By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Assignment Editor
During the halftime of CBS’s coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game, the network televised Michigan head coach, John Beilein’s halftime speech.
The Burt, N.Y. native congratulated his team on an excellent half, although they were only leading by one. He told his players the game was worth the price of admission, gave them some pointers and implored them to continue the effort.
Although the Wolverines didn’t walk away victorious, this exchange with his players showed me Beilein genuinely cares about his players.
This was a welcome change of pace after a week of being constantly bombarded with stories on disgraced former Rutgers coach Mike Rice.
Rice was fired April 3 after videos of Rutgers’ practice were shown on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.” The videos showed the third-year coach hurling basketballs at un-expecting players from short distances, shoving them, using homophobic slurs and generally acting insane.
The media and general public rightfully vilified Rice for his actions. NBA players added merit to the cause in tweeting their disgust with the situation.
Miami Heat forward LeBron James said he’d have “whooped” on Rice if he were coaching James’ son. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant criticized Rice’s coaching ability and said he was on a “power trip.”
It seemed that everyone, aside from a few anonymous lowlifes on Twitter, was against Rice’s “coaching tactics.”
That was, until Fox News got involved.
Sean Hannity, host of Fox News’s “Hannity” and well-known crazy person, defended Rice’s actions on his show Friday. While speaking to guest, Michelle Malkin, Hannity chalked up Rice’s behavior to “trying to bring out the best in them, put discipline in that team.”
While any reasonable person should be in favor of a coach establishing a disciplined program, I’d think Hannity would draw the line at abuse.
Apparently not.
The much-maligned host went on to say he was hit with a belt as a child and he turned out “ok.” Malkin agreed and added that she was hit with “more than a belt.”
Besides condoning abuse, baselessly blaming the so-called “liberal media” (for a tape that was leaked by ESPN) and ignoring the homophobic slurs, Hannity and Malkin totally ignored the entire basketball angle.
Why did two people who admitted to not knowing much about the sport feel their opinions should be valued over those who play the game for a living?
Perhaps if they did research on the sport before spewing mindless nonsense, they would have come across John Wooden.
The late Wooden led UCLA to 10 NCAA Championships between 1964 and 1975. He was able to be so successful because he knew his role was to mold men above all else.
Wooden was once quoted as saying, “what you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.”
Wooden understood his responsibility just as Beilein does now. Someone like Mike Rice or Sean Hannity will never understand this.
Perhaps this is why Rice finished his career at Rutgers with a losing record.
This is also why come November, Beilein will look on as a National runner-up banner is raised to the rafters of the Crisler Center while Rice will be at home, presumably throwing basketballs at his cats.
Taylor Nigrelli is the sports assignment editor for The Bona Venture. His email is nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu.
