Monday, February 14, 2005

I could see Mora wielding a tempered steel chair

A few interesting items in Forde Minutes, but I'm most interested in the feud between the coaches at Illinois-Chicago and Wisconsin-Milwaukee:

Smaller schools, but the mother of all coaching feuds. UIC's Jimmy Collins and UWM's Bruce Pearl became mortal enemies while assistants at Illinois and Iowa, respectively, when Pearl turned in Collins to the NCAA for alleged recruiting violations. These days they play at least twice every year -- but never shake hands. "I have a family, and when all that stuff happened, it put my family through some hellish (expletive)," Collins told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel earlier this month. "... I think he does a hell of a job, but I'm not going to shake his hand. ... I don't like him and he don't like me."

This is a good start. I'm a huge fan of coaches hating each other. The John Calipari - John Chaney press conference was ridiculously entertaining. The Arsene Wenger - Sir Alex Ferguson sniping is fantastic (and any chance the Ashley Cole saga might've been leaked so Arsene could bring Jose Mourinho into the fun?). The only, and I mean only, reason why I'm happy Spurrier is back is that he tends to create hilarious rivalries.

I can't wait for the first coach to reach his hand out to shake but pull it back and say PSYCHE!!!

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