Locker Room Evictions
The sad empty shell of MTSU's locker room.
Gary Williams's locker room restrictions following that loss to American seemed benign enough: no action photos, no practice jerseys and, most severely, no player nameplates. But those punishments, plus some more bad non-conference opponents, appear to have done the trick. Since losing their nameplates, the Terps are an amazing 3-0, which makes them the second-hottest Division I team in our area. So Maryland, lose the nameplates permanently, right? I mean, most of the players probably know own their names anyhow, and the plates are clearly bad luck.
Point being, if I'm coaching a struggling Division I team right now, I'm doing some locker room redecorating, pronto. Why? Middle Tennessee State also had some locker room punishment last week:
The men's basketball team at Middle Tennessee State University has a state-of-the-art locker room, but the players are not allowed to use it. Their coach locked them out of the locker room....They will not be able to use its theater seats, flat-panel television, computer, or see their fancy nameplates.
See? More with the nameplates; fancy ones, even. Nameplates are for losers, it would seem. Oh, and no more Powerade for the Blue Raiders; only water for now. The Tennessean has more about the new Spartan digs:
The Blue Raiders' new locker room has a nameplate on the door tabbing it, 'The Student Lounge.'...The new locker room is only 30 feet long and 18 feet wide. There are two toilets and two showers to be shared by more than 15 players and five coaches. Today, each players' personal belongings were stored in trash bags on the floor of the room. Instead of nameplates on large oak lockers as in the Lynn Davis Squad Room, a player's personal area is now designated by a folding chair against the wall sitting below a piece of tape with the players' last name written on it.
Right idea, but I fear the coach has gone soft. Me, I'd rip those pieces of tape with he players' last names the heck off those chairs, since they're virtual nameplates. Maybe I'd write the players' numbers on their chairs in cow dung, but that's about it. Do I even need to tell you what happened after the nameplates disappeared? 68-50 win over Denver, which had been undefeated in the Sun Belt.
Want another example? Two years ago UMBC got kicked out of its locker room due to a sub-par effort, and was forced to dress in the media work room. Also, the Retrievers were prohibited from wearing apparel bearing their school's name. Do I even need to tell you what happened next? A team that had lost five of its previous seven games suddenly caught fire, winning two of its next seven.
Anyhow, when I read that Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler were re-ordering the Wizards' locker room this week, well, I couldn't help but think that they could save the equipment managers a lot of time if they left the rookies in place and just removed their nameplates.
By Dan Steinberg |
January 7, 2008; 12:54 PM ET
| Category:
Terps
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Get This Widget >>
Posted by: thelosscolumn | January 7, 2008 1:10 PM
"The men's basketball team at Middle Tennessee State University has a state-of-the-art locker room, but the players are not allowed to use it. Their coach locked them out of the locker room....They will not be able to use its theater seats, flat-panel television, computer, or see their fancy nameplates."
At Middle Tennesse State. Flat screens aer standard these days, so no big deal, but theater seats? Yesh. What do they get at places like Florida? Personal.....campus "escorts"? Wait, they get those already don't they...
Posted by: EricS | January 7, 2008 1:55 PM
Norv Turner tried that same thing with the Redskins, only for Dan Snyder to overrule the move and buy all members of the team scooters.
Posted by: ScottVanPeltStyle.com | January 7, 2008 2:50 PM
MD vs Holy Cross tomorrow night will be the true test.
Who's going?
Posted by: JDP | January 7, 2008 3:12 PM
So what does Tom Izzo do when he wants to send a message to his players? They already have a Spartan locker room.
Posted by: Bill Fitzgerald | January 7, 2008 4:56 PM
Perfect!Amazing!Super!Thank you very much
advanced forex signal system
Posted by: Landon siiba | April 11, 2008 10:50 AM
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Do I even need to tell you what happened next? A team that has lost five of its previous seven games suddenly caught fire, winning two of its next seven.
Genius.