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NCAA Cracks Down On Coaches!

The NCAA has made a significant change in how the officials are going to deal with the coaches, and it's going to be interesting to see how coaches respond.

When you boil it all down, they seem to want coaches to stay in the coach's box, and to not curse, gesticulate wildly, or to try overtly to influence the game by "working" the refs.

All in all, it's probably a good move. The coaching box has become universally ignored, and there's no reason to have it if you don't enforce it. And while many coaches, including Coach K, employ sideline profanity, there's no reason to direct it at the officials.

But while Krzyzewski and Roy Williams are among the guys locally who will be most closely watched, the guys who will really struggle are coaches with poor self-control, and that doesn't really apply in the Triangle, as both Hall of Famers have considerable self-discipline, and Sidney Lowe appears to as well.

In the ACC, the guy who will be the most tormented by all of this is without question Gary Williams, who boils over in the first few minutes of any game. He was famously tossed out of a game in Cameron after just a couple of minutes, and that was minus any national crackdown. One of the great sites in the ACC is watching him when things are going badly, and he just goes down the bench looking for someone, anyone, to berate.

The other two coaches who may have some trouble adjusting are Virginia's Dave Leitao and Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg. Leitao, according to courtside observers, can be very harsh to anyone around, and Greenberg at times has a volcanic temper.

Sooo....the first few weeks should be very interesting.