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Mack Brown may be making it worse.
With press conferences being recorded and shared over social media these days, Brown’s weekly presser might have given his post-game emotional outburst more life than it needed.
He had good intentions by saying after six minutes, “Let’s talk about Duke. We’re not talking about that anymore. We’ve got it, we’ve got it handled.”
The media pushed back, which it is supposed to do when a controversy erupts. But the 73-year-old Hall of Fame coach, who says he loves talking to the media, needed to be firm and button it up. Instead, he took at least a dozen more questions and went into greater detail than he needed to.
“If you would’ve quit, you would’ve come in and told us,” asked Adam Smith of Inside Carolina. “People who were in the locker room, the players and adults, it’s our understanding that you had quit. Are you saying that they misinterpreted what you said in there?”
“Yes,” Brown responded to the fair question. “Yeah, I asked them if they wanted new leadership, and they said no. I backed away to think about it. And I told ’em, ‘Let’s go forward. Let’s get ready for Duke.’”
Brown took another question when he probably should have said, “If we can’t talk about Duke, we’re ending the press conference.”
The good question deserved a short and sweet answer. But Brown went on for another 30 seconds, which is a long answer for a question you didn’t want.
“Yeah, they were more mature than I was, so that’s what really made me mad. They did what they were supposed to do and I’ve gotta gotta handle losses better. I promised Sally, I’d do it when I came back. And that’s something I haven’t done very well. I can’t stand losing. It makes me physically sick and I feel responsible, and I put all the pressure on myself to have done it better. And I didn’t do that. So that’s what is disappointing for me. Yeah, I love my job and I want to keep doing it, and I’m glad they want me to keep doing it too.”
And Brown answered yet another question in what was turning into a pity party.
“Mack, are you concerned if this is something that undermines your position or in the way people perceive the health of the program? What happened as far as your comments and whether it was misconstrued?”
“No,” Mack said. “We’re in a world of comments and rumors – ‘I heard and he said, and we did.’ And the only thing I wanna do is play better. That’s what we gotta do. And I’m proud of the players. They stood up and like I said, they taught me something.”
Six more questions and six more minutes, and then came his weekly Monday night coach’s show with few questions and more answers.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
To say the events of last weekend and the subsequent “answers” by Mack are a terrible look is a huge understatement. What’s even more troubling is Bubba’s silence on the matter – at least to this point. It’s already a well-known fact that opposing schools/coaches use Mack’s age (73) against him on the recruiting trail. The embarrassment of last Saturday’s game followed by the post-game presser, followed by the comments that leaked from the locker room, followed by Monday’s presser, followed by his weekly radio show surely have other coaches giddy with a new set of negative recruiting tools – not just on the prep level, but the portal as well. UNC Football needs a hard re-set. In the current landscape of college athletics, football is king and the dollars it generates keeps other sports afloat and the athletic department in the black. The SEC and B1G are the big dogs (or ‘Dawgs) now and for UNC and their branding to stay relevant, a competent and competitive football product needs to be put on the field. For that to happen, UNC needs to move on from the Mack Brown 2.0 era. If not, it will become the Fedora era 2.0 as the seats in Kenan will be empty once more. To be clear, even if UNC should win out – which it won’t – this needs to be Mack’s final season. Another blowout on Saturday, this time by the Dookies, and there’ll be an interim head coach giving the presser this coming Monday.
True. The dollar disadvantage of the ACC vs B1G/SEC will nearly double in the next few years. This will have significant consequences for MBB at UNC & ACC. Even if UNC and Duke remain successful the weakened conference and the sport that made the ACC famous since its formation has never been less important in overall financial terms than it is now or in the near future. I was hopeful it would be Mack’s legacy for leading UNC into a new and better future. Finally I know it won’t be him. Mack now will be compared to Willie Mays as a Met.