling at players is the norm in competitive sports. Certainly it is the norm in college basketball. I’ve not read a single person that has issue with that. But, that’s not what some of us are talking about. Please stop the narrative that you created, not me, that yelling crosses the line. If you cannot see the difference between yelling and m-f’ing someone repeatedly on national television and in front of 15,000 people and how bad that looks - I cannot help you. Perhaps a life coach, or your parents, or significant other, or a teacher, or guidance counselor, or pastor, or friend, or grand parents, or your children can better explain it to you than I can. I encourage you to seek that out.
Candidly, your last paragraph is laughable. The BU /JE situation is frequently being referenced with this topic. So responding to your post as it pertains to Jayden Epps….um, he is a winner. He was the top player in his state coming out of high school. Um, he does have a “dog attitude” which is obvious if you objectively watch him play. Brad himself has said that repeatedly. I never saw him crumble under pressure….conversely, I saw him give tremendous effort and remain even keeled emotionally throughout the season. Of course he had difficulty defending some people. He’s a freshman that made defensive mistakes, similar to our sophomores, juniors, seniors and super senior. For the love of God, people were talking about JE being on a B1G all freshman team. Good gracious. How quickly we forget how high everyone was on Jayden Epps until perhaps the last 3 weeks of the season or so. This narrative that some are creating the JE is weak minded and quit is ridiculous.
You can blame everything you want on the players. That’s ok. But perhaps BU toning it down a bit might actually result in better player retention and build a roster of consistency. Maybe coaching would actually be better received if players weren’t being humiliated and m-f’ed. Most reasonable people would have difficulty disagreeing with that. I know in corporate America there is a tremendous investment in hiring, training, and developing employees. If managers in corporate America continuously had new hires lasting a number of months and leaving the organization, and it occurred frequently, all eyes would be on the manager. What does that leader need to do differently to either identify, hire, train, coach, and develop talent so they remain and thrive within the organization. At some point the manager/leader needs to adjust. We have for the past couple years had lots of highly rated players that came here that are both “tough” and are “winners” (your words) and there have been countless personnel issues. (Shoulder shrug) But feel free to tag these players as being the problem and refusing to believe maybe the leader could do something better. (Another shoulder shrug) I honestly don’t understand why this is so difficult to process.
Lastly, I don’t give a crap that Tom Izzo is over the top at times also. Who cares? But there are countless examples of successful coaches that I do not see m-f’ing players on national tv. If you think that Brad and Tom are acting appropriately by doing so, have at it. You and I simply have a differing level regarding what’s acceptable and what isn’t. But because Izzo does it too doesn’t make it ok.