it would bug me too. I played basketball in high school and had a couple coaches who were the short leash, yell at you coaches. That wasn't the best for me I'll admit.

I do think it could be injury related and it would make sense that Les wouldn't want to announce that to the rest of the world. That's a similar strategy to how coaches deal with injuries in the NHL. They don't want their players to be a target.

Mature players did fine with Coach Hamilton. He was intense during games, and I never took his behavior as personal. He was more focused in practice (upper Rec Hall was still open), no towel. From what I witnessed, he loved his players, and was invited to many law and medical school graduations. Scheduled tough preseason games, Santa Clara, Kansas. Comical stories that there were better IM players than Mike Lein or Preston Nuemayer.

I have never understood coaches like Les who have to micromanage every pass and movement from the bench. We recruit highly intelligent players and coach them for years.

I loved Ham. But he was a yeller and screamer and i loved that too. I think he was most upset when he thought his guys were dogging it and played without energy. I will never forget when he angrily left the bench and told the team to “coach yourselves”- he went into the stands with his towel. Remarkable guy. Do the guys hate Les? I really don’t think so. Look at the youtube he made with the seniors last year. Looks like a lot of love there IMHO.

I don't think the guys hate Coach Les by any means. We have seen defections from the team under Les and we know that not every player is going to be comfortable with his style of coaching but players leave for other reasons also. He demands a lot of his players both on and off the court which is as it should be. Could he get the same results and tone down the intensity and stomping along the sidelines and not risk discouraging the team's morale? I think he could but Les is a fiery, competitive coach. He was an undersized player without great speed in the NBA but it was his competitive nature that allowed him to succeed. So I don't think we'll see him dial down the intensity anytime soon.

Coach Sochor got incredible results from his teams and he wasn't scowling and barking along the sidelines. Many players respond well to Sochor's positive coaching style. There's enough to pay attention to on court without seeing an exasperated coach on the sideline and have that getting into your head. Just my 2 cents worth...

Sorry, but I don’t accept the equal comparison of coaching football versus basketball. That is like comparing how a company commander in the army (200 men) leads his men to what a platoon leader in the company leads his men (10 men). A platoon leader has to really get close to his guys to be effective and a company commander does not. I loved Jim and his style of coaching but he would not have been a very good MBB coach. He would agree.

Well, 69aggie, I played for several "old style" coaches many years ago who yelled, cursed, shamed and, at times, even grabbed players by the jersey or face mask and got up in their faces. They thought that intimidation was the way to motivate the players. It drove me out of sports.

One baseball team I was on lost only one game all season. The coach was a tyrant and I hated playing for him even though we were champions. Playing for him wasn't any fun. I loved winning but you felt on edge every game fearing that if you screwed up he'd chew you out or pull you out of the game and embarrass you in front of the fans.

I also played for a coach who always gave us advice and encouragement when we made errors. It felt good to play for him and we played hard for him.

I'm not saying any of our coaches do anything like that; it wouldn't be tolerated today. I just think you can get more out of your players, whether it's a large team sport or a small one, by building great relationships with your players and giving advice and encouragement rather than yelling and fuming on the sidelines.

Just my opinion....

I politely disagree. Coach Sochor was big on positive reinforcement, cutting out negatives, negative thoughts, and he excelled in 4 sports in high school. He was thorough, but didn't micromanage.

69aggie, yes Ham yelled, but he also chewed on his towel, consulted with assistants, chatted up the refs, cracked jokes, and when a guy got hot he was moving back and forth, enjoying the ride, cheering on his players... not micromanaging every pass and shot. I'm told great sense of humor. Fierce competitor.

We didn't recently have a huge turnover rate (not typical for Davis) because of the cow barns.