March (Tom Izzo was so Mad!)ness

For context, I will explain to you that March Madness is the name for the NCAA basketball tournament that begins every year in March.  I hope you knew that.  The one-and-done nature of this national championship played out over 3 weeks every spring creates a days long, non-stop basketball frenzy where business production decreases and company bandwidth usage increases.  Buzzer-beating shots, Cinderella teams and “One Shining Moment” are the highlights of the most exciting college tournament is sports.

Although controversies and conversations are all a part of the March Madness discussion, topics usually center on questions like “Why does Duke gets all the calls?” (which, they do) and “Why does Duke get all the calls?” oh, wait, I already said that one.

Anyway…

The first weekend of this years tournament took on a new type of controversy and conversation that centered on a fiery coach having an intense conversation with one of his players.  Tom Izzo, Michigan State head coach, walked out on the court during a time out to meet one of his freshman players, Aaron Henry and proceeded to actually yell at him.  He yelled at him in front of other people.  On TV even.  Here is the video if you have not seen it.  (Warning: hide your children – this type of violence shouldn’t be shown on television)

Here is what I see in the video: Izzo walked towards Henry and pointed a finger pretty much right into Henry’s chest, guard Cassius Winston got between the coach and the player and then after the team sat down, Izzo continued to go after Henry during a timeout as other players continued to intervene.  At the time, 16:48 was left to go in the second half and Michigan State was up by five points over a pesky, over-matched Bradley team. 

Yawn.

The video is what it is, but like most things in life – how you interpret this situation between Izzo and his player is based on your own narrative of how the world should operate.  The range of comments from “what an embarrassment to coaching” to “that’s just tough love” were all out there.  There were calls on Izzo to apologize for publicly berating a player (which he refused to do) but for me, I just didn’t see this incident as needing to rise to level of national scrutiny that it received for a couple of reasons:

1. This is a college game.  These are adults who have all chosen to be in that moment at that time.  This was not some middle school league championship, where some 7th grade coach (thinking he is Tom Izzo) goes off on some 12 year old.  Nobody, outside of a parent should go off on a 12 year old, unless imminent danger is present.  This is a college level discussion that needs to stay at the college level.  Coaching takes on a different role at each developmental level which means, just because Izzo got in the face of his player, doesn’t mean that its OK for every coach to do the same.
2. This wasn’t about being a bully.  Bullying is about persistent, negative, intimidating behavior used to demean and make a person feel less than.  I could find no evidence of Henry being singled out, or called names, or being isolated, or being made fun of, or forced to do things that were not expected of any player on that team.  Izzo did not choke his player, nor did he throw a basketball at him to get his attention.  He definitely yelled at him and in this situation, I think that was OK.
3. This wasn’t about power.  The power of a head coach is inherent to the position.  Teams are not democracies because teams do not get fired for losing seasons, only head coaches and athletic directors do.  Izzo was not yelling at his player in order to assert dominance.  Izzo was yelling at his player because that’s what Tom Izzo does.  When Tom Izzo sat in Aaron Henry’s house and invited him to Michigan State, Aaron’s parents knew their son might get (will probably get) yelled at at some point.  Knowing the potential trauma this may cause, they sent him to Michigan State any way.
4. This wasn’t about a philosophy of “everyone needs to be able to take an ass-chewing.”  That philosophy does operate from a position of power and is rooted in intimidation.  Waiting around for someone to screw up in order for them to have their “ass-chewed” just to see how they respond is not good coaching nor good leadership and that’s not what happened here.
5. It is clear that Izzo and Henry have a strong relationship.  People respond in different ways when challenged.  Some people truly benefit from this type of coaching and actually prefer it, whereas others, not so much.  You can be assured that Izzo knew about Henry’s triggers before he got after him, otherwise, why would he risk having his player fold during the most critical game of the season?  After a years long recruitment and five months of practicing together for several hours a day, a coach learns what motivates his players.  Good coaches know this.
6. Team culture was obvious.  If Tom Izzo was the “tyrant” that social media claims him to be, there is no way that other players on the team would have felt empowered to intervene.  Tyrants rule without opposition, but that was not the case with Michigan State.  If the other players sat there and stared at the floor during this incident, then maybe I would buy the argument that Tom Izzo is just a jerk who  likes to intimidate his players, but thats not what happened at Michigan State.  No one was intimidated by this incident, all it did was fire them up, like they knew it was coming which was evidenced by their subsequent play on the court.

This is just my view on an incident that played out over one weekend during March Madness.  Perhaps Tom Izzo could have gotten his message across in another way than yelling at his player.  I know his actions made some people uncomfortable.  Some view this incident as an example of the “old-school” type of coaching that needs to go away and at pre-college levels, I think there is some merit to this discussion.  However, when the adult player says he “wants to be coached hard” and then his coach coaches him hard, I guess I didn’t see what the big deal was.

Now to get back to more important matters during this tournament – such as rooting against Duke to get to the championship.  Oh, they lost?  Really?  To who?  Must have been a really well-coached team.