Myles Dread’s commitment to Penn State
Just about one week ago, our Penn State Basketball coach Pat Chambers was suspended for pushing one of his players during a time-out midway through the first half of the game against the University of Michigan. Myles Dread, a freshman from Detroit, Michigan, did not help out on defense during the previous play when a Michigan player drove to the basket, allowing them to score an easy 2-points and further their lead against the Nittany Lions. Chambers was not suspended by the NCAA, but rather the Penn State Athletic Director, who determined that Chambers should sit out for one game given his actions on the court.
Pat Chambers full of emotion at the Penn State vs. Michigan game
With the background out of the way, the controversy stems with the recent shift toward a safer, more politically correct game versus the old-fashioned way to motivate athletes to make them perform their best. Here is a link to the video of where the incident occurred.
Pat Chambers later apologized for his actions
Let’s dive further into the arguments by both sides. First, one side of the argument believes that a coach should never push one his players, especially a freshman. There are plenty of alternative ways to motivate your players and if you are having to result to a fear-based method of motivation, you should be punished for your actions. Even if this punishment is primarily a way to prevent further, more intense altercations to occur, it should be enforced in order to establish the boundary between the coach and his respect for his players.
On the other hand, this slight push is the way coaches have motivated their players for decades upon decades. Many sports fanatics believe all sports are becoming to “soft” and want to see more physicality in sports. In an interview about the suspension ruling on Pat Chambers, Tom Izzo, the Michigan State Basketball coach, called the suspension “a joke”, proclaiming “if we’re that fragile, … I have a problem with it”. I would encourage you to watch the full interview in order to see the polar opposite opinion on the situation than what the media and news portraited.
Penn State lost to Michigan 68-55
Personally, I agree with Tom Izzo’s statements and positioning on the subject. As a multi-sport athlete for my entire life, I understand the demanding requirements and respect my coach for trying to motivate me in any way possible in order for me to perform my best in every game. I understand the political aspect of the push and how in this day and age, it is unethical to do that to a player that means so much to you, but I still believe that the true intentions of Pat Chambers were to motivate Myles Dread in a huge game.
As always, I am curious to hear your opinion on the situation.
Thank you for reading. Signing off, Woz.
I had no idea that this incident occurred, thank you for educating me! I agree in the sense that Chambers did not have malicious intent whenever he pushed Myles Dread, he was simply trying to motivate him. My dad played basketball back in the day, and this situation would not be nearly as big as a deal as it is now. If Dread felt that this incident did offend him, then Chambers should have been punished. If Dread did not think this was abuse, however, the media should not have blown in out of proportion. We still have to consider, however, that oftentimes athletes would feel awkward or ungrateful if they pointed out a behavior in their coach that made them uncomfortable.
I agree with you that motivation is key for athletes and sometimes a push is needed to actually get it across to the athlete. I believe the physical motivation can be a huge help for many athletes especially at a college level. A coach must know the limits of his physically motivation though.