The Mike Montgomery Shove

Yeah, that was that year... They definitely can blur together.

 

Without veering into the territory of saying the push was ok (it was not), I disagree that a coach is no different than a professor or a boss. How many bosses and professors go into people's homes to sell their family atmosphere? Many athletes look at their coach like a parental figure and their teammates like family. That does not happen in a class and rarely happens at work. Like it or not, a coach is different. At least usually.

 

The 2000 NCAA tournament was insane, not unlike that year's NFL playoffs. One postseason saw the effects of stars jumping from high school to the NBA, the other saw how life was with the salary cap.

NFL conference title games: Jackonsville vs. Nashville, Tampa Bay vs. St. Louis.
Final Four: Wisconsin and Florida -- neither of whom had been taken seriously as basketball schools -- alongside a No. 8 seed (even if it was North Carolina).

 

People like Three Bags Full would know this better than I would, but as I understand it, in the military drill instructors are not allowed to shove recruits or swear at them.
If they can get the job done with those rules, I see no reason why coaches can't.

 

That's why they have to bring in soldiers' older brothers to motivate them.

 

All this says is that we've decided coaches are different because we've decided coaches are different.

As SmallP points out however, there are lots of other in loco parentis jobs of the same kind - drill instructor, camp counselor, scoutmaster, etc. - in which any kind of physical contact with a young person is going to get you instantly fired/sued/indicted.

And at least at the graduate level there's plenty of 'living room' recruiting going on for academic and research fellowships.

 

Who could blame the player if he gave the coach a hard shove back?

"Hell, I was fired-up, too. Coach understands that now."

It might not be acceptable, but it would have been hilarious to see Montgomery land on his ass after a reflex move by Crabbe. What could Coach say then?

 

How old are you?

I think there has been a sea change in attitudes towards this kind of stuff in the last 20 years or so.

Knight's career at IU going down in flames due to player abuse was probably the turning point.

 

And fully justified it by scoring a whopping 41 points in the FF.

 

Dick Bennett ain't sorry.

 

Wiscaaaaaansin was also an 8 that year.

Florida was seen as up-and-coming with Donovan, that's for sure. Michigan State was the clear class of the nation.

Agreed on all points.

But Knight's career really went down in flames because of the lack of hardware over his last seven seasons.