"Toxic culture" at Texas Tech women's basketball

[hondo]

Worth the 15-20 minute read. Well done web presentation.

Marlene Stollings' Texas Tech program a culture of abuse, players say

 

[Moderator1]

Former VCU coach - got there after I left so I don't know her at all. Will read that later

 

[tapintoamerica]

It's damning. Most damning of all: The AD asked for an investigation, but the presentation of the findings was told to him and not written down. Therefore nothing the damned libruhl media could get a copy of.
Those coaches have chased off a dozen players in two years and seven of them were their own recruits.

 

[DanOregon]

These sort of things appear to be coming to light a lot more frequently. I have no doubt that a big part is college kids feeling more free to open up, via social media or whatever. Not sure if they always understand the ramifications, or if they are actually being treated any more harshly than the generations before. Back in the day, "going public" meant getting a significant news organization to agree to air or print your allegations and providing their "cred" to back up the charges. Now? It's different. I am stunned that so many universities seem so slow-footed in responding to these things. The Sandusky stuff was a cover-up, Penn State knew or at least actively didn't want to know - in these cases it appears the athletic departments don't care. Have no oversight and no "athlete ambassador" who can protect a player who has concerns but doesn't want to risk their status with a team.
Shouldn't the NCAA have a mechanism in place for athletes who find themselves in a situation where they don't want to risk their scholarship, but also don't feel like what is going on within their program is right?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

These sort of things appear to be coming to light a lot more frequently. I have no doubt that a big part is college kids feeling more free to open up, via social media or whatever. Not sure if they always understand the ramifications, or if they are actually being treated any more harshly than the generations before. Back in the day, "going public" meant getting a significant news organization to agree to air or print your allegations and providing their "cred" to back up the charges. Now? It's different. I am stunned that so many universities seem so slow-footed in responding to these things. The Sandusky stuff was a cover-up, Penn State knew or at least actively didn't want to know - in these cases it appears the athletic departments don't care. Have no oversight and no "athlete ambassador" who can protect a player who has concerns but doesn't want to risk their status with a team.
Shouldn't the NCAA have a mechanism in place for athletes who find themselves in a situation where they don't want to risk their scholarship, but also don't feel like what is going on within their program is right?

It's not that the athletes are unaware of the ramifications -- it's that in the vast majority of the cases, there are no ramifications. The athletic departments don't care. The university administration doesn't want to know. In the vast majority of the cases the players are run out and made to look soft because they just couldn't take it.

I mean, Kirk Ferentz still has a job. In 2020, having a zillion past players come out and describe the racial abuse heaped on them by the Iowa coaches isn't enough to threaten that clown's job, because no one gives a **** about the players.

 

[User 150927]

These sort of things appear to be coming to light a lot more frequently. I have no doubt that a big part is college kids feeling more free to open up, via social media or whatever. Not sure if they always understand the ramifications, or if they are actually being treated any more harshly than the generations before. Back in the day, "going public" meant getting a significant news organization to agree to air or print your allegations and providing their "cred" to back up the charges. Now? It's different. I am stunned that so many universities seem so slow-footed in responding to these things. The Sandusky stuff was a cover-up, Penn State knew or at least actively didn't want to know - in these cases it appears the athletic departments don't care. Have no oversight and no "athlete ambassador" who can protect a player who has concerns but doesn't want to risk their status with a team.
Shouldn't the NCAA have a mechanism in place for athletes who find themselves in a situation where they don't want to risk their scholarship, but also don't feel like what is going on within their program is right?

I think abuse was probably de facto behavior in athletic programs for a long time. I think it has changed in places, but where it's slow to do so.. the athletes have a bigger voice now. And are more likely to be believed rather than to be belittled.

 

[Songbird]

Did any of them get sent to the shed?

 

[Scout]

Heart monitors? Jesus.

Something like that goes beyond the school. If the NCAA can punish a school for giving a kid an Apple Watch, they should be able to punish them for this ****.

I’m all for tough love in practice, but **** me.

Beam in Last Chance U is a very good example of tough love and compassion off the field.

 

[hondo]

Heart monitors? Jesus.

Something like that goes beyond the school. If the NCAA can punish a school for giving a kid an Apple Watch, they should be able to punish them for this ****.

I’m all for tough love in practice, but **** me.

Beam in Last Chance U is a very good example of tough love and compassion off the field.

Yeah, the heart monitor thing bothered me. I'm glad they got the medical expert who told them having a 90 percent or above heart rate during a basketball game didn't mean you weren't playing hard.

 

[Neutral Corner]

I'd like to see the coaching staff kept at 90% or better for an hour or two, just as an experiment.

 

[Starman]

I'd guess that would bust billions of HIPAA rules and regulations.
I'd bet that any judge would rule that any permission an athlete gives to a team doctor or other medical personnel to monitor basic vital-sign information must be for strictly health-enhancement purposes.

 

[Alma]

Yeah, the heart monitor thing bothered me. I'm glad they got the medical expert who told them having a 90 percent or above heart rate during a basketball game didn't mean you weren't playing hard.

These biodata chips - it's typically larger than a chip, by the way - are used in a lot of different ways, including measure load on legs. In a football practice, for example, you can tell when a WR run too many routes and needs to give the hams a rest.

Texas Tech had a strange, inappropriate application and, of course - this is almost standard in these investigations - a lugnut for a strength coach.

They're too empowered, strength coaches. Everywhere. They're treated like these founts of knowledge and wisdom about human performance and psychology, they are often just overly intense and weirdly needy, and they need to be defanged of their power. Close the weight rooms 3 months out of the year, limit the size of S&C staffs and move on.

 

[tapintoamerica]

These biodata chips - it's typically larger than a chip, by the way - are used in a lot of different ways, including measure load on legs. In a football practice, for example, you can tell when a WR run too many routes and needs to give the hams a rest.

Texas Tech had a strange, inappropriate application and, of course - this is almost standard in these investigations - a lugnut for a strength coach.

They're too empowered, strength coaches. Everywhere. They're treated like these founts of knowledge and wisdom about human performance and psychology, they are often just overly intense and weirdly needy, and they need to be defanged of their power. Close the weight rooms 3 months out of the year, limit the size of S&C staffs and move on.

Ding. Ding. Ding.
Close the weight rooms and limit the number of offseason conditioning sessions. And stop paying them ≥ $500,000 a year.
They have become the second most powerful person on campus for any college football player. That has to stop.

 

[Alma]

Ding. Ding. Ding.
Close the weight rooms and limit the number of offseason conditioning sessions. And stop paying them ≥ $500,000 a year.
They have become the second most powerful person on campus for any college football player. That has to stop.

It's starting to mission creep into other sports, too.

It's a way for the coaches to perpetually be watching the players, is what it is. But some of these strength coaches in the smaller sports...they'd drop those sports in a heartbeat for football. Which means they keep their dickish edges sharp at all times.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

All of it is obviously disgusting, especially the strength coaches and the massive amount of covert power they seem to wield in too many D-1 programs.

And the little nugget about why Kirby Hocutt hasn't already dumped her: They would owe $2 million to do so without cause. While the easy counter is that this is sufficient cause, what's the bet that "cause" has to be major NCAA violations and/or criminal charges? It's amazing how many coaches in these circumstances walk away with seven-figure golden parachutes after committing violations because schools are apparently that frightened of litigation.

Does Sheryl Swoopes know and, if so, why hasn't she said anything? Because Marsha Sharp is still working in Texas Tech's athletic department, that explains her silence.

 

[Scout]

The strength and conditioning coach many times is the PED person on the team.

 

[Alma]

Fired.

Texas Tech fires women's basketball coach Marlene Stollings

 

[tapintoamerica]

Fired.

Texas Tech fires women's basketball coach Marlene Stollings

Wow. Surprised they did it tonight rather than waiting until the famed Friday News Dump. Surprised they did it at all. Gotta believe they found cause. Or the president discovered the courage to pull the trigger and the willingness to settle. If ever a coach deserved to be whacked, this was the one.

 

[wicked]

They're too empowered, strength coaches. Everywhere. They're treated like these founts of knowledge and wisdom about human performance and psychology, they are often just overly intense and weirdly needy, and they need to be defanged of their power. Close the weight rooms 3 months out of the year, limit the size of S&C staffs and move on.

When Jim Miller did his podcast miniseries on Alabama football, I believe an entire episode was on the strength coach. The way the players told it, you thought he was the reason Alabama won and Saban was some rando underling.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

With every athletic department 80 bazillion dollars in the red, I'd be cleaning up my act if I was a non-revenue sport treating players this way. You're not going to survive this.