Over the holiday break, I watched a lot of college basketball, and I feel like the act of coaches physically being on the basketball court is something that is never talked about.

This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed how coaches being on the court can cause some disruption, but I think there is a fine line between what is and isn’t acceptable.

I think if a coach is on the court while the ball is on that side of the court, there should be a technical foul given to the coach.

This hasn’t been a problem at Eastern from what I have seen, but this was just recently a problem for the Creighton Bluejays, a college basketball team I grew up watching.

When Creighton had the ball with a little under two minutes left in a close game, Marquette’s head coach Shaka Smart physically got on the court and played defense on Creighton guard Baylor Scheierman, blocking Scheierman from driving to the basket.

This moment in the game had Creighton fans rightfully upset after Creighton lost to Marquette 72-67 on Dec. 30, 2023.

Although this hasn’t been a problem for the Panthers, this could come up in the future and have Panther fans upset with the opposing team’s coach.

It’s weird to me how common it is to see college coaches physically on the court, but I can’t name a single time in the past decade that there was a coach in the NBA that stood on the court.

Giving technical fouls out to coaches that affect the play like that will put all college coaches on notice in the future.

I don’t think it’s that difficult to stay off the court, especially when the ball is on the side that the coach is at.

We’re at a point in college basketball where I feel like the best thing to do to get rid of problems like this is punishing the coach.

When a college coach gets punished, they are more likely to stop whatever they did to get punished in the first place.

I think it would be a valid call if referees started handing out technical fouls and ejections if a coach steps onto the court while play is going on.

Sometimes, this will come down to a crucial play, and it’s heartbreaking to the opposing team who had to deal with another coach affecting their play.

Now, this also goes back to the referees and why they aren’t calling this even though this one of if not the biggest unspoken problem in college basketball.

I’m not saying that every college basketball coach is like this. I’ve been to numerous Eastern games with Marty Simmons as the head coach, and I can’t recall a time when Simmons has been on the court affecting play.

My biggest concern is that nobody is going to stop this behavior from college coaches, and it can end up costing a team a crucial win.

Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or zhflippin@eiu.edu.