I love when Morehead State plays on TV. There just aren’t enough jokes invoking the juvenile irony of the name Morehead to fill 40 minutes of basketball action (but that doesn’t stop anyone from trying).
Then, something like this happens, spoiling any desire to enjoy the name Morehead (hehe).
Morehead State, along with new coach Sean Woods, traveled to Lexington, KY, to take on perennial super-power Kentucky on Wednesday. Coach Woods is a former UK standout, and he had the young Wildcats in his sights.
Woods makes no bones about his disdain for the John Calipari philosophy, and he doesn’t feel that the current Kentucky players have a sense of identity that pay proper respect to UK’s illustrious basketball history. Woods wanted the win — badly. And his squad was competing.
As Kentucky rallied for a late second half push, Woods became incredibly frustrated with the play of his point guard, Devon Atkinson. Have a look:
Eep. It doesn’t look good. Doesn’t look good at all. It seemed that multiple coaches were frustrated with the play of Atkinson down the stretch, but Woods felt it necessary to send a message. So, he sent his message in front of the 24,000-plus in Lexington, as well as the national TV audience.
I empathize with the need for coaches to serve as benevolent dictators, but this was a significant faux-pas. Ultimately, you want to motivate players, not humiliate them. Having said that, there are two sides to every story.
Now, it seems that the Morehead brass (yep, it’s just begging for a zinger) is considering disciplinary action against Woods. And I must ask: why?
They should tell Woods that such behavior is not acceptable, but allow him to simply apologize and move on. Disciplinary action for a coach getting mad at a player? I just don’t get it.
