Swayze Howell Sheen

March 19th, 2017 at 11:25 PM ^

Actually, I kind of agree: Pitino should have his own special hell.  

However, I really don't like all three, because they all just try to bully the refs to death and whine incessantly and they coach different brands of ugly basketball.

 

Swayze Howell Sheen

March 19th, 2017 at 11:32 PM ^

the answer is that I like Harbaugh just fine.

It's a silly comparison, but I'll bite. The reason it's silly: hoops referees can have an ENORMOUS impact on a game. Literally every game would be wildly different based on whether they swallow their whistles or call ticky-tack fouls. So when hoops coaches are good whiners, I feel like they have an incredibly large effect on the game, and it cheapens the competition.  

Football is much different: most plays don't have penalties. Even with notable exceptions where teams get jobbed (see UM/OSU this past year), the games have to be pretty darn close for it to matter. 

All of that said, I do think Harbaugh doesn't get much benefit out of his sideline demeanor. I once said so in a forum post, and it was downvoted so hard that the post was soon removed. :)

 

OwenGoBlue

March 19th, 2017 at 11:57 PM ^

Literally all scoring plays in football get a booth review. In basketball the refs dictate how the game is played and regularly eliminate players from competition at their discretion. 

The B1G is terrible at managing officials across all sports, but basketball refs have a much greater impact on a given game than football refs and it's not even close.

andre10

March 19th, 2017 at 11:57 PM ^

we can definitely debate on whether or not it's hypocritical to criticize other coaches for ref outbursts while being fans of Harbaugh, but calls are absolutely just as critical in football as in basketball. PI/Holding are almost entirely discretionary, as is the spot of the ball, and those have an enormous impact on the game, as we learned all too well.

Mr. Yost

March 20th, 2017 at 12:15 AM ^

It's apples and oranges.

Think about it...what coaches in football do you hate solely because they whine and consistently demean their players?

There is literally no equivalent in football. Sure Harbaugh will go off on a ref, I've NEVER seen him go off on a player other than a brief rage on Kyle Kalis for being a fucking mo-ran.

Saban is hated, Meyer is hated, Dantoni is hated...but none like Izzo, Coach K or Pitino (or Calipari). They may be hated more, but it's not the same reasons.

Two entirely different sports. To bring Harbaugh or any football coach into this discussion is silly.

bacon

March 20th, 2017 at 5:07 PM ^

'We were reporting on the Michigan basketball program flirting with Rick Pitino but his salary would be greater than then-football coach Lloyd Carr’s... His blood boiled in zero to five. He leaned toward me and in that great Bo voice told me that would never happen. Why? “You KNOW what this place is built on!”'

"Bo was staunchly and adamantly against the hiring of Pitino, and this in fact favored heavily into Pitino's last-minute decision - as he was stunned and hurt by the negative comments made by Schembechler about him. Right or wrong, Bo didn't feel Pitino's personality or image fit in with "The Michigan Way" back then."

Bo248

March 20th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^

I lived in Durham, saw his program up close, even attended the same church as Coach K. Coach K runs a well disciplined, respectful program. Like any good coach / program that wins a lot, it's easy to dislike them, pick at minor things and take glee at losses....Our football program enemies say the same things about us. We need to be glad we play them only once every couple of years in MBB. Actually JB and Coach K are very similar.

Everyone Murders

March 20th, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^

"JB and Coach K are quite similar"?  I mean they're both major program men's basketball coaches who generally perform well in tournament play, etc.

But their temperments are vastly different.  Coach K is pompous, condescending, rags on refs, and recruits a different type of player than JB.  Coach K recruits nearly all McDonald's All American types that fit into his system, and is revered above all others at Duke.  JB is low-key, recruits both high star prospects and diamonds-in-the-rough to be cut at Camp Sanderson.

Most of all, I think most Americans want to punch Coach K in the mouth, but they are afraid his ferret teeth will give them rabies.  Nobody wants to punch JB in the mouth.

Science.

1974

March 20th, 2017 at 6:52 AM ^

Even if Coach K hasn't used slime to get some of his many wins (which I doubt), he's a sociopathic narcissist. That's reason enough to dislike him. He's the C-level guy who'd lay off a whole division to buy himself an island resort.

corundum

March 19th, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^

I knew someone who filmed Duke practices for the basketball team for quality control or whatnot. He would regularly be in the locker room during pregame, postgame, and halftimes of games. Apparently one game they were in a tight contest with a team they should have been blowing out. When the players went to the locker room for halftime, they found a wooden barrel filled with sand. Coach K proceeded to barge in with a sword, stab it down into the sand, and screamed "get back out there and kill this fucking team!" he then swiftly exited. Guy said it was one of the weirdest things he's ever witnessed.

mgobleu

March 20th, 2017 at 6:46 AM ^

Help me understand the logistics of this; either A, team is playing like crap and coach K says to an assistant WHILE he's coaching the game, presumably: "hey, get me a big wooden barrel filled with sand... And a sword. Have it ready at halftime...". And just like that, somehow assistant finds this crap in like 5 minutes?

Or B, dude just has a barrel of sand and a SWORD laying around for such an occasion?

BlueNation

March 19th, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^

People hate winners. Everyone loved Curry, too, until he won a ring and 2 MVPs. Then he was "overrated." I know it isn't popular around these parts, but personally I like Duke as well. I always felt like I had to hate them because I was a Michigan fan. Then I realized there wasn't much ground in that other than they beat us before. They aren't a dirty program and Coach K is one of the classiest coaches around. Obviously they come second to Michigan, but I still like them.

Blue In NC

March 20th, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

There is plenty of dirt around the Duke program.  If you don't think so then you probably think Saban and Bama are as clean as a whistle also.

I will give coach K credit for turning around a program and running a hard-nosed operation.  He has adapted with the times and has been wildly successful.  That does not mean that he has not been associated with some slime along the way.  He's also a bit of a bully and overbearing with the "leadership" stuff.

Plenty of reason not to like him.

L'Carpetron Do…

March 20th, 2017 at 9:33 AM ^

You do know Tom Brady has been a member of a team that has been accused of massively cheating for over a decade, right? That's one of the reasons people hate him. Jordan was a winner that everyone hated too - but he was also a complete asshole with an insane gambling problem - that could also be the reason.  People don't like assholes.

grumbler

March 20th, 2017 at 5:01 PM ^

The Patriots have been accused of cheating because they are successful.  Even their "great scandal" of spygate ends up being a shadow show; teams can do exactly what NE was doing even today, so long as the cameraman has a distinctive jersey.  So the "great cheating" turns out to be not having a cameraman in a distinctive enough jersey.

Now, there s no doubt that Bellichek looks for every edge, and some people think him using obscure rules is cheating, but the fact is that, if the rulebook allows it, it is not, in fact, cheating.

Disliking Coach B because he is generally humorless asshole is understandable.