jayball wrote:Bob Knight Jr.
Trimming off the rest of your post for brevity's sake, but that's a terrible comparison.
Coach Marshall is emotional and intensely driven to win. He shares very few of Knight's negative qualities, though. He has always been very respectful to his players and those around him ... he has nothing even resembling the awful controversies that surrounded Knight, which, for reflection's sake, I've trimmed down and included from Wikipedia's list:
- Choked and punched IU's longtime sports information director, Kit Klingelhoffer, in the 1970s, over a news release that upset the coach.
- Knight was accused of assaulting a police officer while coaching the US Basketball team before a practice session in Puerto Rico.
- Knight threw a chair across the court to protest a referee's call during a game against the rival Purdue Boilermakers.
- "I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it." Knight's comment was in reference to an Indiana basketball game in which he felt the referees were making poor calls against the Hoosiers.
- Knight was shown berating an NCAA volunteer at a March 1995 post-game press conference following a 65–60 loss to Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament held in Boise, Idaho.
- Former IU player Neil Reed alleged that Knight had grabbed him by the neck in a choking manner during a 1997 practice. A videotape of the incident was shown on CNN.
- On February 19, 2000, Clarence Doninger, Knight's boss, alleged to have been physically threatened by the coach during a confrontation after a game.
- An IU investigation inquired about an allegation in which Knight berated and physically intimidated a university secretary, once throwing a potted plant in anger, showering her with glass and debris. The University later asked the coach to issue an apology to the secretary.
- It was alleged that Knight attacked assistant coach Ron Felling, throwing him out of a chair after overhearing him criticizing the basketball program in a phone conversation.
- On September 8, 2000, IU freshman Kent Harvey told campus police Knight grabbed him roughly by the arm and berated him for speaking to the coach disrespectfully.
- In March 2006, a student's heckling at Baylor University resulted in Knight having to be restrained by a police officer.
- On November 13, 2006, Knight was shown allegedly hitting player Michael Prince under the chin to get him to make eye contact.
- On October 21, 2007, James Simpson of Lubbock, Texas, accused Knight of firing a shotgun in his direction after he yelled at Knight and another man for hunting too close to his home.
I don't care what your opinion of Coach Marshall is, that man has never done anything that even resembles the absolutely detestable actions of Coach Knight. Coach Marshall could get a "public reprimand" from the MVC every single year for the next twenty years and not once match even one of those.
If you have one instance of Coach Marshall raising a hand to one of his players or anyone, involved in his program or not, then we can start a "Bob Knight, Jr." comparison. If you even have any instances of him raising his voice to his own players significantly more than the average coach does, maybe I'll give you the slightest bit of leeway on that comparison. But being emotional about a loss and wanting to win does not make you comparable to that violent, misogynistic asshole, as much as you want to make the opposition look as bad as possible.
He coaches against you and that automatically makes him the enemy. I get it. I don't like McDermott either, and I'm resisting the urge to say anything negative about him here. But have the intellectual honesty not to immediately jump to comparing a man who has by all accounts been a quality coach and a good person to someone who by all accounts is a terrible person just because he made a comment that you don't like and is emotional about winning (and losing). Let's take a little bit of perspective on this issue ... he made a stupid comment about the officials, he didn't choke them or throw a chair at them.
This issue is stupid. The officiating was bad in that game. The shooting by the Shockers was worse. They lost, Marshall didn't take it well, he said something he shouldn't have said in a post game interview, he got a slap on the wrist for it.
I'm far past bored of Shocker fans that don't want to lay any responsibility for the loss on the shoulders of 30% shooting, and of fans from other colleges who want to pile on at the slightest provocation because they're jealous that WSU is getting more media attention than them this year.
At the end of the day, he said something stupid, he was punished with nothing above a slap on the wrist, and the issue was over. He should probably handle his complaints regarding games in the future in a more behind-the-scenes fashion.