Following his team’s 74-46 home loss to in-conference foe Iowa, Nebraska head coach Tim Miles banned his team from the locker room and lounge which includes iPads in every locker, a kitchen, a state-of-the-art sound system, a pool table and a plasma video wall.
“If we’re not going to play with pride, play to represent our fan base and our university better than we did today, then they’ll get their voice back when they earn it,” Miles wrote to ESPN.com via text message.
I’ve gone through this experience as a player. During my sophomore year at UMKC, my team blew a game to a team we had no business losing to. We played lethargic and like we had more important things on our minds. I fouled out in six minutes. When my coach, eight months pregnant at the time, came into the locker room she exploded on us. I honestly thought she would go into labor she was so pissed. The next day we had all mentally prepared ourselves to be ran until we through up everywhere. When my teammate entered the locker room code the door didn’t open. It had been changed by our coaching staff. We had a team meeting and our coach explained to us that we had lost the privilege to use our locker room and lounge area. We had to wash our own practice jerseys. We were all assigned a basketball that we had to carry around campus and bring to practice everyday. We had to bring our stretch bands and rollers to practice everyday. Me being the forgetful person I am forgot my knee pads one day and had to run 16’s at the end of practice.
This went on for almost two months. It was difficult and a large inconvenience at times but we got our coach’s message loud and clear. We went on a winning streak that included upsetting the #14 team in the country. That got us our locker room back. When the Huskers start winning again they’ll earn their locker room back too because winning covers a multitude of problems.
H/T ESPN