On Friday’s broadcast on ESPN2’s “First Take”, co-host Skip Bayless was asked what he thought should happen to Vanderbilt men’s basketball coach Kevin Stallings after he was caught on camera yelling player Wade Baldwin IV in a profane manner, at one point saying, “I’m going to f—ing kill you.”
Stallings later apologized, saying, “I’ve never touched a player in all my years as a coach. That’s not me. I will learn from this and handle this situation differently in the future.”
According to Bayless, Stallings was right in criticizing the player, but should be suspended for crossing the line.
“I don’t have any issue with him criticizing this young man for this action,” Bayless said. “The response of Coach Stallings then escalated into something that became far, far worse in my eyes than what the kid had done, because he just flat out lost it. The language obviously got abusive. ‘I’m going to kill you’ with the word in between. It’s like Kevin Stallings completely lost it on the floor. I think Kevin thought for a second he wasn’t caught on camera. The post game quotes did not indicate severity of what he had done until he got a call from our ESPN reporter and then he profusely apologized. Ok, good for both of them. ‘We take it back. We are okay with each other.’ In the end, it is so egregious. Understand Coach Stallings, he is old school, ‘I want you to play and act the right way. I want you to represent this institution with class and character and dignity.’ I get all that. But did Coach Stallings in the end represent Vanderbilt University the right way? He did not, to me, as an alum. Maybe I’m overemotional. You have to suspend him for one game just to say, ‘Coach you stepped across the line.’”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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