He’s one of those old school coaches that are in the midst of the situation that isn’t in his wheelhouse. Kids are different, no, the adults are different … whatever you want to say. The situation is different. His way doesn’t work well anymore. You can’t be hard nose with most kids. You can’t tough love them. You can’t make them tougher. Because many will just wilt and leave. They can’t handle what players 20 and 30 years ago and it’s flipped to where players have the power (no sitting out).
I didn’t like their styles, per se, but guys like Bobby Knight, Huggy … “demanding” for more doesn’t work - I responded much better to that that type in my youth than the “have a lifesaver” after a loss type of coach. To each his own. But I do think the toughness to soft ratio dramatically flipped, slowly at first … then it just flipped. If kids were tough, you wouldn’t see transfers to the level you see it. In the vast majority of cases, I don’t like transfers (there are, however, “good” reasons to consider transferring, imo). But most of the reasons are more playing time. And to me that translates to, most of the time - I couldn’t beat the guy in front of me, I cannot deal with being a secondary player on a team … which is usually explained as … the coach isn’t fair. Coaches are going to put the players on the floor that give them the best chance at winning. Hey, sometimes they misjudge. But they’re the coach.
I think it used to be about “team” and it’s still that way for the program type of schools which are typically the most successful schools. Now it’s about me. I honestly don’t recall that being a significant issue growing up … and didn’t see it during that Tark era. Not outwardly anyway. Not near the extend we see today.
