It's Shawn.
I'm sure every newspaper in America will adopt that pun-induced headline on Tuesday if the Bulldogs can pull off the upset against Duke. While the Butler-Michigan St. slugfest did make me long for the up-tempo days when teams like Loyola-Marymount and UNLV would regularly eclipse the century mark, I am pulling for the Bulldogs.
The West Virginia-Duke semifinal was a dog, although I was taken aback twice while watching the game. First, I learned Bob Huggins was twice an Academic All-American during his playing days at West Virginia. That's not what most would expect, considering Huggins' track record of recruiting poor students during his tenure at Cincinnati. Although to be fair, Huggins roster at WV features some players that are very good students. I digress. The other surreal moment occured when Huggins came to the aid of injured player Da'Sean Butler. Huggins got down on the floor and straddled Butler for what seemed like an hour, and whisperered to his player. Huggins face was literally two centimeters from Butler's face. I honestly thought he was going to kiss him. I understand how close the bond can be between players and coaches, but Huggins took it to another level. Weird.
Until next time..
Shawn
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4 comments:
Next person I hear say "The Butler Did It" will get a cat thrown at their head. I didn't spend two tours in Korea, including 2 months in a POW camp, to be subjected to this type of torture in my homeland.
Shawn - I think you misunderstood the coach's actions. He was trying to comfort the injured player and trying to keep his mind off the pain. Not weird at all.
I thought Huggins' actions were strange as well. As a coach I understand the need to comfort a player that is injured and have done so many times, but never in the manner that Huggins did during that game. I mean seriously, how much is too much? If it were a male coach comforting a female player that way would you not think it was a tad inappropriate? I know right now you're saying to yourself "that's a completely different situation" but is it really?
You have an adult man caressing a young man's face while practically nose to nose and straddling him. That strikes me as odd. He could have handled the whole thing by kneeling beside the player and talking him through things maybe even holding his hand. I am NOT saying that Huggins is some sort of pervert, I just think he should have responded differently to the situation.
Some people are saying it's the most iconic and touching memory from the tournament...I think it stands out as the moment that made most people uncomfortable.
It made you uncomfortable? That says more about your issues than it does about Coach Huggins and how he handled the situation. It seemed to me that Da'Sean was moving around a lot because of pain and Coach Huggins was trying to keep him still. Huggins did what he thought was right in the moment and he knows his player best. It seemed to me that he didn't care what other people thought - he cared about his player. I'd rather have a ooach do what's best for me rather than a ooach who chooses actions based on what's considered more appropriate to the people watching.
If Da'Sean thought it was strange or it made him feel uncomfortable maybe you'd have a point, but in all his post game comments he seemed to feel the opposite.
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