Just in Time for March Madness - nice digs for a bad team. - Mark P. Loftus
Saw this on the Huffington Post last week and had to write about it. Nebraska University Mens Basketball Coach Tim Miles is plain fed up. A couple of weeks ago, his Cornhuskers got blown out at home by Iowa. And the loss was not an unusual event. In fact, losing had become pretty commonplace for the Nebraska lads. Before the Iowa game they had lost 7 of their last 8 games So Miles put a lock on the Locker Room – effectively banishing his players from their own locker room.
At a press conference, Miles announced that “There will be chains on the door locking it from the outside until further notice.” Miles also told reporters he wished his players could work side jobs until the could refund the cost of tickets to disappointed fans.
Big shout-out to Coach Miles for refusing to indulge the every whim of big time athletes like most major college basketball coaches do[see Jim Boeheim as an example]. Not sure if the ban is still in effect – as of February 26 it was, but that was a couple weeks ago. And it’s not like Miles has to worry about getting his players ready for the NCAA tournament. They currently sit at 13-17 overall and are 12th in the Big Ten. So they can make plans for Spring Break.
The most jarring thing about this story though isn’t that some coach got fed up. It is the lavish facilities these kids enjoy. They practice in the recently completed $19 million Hendricks Training Complex[pictured above]. The players have access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Click on this link to go to the Huff Post article and see an embedded video where two players walk you through the facility. A Team Lounge, with a huge wall of televisions where the players can relax, complete with custom-made extra long couches for the lads to stretch out. There is a stocked kitchen. The Locker Room has custom lockers with embedded ipads and ipods. The soak room has hot and cold soak tubes, along with big screens on the wall. And, a nice little feature – a towel warmer. Yeah, a towel warmer – so the poor lads don’t have to deal with the outrage of a cold towel. The showers have rain faucet overhead showers as well as side faucets. And of course the showers are wired for ipods. The film area has oversize leather chairs, with the obligatory cupholder. Again, the lads should not have to place their beverages on the floor.
My favorite feature is the lavatory areas. EACH of the toilets have what appear to be 18 inch retractable televisions screens – so the kids can enjoy some television during private time. I for one, am appalled the kids had to wait so long for this feature.
All that and they are 13-17. Wow. Shouldn’t they be at least .500?
