Coaches screaming at players is not March madness – Latest News
This March Madness, fragility is out and resilience and grit are in.
Just look at the viral clip of Maryland ladies’s basketball coach Brenda Frese unapologetically up within the grill of her guard Oluchi Okananwa.
It was so intense, so close, Frese appeared like she was seconds away from eating Okananwa’s nostril. Then she screamed the phrases, “I believe in you.”
Maryland coach Brenda Frese went viral after her excessive closeup together with her guard Oluchi Okananwa, who later stated she needs to be coached laborious. @sportingnews/X
The staff misplaced, however it sparked an online debate about teaching kinds in our present period.
Okananwa seemingly wasn’t thinking about becoming a member of the argument.
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“I love to be coached hard, and that’s what she does with me every single day,” she stated of Frese.
Over the final decade or so, a lot has been made of the shift from robust love self-discipline to a softer, gentler method that is more appropriate with a era raised by helicopter dad and mom. Schools have adopted social emotional studying, the place the emphasis is on emotions.Gentle parenting and poisonous masculinity turned half of our lexicon. Coaching at all ranges has adopted.
Last season, Rick Pitino’s fiery speech to his staff helped them flip the sport round and went viral as an instance of Pitino’s depth. NY Post Sports/Facebook
But during this yr’s hoops extravaganza, we’ve seen very healthy shows of intense, laborious teaching with all of the screaming and spit flying. Yes, it’s been great for these of us who prefer to say, “back in my day” and invoke the great patron saint of flying chairs, Bobby Knight.
It does, nonetheless, beg the query: Has the demise of old-fashioned teaching been tremendously exaggerated? Perhaps we’re, fortunately, seeing the decline of coddling. Or possibly it’s simply the normal strategies and coaches, who stress mental toughness, have been prevailing.
Simply put, the higher method is profitable.
UConn coach Danny Hurley has two national championships and a popularity for depth. Getty Images
Some of probably the most viral and impactful moments have been courtesy of the outdated guard. During their decisive defeat of Northern Iowa, St. John’s Rick Pitino was seen screaming at guard Lefteris Liotopoulos.
In a post-game presser, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, who has one national championship and 28 consecutive appearances within the event, made sure to “not apologize” for his philosophy that breeds competitiveness.
He added: “That’s the American way, except America has gone soft.”
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, 70, boasted he “knocked the ego out [of his players] early” in a post-game presser.
At 71, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes prioritizes hard-nosed, disciplined hoops. Then there’s UConn coach Danny Hurley, who is so intense, we’re prepared for his head to pop on reside tv.
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo known as America “soft” whereas Charles Barkley praised his screaming teaching model. AP
Hurley, 53, has two national championships and a lifetime of knowledge from his father, Bob Hurley Sr., the legendary disciplinarian who turned St. Anthony’s in Jersey City into a high college powerhouse.
All their groups stay in rivalry.
There’s no higher story in school hoops now than St. John’s, the place Rick Pitino has turn out to be the architect of the not possible. He’s taken the as soon as vaunted program from many years of irrelevance to actual title contenders.
Thanks to a Vice docuseries about final season, audiences have been granted a entrance row seat to his building course of — and it isn’t for the faint of coronary heart.
In one episode, St. John’s was down at the half to Providence, when Pitino launched into a profanity-laced tirade questioning the power of each fiber in his players’ our bodies.
“You’re like children with bad things happening. Instead of digging in and being tougher, you wilt. Where is your f–king toughness,” he screamed. “Where have you guys raised that you’re so weak mentally, that you just f–king give up.”
Michigan State Tom Izzo, who has gained a national championship, is not one to sugar coat his emotions. @TaylorTwellman/x
Last week, Charles Barkley praised Izzo as “one of the few coaches who can still yell at his players.”
“We got these babies out here now … The last couple of years, the media — who don’t know anything about sports because they never played — say, ‘Why is he yelling at his players?’ That’s called coaching. He cares,” stated Barkley.
We’re so delicate today, we don’t understand these guys aren’t gratuitously yelling. They’re developing younger males and younger champions.
It’s notably fascinating that these stalwarts are thriving in 2025, when Name, Image and Likeness and the switch portal have, in some instances, flipped the ability dynamics. The athletes, now getting paid effectively, are more in charge of their future. They are additionally capable of hop to a different college to search out a coach who will flatter them.
In a viral tweet, a self-proclaimed coach on X questioned if Pitino was proper to scream at his guard Lefteris Liotopoulos during the sport towards Northern Iowa. @bballbreakdown/x
Especially in hoops, younger athletes are at all times taking part in for his or her subsequent “contract” to make more money, and ink profitable endorsements. But are they emotionally prepared for it? Or will it turn out to be a false end line, the place they imagine they’ve made it as a result of they’ve money?
They could have stuff, however they’ve no concept what to do with it, as a result of they by no means had the benefit of being in a coach’s system that in the end offers guardrails. It’s one thing they need whereas their frontal lobes are nonetheless forming.
And it’s seemingly that some need that problem of taking part in for a maniac. Look at St. John’s star Zuby Ejiofor who got here to Queens from Kansas three years in the past. Among many issues, Coach Pitino turned him into the Big East Player of the Year, and a NBA prospect. Recently, his father stated Zuby had been provided tens of millions to come back to different colleges. But they turned it down as a result of they have been loyal to Pitino and St. John’s.
Yes, these coaches will do something it takes to win however, in the end, they’re instructing more than hoops — and society advantages.
As Pitino stated, “Your whole life is going to be adversity, learn how to f–king deal with it.”
