Steve Alford, Sore Winner: Curses Out Opposing Player

On one hand, you'd like coaches to stop treating players like children. On the other hand, maybe Alford shouldn't be calling college students "assholes" in the handshake line. Especially with a camera two feet away.

The Mountain West was on the line when New Mexico and BYU met last night, and it came down to the final minute. With 52 seconds left, the Cougars' breakout forward Jonathan Tavernari was guarding the ball-handler when a timeout was called. Tavernari stayed on his man perhaps a second too long after the whistle and got an elbow in the ribs for his trouble.

The refs reviewed the replay, but decided not to call any fouls, visibly enraging Tavernari.

Fast forward to the end of the game. The win, and the conference regular season title, goes to the Lobos. In the handshake line, Alford has some choice words for Tavernari.

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To his credit, Tavernari went to the New Mexico locker room after the game to apologize to Alford. In what looked like a fairly even match of assholishness, why did the player have to be the one to say sorry? Shouldn't we be holding coaches to a higher standard? Maybe, but Mormons tend to hold themselves to the highest.

Coach and Cougar get upset [Salt Lake Tribune]