I am curious as to what the article says but refuse to add to his click count on what I gather is a hit job.
I do remember however that the start of this past season seemed to be unusually filled with on court and post game confrontations and thought it was an ugly 'trend'. The fact that there were maybe five instances out of maybe 1000 games played to that point in D1 means it was not a wide spread phenom, but still not pretty.
I do think two things are at work:
1. NIL and 'branding' - hard for a player to get noticed unless they are truly exceptional on the court, play for a really top team, or they have a ton of 'personality', and one way to build 'personality/exposure' is to be feisty. Where the line on that falls vs. being a provocation is delicate.
2. There is finally decent money in being a coach in WCBB, and money brings both greater competition for jobs and greater accountability for results. 30 years ago being a head coach in WCBB was almost a sinecure - don't make waves and you have the job as long as you want it. The added pressure to actually produce winning teams is new and is reaching down to mid-majors, and perennial P5 bottom dwellers. Coaches are actually getting fired pretty quickly or 'leaving to pursue other options' or simply not getting a second contract. That adds a lot of new stress for the coaches.
nypost.com
