Left-Wing Media Pundit Dan Wolken Predictably Gaslights About Izzo, Hurley; So We Found Receipts

Yahoo's Dan Wolken, a regular contender in OutKick's yearly Woke All-Star Challenge Bracket, decided to put his name back in the hat for 2026. Wolken took to X, formerly Twitter, to claim that I created a "strawman" by asking Tom Izzo and Dan Hurley about media criticism of their tough-nosed coaching styles ahead of the Sweet 16 in Washington, D.C. 

Before I get to that, I want to quickly set the scene. 

During the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, I posted a clip of basketball legend Charles Barkley delivering a rant defending Izzo and calling out the media for being soft. The post went viral. 

"The last couple of years, the media, who don't know anything about sports, because they've never played, say 'Why is he yelling at his players?' That's called coaching... if you don't want to be coached, you probably shouldn't come to Michigan State," Barkley said during CBS/TNT March Madness coverage. 

On Thursday, during the Sweet 16 press conference, I asked Izzo about Barkley's defense. Izzo thanked Charles for his words and defended his coaching style. 

"God bless Charles," Izzo began. "I don't understand the concept [that hard coaching is bad]. It never used to be that way… Now we're supposed to just hug and kiss everybody." 

Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo talks with MSU guard Jeremy Fears Jr. during a game. 

(Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images )

Later in his response, Izzo brought up Hurley. 

"I love Danny Hurley… Not because I have to say the right things. He's not afraid of saying what he has to say to the players he has," Izzo said. "He's even better than me; he takes it to the officials. I love that about him, I really do. But do you ever question his passion? Do you ever wonder if he really cares?" 

So, when Hurley took the podium, I told him what Izzo said and asked for his response. 

"I think that society has gotten soft in a lot of ways," Hurley began. "I feel like I've got a responsibility. I coach 18-, 19-, 20-year-old men. There's a lot that I've got to instill in them. There's a lot of discipline, accountability… to prepare them for the real world. The real world is tough. It's cruel. And you've got to be equipped." 

While Hurley acknowledged that he often looks angry and emotional on the sideline, the media doesn't understand the connection that he creates with his players when the cameras aren't rolling. 

"I also have a very close bond with my players. I love them. They know I love them. A lot of the relationship that the media doesn't see are times we spend together laughing, joking, and making fun of each other. You don't see that part of me," Hurley said. 

That's where Wolken swooped in with his holier-than-thou take. 

Dan Wolken Takes Familiar Route

In response to Hurley's comments, Wolken wrote: "Classic straw man. Which ‘media’ have criticized hard coaching? The critiques of Hurley’s comportment usually relate to how he deals with refs and sometimes being a very sore loser." 

Of course, Wolken himself has been an outspoken critic of hard coaching in the past. Now, he doesn't want you to know that, so he's tried to delete all traces of it. 

When a video surfaced of former Texas assistant coach Bo Davis swearing at players during a private team meeting, Wolken lost his mind. He deleted the post, but the responses that remain paint a clear picture: Wolken, a guy who never played sports at anything resembling a high level, simply doesn't understand what it's like to be coached. 

As recently as last year, Wolken wrote that Hurley needs to "get rid of the worst parts of himself." He asked whether Hurley could find a balance that would stop the "unflattering moments" that make him "look like a maniac." He might have been talking about Hurley's approach to referees, but there's a common theme. Coaches who show anger are bad. Whether it's towards players, referees or assistant coaches doesn't matter. 

He's far from the only left-wing media member to whom this applies. Wolken claimed I used a "strawman" argument, so I decided to find some examples showing the media criticizing coaches for their intensity towards players. 

Kyle Boone of CBS Sports wrote that Hurley is "a completely unhinged sideline presence that needs to be reined in." Boone said Hurley’s conduct was "inappropriate and unprofessional," then went even further by writing that if Hurley has "an ounce of shame and self-awareness," he should realize his "bullying is unkind and unbefitting." 

UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley looks on during the Men's 2026 NCAA Tournament. 

(Kyle Ross/Imagn Images)

Another radical left-wing writer, Nancy Armour, wrote this about coaches: "Too often, verbal and emotional abuse by coaches is written off as just talk. A way to toughen their athletes mentally. How many tirades wild-eyed, red-faced college football coaches direct at players are excused because they happened in the heat of the moment? How many insults or sarcastic putdowns are laughed off as a coach’s quirky sense of humor?" 

See, this is an important part of the discussion. People like Wolken and Armour would argue, and probably sincerely believe, that they do not criticize hard coaching. Instead, they call it humiliation, bullying or behavior that "crosses the line." Really, though, they're inserting themselves as the morality police of what is and is not OK. And it's coming from people who usually have no clue what it's like to play on a team or be coached by a hardass who is trying to get his players to be their best. 

Of course, no one in the sports media is going to say, "I have a problem with coaches being hard on players." Even they would acknowledge that sounds weak and soft. That's why they adjust the language. 

They say they are fine with accountability, fine with standards, fine with coaches being demanding. They just object when, in their opinion, it becomes too public, too mean, too emotional, too embarrassing. 

Despite Wolken Claim, Media Does It All The Time 

Here's another example. CBS Sports writer Eric Bossi, wrote about UCLA head coach Mick Cronin that "there is an opinion that that type of ridicule should be kept behind the closed doors of a locker room," and later said Cronin could have avoided the whole mess by taking "a few deep breaths" and saying it "in private."

Perfect. Let me translate: "I'm OK with Cronin being tough on players, I just don't like how or when he does it." 

Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde, who has no issue with males competing in women's sports, once said of Gregg Marshall (the winningest coach in both Winthrop and Wichita State history): "This is a man who can’t coach fortitude without getting into the gutter, who confuses challenging his players with belittling them, who believes basketball is some kind of weird testosterone cage match. What a limited worldview." 

Since I also asked Tom Izzo about criticism of his style, let's remind everyone about how the media reacted when Izzo screamed at Aaron Henry during a 2019 NCAA Tournament game. 

Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo wrote of the Henry incident, "there are other ways to express yourself," said Izzo’s approach was "fair to criticize," and added, "Maybe he can do it without screaming." 

This all comes from the same left-wing media playbook. And it's really important to note what Henry, the player at the center of the "controversy," said after the incident: "Nobody saw the conversations we had behind closed doors, nobody saw the relationship that we have the talks that we have that not only make me a better basketball player but a better person as well." 

Think about that. The athlete who the media is trying to "protect" from that big, bad bully, Tom Izzo, says Izzo makes him a better person. He went on to say that his relationship with Izzo was "wonderful" and that while he wouldn't "call it father-son," it was "something close to that." 

What's the difference between Henry and the media? Henry played sports at a high level. The media did not. They saw an angry bully trying to humiliate a kid. Henry saw a coach who demanded excellence. He saw a coach who knew he was capable of more. 

Here's a note for the sports media out there who think they are being heroes by rushing to the defense of grown men and women who are being yelled at by a tough coach: The moment you make yourself arbiter of which forms of demanding, public, intense coaching are legitimate and which are "crossing the line," you are criticizing hard coaching. 

Even if you pretend you're not.