Follow the leader

I went to the Duke vs. Florida State basketball game Wednesday night with Dave, Jamie, and the one of our wonderful club56 group leaders, Earl. It was an awesome game. Earl got us GREAT seats - on the floor, second row, directly behind the goal. You just don't get better seats than that. Plus, it was at Cameron Indoor Stadium - one of the greatest places to see college basketball. It was an awesome game - back and forth scoring, really physical, came down to the wire. It was even Senior night and Coach K's 1100th game coached. I had a great time. But the one thing that preoccupied my attention was the un-sportsman-like conduct of the Florida State team. The entire team had this horrible attitude. They were really ugly to the officials, rude to each other, and absolutely disrespectful to everyone around them. I was quite perplexed by it. We were sitting so close to their bench that we could hear just about everything they said - and boy was it ugly. Then, I noticed their head coach. Through the entire game he cursed, screamed, and argued with every call. He had no respect whatsoever for any of the officials. He received a technical foul and came very close to getting ejected half way through the first half. By the end of the game he was mimicking Coach K and making a fool of himself. Now, I know that coaching gets intense and that every coach screams and yells and gets a little worked up. But this was at another level. You could tell that everyone on that team was following the leader that was in front of them. Their leader, Coach Leonard Hamilton, set a contemptuous tone - and don't you know that everyone followed him down that path. It makes me think about those that follow me and what tone I am setting.