Vote! Weigh in on Coaching Tactic: Healthy Competitor or Despicable Cheat?

[keefe]

POLL: Should Crean be suspended for ordering his players to flop?

http://kentucky.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1383&tid=185587198&mid=185587198&sid=888&style=2

[wardle2wade]

No, but Crean definitely lost some cred with college hoops fans who didn't have a bad word about him prior... at least that's my take from reddit and twitter.

[keefe]

What's shocking is that there is a pattern of behavior to cheat. But Sheehey's acting job was so atrocious he was completely unable to sell it, even if the refs were looking to buy. Crean should be ashamed.

[4everwarriors]

Dude is the bottom of the barrel.

[CTWarrior]

If you were to suspend Crean for ordering flopping, I think we would have to take Coach K out back and shoot him.  Nobody spends more time perfecting the art of the flop than Coach K's Duke teams. 

[tower912]

Duke and Wiscy both flop as part of their normal defense.    Crean was trying to gain an advantage, stretch the game, and maybe steal a possession and got caught on camera.   Lesson:   don't get caught on camera.    Tempest in a teapot.     Heck, I have to give him credit.   It was a creative in-game adjustment.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

"I am doing great. I have been thinking about you alot since last weekend. A whole lot. How are you doing?"

Despicable cheat.

[NavinRJohnson]

Neither. He's just a narcissitic douche with dyed hair.

[Henry Sugar]

Good. Another thread where people can bicker about Crean.

Helpful and productive.

[LAMUfan]

I really don't have a problem with this, its a desperate moment in the game, do what you got to do.  If I was an IU fan and they weren't trying to steal a win I would be pissed

[tower912]

Reading that thread on the Kentucky board taught me a few things.   1.  It is permissible on some boards to criticize a coach of another team, even if your team doesn't play them this year.   2.   They thought the Zeller fake crotch punch was just as bad.  3.   There are a lot of college basketball fans out there who hold Crean in low esteem, far more than on this board and in far lower esteem.  4.  We are a bunch of pikers when it comes to vitriol.  

Crean was trying to steal a possession.   If he gets that call, IU has a chance to tie the game.  It was his last arrow and he played it.  

[RushmoreAcademy]

One thing is true. He is the only coach willing to stoop to this level.

Let's start the conversation when Crean does something worth mentioning, like kicking a player from the opposing team as they go by in the handshake line.  That is good for jail time.

[MerrittsMustache]

Reading that thread on the Kentucky board taught me a few things.   1.  It is permissible on some boards to criticize a coach of another team, even if your team doesn't play them this year.   2.   They thought the Zeller fake crotch punch was just as bad.  3.   There are a lot of college basketball fans out there who hold Crean in low esteem, far more than on this board and in far lower esteem.  4.  We are a bunch of pikers when it comes to vitriol.  

Crean was trying to steal a possession.   If he gets that call, IU has a chance to tie the game.  It was his last arrow and he played it.  

Kentucky fans aren't exactly unbiased when it comes to IU basketball, especially since they hold Crean largely responsible for ending the UK-IU series.

Crean did nothing wrong in terms of the flopping. Do what you have to do to win. If the refs call it in your favor and you steal a win, good for you.

[mileskishnish72]

Add UNC to the list of chronic floppers. My favorite SI cover was Joh Keuster flopping onto his while Butch Lee was going in for a layup. Nice D.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Isn't this the exact kind of thing that the superbar was started for?

[JakeBarnes]

I like that they nicknamed him "clappy."

[keefe]

Kentucky fans aren't exactly unbiased when it comes to IU basketball, especially since they hold Crean largely responsible for ending the UK-IU series.

Crean did nothing wrong in terms of the flopping. Do what you have to do to win. If the refs call it in your favor and you steal a win, good for you.

Hang on, you're not seriously suggesting that instructing your players to Lie & Cheat is acceptable, are you?

Forget Crean, if Buzz Williams did something that despicable I would be outraged. Perhaps even more so than with Crean because with Tanned Tommy it's not surprising.

If authority directed Lying & Cheating is acceptable behavior then America is more F#cked than I thought. Whatever happened to character?

[hairy worthen]

Hang on, you're not seriously suggesting that instructing your players to Lie & Cheat is acceptable, are you?

Forget Crean, if Buzz Williams did something that despicable I would be outraged. Perhaps even more so than with Crean because with Tanned Tommy it's not surprising.

If authority directed Lying & Cheating is acceptable behavior then America is more F#cked than I thought. Whatever happened to character?

You should ask Unforgiven.

[MerrittsMustache]

Hang on, you're not seriously suggesting that instructing your players to Lie & Cheat is acceptable, are you?

Forget Crean, if Buzz Williams did something that despicable I would be outraged. Perhaps even more so than with Crean because with Tanned Tommy it's not surprising.

If authority directed Lying & Cheating is acceptable behavior then America is more F#cked than I thought. Whatever happened to character?

Flopping is not cheating. It's an attempt to gain an advantage and if the officials call it in your favor, so be it. Most charges in college basketball involve some flopping. Are all those charge-drawer cheaters? When Gardner flails towards the hoop with basically no chance to make the shot and a foul is called on the defender is DG a lying scoundrel who lacks character?

Lighten up, Francis. It's a basketball game.

[Henry Sugar]

Thomas Boswell:
Cheating is baseball's oldest profession. No other game is so rich in skulduggery, so suited to it or so proud of it.

George Bamberger, addressing pitcher Ross Grimsley on the mound:
If you can cheat, I wouldn't wait one pitch longer.

Gaylord Perry:
I'd always have it in at least two places, in case the umpires would ask me to wipe off one. I never wanted to be caught out there without anything. It wouldn't be professional.

Heywood Broun:
The tradition of professional baseball has been agreeably free of charity. The rule is, "Do anything you can get away with." (New York World 1923, ho 252)

George Frazier, Yankees pitcher:
I don't put any foreign substances on the baseball. Everything I use is from the good old U.S.A.

Early Wynn, after dusting his son:
I've got a right to knock down anybody holding a bat.

Leo Durocher:
I'd trip my mother. I'll help her up, brush her off, tell her I'm sorry. But mother don't make it to third.

"I've cheated, or someone on my team has cheated, in almost every game I've been in."
-- Rogers Hornsby, Hall of Famer

"I didn't begin cheating until late in my career, when I needed something to help me survive ...  I didn't cheat in 1963 when I won 24 games. Well, maybe a little."
-- Whitey Ford, Hall of Famer

"If you know how to cheat, start now."
-- Earl Weaver, Hall of Famer

"No, we don't cheat. And even if we did, I'd never tell you."
-- Tommy Lasorda, Hall of Famer

"Anything short of murder is OK."
-- Dick Williams, Hall of Famer

"[A player holding the base runner down] ... I don't call that cheating. I call that heads-up baseball. Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it."
-- Leo Durocher, Hall of Famer

[Bocephys]

I like that they nicknamed him "clappy."

That is fantastic.

[akmarq]

If authority directed Lying & Cheating is acceptable behavior then America is more F#cked than I thought. Whatever happened to character?

I've got some credit default swaps I'd love to sell you.

[jesmu84]

This was a topic on PTI. Kornheiser said it was strategy. Wilbon said it was garbage and unsportsmanlike.

[keefe]

This was a topic on PTI. Kornheiser said it was strategy. Wilbon said it was garbage and unsportsmanlike.

I've always respected Michael Wilbon. Much more than Tony Kornheiser, actually.