Woods’ punishment will be not landing any quality recruits if everyone is truly so offended.

The nuts and bolts of the recruiting process is performed by the assistant coaches. The head coach puts in some face time to close the deal, and babysit between the period of time between the verbal committment and the signing. The kid walks onto campus day 1 with a much closer relationship with the assistant than he has with the head coach. But even if that wasn’t the case in fact, I’m pretty damn positive that Woods wouldn’t be introducing himself in living rooms across the country by shoving the kid to the couch as part of his sales pitch.

It’s called a superior-subordinate relationship. Stop interpreting everything as a personal attack. The kid walking away doesn’t mean the coach is done, because as you stated, the kid has no power. He doesn’t have to accept being belittled either, as he can leave the program. The school hired Woods knowing his history, so suspending him for this is PR driven hypocrisy.

Again, I don’t know what world you live in, but in the world that I live in when someone shoves you and gets in your face, it’s personal no matter what the relationship. Then again, maybe you’re one who takes those types of actions against you on a daily basis.

He pushed and got up in the grill of a kid where he has all of the power, and the kid has none. Not only that, he continued the verbal assault when the kid walked away.

Emasculated is a stretch. It’s called a superior-subordinate relationship. Stop interpreting everything as a personal attack. The kid walking away doesn’t mean the coach is done, because as you stated, the kid has no power. He doesn’t have to accept being belittled either, as he can leave the program. The school hired Woods knowing his history, so suspending him for this is PR driven hypocrisy.

There is middle ground. My point is that people don’t personally like the approach, so they get worked up about it. People don’t have to play for Woods if they aren’t comfortable with his no punches pulled approach. I don’t see why it is so unacceptable for Woods to do what he did. Sure, he belittled the kid, but that has worked for a lot of bosses in a lot of different fields.

Oh bullshit. He pushed and got up in the grill of a kid where he has all of the power, and the kid has none. Not only that, he continued the verbal assault when the kid walked away. There is a difference between aggressively getting your point across and lacking the self control to control the situation as the adult in the room. He got caught up in trying to beat his alma mater. The look on that kid’s face was one of being frustrated about being yelled at, shoved, and having someone up in your face in front of thousands of people without the ability to respond the way he really wanted to. In other words, he got emasculated. I don’t know what world you live in where you as a man happily accept being belittled by someone simply because he’s your boss.

can you even hit a cadet in basic training anymore?

No, but you can heavily critique them…

I understand people are more comfortable with the coddling approach, but different methods work for different people.

I’m confused as to why there’s only Woods’ method and “coddling”. There’s no middle ground?

Rarely do they get suspended.

oh, the “we’ve always done it this way!” reasoning.

Guys like Saban, Calhoun, Hayes, Knight, etc.

great examples. please tell me why they got fired.

I understand that coaching can be a stressful position. guys get hired because of the not-unreasonable expectation that they can do their job in spite of that. there’s a difference between letting a player know he fucked up and doing what Sean Woods did, which is laughably unprofessional.

kid deserved it, he obviously wanted to foul out on a shitty ticky-tac call in the biggest game of his life

Haha It was quite clearly a foul, and a dumb one at that. I’m sure Woods coaches his players to physically crowd opponents driving to their weak side from 24 feet, especially when they’re in the double bonus. That’s high percentage basketball right there.

1. guy acts like a total dick to a subordinate
2. guy gets held responsible for acting like a total dick
3. people stick up for guy

Coaches constantly “act like total dicks”. Rarely do they get suspended. It was the trivial physical contact that people seem most upset over. Guys like Saban, Calhoun, Hayes, Knight, etc. have been villainized for ages for their aggressive methods, but their players by and large go on to appreciate the discipline and accountability they’ve instilled years later. I understand people are more comfortable with the coddling approach, but different methods work for different people.

/fuck you coach

sometimes sports fans confuse me

I hope to someday be in upper management at a company that lets you hit your underlings like Tommy Tuberville

sometimes sports fans confuse me.

Big fan of people going to bat for coaches being to treat people in a way they’d be horrified with if the same thing happened to them…it’s just college basketball, settle down coach

Has the player even complained? If they are so horrified they don’t have to play for him. And it’s easy to say it’s just college basketball, because for you it is. Just a tad different for those who support their existence through it.