Suspend UTEP's Floyd? C-USA wouldn't be that dumb

There was no way Conference USA would suspend UTEP Basketball Coach Tim Floyd following his ejection from Wednesday's game at East Carolina. Two quick technicals early in the second half and a whole lot of post-tech bluster. It made the national media's day on Thursday.

No, C-USA wouldn't be that dumb, not when the next game, Saturday, has UTEP on national television vs. the conference's long-time elite school, Memphis.

The game is at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.

Conference USA gets little national TV time as it is, and the league would just as soon see two of its 20-game winners featured on the floor instead of ESPN going even deeper into Floyd's rant.

And it has to be noted that Floyd didn't push anybody; there was nothing physical except a cop trying to lead Floyd out of the area. So C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky made the right move. He put forth some stern words of warning, and that's that.

Comments

[JAT]

Many people are praising Coach Floyd's behavior against ECU and believe he did nothing wrong. Bill Knight practically said he'd do Floyd's time if need be.

When Floyd was hired all we heard was 'disciplined, well-versed, savvy, seasoned, and he'll get rid of all this shucking and jiving Barbee streetball, blah, blah, blah.' Go to any open gym and some guy is stopping play with tantrums over foul calls no different than Floyd. Heck, I've played pickup games when a gun was drawn like in the movie "White Men Can't Jump." What kind of example is Floyd setting for his players?

When McCulley received a tech earlier this week for getting overly demonstrative on the UCF sideline he just about got it from everyone because it was 'childish and impulsive buffoonery' that stymied our comeback.

If Culpepper or Stone had swung their warm-up jacket Wednesday and were tossed by police officers they'd be called ghetto, barbaric, and probably much worse. These 21 year-olds are supposed to be much wiser than that. Oh, but Floyd is just passionate because that's just what coaches do. Oh, I get it.

[Jake]

JAT,
I understand your concern, but don't get carried away. If the "22 year old" players don't know what is acceptable behavior, we have an entirely different problem.

Floyd acted in the same manner as many other head coaches have in a rnage of sports. If you are going to be ejected you might as well go out with a bang, at least to get the guys fired up.

It worked.

No, we did not win, but we gave a tremendous effort in the last 15 minutes of play. You can thank the refs for not letting us back in. Also, for Coach Johnson to get thrown was a little ridiculous.

Anyways, both parties were at fault here. Floyd might have gotten carried away, but the refs did not do their job either. Given the situation I am glad Floyd spoke his mind , because the officials deserved the scrutiny. The only reason this is a story is because "Floyd" is attached to the headline.

[Anthony]

I'm not condoning Floyd's actions, but I'll say it again as I did in my post on minerrush.com....He's a better man than me. I would've done a lot more. I honestly feel that he was standing up to a group of officials, or maybe just one, that seemed like he was giving our players an unfair disadvantage. I love coach for that. Coach Johnson too. Again, maybe they shouldn't have acted that way, but someone needs to let those officials know that the bs they were calling out there is completely unacceptable. I'm never one to blame refs, but that game may have been the worst officiated game I have EVER seen, and believe me, I watch A LOT of college basketball... Jake I'm with you, the players definitely responded, coach's actions definitely sparked some fire in those players. 45 free throws were just too much to overcome. I just hope that fire carries over to tomorrow's game. Oh, and one more thing...thank you Joe for finally speaking something sensible.

[Miner Mike]

JAT, with all do respect brother I have no idea what you're talking about?! You are taking some moral high-ground by insinuating that because CTF gets tossed from a game post receiving two Technical Fouls that made national headlines that he is somehow setting a bad example? For who? You can't compare Gabe's Technical foul reciept with CTF's. This isn't Gabe's team, this is CTFs. For right, wrong or indifferent it is what it is. Gabe only has to answer to CTF for his outburst...CTF has to answer to AD Stull for not only his outburst but also for Gabes. Much different weight of burden. I don't know about you, but attempting to utilize the "well it was okay for me to do it because I saw my boss do it" excuse has never worked! Yes, I believe it's important to set a good example to your subordinates, but it's equally important for your subordinates to know that you will lead them through the fire even if it means you will be the first or only one to get burned. That's what players respond to. I even happened upon some UTEP football players comment on how they love CTF for this. Again, not because he was acting like a punk, but because they respect someone else fighting for them for a change instead of feeling as if they have to do it for themselves.

[Andy Springer]

5 Tech's, 45 free throws and 2 Coaches ejected? Something wasn't right in East Carolina to start with. Some Coaches have gotten ejected to fire their team up. Not saying that is what happened, but those numbers of tech's, free throws and 2 ejections are way off normal.