When You Mess With the Dave Dickerson, You Get The Horns

So this video comes courtesy of last week's heavily-anticipated Tulane-Rice Conference USA basketball matchup.

For those of you who don't remember (and I'm ashamed of you if you don't), Dave Dickerson was a Terp assistant coach from 1996 through 2005 (associate head coach in 2005), before taking on the Tulane head coaching job. He had the misfortune of taking the reins of the Tulane basketball program just months prior to Hurricane Katrina tearing apart New Orleans. Somehow, he has made Tulane basketball respectable again.

Coach Dickerson was a major part of the Terps' success in reaching the 2001 Final Four and 2002 National Championship. For us Terp fans, it was also even more special, because he was a Terp basketballer himself from 1985-1989, surviving the Bias death and the post-death morass that was the Bob Wade era.

Well, in the wake of Tulane finishing off a stunning comeback on the road against Rice with no time left on the clock, in a game that got so ugly, even the Rice mascot was arrested, Coach Dickerson decided to celebrate briefly with the Green Wave player who hit the game winning shot. Here's where the Rice coach, Ben Braun, decided to try to mess with the bull:



Braun took exception to Coach Dickerson's brief celebration and decided to have a few words for Coach Dickerson, instead of shaking his hand. Look at the 2:05 point of the video. Coach Dickerson, who stands about six inches taller than Braun, peers down at him, glares at him, and gets the "Last King of Scotland" grin on his face as Braun tries to chew Coach Dickerson out. Then, a Rice coach decides to try to push Dickerson away. And then, the coaches decide to scuffle.

Ben Braun, I'm sure with your 11 years of coaching at Eastern Michigan and 11 years of coaching at Cal (congrats on that Sweet 16 in your first year coaching with other peoples' talent before you tanked the team the remaining 10 years), you feel like it is your duty to school Coach Dickerson on the finer points of "sportsmanship" as a coach. Ben Braun, CRAM IT.

Coach Dickerson, keep up the good work, and who knows... maybe we'll see you back in College Park in a few years.

And Rice fans, I'm sure you were angry. I hope you all streaked and got it out of you. Then went back to your rooms and played with your chemistry kits.