Matt Doherty

[Kat Kid]

he clearly didn't get the advanced talking points that say at least conceded that frank was able to coach a bunch of talentless rejects to the NCAAs and oscar just needed to get "his system" established and get "his players" in there.  His lack of knowledge about the roster, his use of KU neg recruiting Manhattan talking points and his weird shannon spradling shout out all work to undermine what is a possible oscar-positive narrative.

[ManBearTurkey]

WTF?

Is Shannon really Wil's dad? That just adds a whole new level (for me at least) of derpitude.

I agree somewhat on the no talent stuff, but Frank made it work and IMO gave us a niche for players that he could use to compete with that other programs didn't want/have a role for.

But you don't just confuse the name Wil with Shannon. That is just mumped up. It gives credence to all the high school drama bullshit that has come out from this...which is my worst nightmare for this program. That all of it might actually be true. 

[ZappaCat]

I have no problem with him saying our talent is average or that we won’t compete with Florida a top three team in the country.
But 12 months ago K-State had a brand in basketball, we would not be outworked by any team, we would hustle, we would guard like no other team, and we would outrebound the opponent on a nightly basis. Now we are a SLTH team with a coach that only other coaches could love.

[pissclams]

I agree it is bizarre, but don't all coaches have guys that go on the radio and say things like this for them?

It's not that big of a surprise to me, though I have no idea how oscar and Doherty have a connection.

yes, jeff goodman and the other weird looking dude were frank's

[steve dave]

I agree it is bizarre, but don't all coaches have guys that go on the radio and say things like this for them?

It's not that big of a surprise to me, though I have no idea how oscar and Doherty have a connection.

yes, jeff goodman and the other weird looking dude were frank's

jeff goodman IS the weird looking dude. eyes too close together. doyle once told him he was going to punch him in his too close together eyes.

['taterblast]

I have no problem with him saying our talent is average or that we won’t compete with Florida a top three team in the country.
But 12 months ago K-State had a brand in basketball, we would not be outworked by any team, we would hustle, we would guard like no other team, and we would outrebound the opponent on a nightly basis. Now we are a SLTH team with a coach that only other coaches could love.

yeah i agree with this.

[pissclams]

i know goodman is weird looking, more clear to say "jeff goodman, weird looking dude, and the other weird looking dude, were frank's"

[steve dave]

WTF?

Is Shannon really Wil's dad? That just adds a whole new level (for me at least) of derpitude.

yes. he was also a public/vocal Frank hater.

[SEK_EMAW]

No one here is going to argue that this is the best team in the Big 12, but remember when Frank left, all the talking heads agreed that he was leaving behind a Sweet 16 team. 
So what happened since March?  oscar happened.  So don't go on the radio telling us how good of a job oscar and Shannon are doing, cause that smells like crap.

[mocat]

I have no problem with him saying our talent is average or that we won’t compete with Florida a top three team in the country.
But 12 months ago K-State had a brand in basketball, we would not be outworked by any team, we would hustle, we would guard like no other team, and we would outrebound the opponent on a nightly basis. Now we are a SLTH team with a coach that only other coaches could love.

yeah i agree with this.

it hurts to see it laid out like this.

also at first i thought doherty said "Channing" Spradling and L@L'd at the thought of confusing channing tatum with will spradling.

[wetwillie]

Is shannon spradling a kc metro hs coach?

[slobber]

Somebody get on twitter and challenge MD to name at least two fathers of KSU basketball players.

[pissclams]

Is shannon spradling a kc metro hs coach?

no, he's a k-state 2 guard

[steve dave]

Is shannon spradling a kc metro hs coach?

But what some view as ruthless tongue-lashings capable of leaving scars, Spradling sees as the status quo. He's experienced tough coaching, and Martin's style isn't it. He's survived his share of locker room tirades, and his current coach's antics don't top the list.

"It was way worse with my dad," said Spradling, who played AAU basketball for his father for the bulk of his childhood. "Frank really gets into me and stuff, but you think Frank has a bad mouth on the court? My dad's mouth was way worse. And this is when we were younger, too. You didn't see this on other teams back then. Parents on other teams didn't know what to think."

The routine was constant back then. Mistakes in basketball, or in life, always came with a price tag. So the K-State coach with a nation-wide reputation for being hard on players has a ways to go to catch the disciplinarian back home. And in Manhattan, Spradling's comeuppance for a bad decision doesn't follow him to the dinner table.

"We had a lot of uncomfortable meals, and my mom would sometimes try to get involved and baby me, but my dad wasn't having that," Spradling said. "That's when things got bad. But, what could I say? He was my dad. He was always right."

Writing Spradling's empty halftime stat line on a dry erase board between periods in an early-season game with Charleston Southern inspired a 15-point second half, but Martin's sarcastic style of grilling him over a lack of production still came off as mild. Until he forces his sophomore guard to leave the locker room with tears rolling down his cheeks, Spradling will claim to have seen worse -- much worse -- from the AAU coach that shares his last name.

"The worst ever was in eighth grade during nationals in Indiana," Spradling recalls. "I had a terrible first half. We were down by, like, 15. My dad just ripped me at halftime. I was crying the whole second half. I scored 25 points in the second half, but I was crying the whole time."

This isn't a case of Shannon Spradling being especially tough on his son. His offspring's tears weren't the only ones spilled on game days. He once inspired current Alabama guard Trevor Releford, a former AAU teammate, to a big second half in the same fashion, leaving him to ride welling eyes to success.

Often times, when the waterworks turned on, so too did Shannon Spradling's teams.

"My dad would get into you, but it would make you do better," Will Spradling said. "It was never just tearing you down for nothing or just being negative for no reason. He knew it would make you try harder."

It wasn't just results on the basketball court Shannon Spradling, a former player at the University of Tulsa, was after. These were, according to Spradling, life lessons. The toughening-up process was complete well before the current K-State guard graduated high school, and the plan wasn't executed by accident.

At a young age, Will Spradling trained with NFL players such as Eddie Kennison at a facility in Overland Park and broke the former Chiefs wide receiver's complex record in at least one drill. He was forced to play up two-age groups on the AAU circuit. His nose has been broken twice on the basketball court and all the recruiting attention that surrounded him during his junior year in high school was garnered while playing with a broken bursa sack in his hip.

"I'd just tell him to shake it off and move on," Shannon Spradling said. "I was equally tough on everyone. I always told him I'd have him prepared for life, so I guess I was true to my words."

So here stands Will Spradling the college athlete, -- a pile of high-pitched voice and bashfulness -- the most unassuming tough guy on Earth. As a freshman at K-State a season ago, he was one of two players to appear in every game and hit his share of big shots in the process. He's on pace to shatter the school record for charges drawn in a career and regularly slams his body into a cold, wooden floor despite lingering pain from the four-year-old hip injury.

Will Spradling isn't just a Frank Martin-style of player. He's the steel mold from which they're cut.

"Shannon did a hell of a job preparing Will for college," Martin said. "Will is going to succeed in a heck of a way because he's been prepared. When you get guys like that, you can coach them. They're going to respond to coaching. The problem is there are too many kids these days that haven't been challenged."

The kid with the squeaky voice and bulletproof spirit has just less than three years of college basketball left to his name. Three years of curse words. Three years of absorbing maniacal screaming and being chastised for microscopic missteps. Martin is not changing his ways anytime soon.

"As coaches, I guess we're expected to go hug them and kiss them," Martin said. "It doesn't work like that K-State."

And that's just fine by Will Spradling. He's never known another way.

"I don't think I'd like playing for a coach who just sits back and relaxes," he said. "I've never played with a coach with that style. I don't even think I could deal with that. I wouldn't know how to respond."

[mocat]

"I don't think I'd like playing for a coach who just sits back and relaxes," he said. "I've never played with a coach with that style. I don't even think I could deal with that. I wouldn't know how to respond."

GAH!

[Rage Against the McKee]

I bet Shannon (confirmed dickhead by his own son) read that article and made it his personal mission to get rid of Frank and eff all of us over by getting some pillowy-soft sissy to come coach the team so that toughness would never be brought up again.

[CNS]

My god, if ever an article was deserving of a follow up where-are-they-now-VH1 special, that one is screaming for it.

Also, Sprads may be able to take one tough guy's crap, but what two was obvs too much.  probs couldn't take Franks lashing then hear it from his dad so he had to engineer a way to get rid of one, and murdering your dad is probably a little more risky than manipulating Currie.

[Ira Hayes]

So Shannon coached AAU ball?

That explains how Doherty knows him.

[Cartierfor3]

I agree it is bizarre, but don't all coaches have guys that go on the radio and say things like this for them?

It's not that big of a surprise to me, though I have no idea how oscar and Doherty have a connection.

But usually the mouthpiece doesn't trash the team's best player.

[CNS]

So Shannon coached AAU ball?

That explains how Doherty knows him.

Possibly.  assuming he did so for players that were worthy of UNC attention

[michigancat]

I agree it is bizarre, but don't all coaches have guys that go on the radio and say things like this for them?

It's not that big of a surprise to me, though I have no idea how oscar and Doherty have a connection.

But usually the mouthpiece doesn't trash the team's best player.

Or completely trash the work of a successful coach.

[ZappaCat]

I agree it is bizarre, but don't all coaches have guys that go on the radio and say things like this for them?

It's not that big of a surprise to me, though I have no idea how oscar and Doherty have a connection.

But usually the mouthpiece doesn't trash the team's best player.

Or completely trash the work of a successful coach.

Frank wasn't raised as a basketball blue-blood. He has always been seen as a bit of an outsider. But he was our outsider.

[kso_FAN]

Frank wasn't raised as a basketball blue-blood. He has always been seen as a bit of an outsider. But he was our outsider.

I think this is it as much as anything. I'm sure a lot of coaches resent him because he only got his shot because of Beasley, etc. Of course the fact that he established himself over 5 years of coaching doesn't matter.

[SEK_EMAW]

Frank wasn't raised as a basketball blue-blood. He has always been seen as a bit of an outsider. But he was our outsider.

I think this is it as much as anything. I'm sure a lot of coaches resent him because he only got his shot because of Beasley, etc. Of course the fact that he established himself over 5 years of coaching doesn't matter.

That probably really bothers a "UNC blue blood" like Doherty...especially when he compares his career record to a guy like Frank. 

[CNS]

Frank wasn't raised as a basketball blue-blood. He has always been seen as a bit of an outsider. But he was our outsider.

I think this is it as much as anything. I'm sure a lot of coaches resent him because he only got his shot because of Beasley, etc. Of course the fact that he established himself over 5 years of coaching doesn't matter.

It's laughable because frank was given a chevy with a new set of tires and a foot shaped gas pedal.  Doherty was given a Ferrari with daddy's credit card and one of those cards that says you are the relative of a state trooper/cop.  Given a similar amt of time, the comparison is crazy diff.