College basketball coaches should get off the court and back in the box

Note to college basketball coaches: Get off the court.

Back in early January, Matt Norlander of CBS Sports wrote a column about coaches not only going beyond the 28-foot area known as the “coaching box” but their tendency to “stride onto the floor as if it’s their territory, even though it’s not.”

Unfortunately, since then the behavior has only grown worse.

If you were watching Texas A&M’s 85-69 victory over No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday in College Station, you saw Aggies coach Buzz Williams turn into a human pogo stick in an attempt to call a timeout to the point he was all the way out to midcourt while players were running around him so as not to collide with the crazy man in dress clothes.

At the other end of the floor, you could see Tennessee coach Rick Barnes pointing at Williams and furiously complaining to the officials that a technical foul should be called. Instead, Williams was assessed a mere warning. No harm, no foul.

“Absolutely that should have been a technical foul,” said Barnes on his Monday night “Vol Calls” show. “I’m going to put a new drill in. Anytime you see a coach on the floor you have to run over him. You have to hit him.”

If put into practice, there would be a lot of hitting going on.

Williams’ stunt may have been the most egregious, but it followed earlier flagrant violations by Marquette’s Shaka Smart and Saint Louis’ Travis Ford who were so far out on the floor during play that they nearly ran into players.

Then there’s our own John Calipari, who has a long history of regarding the coaching box as a suggestion not a rule. Whether Calipari is yelling instructions to his team or screaming at an official, the Kentucky coach is often so far out on the floor he could easily be whistled for being a sixth man. At this point, I’m surprised some confused Wildcat hasn’t passed him the ball.

What happened to the old John Wooden belief that if the late, great UCLA coach was up off the bench the entire 40 minutes it would be an admission that he did not have his team prepared for the game?

I know, I know, we’re in a different time now. Every game is on television. And coaches apparently want to show the fans in the stands and the television audience at home that they are trying as hard as they possibly can to coach their teams to victory.

And in some cases, I also think the coaches think they are the show. They’re not. The game is about the players. You know, the people who actually make the shots, grab the rebounds and play defense. Or at least the game is supposed to be about the players.

As much as I blame the coaches, I blame the officials more. Barnes is right. Buzz should have been hit with a “T” last Saturday. So should plenty of other coaches who venture beyond the box. (I’m looking at you Eric Musselman, Tom Izzo and especially Danny Hurley.) The officials are there to enforce the rules, not chit-chat with the coaches, or listen to their never-ending complaints or sidestep them to avoid a sideline pileup.

After all, this season’s NCAA men’s basketball rulebook included this notation as a point of concern: “Additional focus/attention should be given to the consistent enforcement of bench decorum, the coaching box and unsporting conduct ruled for both players and bench personnel.”

It’s called a “coaching box” for a reason. Leaving the box once should be grounds for a warning. Leaving twice should be a technical foul. And stepping out on the floor during play for any reason should be a technical foul. An automatic technical foul.

Earlier this month, Baylor coach Scott Drew received his first game ejection after going outside the box twice to argue calls. Baylor AD Mack Rhoades was fined $25,000 by the Big 12 for criticizing the officials after the game.

Sorry Mack, we need to see more of those ejections, not less.

This Kentucky basketball team doesn’t do the dirty work. And that’s on John Calipari.

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