Mott Doherty loves controversy

Throughout his career, Matt Doherty as often been thought of as less of a head coach than a head ache.

From bringing in his own staff when he was hired to UNC to calling Duke's cheeleaders ugly to his epic FAIL as a coach with the Heels. It has long been rumored that Doherty has some pretty serious anger management issues.

And he apparently hasn't been working on them.

You see, during Saturday's game between SMU, the school Doherty currently coaches, and Memphis, Doherty got into it a little bit with some fans.

Matt Doherty was jawing with some fans.
(photo credit: SMU)

He called the school Memphis Tech (even though it is known as Tiger High, apparently). He yelled to the crowd that he went to a real school, and that Memphis should take their banners down, to which a Memphis booster named Bobby Byrd responded "Yea, and they fired you". He yelled to the crowd that "at least my guys take their SATs", a reference to Derrick Rose, Doneal Mack, and Robert Dozier. This all resulted in some heated words between Derrick Williams and Roburt Sallie after the game, and a brief altercation with Josh Pastner.

"Memphis' fans are really good. Memphis is a basketball town, and anytime I land in Memphis, people know basketball," Doherty told reporters after the game. "People talk basketball whether you are in a cab or getting your bags at the airport. This is a basketball town and the fans here are good. It's give-and-take, and they give me a hard time, so I gave them a hard time."

I may be one of the few that doesn't really have a problem with this.

Fans in every sport are brutal to the players and the coaches on the opposing team. But in basketball, with the proximity of the fans to the court, the players and the coaches can hear the majority of what is said from the stands.

And if Memphis fans were living up to their reputation, I'm sure they were ripping into Doherty.

So he responded, and what we got was a pretty funny little back-and-forth between a coach and a prominent booster.

Sure, there were some words exchanged after the game, but there were no punches thrown. In a sport that thrives on the emotion of the players, the coaches, and the fans, sometimes it will bubble over and words will be exchanged. Like I said, no punches were thrown, so what's the big deal?

Yes, Doherty probably could have used a little better judgment. But if the worst thing a college basketball coach is doing is yelling at some fans on the road, than you are running a pretty good program.