“Coaches Are Just Like Five-Year-Olds”: NCAA Analysts Blast ‘Defense Antics’ After Shaka Smart’s Viral Moment

Along with fierce matchups between teams going head-to-head with each other and players getting injured, there is a new spotlight shining on an age-old, yet never addressed issue related to college basketball coaches. A recent instance involving the Marquette Golden Eagle’s head coach Shaka Smart made stirs around the internet. Smart’s sudden barging moves during a matchup against Creighton became a viral moment.

As it is known, the coaching box is a 28-foot-long area running parallel to the bench and extending past that. However, it has happened numerous times when college coaches forget to stay within that boundary. Moreover, several other things are practiced by these coaches that go unnoticed. Let’s see what the sports analysts have to say about this issue.

Shaka Smart’s viral moment becomes the gateway to a bigger problem

In a recent CBS Sports video, analysts Gary Parish and Matt Norlander talk about college basketball coaches going way past their 28-foot-long area during play. As their conversation moved forward, they started comparing the behavior of the NCAA coaches with the coaches in the NBA.

Gary Parish said, “In the NBA, you’re not going to see coaches very often, like in the face of a player, yelling at a player. You see it every day in college basketball. Every day you rarely will see that in the NBA because coaches know you can’t talk to another adult like that college coaches for whatever reason … professional coaches know, like that’s a grown man, I’m not gonna talk to him that way.”

“The way coaches talk to the officials, frankly, I’m looking at standings here, the face of yelling at officials. I would say Dan Hurley’s in the top five, um, I would say, I’m looking Fran McCaffrey is number one, that is an earned reputation even if it doesn’t happen every single night. Fran McCaffrey, his best if you will or his worst can beat anyone else’s best or worst,” Matt Norlander added.

Parish then elaborates on Coach McCaffrey’s behavior saying, “The way you see Fran McCaffrey, basically, every game just loses mind like that’s not something you would see in the NBA very often. You wouldn’t see NBA coaches like imagine for a second like picture Greg Popovich on the court with his arms out like he’s in a defensive stance like he’s trying to deny passing Lanes like you just don’t see that. The reason you see it in college is because coaches are just like five-year-olds, they’ll do whatever you’ll let them do, they’ll do whatever you’ll let them get away with,” as he recalls coach Shaka Smart’s viral defensive moves and the way didn’t get fouled by the officials for doing so.

However, Parish comes up with a solution, that too if the officials or the players would like to opt, that of drawing the line. He says, “You know how you put a stop to the stuff you just tell coach – you can’t do that. You just have to draw the line just like you’re a parent. It’s an easy lesson to teach, you just have to be willing to do it.”

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Now, let’s learn what exactly happened with Coach Smart that made the situation 10-fold viral.

Calisthenics on display by Shaka Smart

On Saturday, #22 Crieghton faced off against #10 Marquette at Fiserv Forum, Marquette’s home court in Milwaukee. Although, the Golden Eagles bagged a 72-67 win over the Bluejays, however, head coach Shaka Smart became the highlight of the game.

During the game, Shaka became the “sixth man of the year” as he suddenly stepped way past the line to make a short defensive run against the Bluejays. Critical, yet turned seemingly funny, the moment started making rounds on the internet.

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With that being the case, college basketball coaches should realize it’s the players representing the program in the game, so they don’t have to jump in themselves to save the day.