http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFPxFvQLv0k
Cal Basketball Coach Mike Montgomery was rightfully tired of the play of his now-previously lethargic California Golden Bears, and without really thinking about it, decided to do something about it. That something came in the form of a kind of chest-bump, “Let’s get this thing going” action made to Alan Crabbe.
Coach Montgomery didn’t mean to hit Crabbe, or scare him, just plain old get him going. And for that, there are some who want the University of California at Berkeley to punish Coach M for what he did. Indeed, the Pac-12 has just announced it’s doing just that.
That’s really too bad.
What Mike Montgomery did was the right action at the right time. It got Alan’s attention, fired up the team, fueled Cal’s 40 to 20 point run, and led to a much-needed win against Southern Cal.
That’s sports.
The coach is suppose to meter out discipline for poor play, and at times that calls for an action that gets the attention of a player like Mr. Crabbe, who has, at more times than not, been too easy going for the good of Cal Basketball.
It’s not enough to be the best player on the team; in order to win championships, you have to rise to extraordinary levels. The job of a good coach is to know when to do that, and that certainly marks Mike Montgomery.
It’s important to note that the critics of Coach Mike’s action don’t know what it takes to motivate men to win in an era where even parental spanking can get a Mom or Dad sent to jail – meanwhile the son or daughter is free to do drugs or get guns and become a potential menace to society.
We’ve produced an entire generation – arguably two generations – of total wusses, who are more interested in maintaining their freedom to be slackers, than really improving society or themselves.
It’s against that backdrop that Mike Montgomery is expected to field a winning program. He can’t always do it with smooth talking, a zen-like posture, and nice suits. Sometimes a good, old fashioned kick in the ass is necessary to wake a team up – give the coach a break or three for using a little good old-fashioned kick-in-the-ass approach that was, well, not a kick-in-the-ass, but a double chuck to the abs.
One that just may have turned Cal’s season around.
Stay tuned.