Twenty-eight players and assistant coaches have quit the women’s basketball program at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis over the past four years. This week an extensive and disturbing report published in The Indianapolis Star offers some clues as to why.
The newspaper’s interviews with 10 former players, as well as an examination of logbooks kept by the athletic department, gave rise to a slew of allegations: That the team’s head coach, Shann Hart, and associate head coach, Chanel Spriggs, had broken NCAA limits on practice time, promoted a culture of “emotional abuse,” and “repeatedly and publicly” humiliated players by asking intrusive questions about their personal lives and belittling them.
“I grew to hate basketball,” one former player said. “I never thought I’d say that.”
The two coaches declined to comment to the Star.
The university’s chancellor, Charles R. Bantz, a member of the NCAA’s Executive Committee, has created an advisory committee to investigate the allegations raised in the report. In a statement released on Tuesday, he said the university had cooperated with the Star‘s investigation and, previously, had conducted its own preliminary internal inquiry into allegations of harassment and excessive practice time in the program.
The mother of one former team member, Julia Whitted, a two-time all-conference player who quit in December, offered a sobering assessment of the alleged harassment.
“She was always proud of basketball,” Paula Whitted said of her daughter, who has played basketball since the third grade. “By the time she left that program, I don’t think she wanted to pick up a basketball.”
5 Responses to ‘I Grew to Hate Basketball’
mgrimaldi - July 29, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Whenever I read a story like this, I wonder, “What the heck was the point of that sort of behavior?” As a college sports fan, I look at the results.Over the past four years (the period cited), the team was 30-38 in its conference and 50-73 overall, according to the Summit League website. Last season, the team was 2-16 for 9th place in its conference, and 3-26 overall.Congrats to The Star for shining a light on this. Let’s hope things are better for these women and the university overall.
11186245 - July 29, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Very interesting story.A decade ago I spent a season with the Duke Women’s Basketball Season and never once observed any behavior like that alleged at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Instead I found a climate of support, camaraderie, respect and compassion. No lack of hard work and dedication, but not a single instance of bullying, browbeating, or sadism. If there is substance to the report of what happened in Indiana, then I would want to know how this behavior was tolerated by the university’s administration and its leaders. If it was known and ignored, then new leadership is needed. John Lubans Jr. Lubans1@nc.rr.com
johnwiley - July 29, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Gosh–imagine that. Overbearing, bullying coaches in the university system that supported Bobby Knight for so many years.We should all be shocked–shocked!
dank48 - July 30, 2010 at 9:38 am
I’m not surprised at all. Basketball is the unofficial state religion of Indiana. Does this count as progress under Title IX? Once upon a time only boys got treated this way; girls could compete to be cheerleaders. IUPUI leads the way: human sacrifice to the great god basketball isn’t just for boys any more.
goxewu - July 30, 2010 at 10:07 am
Re #1:If the team had produced a winning record, the coaches’ conduct would have been justified?The annals of college sports–especially the “revenue sports” of D-1 football and men’s basketball–are filled with true tales of my-way-or-the-highway “disciplinarian” coaches’ excesses in terms of punitive and generally harmful behavior toward their players. They’d be filled to overflowing save for the understandable code of silence to which players are forced to subscribe; nobody wants to be called a “wuss” or a “sissy” or a “coward” or even “soft.” When somebody does blow the whistle, as concerning football player Adam James and coach Mike Leach at Texas Tech last year, the public hue and cry is generally against the player for “deserving” those insults, plus being an ingrate in the bargain.The reason this kind of coaches’ behavior is so pervasive is, simply, that big-time college athletics conducts itself by the motto of the NFL’s Al Davis: “Just win, baby.” Win and–as per the implication in #1, above–all is forgiven. The rebuttal that this kind of coaches’ behavior strengthens the players’ character usually involves prominent players who’ve gone on to the pros, and not the third-string offensive lineman with a blown knee who never graduated.And if the coaches are “players’ coaches” who have a helluva lotta fun and whose locker rooms are one big frat house party? Uh, Pete Carroll.