Then there's Morgan State basketball coach Todd Bozeman.,”

Coaches deal with defeat in numerous ways. Some quietly share their disappointment with their team and try to use the loss as a learning experience. Others rip into their squad for mental mistakes and promise a week of hard practices.

Then there's Morgan State basketball coach Todd Bozeman. Bozeman was charged with misdemeanor assault after his Bears blew a 10-point second half lead and lost at Longwood 75-73 at the buzzer Saturday.

His animosity targeted not his players, but a restaurant employee. Local police were called to Mulligan's restaurant near the campus after Bozeman arrived to complain after Morgan State's order for 52 Philly cheese steak or chicken sandwiches was not filled to his specifications, restaurant manager Carlos Holland told the Baltimore Sun.

Holland said he informed the assistant coach who made the order that the restaurant could not accommodate. According to Holland, the assistant "told us to make what we could."

Holland personally delivered it to the assistant coach on the team bus at Longwood University.

Thinking of what transpired next and the eatery's name, Bozeman should request a "do over" of his own. Holland said that 10 to 15 minutes after making the delivery, Bozeman entered the restaurant, used a string of profanities and "grabbed and shook a female assistant manager." Apparently, he felt the need to do a little more coaching that evening.

Holland said Bozeman "just went belligerent, screaming that he didn't want ham sandwiches." Some of the sandwiches included ham, which would have violated the religious beliefs of some Morgan State players.

In a statement to reporters, Morgan State spokesman Clinton R. Coleman said, "We believe that this whole incident appears to have grown out of a terrible misunderstanding."

When a man wants Philly cheese steaks, give him Philly cheese steaks.

At least his team will not fault him for throwing in the towel. According to a source close to Bozeman, the coach said he entered the restaurant seeking reimbursement. Unlike the game that evening, Bozeman proved victorious in getting a refund.

Surely Bozeman recalled the words of 19th century English writer William Edward Hickson: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

The verbal exchange between he and the employee that followed did not concern hard court philosophy or the intricacies of the 2-3 zone. The employee filed charges of curse and abuse, a third-class misdemeanor, Sgt. Pam Wilson told reporters Monday.

"We had kids in here eating, nice and quiet with their families," Holland said. "He's the head coach of a university, showing a bad example."

Obviously, distributing the ham sandwiches to players without religious dietary restrictions probably would have been way too difficult for the coaching staff. So let's make a scene.

Bozeman was not taken into custody. He coached his Bears to a Monday victory, snapping Delaware State's 22-game home winning streak. Bozeman supposedly plans on returning to Virginia soon to resolve the issue.

A source close to Bozeman told reporters the coach denied to his attorney that he put his hands on the employee. Coleman said officials at Morgan State are looking into the matter.

Either being shaken like a martini in Virginia parallels not being touched in Maryland, or someone's lying.

Coleman said, "We are taking a wait-and-see approach to this."

Not surprisingly, my call to the Morgan State athletic department Wednesday lasted about 15 seconds, when an assistant declined to comment.

For now, we will anxiously await the results of Bozeman's post-game coaching.

What a ham.

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