What does a "public reprimand" actually do? Nothing? Oh, ok

By now, you have all seen the video of Steve Alford and Jonathon Tavernari getting into it after New Mexico beat BYU on Saturday.

You have also likely seen the video of Alford and Tavernari apologizing to each other after the game.



And if that's not enough, you surely saw the video or read somewhere about Alford's appearance on ESPN's First Take and his apology to BYU head coach Dave Rose. Apparently, that wasn't enough for the MWC, as they decided to further punish Alford ... by publicly reprimanding him.

From the MWC:

University of New Mexico Men's Basketball Head Coach Steve Alford has been issued a public reprimand for his unduly provocative language toward an opposing student-athlete following the February 27, 2010 New Mexico at BYU men's basketball contest. Coach Alford's action was in violation of MWC Sportsmanship Rule 4.4.3.

The Mountain West Conference will have no further comment regarding this case. The provisions of the MWC Sportsmanship Policy can be found in Rule 4 of the MWC Handbook - which can be accessed via the www.TheMWC.com Web site.

That's it. That's their entire punishment.

Fair warning to all you MWC coaches. Do not violate Sportsmanship Rule 4.4.3., or you risk facing a two paragraph press release that ... well, what exactly does it do?

Lets Alford, and the nation, know that he made a mistake?

I think we all realized that from the get go. I spend my fair share of time on the internet, and I have yet to come across someone defending Alford's actions. Hell, he didn't even defend his actions. Once cooler heads prevailed, he and Tavernari apologized to each other. Alford apologized to Rose. Its pretty obvious that all parties, including the blogging and sport-watching public, involved realize both people, particularly Alford, were in the wrong.

And we didn't need a public reprimand to tell us that.

Watch this video. The kid in this video does something dumb, namely trying to jump into a pool with his eyes shut. Now, whether or not this kid's mom yells at him, I think he is going to learn pretty quickly that it is not a smart idea to try and do any physical activity with your eyes closed. Because, you know, you could end up with some scraped knees.

The same goes for Alford. I think that, as the video of him calling an opposing player an "a--hole" went viral, Alford learned pretty quickly that it is, in fact, a bad idea to have a verbal altercation with an opponent, especially when cameras are around. He doesn't need the MWC "publicly reprimanding" him when there are plenty of blogs out there to do the job for them.

Just like that kid doesn't need his mom yelling at him about running with his eyes open when the scabs on his knees teach him just fine.

(Side Note: This isn't the first time this season that we have had incidents with coaches yelling at people. Remember when Roy Williams threw a fan out of a game against Presbyterian? What about when Coach Cal was caught on camera telling Reginald Delk that "he'll beat your ass after the game.")