The Jihad the Second National Effect
I am an assistant D1 basketball coach and the effects of the 2nd Jihad are showing themselves nationally.
I do not coach in the state of Michigan, nor am I even close to the state, so I had to answer a lot of questions when The Dolphin Puncher threw-up on newsprint. Most of the people here only got their M breaking rules news from ESPN. Very discouraging.
I watched the first half of the Western game with our head coach and explained how Stokes and Hawthorne were taken out of context, how they came to RR asking what they did wrong, and that is why RR was so emotional during the press conference. He said "That's wrong. Just wrong," as he shook his head. I explained Toney Clemons, le dolphin punchaire, etc. to him.
Why does this matter? All of the coaches went over to his house last night to talk about our workouts. We were talking about who we wanted with who, what days, countable hours, changes coming up in the NCAA calender, etc.
Our Head Coach told us this story: He went by the store to pick up some beer on the way to his house and the guy checking him out asked him what he thought of RR and the allegations. He told him that Michigan wasn't doing anything that anyone else wasn't doing and how he's had a ton of support. But at anytime one player can get upset and turn you in, even if the allegations aren't true. Our Head Coach told us we needed to make sure that our guys understand what is countable. He said that we have great kids, but we never know if Player A doesn't get to play enough to his liking then he may become Toney Clemons(he used the name of a former player here).
I think we, MGoBloggers, are all in agreement that nothing wrong happened. We didn't break rules before Rosenberg's article where I coach, but now we have to explain ourselves to our own players? The effect he has had/will continue to have is nothing short of ridiculous.
P.S.: I know that "punchaire" is not puncher in Frencher.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:05 AM ^
thanks for sharing. It is easy to imagine that most D1 programs will review policies with coaches and players as a result of the sh*t storm that Michigan (Coach Rod in particular) have unnecessarily lived through. While there will be lingering misperceptions across the country for people that didn't dig into the details. However, one thing is certain:
Elephants, Schembechler, and Michigan fans don't forget. So if you see Voldemort Rosenberg ask him why he punches dolphins. And please don't visit their website for any reason.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:14 AM ^
There's no football program or business that couldn't but put in a bad light by an anonymous source (or three).
That includes the Freep, by the way.
Would they put anonymous complaints by current or former employees on the front page?
Just asking...
September 11th, 2009 at 12:20 PM ^
Good post, thanks for sharing.
Are you guys planning on educating your players about countable and non-countable hours as well? There are so many NCAA rules and regulations that it's hard to stay on top of everything, I guess.
September 11th, 2009 at 12:54 PM ^
The rule book is so thick that is hard to know everything yourself. I also am quite knew at this and make no attempts at trying to act like I know everything.
We have really good guys on our team and for the most part I think they trust us that we aren't exceeding the rules. One of our coaches will have a talk with a team leader(s)/captain(s) and make sure they are aware of rules and regulations. But I would say that over 2/3rds of the college basketball players out there don't have any idea what the rules are.
When I was in school we knew some, but by no means all, of the rules and we joked amongst ourselves about threatening to turn ourselves in if we get out of a day of practice once or twice during my "career." It is very hard to abide by all of the rules and rules are broken all the time, even if unintentionally. Not many people will tell you that in public, but behind closed doors everyone from university Presidents to Athletic Directors to Head Coaches to Compliance people will tell you that.
For instance, I believe the rule reads that members of the athletic staff can't provide transportation more than once to or from school for a student-athlete. I know of a story where a school had already provided transportation from the airport at the start of one school year and at the start of the next school year the student-athlete arranged to be picked up at the airport. He had his ride drop him off at the coaches offices to say hello when arriving on campus. After saying hello, a coach drove the student-athlete and his bags to his dorm. This violated the rule previously stated, as a member of the athletic staff provided the same student-athlete transportation twice.