Morehead State coach Sean Woods received massive amounts of criticism for the way he berated one of his players last week. The school suspended him a game for his behavior, and he apologized for his actions, which he called “inappropriate and unacceptable” in a statement.
Woods received support this week from an unlikely source — Indiana coach Tom Crean.
“I think too many people took shots at him,” Crean said of Woods on “Jim Rome on Showtime.” “As a coach, I’m not trying to defend what happened, but I wasn’t there. Really, outside of the team and that assistant coach that was in the mix with Sean, they’re the only ones that really know what was said and what transpired and what happened in practice.
“Does that condone it? No, but I think it’s so easy to verbally beat people up when we don’t understand what happened,” Crean continued.
“Has he apologized? Was he suspended and disciplined? Absolutely. Does that condone it? No, but I think people just have to let that stuff play out and know that mistakes are going to be made, let apologies be made, and let’s move on.”
People have moved on since Woods’ actions last week, but Crean’s defense is still surprising. He comes across as a man of high integrity, so even though he says he doesn’t condone it, a defense is shocking. True, we don’t know all the circumstances surrounding the verbal beatdown, but is there anything that justifies Woods’ outburst on his player? I don’t think so.
