WBB In Durham -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Basketball in Durham

The WBB Cards head to Durham, and Cameron Indoor Stadium today for a 2 p.m. tilt vs the Blue Devils. Game two for both in the ACC.

The Dookies are 8-5 overall, dropping their conference opener against still-undefeated NC State.  Looking at their overall schedule from expectation of Duke being a mid-standings ACC team doesn't really surprise.  The only result the I look at with interest is a bad season opening loss against Northwestern.  A mid-standings ACC team shouldn't lose to this bunch of Wildcats by over 25 points.  A look at Northwestern's schedule is a bit more of a head scratcher.  An 8 point win over #15 Michigan State, but a 4 point lose to Rutgers?  A bit confusing, but let's conclude that Northwestern is their typical mid-level team, and then Duke lost to them by 26.

Gone, for Duke, are Rebecca Greenwell and Lexie Brown, the new stars are Haley Gorecki and Leaonna Odom as points leaders (16.8 and 13.2 ppg, respectively).  Miela Goodchild also shows up prominently on the stat sheet with 10 ppg.  This trio also distributes the ball reasonably well, with 39 assists for Haley on the year, and Leaonna and Miela both with 24.  As a team, they probably don't get too many "F"s on their Fred reports, shooting only .637 from the charity stripe, so the Cards shouldn't be afraid to play aggressively against them and send them to the line.

Now, I've never hidden my opinion that I believe that Joanne P. McCallie is not a great coach, or at
least not a great Xs and Os on-court coach.  She recruits well, but she doesn't deploy them well in game, I don't believe.  The Cards need to come out and play their game, play the game plan and stick with it.

We saw some lack of discipline and crisp play in the Cards first game back from a big break against UNC.  Let's hope that's out of their system.  UNC adjusted against the Cards well on Thursday, credit to Sylvia Hatchell making halftime adjustments, look for, perhaps, the opposite today.  Jeff Walz is one of the premier on-court coaches and is rather well known for his halftime adjustments.

Above all else, though, remember that this is the ACC, you just can't take a day off in this league.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

What's the chances of ever getting all four
Cardinal Couple knuckleheads in coats and ties?

All four of the knuckleheads made appearances at the magnificent media mansion on Mellwood, yesterday.  It has been some time since that happened.  The discussions were fun and, I think, at least, interesting.

You can tell just how good of a team this has become, too.  I was seriously off of my Paulie-snark game, but Jared was there, clutch, filling up our snark quota.  (Of course, much of our snark is about Paulie's phone usage and situation...but here I am sitting here without a functional phone at all for the moment, as mine quit charging last night.  And as I'm house sitting at the moment, I didn't have access to my backup phone).


(EDITOR INSERT: It rings, it recharges, I can call out, receive texts and that's enough for me). 


Yes, I'm a computer geek, of course I have a backup phone.

In any case, you can check out the fun, and good discussion of what happened Thursday in the Cards win over UNC, and a bit of preview of the game today at our Saturday ritual -- The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour:

LINK:  https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/2245002249082137/

Please send your condolences to Case, who saw his Seahawks exit the road to the Super Bowl
yesterday and congratulations to Jared who still has a dog in the fight with Indy . Paulie learns his Bears fate today and I'd like to see Lamar have a great game with the Ravens today.

A busy for multi-sports and... 

Enjoy the fun.

-- 

JMcA

Louisville women's basketball -- Despite the trickery, Cards fall to Blue Devils 58-55...Tuesday CARDINAL COUPLE

TRIO IN DOUBLE FIGURES NOT ENOUGH AS CARDS FALL TO BLUE DEVILS BY 3

Photo by Carolyn Chang - The Chronicle 

Myisha Hines-Allen recorded another double-double, Asia Durr and Mariya Moore joined her in double figure scoring and the Cards pulled off the con job of the 2016-17 basketball season...but erratic shooting, ball-handling woes and getting outscored 17-11 in the final ten minutes all contributed to Louisville first ACC loss Monday night in Durham, NC. 

The Cards well-planned trickery paid off to start the second half when Louisville sent Hines-Allen, Cortnee Walton and Asia Durr underneath the DUKE basket prior to Moore tossing the ball in-bounds to Briahanna Jackson to begin the third quarter. The Duke starting five dutifully followed them down there. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they needed to be defending the other basket and Moore flipped the ball to Jackson...following her down the court as she trotted to the unguarded rim and put in an uncontested layup. 

Classic Walz afoot there. The mad scientist strikes again!

The mis-direction gave the Cards a 27-23 lead...which they would increase to 44-41 by the end of the period...but the Cards ended up taking the 58-55 loss due to some steady free throw shooting by Duke guard Lexie Brown and a couple of less-than-perfect offensive possessions at the end of the contest. 

The Cards started slowly, trailing 15-12 after the first quarter. The Cards regrouped to lead 25-23 at the half. A 6-0 closing run had Louisville on top 44-41 after three. The loss comes after Duke takes the fourth 17-11. 

Carolyn Change -- The Chronicle

Let's face it. Stretches of this one were sloppy and "choppy"...a term used by the ESPNU talking head who accompanied Brooke Weisbrod on the play-by-play. A man who still thinks the one-and-one still exists in WBB. Who hasn't figured out Asia Durr is left-handed yet. Sailing masts and regatta dinghy's aside...the Cards committed 19 turnovers and shot just 6-23 from the deep to take their third loss of the season. 

Coach Walz explains it sufficiently: 

"We took a lot of really good shots. Unfortunately the ball just did not go in. When go you against a team that's going to play zone for 40 minutes...you've got to be able to knock down open shots and that just what we didn't do."   

Head Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie put her own spin on the win: 


"We played a lot of match-up and that takes away a lot of passing angles to those post players. It starts with the guards and, of course, with the posts. You're connected at the hip -- all five players -- it's always team defense." 

Thanks for that, Coach "P". I'll have to study it and look at the pictures. Five players connected at the hip... 

The 3-2 Duke employed was, in part, responsible for Louisville shooting under 40% but I'm going with the off-shooting night for Durr and some silliness at the end causing Louisville's loss. Plus the 7-0 Duke run to the start the fourth quarter.

It was a 53-52 Louisville lead with 1:27 to play after Hines-Allen's jumper but after Rebecca Greenwell gave the Dookies a 54-53 lead 30 seconds later on a nice inside move...the Cards get a three pointer blocked and then start fouling Brown...who had made 40-something in a row coming into the game. Twice she's fouled and twice she sinks both. Sydney Zambrotta's last-second, sprawling, falling potential game-tying three almost banked in...but the Cards suffer an ACC road loss 58-55 to a team that has also downed Kentucky and South Carolina this year. 

I realize you can't always pick who you have to foul at game's end...and the obvious choice (Duke's Chidom) was throwing the ball in...so that pretty much eliminated her...but putting Brown at the line was like tossing tennis balls into a trash barrel from a yard away...you're probably not gonna miss. 

Ten played for Louisville (Hines-Allen, Moore, Jackson, Durr, Walton, Fuehring, Jazmine Jones, both Johnsons and Zambrotta.) Six scored (Hines-Allen 16, Durr 15, Moore 14, Walton 4, Fuehring 4 and Jackson 2).   

Lessons learned on a road trip. The need to finish on the offensive end. To make the layups. The need to overcome poor shooting nights with lock-down defense. On a night where tomfoolery got national attention, the Cards ended up with the joke on them. How big a game was it? Let's close with another JoAnne P-ism: 

"Big games only occur in April. March and April. Nothing's big about this or any other game. What we learn from this game will be the test for us. What we learn and how we move forward." 

I'm gonna have to study and think on that. Might need a picture...


HOW DID FRED DO? 

Fred Gwynne -- Herman Munster

Free Throws -- Well, on the Cardinal side they were few and far between (because we know Duke never fouls in Cameron, right?) but one Card actually got to the line and Asia Durr made all three of her attempts. That's 100% and that will get a capital "F". Duke went 8 for 11...if anyone's counting.

Rebounding -- The Cards held a commanding 37-25 advantage on the boards. Hines-Allen corralled 12 and Walton found six. Good enough for a capital "R" in my book. 

Effort/Execution -- Louisville had 19 turnovers, Duke had 12 steals, the Cards shot 39.7% (26.1% from 3-range) and lost the fourth quarter. The effort, although misguided at times, was there but the execution not great enough to award a letter in this category.

Defense -- Brown had a field day against the Louisville guards with 17 points but Greenwell wasn't a big factor with just 10 points. At times, the defense was solid but in the fourth quarter it slipped and after a loss, we usually don't award a letter. That stands today.

FINAL FRED COUNT:  F-R-_-_.


WHAT WE LIKED 

"The Sting". No one but the Cards knew what was going on in the start of the second half trickery. Not the announcers, the refs or...most importantly...Duke. Credit the genius of Walz and the staff for the ploy.  If you missed it, here's the link: Cards WBB fakes out Duke

"You're going the wrong way!
ANOTHER CLASSIC MISDIRECTION LINK

Solid Sam. Sam Fuehring saw only eight minutes in the contest but had two key baskets early in the second quarter to give the Cards the lead and also grabbed four rebounds. The three fouls...well...*meh* but a good effort in a limited appearance for the sophomore. 

Light at the end of the tunnel? Mariya Moore went 4-8 from three-point range which might mean she's over the slump from the deep that has been there the last few games. 


WHAT NEEDS WORK

Closure.  After Asia Durr's jumper at 7:35 in the fourth, it was 46-41 Louisville. We would have liked to see the "killer instinct" take over for Louisville at this point. Instead, a 7-0 Duke run followed over the next two minutes. Gotta seal the deal. 

Ball handling. 14 of the 19 turnovers came from Louisville's guards. Mariya had seven of them. Yes, these were very good Duke guards, no doubt about that...but the miscues were responsible for 18 points off turnovers. Duke won that category 18-10. A telling stat. 

Focus. The Cards were out-of-sync in their possessions at the end...almost timid and unsure of what to do out there. Those possessions resulted in a blocked three attempt, Hines-Allen bucket for two instead of a potential-tying three attempt and a missed desperation three at the buzzer. A little leadership would have come in handy in that last minute. 



SO...

A loss that could have been prevented for Louisville tonight if they had performed better in the fourth quarter. An exciting, in some ways, end to this one...with the score lead going back-and-forth. One to chalk up to experience and learn from as the Cards roll back into it at Charlottesville on Thursday against a Virginia team who surrendered a 17 point lead over Syracuse to lose at home. Surprising NC State also pulls the shocker with a 70-61 win over #7 Florida State. 

ACC. Anything Can Culminate. 



POST GAME WALZ

Coach Walz answers a few questions after the game and Asia observes and serves as a silent partner in the link below. It's obvious that they have no "Paulie" presence in the Duke media contingent...

LINK:  

JEFF WALZ POST GAME DUKE PRESSER




tuesday trauma...
Paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's basketball -- Healthy, revamped #15 Duke a challenge for Cards...MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB TRAVELS TO DURHAM TO PLAY DUKE

(Notes while trying to remember it's 2017 and forget Saturday's football game.)


The first road game for the University of Louisville women's basketball squad in the ACC schedule has the Birds flying into Carolina country and facing a very dangerous Duke Blue Devils squad. The two will tip off at 7 p.m. tonight on ESPNU in a match that pits Louisville against another top-flight pair of guards for the second straight game. After the Christmas break, the action will start coming at you, Cardinal fans, hot and heavy with hoops and today's should be a battle.

With prayers that Grayson Allen won't be in the stands (or near the court) for this one and that the Cameron Crazies will be at home watching bowl games....off we go! 


Rebecca Greenwell is healthy and the rest of the ACC should take notice
and be forewarned. The senior guard has had her ups-and-downs injury-wise
in her career as a Blue Devil...but is red-hot and helping lead the charge for
Joanne P. McCallie's 12-1 group. She leads the Devils with 19.7 ppg, 6.7 rebounds and has also canned a team-high 41 3-pointers this season. 
Cards fans may remember her from her high school days at Owensboro, KY
Catholic high school...where she was a 2013 All-American and made the 
Kentucky All-State first team her final three years.  

Lexie Brown is a first-year transfer for the Blue Devils from Maryland and
her impact has been immediate. She scores 17.6 a contest and is definitely
a guard you want to think twice about fouling, with a 90.9% (50-55) success
rate from the charity stripe. UofL backers will probably remember her role
in knocking the Cards out of the "Great 8" leg of the NCAA Tournament
back in 2013-14 at the YUM! Center with 20 points as a freshman.

Although key rebounder from last year Azuri Stevens left the program at the end of last season to transfer to UConn..the other "mover in the middle" Oderah Chidom returns and is flourishing well in the paint for Duke with 9.4 points a night, 24 blocks on the year and second in rebounding at 6.6. Chidom will make you pay inside if you try and drive on her and she will collect again if you leave her alone with a mid-range jumper.

These Devils with with blue unis on have stumbled but once this year...a bit
of a surprising fall to Vanderbilt in quaint Memorial Gym in Nashville back on
November 20th. December has belonged to the Devil worshipers, though...
with big wins over two common UofL foes in Kentucky and South Carolina. 
Duke is on a eight-game win streak and is unbeaten in Cameron Indoor Arena this year. 

No one said the ACC was going to be easy. 

The 13-2 Cards will counter with the red-hot Asia Durr....who lit up downtown
Louisville pre-New Years Eve with 36 points against Syracuse. Add in Myisha Hines Allen's 18 and 10 and the triple-double Mariya Moore executed 
against the Orange and you have a really great potential three-on-three 
side game that would be fun to watch. 

The Cards downed Duke pretty convincingly last year in the YUM! 65-48 back
on Jan 10th, 2016. Moore and Durr had 15 each in the win and Myisha added 
14 for UofL. Cortnee Walton grabbed 12 boards for the Cards, who forced
the Blue Devils into 22 turnovers. 

Although a lot of the names are the same, this is a vastly different Duke team
this season. Brown adds that extra dimension out front and if one of the Blue Devil top-three are having a off-night, returnees Kyra Lambert and Leanna Odom...plus freshman Kendall Cooper are capable of double-digit performances...plus all three go to the boards very strong and will give the Cards a handful of players to keep an eye on.

What must the Cards do to get the win tonight? Here's five ideas.

1. Avoid the "can't shoot straight early" syndrome. Louisville can't afford to have a cold start against a squad that is shooting 49% on the season and averages 81 points a game while just giving up 53. Patient offense and not firing up forced threes. Work the shot clock and get the good look. 

    2. Stay with us #2 . A seat early for Myisha Hines-Allen could spell big                   trouble for the Cards tonight. Careful on the defense with no silly fouls and         playing under control early would be sound advice for the Cardinal star.

    3. Are ya still hot? We hope so! The Cards could definitely use another 

        scorching performance from Asia Durr in this one and feel free to join

        the party early...#25. A.D is averaging almost 23 ppg in her last four and

        Louisville likely will need all those and more tonight.

   

     4. Score...Moore. This would be a great night to see Mariya break out of                her recent shooting slump from the deep and if Duke tries to get cute

         and "zone up" the Cards...her proven marksmanship will be needed.

     5. All-the-way-BJ! . Louisville would be greatly benefited by another of                 those "stand back and watch me work" games from Briahanna                           Jackson...doing all the sometimes underappreciated things with perfection.

        Steals, assists, rebounds, shut-down defense. It's a lot of hats to wear,               but they fit her so well. 

Another huge test for the Cards tonight... but one that the Cards are perfectly capable of passing if they can control the pace and dictate the tempo. I expect a close one. An exciting one. A winning one. Louisville needs to turn the dial to "11" tonight with their hustle and intensity. 

Who will step up off the bench in this one? It seems it's someone different each time in Louisville's recent games. With the style of ball Duke likes to play, we're hoping Jazmine Jones can take advantage of this great setting to explode and if Sydney Zambrotta can get a few open looks...it could be trifecta time in a state that has no horse-racing tracks. 

😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

TESTING, TESTING...

In case you missed THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR Saturday (which is perfectly understandable with all the different things going on)...here's a link to the re-broadcast. We had fun in the studio discussing hoops and football and even made a few New Years resolutions. Worldwide even explains the concept of time to me. Stunning, really....

It's live radio. We get our surprises from time-to-time (like Paulie's chair plummeting a foot or so unexpectedly near the end of the broadcast) but that's part of the allure. 

LINK: CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 12-31-16


Monday ,monday....can't trust that day
paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's basketball -- Where Do We Go From Here?/Games People Play -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS HAVE FUTURE AND FATE FOR 2016-17
IN FRONT OF THEM




I heard this classic from the Alan Parsons Project on Christmas Day when we were on the road. Give it a listen...it's a great song! It started me thinking (always a dangerous thing) about what lies ahead for the Cards WBB squad (and the ACC foes) as they come out of the Christmas break and the team
gets ready for conference and tournament play.


(Just as a side note...I actually met "the man" himself in the airport in Atlanta back in the late eighties...we were both waiting for a flight to Miami and had a pleasant conversation for about an hour about music and his works...I never knew he worked on Beatles albums and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album or that he wasn't much of a sports fan.) I figured with Games People Play...but I was wrong. 

Okay, enough of Paulie Irrelevant Musical Reminisces. Off to hoops we go! 

It was good for the players (we hope) and the staff to have a little while
to see family and friends over Christmas. We know most of the Cards flew
out of Nashville the morning after the win at Vandy or came back to Louisville
and departed from there. They probably didn't meet Alan Parsons but they'll start arriving back on campus today and begin preparations for Thursday's ACC opener against "Q" and the Cuse. We're hoping the players had a good respite at home. The games these people play start up again in a dizzying flurry in a few days. 

Coach Sam Purcell's outfit for Easter? 

Trips home can be a blessing and a curse. I wonder if Mariya and Minyon Moore did some comparison notes on their seasons so far. Did Briahanna Jackson guard the turkey and ham to make sure no one got any before Christmas dinner was ready to serve? Was Asia Durr deftly tossing dinner rolls across the table with precise accuracy to the rest of the family? Did anyone beat the speedy Jazmine Jones to the table? Did Myisha Hines-Allen control the stuffing and block everyone from getting dessert? 

Then, there's the "why aren't you playing more?" or "how did (so-and-so) beat you?" questions. A bit of the good and bad mixed in. The trip home was, hopefully, nurturing and restoring in spirit for what lies ahead. 

So...what does loom ahead for these Cards? Where will they go from here? In this case...the "games people play" turn into ACC contests and the drive to get a nice seeding in the NCAA Tournament. It's hard to believe there are only 17 games left until the ACC Tournament in March in the Hooterville/Bugtussle Memorial Warehouse in Conway, SC. 

The Cards get to the heavy shoveling right off the bat when "Q" brings his defending NCAA WBB runner-up squad to the Bucket on Thursday, Dec.29th. Probably a less than satisfying start for these Orange at 9-3...especially after their stumble-and-spilling-all-the-eggnog effort against Texas A&M in Florida.

(Didn't get the Red Ryder BB gun?) 

They have Peterson, my 'name-sake' Sykes, the tall Day twins and "Slim" plus a few others back
from that championship quest and I'm betting they'll have a major voice in the clamoring for Elite Eight and better slots in late March. The Cards are 8-6 against Syracuse in the all-time series...knocking the pulp out of the Orange 71-53 at the Orange Dome last year and then falling to them 80-75 in a game in the ACC Tournament I'm pretty sure most of the Cards would like to forget. 


So how do you list this one...category-wise on the KFC YUM! Center list of events? Sports, comedy or entertainment? 

After the "Brother Q travelling prime-time road revival medicine show and revue" exits the YUM!...so do the Cards for a couple of days...making a stop in the Cameron Indoor Stadium to check in on Becca Greenwell and JoAnne P first. Another tough game...the Dookies are #17 in the nation and are 11-1...getting sunk by the Commodores in that quaint little barnyard by the Duke Chapel and Forest. The journey continues to Charlottesville, VA after that...facing a Virginia Cavaliers bunch that is 9-2 (losses to St John and Northwestern) and has another JoAnne head coach. Someone in the ACC scheduling phone booth has a sense of flair for humor, I guess. 

We'd love to see Louisville emerge 3-0 out of the stretch of the schedule because it doesn't get any easier after it. It is, after all, the ACC and despite Vanderbilt head coach Stephanie White's claim that her conference is the toughest in the land.....we'll respectfully disagree and point to the conference that had seven teams in the latest Top 25 poll. 

Alex, let's go to toughest conferences in college sports for $1000. What is ACC women's basketball? 

It is very pleasant and almost spring-like in Louisville, KY this morning, if you ignore the gusting breeze blowing. A high expected in the 70's...a possible record warmth temperature for this day in Louisville meteorological history.

A calm before the storm? A brief lull in the battle? Definitely a change in the weather, though, in terms of scheduling ahead...as a storm front rolls into Lamar Jackson's college town beginning Thursday. 

any gifts to return? or gifs? 
paulie
xxxxx

Louisville Softball shuts down IU in five innings...Next in the Coaches soap opera...Duke's JoAnne P. -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

SOFTBALL TEES OFF ON HOOSIERS 12-2

The Louisville Softball team spotted IU two first inning runs but used a strong fourth and fifth inning to run-rule the Hoosiers 12-2 yesterday in Bloomington, IN. 

The Cards broke open a tight game in the fourth by scoring five runs on five hits to increase a 3-2 lead to 8-2. While Maryssa Becker, in relief of starter Megan Hensley, kept the Indiana bats silenced...the Cards added four more runs in the top of the fifth to set the run-rule potential and Becker delivered again from the stripe in the bottom of the fifth to end the contest. 

Unlike many of the Cards wins this season where base-clearing blasts over the fences have been the huge run-scoring inning producers, the Cards got it done with mostly small-ball today...with only two-extra base hits...a double from Becker and one from Jordan McNary. Five Cards had two or more RBI's in the game...Nicole Pufahl leading the way with three. 

Hensley allowed just three hits in 2.1 innings pitched and Becker held the Hoosiers hit-less in her 2.2 innings of relief.

Louisville steps out of the ACC again when North Carolina Central comes to Ulmer for the weekend...a double-header scheduled for Saturday and a single-game Sunday. 

__________________________________________________

DUKE HEAD WBB COACH JOANNE P. McCALLIE AND PROGRAM TO BE INTERNALLY INVESTIGATED

Things had just started to simmer down a bit about the tawdry Tyler Summit indiscretion when another historic program announced that they were going to launch an investigation into possible mistreatment of players and coaches. 

No...things aren't going so well for Duke's version of "Coach P"  (JoAnne P. McCallie) down in Durham. 

The Blue Devils are starting a very thorough investigation into the WBB program after the defection of the two latest players...highly heralded sophomore Azura Stevens (transfer) and Angela Salvadores (leaving college). 

The word is that the Duke legal department has already talked to several players and coaches who have left the program in recent years. Sources are indicating that some of these may have been because of mistreatment from McCallie in both the student-athlete ranks and former assistants under McCallie. It is indicated that there have been several complaints about McCallie over the years about her treatment of former players and assistants. The program has had six players leave the program in the last four seasons. 

What is it about North Carolina area WBB? Sylvia Hatchell on the hot seat and now Coach P? 

McCallie has indicated that she is full aware of the investigation and is eager to help in any way she can. 

Many were surprised at the departure of these two of the best players on the 2015-16 squad and also on the way Duke seemed to self-destruct on the court at times this season...Duke was a top 15 pick in most preseason polls but went into a tailspin in February...losing five out of seven games and failing to make the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils finished 20-12 and 8-8 in the ACC. 



Coach P has seemed a bit eccentric at times to this women's college basketball observer and several of team's dismal offensive performances this season indicated to me that the consistency and chemistry of the roster was an erratic hit and miss thing. I remember the emotionless way the Blue Devils downed Virginia in the ACC Tournament without Rebecca Greenwell and then how they fell apart at the seams against Notre Dame without really seeming to care too much about it. Louisville scored pretty easily on the Blue Devils in the regular season while shutting them down offensively and Salvadores looked flat and almost dis-interested at times. Greenwell was a non-factor in that game and seemed almost terse in the post-game interview. 

If the allegations about mistreatment from McCallie do come to fruition, though...the former Michigan State and Maine coach needs to be sent packing on the first flight out of Durham.

College basketball is a game that student-athletes participate in. 

A game.

It's not a mental torture chamber...or grounds for mistreatment of young women or employees. Yes, coaches can be fiery. Players can get emotional. It happens in most programs...but when a university's legal department gets involved...it indicates that there is much more going on than a few harsh words and glares.  

paulie
xxxxx