MHERST, Mass. - Massachusetts coach Bruiser Flint can be a tough disciplinarian - even with himself.

Flint said Wednesday he has suspended himself for one game for using profanity on his postgame radio show after the Minutemen lost to Marshall 65-55 on Monday night.

``I always tell my players that when they do something wrong, there is a price to pay,'' he said. ``Obviously, my language on the radio the other night was inappropriate.''

Flint and UMass athletic director Bob Marcum met and agreed that Flint would sit out Thursday night's game against Boston University. Associate coach Geoff Arnold will coach the team.

``Coach Flint initiated a meeting in which he admitted a mistake and apologized,'' Marcum said. ``... From this point, we move on."

MHERST Bruiser Flint said Wednesday night that if one of his players had done it, the punishment would have been the same.

"I told them I'd have suspended them, and I'm not a guy who says to do as I say and not as I do," said Flint, the University of Massachusetts men's basketball coach who suspended himself for Thursday night's game against Boston University for using foul language.

The one-game suspension came after Flint used profanity on his post-game radio show following Monday's 65-55 loss to Marshall. One four-letter word, and a day to think about it, was enough to convince Flint to hand over the team to associate head coach Geoff Arnold, who will run the team Thursday at the Mullins Center.

"After I said it, I actually said to the radio guys that they must have one of those five-second delays," Flint said from his home last night. "I was frustrated in how we'd played, and it just slipped out."

Flint said the suspension was his own decision. He said he did not believe it carried a financial penalty, though he added he wasn't sure.

He also said his wife, Rene, helped him make his decision.

"She was right there next to me," Flint said. And I have a 4-year-old daughter who is reaching that age where she repeats what she hears. I don't want her, or any other young kids, to pick up on something like that."

Arnold coached and won one game as an emergency fill-in while serving as an assistant at St. Joseph's, where he coached before coming to UMass.

Flint will return to the sidelines Saturday at Boston College. He said this reminded him to watch his language, something he's been trying to do all year.

"I feel real bad about it, because I've been very conscious of it this year," he said. "I even told my players that.

"I've been trying," he said. "But I'm not perfect."

Flint came to his decision at around noon Wednesday. He said he would be at the Mullins Center Thursday, but did not say where in the building he'd be.

"Coach Flint admitted he made a mistake and apologized," UMass Athletic Director Bob Marcum said in a press release. "We talked and arrived at a course of action, which was to sit out the game. From this point, we move on."

Flint's use of profanity is no secret at UMass, though he had not used foul language in press conferences this year. Early in his career, he used another profane word in a small cluster of reporters, and when the comment became public, UMass Chancellor David Scott attended the next game's press conference to make sure a problem wasn't developing.

Arnold will face an opponent that is off to its first 0-4 start since 1975-76 and carries only two seniors, 6-foot-4 guard Mike Costello and 6-7 forward Jean Avebe.

Boston University lost 85-70 to Providence Tuesday despite strong efforts from sophomore guard Dereck Franklin (14 points), Avebe (12 points, nine rebounds), and freshman guard Matt Turner (12 points).

The Terriers have a local connection, too. Freshman forward Jason Grochowalski of Shrewsbury is the son of Holyoke Catholic graduate John Grochowalski, the 1970 Lahovich Award winner as the best boys basketball player in Western Massachusetts.

ruiser Flint not only frosted the ears of his listening audience by uttering a profanity during his postgame radio show on Monday night. The UMass coach shocked himself, as well.

Flint was bothered enough to hand himself a one-game suspension following a meeting yesterday with athletic director Bob Marcum, effective for tonight's game against Boston University (0-3) in Amherst. Associate coach Geoff Arnold will coach the Minutemen, though Flint still plans to sit down for his postgame show on WHMP radio.

``I'll talk about the game, as always, but I'm also going to apologize to everyone,'' Flint said last night. ``It's something that slipped out. I've really felt bad about it.''

Flint watched his team stumble to 1-2 thanks to a lethargic, 65-55 home-opening loss to Marshall on Monday night. He was still sufficiently steamed 10 minutes later that he carried his frustration onto the airwaves.

Cursing is not exactly a Flint rarity, as his leather-eared players will attest. The coach even has been known to drop a few choice bombs in the midst of a postgame press conference, particularly following bad performances.

The on-air gaffe, however, forced Flint to stop and rethink this particular impulse.

``My wife (Renee) was sitting next to me during the radio show and afterwards she said, `Do you know what you just said on the radio?' '' he said. ``And one thing I've really been trying to do is watch my language with the guys this year.

``Not only that, but I also have a young daughter and kids pick stuff up. It just didn't feel right for me. I knew over the last couple of days that some people had heard it and one of them even asked me (Tuesday) if anything had happened to me for what I said on the radio.

``I just remember that after I said it, I said to the radio guys, `Now, you guys have one of those five-second delays working, don't you?' And they just laughed and started talking about the game again,'' said Flint. ``That's when I knew that they didn't have one.''

Flint said that Marcum left the issue of taking action up to Flint.

``Bob asked what I could actually do about something like this and the only thing I could think of - from a coaching standpoint - was to miss the game,'' said Flint.

No one was more stunned by the news than the people most accustomed to Flint's struggle with R-rated speech.

``Oh, some of the guys were in shock after I told them what I was going to do,'' Flint said of yesterday's meeting with his players. ``There was total silence when I told them what I was going to do. They all just kind of looked at me.

``But it's like I told them, if one of you had said something like this on the radio, I would have suspended you. I'm not one of those guys who says, `Do as I say, but not as I do.' I hold my guys to a high standard.''

Tonight's game between the Minutemen and the Terriers is the first since January 1993, a 90-42 UMass victory.

``I'm glad that they agreed to play this game, because UMass has a lot to lose here,'' BU coach Dennis Wolff said. ``They'll play anyone, as long as it's Carolina or Kansas. They really had nothing to lose going into games like that. This will be different for them.''

mherst, Mass. - University of Massachusetts head basketball coach Bruiser Flint will sit out the team�s Thursday night game vs. Boston University in Amherst. Flint will serve a self-imposed one game suspension following the use of an expletive on his post-game radio show in the aftermath of UMass� 65-55 loss to Marshall University Monday night.

�I always tell my players that when they do something wrong, there is a price to pay,� said Flint. �Obviously, my language on the radio the other night was inappropriate. I caught it right away and apologized on the air, but after thinking about it and talking it over with Bob Marcum, sitting out for a game is the right thing to do.�

Director of Athletics Bob Marcum said, �Coach Flint initiated a meeting in which he admitted he made a mistake and apologized. We talked and arrived at a course of action, which was to sit out the game. From this point, we move on.�

In Flint�s absence, Associate Coach Geoff Arnold will coach the team on Thursday night.

MHERST - If the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team is going to snap its two-game losing streak, the Minutemen will have to do it without James "Bruiser" Flint on the sidelines.

The fourth-year coach of the Minutemen will serve a self-imposed, one-game suspension for tonight's game against Boston University for using an expletive on his post-game radio interview after Monday night's 65-55 loss to Marshall.

Associate coach Geoff Arnold will coach the team in his place.

While vulgarity is not unusual among coaches, that Flint made his remark on a radio broadcast is what put him on the hot seat.

"I felt bad about it," Flint said Tuesday night. "If it was one of my players, I would have suspended them. I'm not one to do as I say, not as I do. I think it was the right thing to do."

Flint met with Athletic Director Bob Marcum to discuss his decision.

"He asked if I was sure this is what I wanted," Flint said. "But otherwise he agreed."

"Coach Flint initiated a meeting in which he admitted he made a mistake and apologized," Marcum said in a statement released Tuesday by the athletic department. "We talked and arrived at a course of action, which was to sit out a game. From this point, we move on.

"I think it was a fair and equitable thing," Marcum added later.

Flint's players didn't believe him at first.

"Those guys were in shock," Flint said. "They thought I was joking. I don't know if they believe me."

Flint plans to watch the game from somewhere in the building, but as of last night he hadn't decided where.

He admitted the decision wasn't easy.

"It was because we need to win this game," said Flint, who added that he expects Arnold would do a good job. "Those guys will be fine."

MHERST - I can hear the jokes and wisecracks already.

"Yeah, Bruiser thought they looked so bad he doesn't want to watch them either."

In an unprecedented move, University of Massachusetts men's basketball coach Bruiser Flint is sitting out tonight's game against Boston University under a self-imposed suspension for swearing on the radio after Monday's loss to Marshall.

Somewhere in every UMass fan's travels today, whether at the water cooler, the coffee shop or in the stands at the game, somebody is going to joke about it.

Let them. It's an easy shot to take. For Flint, though, it likely was a difficult decision to make.

In a nutshell, after a frustrating loss, Flint lost his composure and swore on the air. He didn't just say "damn" either. He said the mother of all four-letter words. He excused himself for the slip-up and it seemed to be a dead issue. No further mention was made of the incident then or during Flint's radio show Tuesday night.

This suspension might be a poor basketball move and too harsh a punishment for the crime, but Flint made the decision with integrity, for little or no personal gain - for that alone, it should be respected.

Sure, UMass should beat the 0-5 Terriers no matter who is wearing the expensive suit and calling the time-outs, but last year was an indication that "should win" doesn't always mean "will win." See the Davidson and Fordham home losses if you need a refresher.

Tuesday, Flint said he stewed about what he said.

"It really bothered me," he said, of using the four-letter word on the radio. "That's not the way I want people to think about me. I'm trying not to talk that way around my players, either."

Vulgarity is not unusual from coaches, including Flint, who has been known to swear in practices and on the sidelines. If Bob Knight and Bob Huggins were fined a dollar every time they cussed, both would be paying back more than they take in. Many other coaches aren't much different, including ex-Minuteman boss John Calipari.

The easy answer for Flint would have been to apologize the next night on his radio show. Listeners would have judged his sincerity and even the harsh critics likely would have forgiven him and returned to criticizing him for basketball matters.

There are plenty of people who don't believe in Flint's ability to be a successful Division I head coach. They may or may not be right, but that shouldn't cloud this issue, although it likely will. They will want to find another, more damnable reason that this move was made.

It will continue after the game. If UMass wins, the growing faction of anti-Bruiser fans will say the Minutemen are better off without him. If they lose, fans will blame him for it, saying he overreacted and it cost the team and the program.

Flint isn't a fool. He is aware of the factions that want him ousted. So risking a bad loss for a principle with your job on the line takes guts. This isn't a move most coaches would make.

But this was the penance Flint chose to set things right in his conscience. From the high ground, people pay a lot of lip service to the belief that coaching college athletes should be about more than winning, but they toss those values aside if it means actually losing. Flint is the first to admit that he isn't a saint, but he appears to be making an effort to do what he thinks is right.

Would he have made the same move if UMass were playing Temple or Connecticut tonight instead of BU? Flint himself might not know the answer to that. But the fact is, the Terriers are the next opponent on the schedule.

Whether or not UMass wins the game or has a successful season, Flint the father has to go home every day and teach his 4-year-old daughter Jada right from wrong.

When he does, he'll have a leg to stand on.

MHERST - The suspended coach sat before the media after completing his only official act of the evening. He did the postgame radio show � uneventfully.

"It's tough to sit out a game, it really is," University of Massachusetts men's basketball coach Bruiser Flint said after watching the game against Boston University from a third-floor window with his father and some friends last night at the Mullins Center. "I'll tell you, though, now I know how the football coaches feel up there. You can see how plays unfold."

What unfolded in the 24 hours prior to the 70-51 UMass victory was a compelling mixture of sociology and sport, a reaction of startling proportions to Flint's decision to suspend himself for one game after using a profanity on his postgame radio show Monday. Flint said he received more than a dozen calls from national media outlets � including "ABC World News Tonight" and "The Today Show," and he also heard from other coaches.

The scope of the reaction surprised him � and bothered him.

"It scares me, because it goes to show the perception about college sports in general," Flint said. "It scares me that people would praise me for doing what I think is right, because it says they think there's a lot of wrong going on."

Associate coach Geoff Arnold ran the team, though he followed Flint's game plan in doing so.

"We went over it 800 times," Flint said. But Arnold had a little fun with the situation, saying he and Tony Barbee had told Flint before the game that they would change everything around.

Arnold, who also coached a game as a St. Joseph's assistant after head coach Phil Martelli had been ejected, knew his role was new.

"I don't know how this works," he said as the postgame interview session began. Later, Flint said the players had thought he was joking about suspending himself � a decision he announced Wednesday � until he came in wearing casual dress yesterday.

Flint decided to suspend himself partly because of his concern about sending the right message to children, and partly because he said he'd have suspended a player for doing the same thing.

UMass athletic director Bob Marcum said he didn't try to discourage Flint from taking an action that might have been unprecedented in Division I college basketball � or at the very least is extraordinarily rare.

"No, I encouraged it," Marcum said. "I thought it was the right thing to do."

Marcum said Flint will not lose a day's pay.

"That was never discussed," he said.

"ABC World News Tonight" filmed a spot with Flint that was scheduled to run last night, but was pre-empted by other news.

A "Today Show" segment is scheduled for this morning. And at least one coach said that the episode told a lot about what the UMass coach, under pressure to win since he took the job in 1996, is all about.

"I've had a relationship with Bruiser for years," Boston University coach Dennis Wolff said. "I think he came into a tough situation here a few years ago, and I think he's handled it well.

"It was an innocent mistake, and he made a courageous decision," Wolff said. "And I'm not surprised."

MHERST, MASS. - Tonight UMass beat Boston University without their head basketball coach, James "Bruiser" Flint, who was serving a self-imposed one-game suspension for cussing on the radio.

In a post-game press conference, however, Flint made a surprise appearance. Most of the discussion surrounded Flint's decision to not coach his team after saying the big F word in a radio interview following his team's disheartening loss to Marshall on Monday, November 29.

Despite his team's sluggish on-court start, Flint's off-court histrionics managed to land him on ABC Television's World New Tonight.

"This thing has taken on a life of its own," said Flint. He noted that "Peter Jennings sent a crew up to see me" and that tomorrow morning he'll appear on NBC's "Today" show. Media, it seems, have been calling from around the country to speak with Flint.

Flint said he made the decision to suspend himself as a result of a personal commitment to curb his foul tongue several months ago.

"I went into the season thinking about it," he said. "I didn't start thinking about this Monday night. I started thinking about this last July." The Coach said he was discouraged about the way people perceive his gesture as being noble and somehow out of character with basketball coaches. He said another reason for his pre-season commitment was that his players use profanity "as part of everyday conversation," he said.

The UMass players didn't believe their head coach would actually miss the game until they saw him enter the Mullins Center not in a suit but wearing a sweater and slacks. "They thought I was joking," said Flint.

Shannon Crooks, UMass' point guard, said the team "respected" Flint's decision.

BU coach Dennis Wolff referred to Flint's comments as, "an innocent mistake."

Flint's friends in the coaching profession "got a chuckle out of it," he said.

Once this distraction ends, however, the media and the UMass fans will return to the more pressing matter of wins and defeats. So far UMass has two of each and really hasn't inspired much enthusiasm about its post-season chances.

Flint watched the game with his father, among others. "It was tough for me to sit up there," he said referring to the perch overlooking the court where he watched his assistant, Geoff Arnold, coach UMass to a 70-51 victory.

From his birds eye vantage point Flint said he liked the way his team performed. He stated he saw some things that will help him in coaching his players he would otherwise have missed if he had been on the sidelines.

Right now Flint wants to dispel the notion that he can't carry on an interview without sounding like a drunken sailor. He mentioned his daughter is 4-years-old and that she's "at the age when she repeats a lot of things."

"I think I'm a nice guy," he said.

MHERST - Before Thursday night's win over Boston University, University of Massachusetts coaches Geoff Arnold and Tony Barbee teased their exiled boss, Bruiser Flint.

"Tony and I told him when he was in the locker room before the game that we were going to change some stuff up and change the lineup and do our own thing and he couldn't do anything about it," said Arnold, who served as UMass' head coach Thursday.

He was in charge because Flint was serving a one-game, self-imposed suspension for swearing during a radio interview after Monday's 65-55 loss to Marshall.

After watching the game from the Mullins Center VIP room with his father and some friends, Flint explained his decision to the media again after the game.

"I have bad language and before the season even started, I said, 'I'm going to watch my language this year,' " Flint said. "I have a 4-year-old and she's at that age where she repeats a lot of things. My wife got on me a lot, too. I think I did the right thing."

Since the decision was announced Wednesday, Flint has received national attention. ABC News interviewed him last night and he appeared on NBC's Today Show today.

On the show, Flint told host Katie Couric he had vowed that the team would clean up its language this season. He said all he did by suspending himself was hold himself to that standard.

Couric closed jokingly by telling Flint to "clean up your language."

The spotlight surprised Flint.

"It's been crazy," Flint said. "This thing has taken on a life of its own and I didn't want it to be like that. I didn't do it to make myself out to be something. I just did it because I thought it was the right thing to do."

BU coach Dennis Wolff praised Flint's move.

"I have a personal relationship with Bruiser and I have a lot of respect for him in general," Wolff said. "It was an innocent mistake in the heat of battle and he made a courageous decision trying to set an example. I'm not surprised that his team responded tonight the way he hoped they would."

Sophomore guard Shannon Crooks said the team respected Flint's action.

"He instills rules and he follows them himself. That's the kind of person he is," Crooks said.

Flint was uncomfortable with how righteous people thought the move was.

"It scares me that people praise you for that, just because you think you did something that was right," Flint said. "That means they think a lot of people in this business are doing a lot of wrong things and I don't think that's right at all."

While he doesn't plan to watch any more games from the VIP room, Flint said he actually learned some things from his different view.

"I see what the football coaches see now," Flint said. "You can see all the plays develop when you watch it from up top. It was very interesting watching the game from up there."