Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings has apologized for a postgame incident Thursday night in which he was caught on camera berating his player Wade Baldwin IV profanely, at one point saying, “I’m going to f—ing kill you.” Stallings said “he did not mean his words literally” when confronting Baldwin, who had taunted a Tennessee player in the postgame handshake line. Based on his choice of words, I am not sure his apology is going to end this story.
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“I handled it completely inappropriately and I apologized to Wade — and I need to apologize to our fans and the Vanderbilt administration,” the longtime coach told ESPN. “Having said that, and it may seem as though I’m trying to rationalize my behavior, sportsmanship will continue to be a high priority. I did not mean it in the literal sense and I’ve never touched a player in all my years as a coach. That’s not me. I will learn from this and handle this situation differently in the future.”
The funny thing is the coach only apologized after he realized his own comments went viral, because directly after the game during his post game presser, he only talked about his player Baldwin needing to grow up.
After the Commodores’ 73-65 victory, Baldwin was seen clapping in the face of Tennessee forward Armani Moore.
Stallings was informed of Baldwin’s actions by a Vols staff member. The Commodores coach then pulled Baldwin out of the handshake line and loudly and profanely berated him.
Stallings also apologized for his comments via a university statement, saying: “One of our players acted inappropriately and violated what we believe to be is good sportsmanship following the game. In my haste to resolve the situation, I made a very inappropriate comment. While obviously it was not meant literally, it was still inappropriate. I apologized to the player immediately following the game.”
Sources told ESPN that Stallings has had issues with Baldwin trash-talking to opponents this season.
Coach stallings is the one that needs to grow up ! This player Baldwin should have been thrown out of the game in the second half as usual ESPN Didnt replay Baldwin throwing a water bottle on the floor . Josh Richardson after beating Vandy at Nashville a few weeks ago said we as a team out toughed them ,Vandy was winning by 5 with 16.9 seconds to go and the Vols tied the game and beat vandy in overtime .Baldwin took offense to the fact that Josh Richardson said we out toughed them ,well they did and that is in no way showing disrespect.Baldwin needs to concentrate on his game and maybe attending class from time to time. Stallings has long had an issue with anger , He has huge Anger issues.He needs to grow up .I love the spin these idiots say is that the Tn coaches shouldnt have pointed it out ,well frankly they had to the REFS missed so many calls in this game it was sickening (both ways) stallings said Baldwin needs to grow up well hes a college child ,stallings is an average coach at best who has never won anything and treats his players like dirt pickin cotton in the cornfield is his mindset Time for Stallings to go ,hes an embarassment to the SEC and Vanderbilt although Vanderbilt has majior issues with basketball and football players on and especially off the field.I mean the Baldwin kid said we are coming for them,their fans ! Whats that? This is the type of player Stallings recruits ,hes another Bobby Knight! An Embarassment to the SEC! Vandy must take action ,love to see these teams meet in sec tourney!