COLUMN: Overreaction to Izzo's outburst misses the point of coaching

You may have heard Michigan State men's coach Tom Izzo got a little upset with one of his players during Thursday's NCAA Tournament opener for the Spartans against Bradley.

It seems Izzo, one of the country's most acclaimed college coaches, wasn't pleased with the effort of one of his players, Aaron Henry, and let him know about it.

Angrily. Loudly. And vehemently enough that he had to be calmed down by some of his players during a timeout.

Somehow, through the wonders of social media, Izzo's outburst became some sort of referendum on out-of-control coaches and their anger issues.

To be sure, there are some of those types of coaches around. Unfortunately. 

However, though he has his faults like anyone else, Izzo has never been one of those guys. He's a highly successful, National Championship coach who's known to be tough but fair, demanding but caring. For his outburst - granted, it was a doozy - to become such a controversy was a little over the top.

But this isn't really about Izzo. It's about us as a society. That may sound like an overreaction, too, but I don't think it is.

We've become a nation that can't handle criticism. Or honesty. Or someone loudly and passionately correcting or confronting us.

Of course no one likes to get yelled at or have their effort questioned. Or be held accountable for something they don't think is their fault.

But that's what coaches, at least good ones, do, when necessary.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think berating someone repeatedly qualifies as coaching. But neither does patting little Johnny or Jenny on the head and telling them it's OK every time they don't listen or do something wrong.

I've covered a lot of teams and coaches over the years. I'm not saying every coach I've ever covered was the salt of the earth or without fault. 

But I've had the good fortune to cover a lot of really good ones, and I can tell you the best ones aren't afraid to get in a player's face when necessary, and they're just as quick to wrap them in a big hug when that's necessary, too.

Call it tough love or whatever you want, but most of all be sure to call it coaching because that's what it is.

Two of the best I've ever seen at straddling that line between tough love and genuine caring are former Annville-Cleona boys basketball coach Scott Pera, who guided A-C to the Class AA state title in 1999,  and Ron Berman, who coached both girls and boys hoops during a distinguished career at Palmyra.

Pera, now the head coach at Rice, was and is as passionate a coach as there is. If you were the kind of personality that couldn't handle intensity in a coach you weren't going to enjoy playing for Pera.

But he was just as capable of a soft touch when necessary. He truly loved guys who understood what it was all about. To this day, he'd run through a wall for any of them at a moment's notice.

There's no greater example of that than Mark Linebaugh, now an assistant to Pera at Rice. Linebaugh was the star player on the '99 state title team, which means he got plenty of grief and plenty of hugs from Pera during that time.

Because Pera knew if he coddled or went easy on Linebaugh when he made a mistake and yelled at everybody else for the same mistakes he would lose the team.

Linebaugh was also mature enough to know that he had to accept that fact. And he did. To this day, I've not seen a more coachable kid.

Berman was more even-keeled than Pera and more of a grandfatherly type when I covered his teams. But he could flare at times and I remember vividly one particular occasion when he did so.

It was at a playoff game several years ago. During a timeout, Berman angrily confronted one of his players, his face just inches from hers. This was not a problem kid by any means, but she was playing poorly and timidly and Berman let her know it.

Like Linebaugh, the player accepted the coaching, staring straight ahead, never blinking, but digesting every word. Palmyra didn't win but the player improved her play at that game and went on to become an indispensable part of a championship team a few years later.

I spoke with her recently - not about that incident - and she remembers those days playing for Berman very fondly and still holds him in very high esteem.

So it is possible to be a good coach and be a little mean sometimes. The key is to know the difference between coaching and dangerous behavior.

Coaching is stuff like Izzo did on Thursday. Dangerous behavior is putting your hands on a player in anger during a confrontation - never OK - or engaging in psychologically destructive behavior like some hazing activities can be.

We all need to be smart enough to recognize what's acceptable and what isn't. It's really not that hard if we really open our eyes.