Article From The Athletic on Coach Ralph-Vandy

[MikeADore]

There is an article in The Athletic by Joe Rexrode this morning that is said to be extremely complimentary of coach Ralph and what is happening in the Vandy program. I no longer have a subscription, but I did find these two paragraphs posted on another website. Thought you might want to see it, too:

From the Athletic article:

"The last glimpse of Ralph in her debut season was that of a coach at the podium trying to process how her team squandered a 14-point lead late to lose a game it mostly controlled. She blamed herself for late out-of-bounds plays that didn’t work. She said she was proud of her players and also hoped this would be a lesson on the intensity required to finish such games.​
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She responded to a question on the late officiating — a key charging call on Cambridge was hard to understand — as such: “I have been instructed several times not to talk about the officiating on my walk here, so I won’t say anything about it. But I can tell you if you want to look back at my reaction, you’ll get exactly what I think about it.”​
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Those reactions, and the ongoing smolder after a cooldown period, looked like someone very unhappy with the officiating. Also, someone with the fire this program has needed."​

[Dore2Dore]

Amen! We were hosed & disrespected!! Am proud we have this coach & staff, proud of each of these young ladies! Proud to be a fan of theirs!

[abvandy]

Officiating -

As I approach 21,900 days of following Vanderbilt sports, I have come to the conclusion that a few (not all, but some) SEC officials have a bias against Vanderbilt. This maybe conscious or unconscious, but there have been too many calls or non-calls to be overlooked.

It is almost as if they feel Vanderbilt 'doesn't belong in the SEC,' because we "don't take sports seriously." I could recount many examples, but Flopper Grant Williams is near the top of the list.

CONQUER!!.... and PREVAIL!!!

[Dore2Dore]

great point abvandy - both BB teams, FB, unsure about Baseball (probably scared of Corbs) - seem to rarely be the beneficiary of 50/50 or questionable calls; and most certainly late in games; is it "because of Vanderbilt's academic standings", or because we "aren't supposed to win" , or something else? I just know it has been going on a long time. I think CSR & CJS are strong coaches so hopefully we have the ability to overcome this bias.

[OldDude]

great point abvandy - both BB teams, FB, unsure about Baseball (probably scared of Corbs) - seem to rarely be the beneficiary of 50/50 or questionable calls; and most certainly late in games; is it "because of Vanderbilt's academic standings", or because we "aren't supposed to win" , or something else? I just know it has been going on a long time. I think CSR & CJS are strong coaches so hopefully we have the ability to overcome this bias.

There are so many dynamics to the subject of bias but one of them is the idea of bias against perceived elites. Could simply be described as jealousy, but I suspect there are a few who perceive VU as elitist and, consciously or not , want to "cut us down to size".

[abvandy]

Exactly, OldDude.

And. there is almost every year, the apparent practice of "Let's protect the national ranked (..cough Alabama...cough, Kentucky...) team that has a real shot at bringing a Gloriou$$ Victory to the $$EC."

CONQUER!!..., and PREVAIL!!!

[vujoe]

Let's not play he victim

[Go Vandy!]

...She responded to a question on the late officiating — a key charging call on Cambridge was hard to understand — as such: “I have been instructed several times not to talk about the officiating on my walk here, so I won’t say anything about it. But I can tell you if you want to look back at my reaction, you’ll get exactly what I think about it.”​
​
Those reactions, and the ongoing smolder after a cool down period, looked like someone very unhappy with the officiating. Also, someone with the fire this program has needed."​

Have to really like that. she got her point across without risking a fine. And she was right.