By Paul Gotham
Marcus Smart doesn’t play for VCU, Duquesne, St. Joseph’s or any other Atlantic 10 school, but that fact didn’t stop a trio of A-10 coaches from commenting on the situation which occurred this weekend involving the Oklahoma State guard.
Smart, as many know by now, was involved in an altercation with a fan at the end of the Oklahoma State at Texas Tech game, Saturday night. The sophomore has since been suspended for three games as a result of his actions.
VCU’s Head Coach Shaka Smart (no relation) used his opening comments during the weekly Atlantic 10 Coaches’ tele-conference to offer his opinion on the situation.
“The NCAA, the conferences and the individual schools have a responsibility to protect student-athletes,” Smart stated. “I don’t think that’s happening right now. Buying a ticket right now I think fans believe they can say whatever they want across the board. This is not specific to any one school.”
Shaka Smart coached Marcus Smart for two summers with the USA basketball program.
“He’s a terrific kid, and I feel bad that he was put in that situation. Obviously, he should have handled it differently, but this is a situation I hate to see student-athletes get put in.”
“Each of these schools has, and I think we do too, some sort of generic pronouncement about not tolerating sexist, racist, homophobic comments or unsportsmanlike conduct. But right now exactly the opposite of that is happening. That is being tolerated. Those comments are being tolerated. This is the only situation in life where a 40-some year old man would be able to make comments like this to a 19-year old kid.”
Jim Ferry echoed Shaka Smart’s sentiments.
“I’m actually surprised it doesn’t happen more,” the second-year Duquesne coach said. “We speak to our student-athletes all the time, but I really think it’s starting to get out of control… I think that was appalling. An adult and obviously a kid made a poor decision. We got to make sure that stuff like that doesn’t happen in our conference.”
“It’s just not good for our game,” Ferry continued. “I think it’s not fair. You got these kids from 18 to 21 dealing with a lot of pressure – twitter, you got facebook, kids getting attacked, and then to have something said to a kid like that. We got to be careful it doesn’t happen more.”
Phil Martelli took the discussion further. The 18-year head coach of the St. Joseph’s Hawks pointed to a larger problem at work.
Like Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, who was quoted in an article on CBS Sports, Martelli pointed to the influence of social media.
“This is a shame and an indication of how much pressure is on these young guys. Not just in print or electronic but this social media has just gotten out of control. I think it’s a real societal problem.”
“Marcus Smart knew the difference. He was raised differently, and they run that program differently. In the heat of the moment he made a serious mistake.”
Smart is projected as a first round pick in this year’s NBA Draft. He returned to school after a successful freshman season.
Oklahoma State (16-7/4-6 Big 12) plays at No. 9 Texas on Tuesday. The Cowboys host Oklahoma on Saturday and travel to Baylor next Monday.
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