[Stardust]

Hoot, I know you've mentioned your son's playing high school football. Were they ever cursed at?? I don't think Cal meant for it to be public, so to say he publicly singled him out is wrong. He may have been singled out but he deserved to be just not publicly and as Cal said he was caught in the moment. Cal and Jones have both handled themselves well given the situation.

Cursed at - no, not to my knowledge. Did they or I ever play for coaches that cursed? Certainly we did and I have no real problem with that. I did witness coaches being abusive to some of my teammates and i never understood why they tolerated that kind of treatment.

I saw a head basketball coach lose his temper and throw (not toss) at close range a basketball into the back of a player's head. I also saw him make the same player walk onto the home court of our biggest rival, Paintsville, and mark the spot that he was supposed to be playing in a 2-3 zone during a timeout. The player simply had not heard that we were switching from a man-to-man. He played as hard and loved the game as much as anybody on the team but his family was part of the wrong political faction.

I think coaches like that are bullies who know that some players will take any kind of treatment to play and those are the guys that they pick on and use as examples.

Had a coach called me what Calipari called Jones, one or both of us would probably have hit the ground. There is no excuse for that kind of loss of control and public show of disrespect. Those are what used to pass as fighting words and Calipari is lucky that Jones did not just walk off the court and leave him standing there - or worse.

For those who think it is okay for a coach to curse at his players, they should ask themselves how recruiters might portray Cal's public outburst to potential UK recruits. Cal is on top of the world right now as a recruiter but a few more incidents like the one with Jones could change that in a hurry. After Bobby Knight's three national championships the negative publicity surrounding his anger management issues made it impossible for him to recruit as well as he should have.

My son, who graduates this season, has had similar coaches. But like you, I don't think I have ever seen abusive coaches.

I guess the lesson for everyone, especially the Cal worshipers, this is an incident that Cal got caught in the act. Which means, it's not the first and not the last. If he did this, it's because it is his nature. It's another chink in that armor. If he can do this, he certainly can do other things that you don't see because it is hidden from the public.