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Allen Crabbe’s parents comment on the Shove Heard ‘Round The World

Allen Crabbe

California’s Allen Crabbe celebrates after scoring against UCLA during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

AP

As you might expect, Allen Crabbe’s parents weren’t too thrilled when they saw their son’s head coach, Mike Montgomery, use a two-handed shove in an effort to snap Allen out of a funk early in the second half.

While Crabbe eventually snapped out of it, his initial reaction was, simply, to snap. He was grabbed by two different teammates initially after the contact and then made his way into the tunnel where he was talked to by an assistant coach.

“I told Montgomery, ‘I respect you as a coach. Do I respect what you did? No. You can’t put your hands on a kid. It’s 2013,’' Crabbe’s father, Allen Jr., told the Mercury News. “He understood and said it was his mistake.”

The younger Crabbe has moved past it, reiterating the point in a press conference on Tuesday. Montgomery has done his best to get past the incidence, accepting the reprimand he received from both Cal and the Pac-12 and apologizing publicly and to Crabbe’s parents.

It seems as if everyone is just ready to put this incident in the rear-view mirror:

“I’m probably having a hard time putting it behind me,” Crabbe’s mother, Cheryl Price, said in a phone interview Tuesday morning with this newspaper. “Allen asked his dad and I to let him handle it, (saying), ‘I have to do these things myself.’ We’re letting him handle it the way he wants to.”

[...]

Asked directly if she has any lingering issues with the coach, Price said she is following her son’s lead and allowing him to dictate the tone going forward. She did acknowledge that almost everyone has had moments they wish they could take back.

“How many of us have said something, and as soon as the words left your mouth you regret it?” she said. “That doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you human.”

[...]

“He’s a big team kind of guy. He’s not going to do anything that’s going to upset the team chemistry,” she said. “They are playing so well right now.”


Can we get on with the world now?

Can we focus on things like ... oh, I don’t know ... the fact that the Golden Bears play arguably their biggest game of the season to date on Thursday when they travel up to Eugene to take on No. 23 Oregon? For a team whose NCAA tournament resume is anything but solidified -- although, beating UCLA and winning at Arizona certainly helped -- there has been very little discussion about just how important this game is.

Cal won the first meeting between the two teams at home, which came during a recent stretch where the Bears have gone 5-1 and picked up three key wins for their tournament hopes.

Thursday could be the clincher.

Let’s start talking about that, shall we?

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.