The ongoing rhetorical tennis match that is the Georgetown-Maryland men's basketball brouhaha drew further attention on the District's airwaves this week, as two of the legendary coaches of each respective program weighed in on the controversy.
First, former Georgetown coach John Thompson, Jr. weighed in on Kevin Anderson's unusual negotiating tactics ESPN 980 Monday afternoon.
I've certainly never heard of anybody dealing with [a scheduling dispute] in a public format, not unless you're trying to divert attention from yourself ... You know, that's incomprehensible to me. Certainly - and I'm speaking for myself - I'm not gonna permit myself to be threatened, I can tell you that right now, by anybody that [wants] me to act on a threat. I don't think that's the intelligent way to do anything.
I think that anybody who has any form of integrity would not permit themselves to be threatened, and anybody that has any form of intelligence would not attempt to do that, and particularly not in a public format, and particularly when you're trying to educate young people in the art of negotiating and talking.
But Big John wasn't done there.
Who is Kevin Anderson? How long has he been the athletic director at the University of Maryland? He is a very, very exceptional individual. He's capable of directing the athletics at two different schools. "I don't know where ADs at prominent, at prominent educational institutions, do the scheduling. So it appears to me that that would be a coach and coach thing, not an AD and AD thing, from those who know. I made the schedule at Georgetown. Dean Smith made the schedule at North Carolina. Bobby Knight made the schedule, Coach K makes the schedule. I don't think the AD makes the schedule at any of those institutions. I don't know what Mark Turgeon does. I don't know. It appears to me that the AD does it, if he's threatening to stop the other sports from playing. I don't know. I mean, I'm puzzled.
Meanwhile, former Maryland coach Gary Williams appeared in his regular Tuesday slot on ESPN 980 and was asked about the potential of an annual Maryland-Georgetown game:
"There's room for a new rivalry there now [due to conference realignment]. I think it would be a good thing. That [series] stopped before I got to Maryland, so hopefully there's a way to get that done. I haven't met anyone [at Maryland] that wouldn't like to see that game take place."
And on and on we go.
Thompson quotes via Steinbog.