Florida International Men's Basketball coach - Jeremy Ballard
Note: I haven't written a blog post in like 4 or 5 years. I just haven't felt inspired or compelled. Last night changed that.
"Excellence begins with appearance" is a phrase coined by yours truly. Appearances matter. Appearance sets the tone. But where did I learn it from?
I played tennis at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, California. It was a small junior college located on a coastal California hilltop, from certain places on campus, you could see the Pacific Ocean. My coach was a pacific islander named Ronny Mancao. The first time I met him, he rolled up in a red Ferrari 308 GTSi, circa 1980's. When he stepped out of the car he did so with an unmistakable swagger and an air of confidence. His hair was neatly groomed and his tennis attire was impeccably neat. He wore Fila brand clothing, it was pressed and the shirt was tucked in, his shoes new, white. One of the first instructions to the 10 of us on 1990-1991 tennis team was that we were to wear matching collared shirts during matches and they were to be press and tucked in at all times. It was his philosophy that if you looked like a champion, you would feel like a champion, you would practice like a champion and play like a champion. And I've kept that philosophy all these years. I believe it's true, 100 percent. We would go on to win the Pacific Coast Conference championship that year.
Coaching college athletics is more than just X's and O's. It goes without saying that coaches can have a tremendous, lifelong influence on the the young men and women of their respective teams. It's not uncommon for coaches to become father figures. Coaches are tremendously important people in the lives of their players.
What I witnessed this past Thursday night at the Don Haskins Center left me scratching my head and wondering... X's and O's aside, what is the head coach at FIU teaching his basketball players?
Case in point #1 - Ayden Clinton
FIU forward #23 Aydan Clinton with his shorts sagging down below his ass during a game vs UTEP that was televised on ESPN+ on 22 Jan. 2026
I couldn't believe my eyes. Untucked jerseys are one thing, I see those all the time. That's not something you'd see on my team if I was a coach, but untucked jerseys are a far cry from your shorts sagging down below your ass.
Would not the appearance of his players, the expectations of how the uniforms are to be worn, fall under the responsibility of the head coach? Of course it does. I do not fault young Mr. Clinton #23, after all, he is a freshman, maybe 18 or 19 years old. One of the reasons a young man like him goes to college and plays sports is to grow and to learn, not just as an athlete, but as a man. As far as I can tell, this coach is failing him. Excellence begins with appearance, so pull your shorts up young man. A good coach implements a uniform standard and enforces it.
Case in point #2 - The Profanity of Hamad Olayinka
"You a bitch ass nig#@r! You a bitch ass nig$3r!" - Hamad Olayinka #5, starting forward FIU to KJ Thomas #1, starting guard UTEP.
To be fair, Division I level athletics are a high-pressure, emotionally intense affair. heated rivalries and trash talking are normal, but dropping the N-word, the way that FIU starting forward Hamad Olayinka did, not once, but twice, loud enough for fans seated court side to clearly hear, is a completely different thing. I do not know the exact number of professional and college sporting events I have photographed over the years, but it's a lot. And never in any of those games have I witnessed an utterance like the one I did last night. Usually, when I do hear something like that it comes from a place of competitiveness or frustration over a call that didn't go the way someone wanted. I've heard F Bombs and other cuss words but last night was a little different. It was said with genuine anger, it was ghetto and it had no place in college athletics as far as I'm concerned.
What led to it, from where I sat, was a common foul that ended up with UTEP guard KJ Thomas hitting the floor under the rim, ending up right next to Olayinka. Maybe there was something else that precipitated the profane outburst? I don't know. There had been a little jaw-jacking earlier in the game from UTEP starting point guard Caleb Blackwell but I couldn't tell who it was directed at or what it was about. But even if there was more to it than just the foul, nothing can excuse this type of profanity from a Division I athlete.
Let's go back to coaching. Is this the type of behavior and language we want from our young men and women in college athletics? Can this be attributed to the coach? I think it can.
An unnamed family with two young children were sitting in the first and second row courtside, within ear shot of the extreme profanity uttered loudly and audibly by FIU starting forward Hamad Olyinka. The family left the arena shortly thereafter.
"You a bitch ass nig#@r! You a bitch ass nig$3r!" - Hamad Olayinka
A coach that cares about teaching young men and women would have yanked this guy off the court and had an immediate face to face. He would have said "We don't do that here." A coach that cares would have made Olayinka apologize not only to Thomas after the game, but also to his teammates, after all Olayinka is a starter and that makes him a leader. But that's not what happened, I don't think it was addressed at all, by anyone.
I continued to observe Olayinka as the game came to it's conclusion, UTEP winning by a final score of 83-77. As the final buzzer sounded, Olayinka was hot under the collar, he looked like he wanted to fight someone. An assistant coach had to wrap his arms around him and physically restrain him, the act requiring so much effort that the coach lifted him up off the ground...
An assistant coach physically restrains FIU starting forward Hamad Olayinka #5 after the game vs UTEP on 22 Jan. 2026 at Don Haskins Center, El Paso, Texas.
Is there anything that would excuse what Olayinka said? Not in my book, not even if an opposing player said the same thing to him. Controlling your emotions is definitely a lesson that coaches need to be teaching. Heck, bring in an expert on emotional intelligence if you need to and have an 8 hour class on it or something. But "You a bitch ass ni**er!", twice? That's some ghetto ass gangster trash.
As I write the final few sentences of this blog, I've got the Michigan vs Ohio State men's basketball game on the TV, I take a break from writing every now and then, catching a few minutes of the game. I look at the players on both teams, they look sharp, to a man, their jerseys are all tucked in. The Ohio State head coach is wearing a suit and tie, the Michigan head coach wearing athletic attire but it's pressed and looks brand new. That's not what I saw from FIU last night, not even close. I expect more from a Division I program.
One of the many things (besides keeping a professional appearance) that coach Mancao taught us was good sportsmanship. We never gloated when we were victorious, we always shook hands with our opponents after the match and we conducted ourselves with class. So what is coach Ballard teaching the players at FIU besides X's and O's? 5 losing seasons in a row says he's not even doing a very good job at the X's and O's, let alone teaching young men the life lessons they need to be taught.
