Tuesday, January 31, 2012

What Do You Think?

Michigan snub of the playing of the national anthem.

In the Texas Regional men's tournament this past weekend, the University of Michigan team and their coach refused to come out on court for the playing of the national anthem. The Maryland players and officials were all on court and in a line for the anthem but the Michigan players and coaches were on the practice courts and not in attendance for the anthem.

What do you think about what they did?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was there and it was disgusting. Kudos to the Maryland coach and team but the Michigan coach and team should be penalized or suspended.

Anonymous said...

THIS MAKES ME SICK!

I say a letter should be drafted to the NCAA for not following protical. And a GREAT BIG NASTY letter should be written to their AD – Dave Brandon (734-763-9416) and local paper - tothedaily@michigandaily.com. Shame on Coach Bruce Berque… he is a nice guy and to set an example like that is VERY SAD.

BACO

Anonymous said...

The Referee and event coordinator should send a letter of complaint to the ITA Headquarters documenting what happeened. The ITA takes good sportsmanship very seriously and they should be the ones handling down sanctions. It probably wouldn't hurt to copy Michigan's Athletic Director as well.

It's one thing for an "Elite" program to ignore protocol, but there is no excuse for a second rate program to do so.

Anonymous said...

Very simple: they demonstrated misconduct as a team at the indoor qualifier, they should be suspended as a team from participation at the 2013 indoor qualifier and the coach should receive a public reprimand.

This is a no brainer. . . and that's why it won't be handled this way!

Anonymous said...

What was their reason for refusing to appear? Did they have transportation problems and, as a result, not enough warm-up time? As I recall, playing the national anthem is required for ITA regionals, and players are required to be present, but only if their match is the one immediately following the national anthem.

Anonymous said...

Simply appalling. Is it that they were not aware of what was happening, or just out of disrespect?

Interesting because most schools do not even have player intros any more, let alone the playing of the Star Spangled Banner.

RM said...

The Michigan players and their coach had been there for substantial time before the match so that was no excuse. The were the match that was going on immediately following the national anthem so that made it even more obvious.

Anonymous said...

The real problem is there are no or few Americans on the teams including coaches. Sad! Perhaps we should play the anthems from the dominate countrys, since the teams tend to recruit from certain areas outside the US.

Anonymous said...

FROM HAYMUNCHER:
I certainly agree that this is not acceptable.Although the ITA should be notified,it is highly probable they will take no action.
I think the AD @ Michigan is the better contact.
I have never had a team refuse to come to court for the anthem
but have encountered some minor delays @ NCAA and ITA events.
In order to avoid this I notify Coaches @ the Coaches meeting the night before that match time has been changed from 11:00 to 10:55
and that all players must be on court based on that schedule.
This has eliminated the resistance to cutting time off the warmup
and establishing a penalty status in advance.It has always worked.
I agree it is treating adults like children but there seem to be
a few(certainly not the majority) of cases where this is necessary.
As usual someone ashamed to use their name has started a racist
ran about international students
perhaps they should have taken the time to find that the Michigan team has only US born Coaches and 6 US born players on their team
Haymuncher

RM said...

The Michigan coach was notified well in advance by both the site director and the referee as to when they were to be on court for the national anthem. They simply chose not to attend.

Anonymous said...

Having primarily Americans on the team makes it even more of a disgrace to our country.

Anonymous said...

Sure sounds like there was a weak Referee in charge of the site where Michigan was playing. Maybe the host site should relook at who they get to run their tournaments.

The Referee is ultimately in charge and should take whatever actions necessary to ensure the players and coaches abide by all rules.

Bevo Boy said...

The story from College Station is that the national anthem was played before the A&M match each day. The Aggies played the second match each day. I guess the day didn't start until A&M got going!!

Bevo Boy said...

Well, one thing is for sure.

Haymuncher would know what "treating adults like children" is all about.

Anonymous said...

I was in attendance and I believe the Maryland coach said it best... "Too many Americans died for that flag for someone to disrespect it like this."

Kudos to the Maryland coach.

RM said...

I believe the Maryland coach is a naturalized US citizen. Maybe he appreciates his citizenship more than some.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Michigan ranks right next to Ohio State for having a monkey for a coach.