MovieChat Forums > One on One (1978) Discussion > Why Did Coach Smith give up so fast on H...

Why Did Coach Smith give up so fast on Henry?

posted 16 years ago by jeffyoung1
8 replies | jump to latest

Will somebody explain this mystery?

Fictional Western University (in California) sleazy,basketball coach Smith goes to all the trouble of journeying to rural Colorado to give highschool basketball wiz kid Henry a FULL scholarship along with NCAA-illegal car, illegal, bogus job that pays handy cash and cocktail parties with pretty coeds. The coach later doesn't remember who Henry is when the young man starts basketball practice. After reviewing one session of practice basketball in which meth-upped Henry is hot-dogging it, coach Smith decides to give up on Henry and force the boy to relinquish his full scholarship.

Weird.

Don't you think any normal college basketball coach would have a serious talk with Henry and then review his practice a second time just to make sure? Why in the world would coach Smith throw in the towel on Henry after just one fouled-up practice? Henry had not even played one official season game yet. What was going on in coach Smith's mind? Also, only the secretary tries to convince the coach to give Henry a second chance. Coach Smith's assistant coaches don't say a damn word in the boy's defense. Is it possible that coach Smith may have suspected illicit drug use in Henry and decided for the good of the university to cut the boy loose immediately? If so, it's not stated in the movie. Coach Smith was just one big anal, vindictive sleazeball. I give kudos to the actor J.D. Spradlin who played the sleazy coach so well that he actually comes across as an authentic, knowledgable college basketball coach. He even looks the part.

[–] Paris4242 15 years ago

Coach Smith is a vindictive sleazeball, but he did not give up on Henry Steele as quick as you say. He introduces Henry to the press early in the film as the next great player on the team. If you remember he saw Henry in the high school game but not in practice. He dominated the high school game and was highly touted by many colleges so it was Coach Smith's quest to get Henry to play for his team and not his rivals. What Coach Smith did not like about Henry was HOW he practiced. Something he would not know first hand until Henry came to Western University. Practice was extremely important to the Coach and Henry style was more individualistic than team oriented like the Coach likes. After watching him practice numerous times and NOT letting Henry play his game he gave up on him and only used him in the end of the film because he had no choice.

[–] tomloft2000 14 years ago

there is no "I" in team.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] pbl1 13 years ago

no, but there is an "m" and an "e"(me)

What the $%*& is a Chinese Downhill?!?

[–] MyDarkStar 14 years ago

I agree with you completely. I've always thought that was one part of the movie which was not very realistic. Any coach would give a full scholarship freshman at least one full season to get his act together. Bacially, it came down to one bad practice - and apparently because he was a show-boat in his playing style. But college coaches get that with probably half of the scholarship players they have anyway. After all, those guys are used to being the best player on their team.

They should have put about 2 or 3 more examples of Henry screwing up in order to justify it, and it would have had to be really bad screw ups.

[–] eastcoastguyz 11 years ago

I agree, it was too quickly. Maybe the movie would have been too long if they did though.

[–] ccr1633 9 years ago

Bacially, it came down to one bad practice - and apparently because he was a show-boat in his playing style.

It wasn't quite that simple. In that one "bad" practice Henry was flyin' high on drugs! And he wasn't living up to his hype and potential in the rest of the practices either. In fact, the first evidence he showed of any college level talent at all was the game at the end of the film, when he was needed as the last option body at the end of the bench. I always found the film a bit dishonest in that regard. It strains credibility that Steele was unable to show off any of that talent in practice, and if he had he would've been treated differently by the mean ol' coach.

[–] 9 years ago

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