COLUMN: Tension building around Zeigler, men's basketball team
Verbal sparring at McGuirk Arena!
Tempers flare at Thursday’s practice!
Junior forward Andre Coimbra was given harsh instruction from an assistant coach in the corner of the gym during the CMU men’s basketball practice.
Coimbra barked back, strong accent intact. Then, senior guard Antonio Weary stepped in, and verbally corralled the Brazilian native.
F-bombs galore. It happened in a matter of four seconds.
And let’s be clear: It was nothing — surely not newsworthy.
Not at all.
Things like this happen on a daily basis on winning teams. They multiply and intensify when it’s a losing one. At 6-17 and 3-7 in Mid-American Conference play, CMU qualifies as a losing team.
There was nothing strange about this, or the fact that coach Ernie Zeigler let the minor cat fight sizzle without having to saying a word.
But strange came next.
A team manager approached, politely saying “Coach Zeig doesn’t want reporters in until the end of practice.”
There’s nothing wrong with that, either. Coaches at many schools around the nation close practice to the public.
But it’s been loose around CMU lately. It’s never happened before when a visit is made in the final 10-15 minutes of practice. So it begs the question: Why now?
It is tense times for the Chippewas. A 72-43 thrashing from Buffalo on Tuesday night didn’t help things.
Try reaching Zeigler after a road loss. It’s easy at times. Other times, not so much.
After Buffalo? No answer.
“You have reached Ernie Zeigler, head coach of Central Michigan Men’s Basketball. Please leave a detailed message…”
That’s called cool-down time. It’s been needed lately.
“We feel very — I’m very disappointed. I think our guys are disappointed in our ability to play hard here Tuesday night,” Zeigler said after Thursday’s practice. “I think we did not play as hard as we can play. That comes back and falls on my shoulders, first and foremost.”
CMU can’t figure out road basketball, it appears. It is 0-6 on the road in MAC play. In those games, the Chippewas average just 48 points per game. That’s 22 points lower than their mark (70) in four conference home games, where they are 3-1.
But the problems seem more fundamental than road/home splits.
They seem more in-house, more about personality and chemistry. About young players not adjusting or responding.
“It’s not about worrying about sensitivity or being sensitive to guys’ feelings,” Zeigler said. “This is what it is. When we step between these lines, it’s about representing that “C” and competing as hard as we can compete. It’s not about trying to be choir boys to do it.
“We definitely have had guys struggle with the intensity level, and the sense of accountability that we talk about in terms of certain pillars in our program.”
It’s also about a lack of communication between veterans and the coaching staff, maybe.
It’s why senior guard Amir Rashid left; that’s for sure. You don’t have to poke or prod too hard to find a real disconnect in that situation.
It starts with rumors about a really hectic, heated ride home from Ypsilanti after the Eastern Michigan game.
Rashid has kept quiet. Zeigler and CMU won’t comment on the departure at all, besides something about “academics” and Amir “pursuing a degree.”
The truth is hard to distinguish.
But it’s easy — and at this point, not irresponsible — to assume there’s program-wide tension, because it can be felt.
It’s tangible, at this point.
Winning is the only fool-proof way to erase it.
Senior Jalin Thomas still has the goal of somehow, some way making the NCAA tournament, but the only way for CMU to do that is to beat the East Division powers in the MAC tournament.
“From here on out, we’re going to have to be right on board with Coach Z,” he said.
Start small.
The odds are against CMU doing anything from here on out, but Step 1 calls for some house cleaning.
It’s just too uneasy around here.
