After the Hoyas’ overtime victory against West Virginia last Saturday, a tall white guy, eyes burning and voice cracking, told the MCI Center pressroom how he truly felt:
“For the referees in our league, and for our league, and for the adults that run our league to expect Mike Sweetney to put up with the contact that he has to put up in the post when he goes up to shoot, and to put up with the contact he has to absorb and deal with and be happy about and not have a referee call a foul, and then [to have] that same 20-year old watch our perimeter people guard people … and get called for hand-checking every time we put our hands on somebody else is just absolutely, absolutely crazy.”
Who are you, and what have you done with Craig Esherick? We know those trick mustaches aren’t hard to find.
“[It is] absolutely crazy … for our league to countenance that. And if anyone wants me to spell it I will. For our league to countenance forcing a 20-year old to have to put up with that crap and to permit adults that referee our games to get away with that is just doesn’t make any sense.”
Well, flexing vocab like “countenance” seems more in line with the Coach Esherick we know and tolerate, he who holds Georgetown undergraduate and law degrees. But still, is this the normally reserved, almost folksy Esherick who has always treated his players, officials, fans, reporters and grandparents with respect?
“I will pay the way to Washington D.C. of any official that [wants] to sit down and watch a game with me and see the crap that Mike Sweetney has to put up with. And I will pay a referee to sit in the post and let somebody beat the crap out of him and see how he likes it. See how his back likes it. See how his arms like it. Just because Mike is 6-8, 260 doesn’t mean he doesn’t hurt when he gets fouled and doesn’t mean it’s not a foul. It is a foul.”
Well, at the very least, we’re dealing with a changed man here. But whoever this is, he has a point: Any observer of the Hoyas’ inside game against quality competition this season knows Mike Sweetney gets relentlessly hammered. Sure, to an extent, that’s how it is in Division I competition, and making enemies out of Big East referees this early in the conference schedule is ill-advised.
That aside, it’s about goddamned time someone said something. Mike Sweetney is a stoic; don’t expect him to complain. That’s just against his nature. Most would have thought it was against Craig Esherick’s nature too.
“I think it’s amazing that Mike has been able to stay as calm as he has this year … That shows Mike’s maturity and shows what kind of kid he is. But I swear to God, I’m not going to behave like that anymore. Anymore. I’m sick of this. I am absolutely sick of the way that Mike Sweetney is being treated in our league, and it makes no sense, it makes absolutely no sense, and it is unfair.”
Good coaches fight as hard as their players do, and Esherick showed a rare flash of his dormant intensity. Unfortunately, Wednesday’s drubbing by Seton Hall testifies that getting a team to use their coach’s intensity as a catalyst for on-court performance is another thing entirely. But you’ve got to start somewhere.
So, right on, Coach Esherick—if that is your real name.
